Our food is being poisoned

[Guest]

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. 

? 

[David1701]

16 minutes ago, johnthebaptist said:

I didn't know they did that, but it wasn't so long ago they used iceboxes instead of refrigerators, and I don't know what they did before the icebox was invented in 1802 (according to Wikipedia).

Meat and fish were salted and dried.

[RonaldBruno]

On 8/2/2020 at 4:49 PM, LonerAndy said:

I guess I am not nearly as concerned.

People are better off today, than at any time in human history.  Around the world today, and in the US, we now have a higher standard of living, and supply of safe stable food, than at any time in the last 6,000 years.

High Froctose Corn Syrup is perfectly fine.  There is nothing more unhealthy about HFCS, than any other sweetener.   It is similar to sugar beats and cane sugar.   In short, it is very similar to other types of processed sugars.

Which also is the only unhealthy aspect of HFCS, is that it is a sugar, and will cause diabetes and obesity, like any other sugar.

https://youtu.be/6-uL2oW4dcY

This is a simple 1.5 minute video that explains how HFCS is made.   It's not all that complicated really, and nor is there anything involving toxic chemicals.

I realize there is a ton of goofy stuff on the internet, and even on college campuses about how horrible HFCS is.  However, the medical industry has found nothing to support such claims.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/high-fructose-corn-syrup/faq-20058201
 

There is no evidence at all, thus far, that HFCS is any less healthy than any other sweetener.   That doesn't mean you should use it all the time.  It is still a sugar, and still causes obesity and diabetes like any other sugar.

As with all things, moderation.

Pesticides are an unavoidable aspect of farming.   Without pesticides, the entire world would be starving to death.   No pesticides, means no food.   It really is that simple.

Imagine if you will, being a chicken farmer, with outdoor coops.  You are in Wyoming or Idaho.  Wolves or foxes are there.  You decide to put no protection around your dozen chicken coops with a hundred chickens..   In a matter of days, you will barely have 5 chickens left.  The rest will all be eaten by predators.

The same is true of farming.   Instead of chickens, you have crops.  Instead of foxes and wolves, you have bugs and fungus.

If you do not use pesticides, you won't have any food.  No food for you the farmer, means no food for us in the cities, and the result will be mass starvation.

Even so-called organic farms, use pesticides.   Everyone uses pesticides.  You can't have farms without pesticides.  Even Amish farmers use pesticides.  It simply isn't possible to have a farm, and not use a pesticide.

So how do so-called organic farmers charge higher prices, while not using chemicals?  Well they do use chemicals.  They use "organic" chemicals.  That's how they claim to be organic farms, while using chemicals, is they use chemicals produced by nature.   Nature has some wickedly toxic chemicals if you don't know.

One "organic" farm I read about, was hosing down their vegetable, with an extremely toxic tree sap.  Tree sap that lasts for decades, and kills everything.   Bugs or animals that eat the tree sap, die.

Meanwhile the inorganic farms... were using a chemical humans created, that naturally degrades over time.   So they spray this pesticide on the crops, and by the time of the harvest, the chemical has decomposed and is gone.   It specifically designed to last just long enough to protect the crops, and then vanishes.

Which do you want on your food?  The chemical pesticide that naturally degrades in harmless dust, or the toxic tree sap that lasts decades?  Or do you simply not want to have food?

I'm more worried about people using government to mandate toxic tree sap on my food, than the chemical pesticides.  That's me.

Genetically modified organism (GMO).  This is one of the most abused topics in our society today, which is why I saved it for last.

Nearly everything that we have today, is GMO.   Everything.  Literally everything.  When you see a pure bred dog, or horse, or cow, or anything.... you are looking at a GMO.

When you breed for a specific trait you want, such as different types of dog traits, that is GMO.   You are genetically engineering a dog with the traits you want, by selective breeding.

The same is true of all other GMOs. 

The corn you see labeled "A"... is how corn really is in nature.  "D" is modern sweet corn.  Sweet Corn has been genetically modified to be nothing like what it was over thousands of years ago.

Same is true of bananas.

