I recently finished reading The New American Diet by Stephen Perrine and Heather Hurlock. It is the best single source for looking at how our food system has undermined our health and possibly our dreams of staying active and vibrant until a ripe old age.
Because I have spent more time with family this past weekend as I hope all of you did also, I find my time limited so I will narrow the scope of this diary tremendously from what is actually in the book and focus on only one small point.
The book covers soy proteins of unfermented soys, chemicals in our water, leaching of chemicals from plastics, and of course chemicals in our normal food supply. For all of us who eat meats, this small toe in the water may make us step back and ask for the butcher the next time we enter our grocery store.
Our eternal motto and reason for being!
WHEE (Weight, Health, Eating and Exercise) is a community support diary for Kossacks who are currently or planning to start losing, gaining or maintaining their weight through diet and exercise or fitness. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are working on your weight or fitness, please -- join us! You can also click the WHEE tag to view all diary posts.
I didn't read WHEE's (Wee Mama's) diary until this morning and there are still on going comments about the organization of our diaries and what best fits our needs. For now, I have taken the liberty of changing the question marks with "WHEE Open". Thus until a final decision is made and as long as we stay at two diaries per day, the open threads can be taken by someone who wants to host their own diary and point of view or it will fall to a group of dedicated bloggers to post an open thread. This may not be the sense of the community but it at least removes the stigma of having a full day without support and encouragement that we all need.
Scheduled WHEE diaries
Feb 15
Mon PM - WHEE Open
Feb. 16
Tues AM - WHEE Open
Tues PM - 1864 House
Feb. 17
Weds AM - WHEE Open
Weds PM - Edward Spurlock (Kolata, Ch. 2)
Feb. 18
Thurs AM - 2liberal
Thurs PM - WHEE Open
Feb. 19
Fri AM - bloomin
Fri PM - Wee Mama (weekly diary)
Feb. 20
Sat AM - WHEE Open
Sat PM - Edward Spurlock (Wansink, Introduction)
Feb 21
Sun AM - louisev
Sun PM - WHEE Open
Feb 22
Mon AM - NC Dem
Mon PM - WHEE Open
Obesogens is a new word for most of us.
Last September, Newsweek's Born to be Big article hit me like a brick. It basically told all of us that we were in serious trouble unless we could convince our government leaders that our water, our food, and our research industry like FDA were now polluted and not functioning for our health.
Our endocrine systems are very fragile. It takes very minute parts of a chemical that is foreign to our bodies to disrupt our cells. We all know that our cells are where energy is burned and used by our body to provide movement, warmth, our heart, and the metabolism of our food supply.
Many here who have read my comments know my bias against unfermented soy products in our food supply and especially as an additive to most processed foods. However, today I want to focus only on meats but that also includes soy to a small degree because animals today are fed a steady supply of corn and soy soaked in a few antibiotics.
"You are what you eat eats too"
The above phrase is from Michael Pollan. I have been a supporter and a fan of Michael Pollan for over 20 years. His understanding of the soil and how we treat the soil and the billions of microbes in the soil has shaped how I garden since the late 1980's. For him, it is like a religion. The soil is sacred.
Now, Pollan has taken this same reverance to our food supply. His theory is really fairly simple. If we supply our cows, chickens, and pigs with unnatural ingredients, these ingredients stay with the animals and we later consume them. It is the same way if you sprayed the plants in your garden with a cancer causing chemicals, they will eventually end up in your body no matter how well you wash them in your sink.
Why do we feed animals large supplies of corn and soy?
The answer is really very simple. The animals amass large quanities of weight very quickly and with less labor and time expended by the corporation. Today's meat has less protein than 40 years ago. The meat of cows is marbled with good tasting fats that provide satiety for most humans.
Now simply go back to Pollan's phrase. "You are what you eats eats too". If these animals are infused with soy and corn to produce weight quickly, how can we not also gain weight quickly. It's a given. It is not as if the soy and corn that the animals consumes just magically turns into energy providing proteins from lean muscle. We consume what the animals are provided by corporations.
You make the choice!
If you saw someone preparing your food in a restaurant and immediately before bringing the plate to your table, they sprinkled on some DDT that gave it a flavoring that you enjoyed yet you knew the DDT would negatively expose your body to cancer...would you eat it?
The European Union's Scientific Committee on Veternary Measures has identified 6 growth hormones in US beef production. Three are natural: estrogens, progesterone, and testosterone. Three are synthetic. They are in minute amounts but they are there. As I said above, our endocrine system is very fragile and under loads of stress from other sources. Obesogens like these synthetic steroid hormones only have to be present in one part per trillion to effect our systems.
Besides the three natural hormones, we are faced with Trenbolone acetate. It is potent hormone that is 8-10 times as strong as testosterone. It is classified as an anabolic steriod and its main role in cattle is to increase their appetite and thus force them to eat unnatural foods. Now think about it. This steroid causes cattle to increase appetite and gain weight. Is there any wonder that our waistlines are expanding. We have research on what TBA does over the short run to animals. The problem is that we have no studies on what it will do to humans over the long run.
A study in the UK shows that TBA in rats at a one per one million cause reproductive impairments so severe that it made sexual distinction difficult.
We all recognize the problems with steroids in our sports stars We have had government outrage that our sports figures would be such poor role models for our youth. Yet, our own FDA allows such potent steroids as antibiotics in our food supply. Gain weight.... increased appetite... more and more fat on our bodies. Where does it end?
A calorie is not a calorie any longer. Where do we go from here?