Those are non-GMO bananas.

So we need to first understand that everything around us is GMO.   The media has really messed with people, by making up all these goofy spook stories about syringes with purple colored water, being injected into a tomato.   Not true. Not how it works.

I can talk some more about GMOs if you like.

If you have any questions, just ask.

HFCS leads to obesity ... haven't you noticed that 40% of Americans are obese? What do you think ccauses that? They used to tell us it was fat, so 50 years ago they came out with margarine, low fat diets and products using artificial fat substitutes, etc. Yuck, never ate margerine.

 But now they know it's partially high carb intake.

Pesticides are poison, they interfere with digestion. If they kill bacteria on the food, what do you think they do to the intestinal flora - the good bacteria in your gut?

Calcium propionate is BAD - also put in lots of foods. So many chemicles are in processed foods - and people just pick them off the shelf with examining what they are actually putting in their body - if  is healthy or harmful ... "I don't care ... it tastes good to me!" Yeah 20 years later you are being rushed to emergency in a diabetic coma or heart attack.

Obesity, diabetes wasn't much of a problem 50 years ago and now it is. 20x as much suger is used in processed foods and drinks. Look at how many forms of sugar are in the product too. They use several so that it isn't the #1 ingredient - add them up and sugar is. I re 600k die every year from heart attacks, 600k from cancer, hundreds of thousands from dozens of diseases that can be avoided by healthier eating habits and exercise

 

Just about every bread on the shelf has HFCS and hydrogenated oils/trans fats. >>> obesity. Some products are avoiding them, a new healthy trend. But manufacturers arent required to list everything in their products. So even if we check, we cant be sure what's in there.

None of the oils are good for cooking because they have lower heat tolerance, burn and so all fried foods are bad. They ONLY OIL that should be used for cooking at high heat is unrefined, cold pressed, organic Coconut oil. Even Olive oil has low heat tolerance, burns and changes into fats that are difficult to digest so are stored.

There are so many toxic substances in processed foods, too numerous to mention. So jere is an article listing them.

https://mphprogramslist.com/50-jawdroppingly-toxic-food-additives-to-avoid/

 If it has more than 5 ingredients, put it back on the shelf. Matter of fact, half of the food in the aisles is unhealthy. Shop on the perimeter of the store, fresh fruits and veggies, meats. Make your own bread, your own drinks with fresh fruits, teas with less sugar or stevia or no sweetener. 

Bacteria and viruses flourish in a body filled with sugar. When you are sick - do not  consume any sugar, it will prolong your Illness. When is the last time you were sick and the doctor told you to avoid sugar? Probably never. 

If people would just eat healthy foods, exercise, cut sugar and most processed foods, take supplements, drink alkaline water and get out in the sun, we could bankrupt the AMA and Big Pharma.

I have been to the doctor only a half dozen times in 40 years and those times for antibiotics, Im 64. My mother is 87, eats healthy has been to the doctor 3x in 30 years. Once for a broken wrist, once for pneumonia and then she fell and had contusion on her ribs.

If you eat everything in the grocery store without restraint and think since it has been approved by the FDA, it's okay, you are setting yourself up for health issues if not soon, later on in life.

Edited August 9, 2020 by RonaldBruno
Link added

[JohnD]

On 8/2/2020 at 2:05 PM, missmuffet said:

The world is poisoning our food today. We are dealing with toxic chemicals, high fructose corn syrup, many food recalls and GMO produced foods, pesticides.  

Yeah. Diabetic for years now.  I'm guessing the rise in allergies and asthma are also the result of this.

[Guest]

On 8/2/2020 at 3:05 PM, missmuffet said:

The world is poisoning our food today. We are dealing with toxic chemicals, high fructose corn syrup, many food recalls and GMO produced foods, pesticides.  

Conspiracy theories are poisoning the world. 

[RonaldBruno]

On 8/2/2020 at 6:01 PM, BeauJangles said:

 While this remains evident, I see no easy solution. Neither do I see a workable situation but for radical measures which some do. Much of the time it seems in vain to me. Do these measures of either going vegan or holistic approaches enrich living standards for the average consumer?

It's long, tedious, time consuming, a major effort in the undertaking, and often impractical for many modern day families to spend with their busy family schedules. I take substantial amounts of supplements for the next best answer as a lot of people in this day and age do. 

I would tend to agree with you on that aspect. While I don't have the highest goals in mind, I do make decent attempts to generally eat the best of what's commonly available. No, it's not the optimal. Still, I feel generally pretty well with my dietary concerns overall. Of course, I could be more conscientious but I'm doing the best I can under the circumstances. 

No sugar is good sugar. Not even honey which probably the best natural source available since time began as we know it. Here are our current available types of sugars and sweeteners. 

 

What most people would call sugar in this country is granulated, highly refined cane sugar. That’s the most common form sugar used at the table and for cooking. But there are many forms of cane sugar, as well as sugar from other plants. In addition, there are liquid sweeteners such as honey and maple syrup, as well as an increasing number of artificial sweeteners such as Splenda and Truvia.

Here’s a rundown of the types of sweeteners you can choose.

Sugars

• Beet sugar: Sugar beets are sliced, then the liquid is extracted, partially evaporated, and boiled off. The resulting sugar crystals are white and can be used like granulated sugar.

• Brown sugar: This moist sugar is granulated cane sugar that has molasses added to it. It comes in both light and dark forms. Dark brown sugar has more molasses than the light version and has a stronger flavor. Light brown sugar has less molasses and less of a molasses flavor and is also a little less moist. They can be used interchangeably. Dry, granulated brown sugar is also available.

• Cane sugar: Sugar is made from sugarcane that is chopped, then has some water added, and is then heated, clarified with the addition of lime, and evaporated. The resulting syrup is then centrifuged to extract the sugar crystals. The liquid by-product of this process is called molasses. The two main categories of cane sugar are white refined sugar and brown sugar.

• Date sugar: Made from ground, dehydrated dates, this very sweet sugar does not dissolve when added to liquids.

• Demerara sugar: This “raw,” pale brown, coarse-textured cane sugar is from Demerara, an area in Guyana where the cane grows in rich, volcanic soil. It is often used as coffee sugar.

• Fructose: Fruit sugar, twice as sweet as refined cane sugar, provides moisture in baked goods. It’s sold in both a granular and liquid form. Commercial fructose is not extracted from fruits, but is created by treating glucose with enzymes.

• Fruit sweetener: Made from grape juice concentrate blended with rice syrup, this sweetener is about 80 percent as sweet as white sugar. It is sold in both granular and liquid form.

• Jaggery (palm sugar, gur): Made from the reduced sap of either the sugar palm or the palmyra palm, this sugar is dark brown and crumbly. The two most common forms of jaggery are the solid cake form of which the reduced sap is traditionally dried in coconut shells, and a soft type with a spreadable texture. Sometimes the syrup is smoked, giving the jaggery a black color and smoky flavor. It is generally found in East Indian markets and is available in both granular and liquid form.

• Maple sugar: This is maple syrup with all the liquid evaporated, leaving behind a dry sugar. It comes both in pressed cakes as well as in a granulated form. Except for the fact that it is expensive, this is a good substitute for refined sugar because the mouth perceives it as much sweeter than white sugar and it has fewer calories.

• Muscovado (Barbados) sugar: This “raw” cane sugar is similar to brown sugar, but with a richer, more complex flavor. It comes both light and dark.

• Piloncillo (panela, panocha): Raw sugarcane is crushed to extract the juice, then boiled to evaporate the liquid. It is poured into cone-shaped molds and sold in cone shapes in Hispanic markets.

• Raw sugar: True raw, unrefined sugar is not allowed to be sold in the United States because of the presence of dirt, insect fragments, and other unknown particles. Sugar sold as “raw” in this country has actually gone through at least 50 percent of the refining steps. Examples of “raw” sugar are Demerara, Muscovado, and Turbinado.

• Rock sugar (Chinese rock sugar): This lightly caramelized cane sugar is amber in color and not quite as sweet as regular granulated sugar. It is used in many Chinese dishes.

• Sucanat: Juice from organically grown sugarcane is turned into granular sugar by a process that does not involve any chemical additives. It is light brown and has a mild molasses taste.

• Turbinado sugar: Raw cane sugar crystals, derived from the first pressing of sugarcane, are steam-cleaned, but not bleached, to produce a blond, delicate, molasses-flavored sugar that is similar to Demerara, but with smaller crystals.

• White refined sugar (granulated sugar, table sugar, sucrose): White refined sugar comes primarily from sugarcane though also from sugar beets. It is highly refined, free-flowing sugar and the type most Americans think of as sugar. In addition to the typical granulated sugar, it comes in a number of other granulations, from coarse to fine. Coarse sugar is large crystals of granulated sugar, used for decorating baked goods. Superfine sugar is finer than granulated sugar and dissolves instantly. It is therefore often used in drinks and may be referred to as bar sugar. In England it is known as castor sugar. Confectioners’ sugar (10X sugar, icing sugar) is granulated sugar that has been crushed to a very fine powder. It often has a small amount of cornstarch added to prevent clumping. This is used in baking and to make frostings.

 

Liquid sweeteners

 

• Barley malt syrup: Roasted, sprouted whole barley is combined with water and cooked down to produce this brown liquid. It has a flavor similar to light molasses.

• Corn syrup: Corn syrup is made by converting the starches in corn to sugar. Light corn syrup is clarified, removing any particles. Dark corn syrup has caramel coloring added and has a stronger flavor than light.

• Honey: Our attraction to honey goes back to antiquity. In fact, references to honey can be traced back to 9,000 years ago in the form of cave paintings. Honey was so prized that the ancient Romans used it instead of gold to pay their taxes. Honey is the thick, sweet liquid made by bees from flower nectar. The honey’s color and flavor come from the source of the nectar. There are hundreds of different honeys and, in general, the darker the honey, the stronger the flavor. In addition to the standard liquid honey, it comes in a few other forms: In comb honey, the liquid honey is sold still in the chewy, edible comb. Chunk-style honey has bits of chewy honeycomb included in the jar along with the honey. Whipped honey is honey that has been processed by controlled crystallization to give it a thick, smooth, spreadable consistency. It is sometimes called honey butter or creamed honey. Though some preliminary studies show that honey does contain antioxidants, most people don’t eat large enough amounts of honey to reap any of the benefits. A tablespoon of honey is not a significant source of anything, except calories. This flavorful sweetener comes with one important caveat: Honey should never be fed to infants under the age of 12 months. Because their digestive systems are immature, babies less than 1 year of age are susceptible to infant botulism, an illness that can originate from spores in honey that have no effect on older children or adults.

• Malt syrup (malt extract): This natural sweetener is made from a mash of evaporated ground corn and sprouted barley. It has an earthy flavor and is less sweet than honey.

• Maple syrup: In Colonial America, Native Americans taught the early settlers how to tap the sugar-maple tree for its sap and how to boil the sap down to evaporate the water and produce the thick, sweet syrup the Indians called “sweetwater.” Because the processing of maple syrup is time consuming and labor intensive, it is rather expensive. Maple syrup is available graded according to color and flavor. Fancy or Grade AA is light amber and mild in flavor. Grade A, which comes in both medium and dark amber, is mellow with a delicate maple flavor. Grade B is dark and full-bodied with deep maple flavor, and Grade C is very dark with a molasses-like flavor. There are also maple syrup-like products called pancake syrups, which are corn syrups mixed with varying amounts of real maple syrup. Some pancake syrups have no maple syrup at all, and are flavored with artificial maple extract.

• Maple honey is maple syrup that’s been boiled until it achieves the consistency of honey. Maple cream (maple butter) is boiled longer still and is thick and spreadable.

• Molasses: When granulated sugar is extracted from sugarcane, the remaining brownish-black liquid is called molasses. The type of molasses depends on what part of the sugar-refining process produces it. Light molasses comes from the first boiling of the sugar syrup in the sugar-making process. Dark molasses is the by-product of the second boiling of the sugar syrup. Blackstrap molasses, the strongest and most bitter of the three, comes from the third boiling. The British call molasses treacle. Molasses also comes in either sulfured or unsulfured. Unsulfured molasses, made from the juice of sun-ripened sugarcane, is the lightest and most delicately flavored. Sulfured molasses is made from green, immature sugarcane that’s been treated with sulfur during the sugar extracting process. It has a stronger flavor than unsulfured molasses.

• Rice syrup: This thick amber syrup is made from a combination of sprouted barley and cooked brown rice that is fermented to convert the starches to sugar.

• Sorghum molasses (sorghum syrup): The juice from stalks of sorghum (a cereal grass) is boiled down to produce this thick, mild-flavored syrup, which is similar to light molasses.

Sugar substitutes

Artificial sweeteners are now usually called sugar substitutes or low-calorie or noncaloric sweeteners, largely because the word “artificial” makes many people uncomfortable.

There are some sugar substitutes—such as sorbitol and other forms of reduced-calorie sugar alcohols—that provide the sweet taste found in many sugar-free candies, cookies, and chewing gums. Foods made with sugar alcohols affect blood glucose levels less dramatically than sugar and therefore require little or no insulin for metabolism. Thus, sugar alcohols are often used in foods for people with diabetes.

 

While popular conception is that artificial sweeteners will help you lose weight, studies have in fact failed to show that artificial sweeteners keep people from gaining weight, much less help them lose significant weight. There is competing advice on whether or not to use sugar substitutes—or drink diet soda, for that matter—and it is a discussion worth having with your doctor.

• Advantame: Advantame is a water-soluble, white crystalline powder that can be used as a table sweetener or in cooking. It’s made from aspartame and a compound found in vanilla. Advantame was approved by the FDA in 2014, and is called a “high-intensity” sweetener because it is about 20,000 times sweeter than sugar.

• Acesulfame-K (acesulfame potassium): This sugar substitute was approved by the FDA in 1989 and is used in soft drinks, candy, baked goods, and other foods, sometimes combined with aspartame. More than 90 studies have given it a clean bill of health, though many consumer groups still worry about it. Acesulfame-K passes through the body unchanged and is thus noncaloric. It contains only a small amount of potassium per serving. It does not break down when heated and can be used in baked goods and other cooked foods. Brand names include Sunett and Sweet One.

• Agave syrup: Taken from the nectar of the agave cactus, honey-like agave syrup has enjoyed increasing popularity in the past few years due to assumption that it is more nutritious or lower calorie than sugar. There is little evidence indicating that this is the case.

• Aspartame: Approved by the FDA in the early 1980s, aspartame is made from two amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) and has almost no calories. It’s used in countless foods and beverages, but can’t be used in most baked goods. Aspartame should not be used by people with a rare genetic condition called phenylketonuria (PKU), who lack the ability to process one of the amino acids.It is sold under the brand names Nutrasweet, Equal, and Sugar Twin, among others.

• Neotame: Approved by the FDA in 2002, neotame is at least 7,000 times sweeter than regular sugar, making it a “high-intensity” sugar substitute. It can be used in baking, and is often added to manufactured foods. It’s sold under the brand name Newtame.

• Saccharine: This artificial sweetener is 200 to 700 times sweeter than sugar, and is sold under the brand names Sweet’N Low and Sweet Twin, among others. Saccharine was linked to bladder cancer in rats in the 1970s, but since then more than 30 studies in people have found it safe for human consumption.

• Sorbitol: This occurs naturally in some fruits and berries. It is not quite as sweet as regular sugar. In addition to being used as an artificial sweetener, sorbitol is used as a thickener and stabilizer in candy and numerous food products.

• Stevia: An herbal extract from a member of the chrysanthemum family, stevia has become a widely used calorie-free sweetener. It’s sold under the brand name Truvia, among others. Marketers tout stevia as a “natural” alternative to artificial sweeteners, but because the leaves must be highly processed to isolate the compounds in the packets of sweetener, it’s as artificial as other sugar substitutes.

• Sucralose: A chemically modified form of sugar, Sucralose gained impressive popularity in the beginning of the 2000s with the introduction of the brand Splenda. Sucralose is between 320 and 1,000 times sweeter than table sugar. It is a useful alternative to sugar because it can sustain high heat and thus is a good substitute in baked goods. Sucralose is approved as safe by the FDA.

Also see Sugar Substitutes: All Are Not Equal.

Agreed. 

Aspartame, saccharin and Sucralose are bad. You are better off with raw sugar. Aspartame reacts to a small percentage of people. Some have had seizures, neurological disorders, even blindness. If I remember correctly, the FDA will pass a chemical or drug through as long as unsafe symptoms occur below 0.5 %. That means if 4 people out of 1000 experience negative side effects, it's okay and gets an approval: "Heck with those people - we're gonna  make billions!" So the kid that has convulsions, no problem, the doctor will find out and just tell him not to use it anymore.

I have had dizziness and double vision problems from drinking diet cokes sweetened with sucralose. I guess I'm one of those rare cases whom they could care less about. They don't warn you on the label. But with drugs, they do warn us of the vast number of possible side effects - don't they. And again, these side effects may affect a small percentage but still, when a side effect us death, is it worth taking the chance?

Well, here's info on Sucralose - where oxygen is replaced with chlorine. I heard they use formaldehyde to make it and it has a similar composition as DDT. 

https://www.womenshealthnetwork.com/nutrition/the-dangers-of-splenda-and-other-artificial-sweeteners.aspx

[missmuffet]

42 minutes ago, RonaldBruno said:

Aspartame, saccharin and Sucralose are bad. You are better off with raw sugar. Aspartame reacts to a small percentage of people. Some have had seizures, neurological disorders, even blindness. If I remember correctly, the FDA will pass a chemical or drug through as long as unsafe symptoms occur below 0.5 %. That means if 4 people out of 1000 experience negative side effects, it's okay and gets an approval: "Heck with those people - we're gonna  make billions!" So the kid that has convulsions, no problem, the doctor will find out and just tell him not to use it anymore.

I have had dizziness and double vision problems from drinking diet cokes sweetened with sucralose. I guess I'm one of those rare cases whom they could care less about. They don't warn you on the label. But with drugs, they do warn us of the vast number of possible side effects - don't they. And again, these side effects may affect a small percentage but still, when a side effect us death, is it worth taking the chance?

Well, here's info on Sucralose - where oxygen is replaced with chlorine. I heard they use formaldehyde to make it and it has a similar composition as DDT. 

https://www.womenshealthnetwork.com/nutrition/the-dangers-of-splenda-and-other-artificial-sweeteners.aspx

Yes, they are bad for you.

[BeauJangles]

1 hour ago, RonaldBruno said:

Aspartame, saccharin and Sucralose are bad.

I refuse to touch the stuff and was under the assumption saccharin had halted overall production with a few exceptions. It had shown laboratory indications for cancerous tumors in rats with higher than normal human consumption. This is fairly typical in most ineffective FDA results. The entire system for food and drug safety standards and testing needs revamping. The only artificial sweetener I'll use now is Stevia for it's similarities to refined white table sugar. And furthermore, uh-oh. Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now. 

Beau steps down... and lightly walks away.  Then makes a run for it! 

Here's another bad one that is no longer used for human consumption. This was introduced in the 1960's in Pre-Sweetened KoolAid, which is no longer used after its ban around 1970, the USA. 

 

1. Cyclamate - sugar-and-sweetener-guide.com

   www.sugar-and-sweetener-guide.com/cyclamate.html

   Cyclamate. Cyclamate is the second oldest artificial sweetener in use today. Dulcin discovered in 1884 is no longer sold anywhere. It was discovered in 1937 about 50 years after saccharin. It is the least potent of this group being only 40 times as sweet as sugar.

Edited August 9, 2020 by BeauJangles

[Guest]

They use formaldehyde to decaffeinate coffee and they say that's why decaffeinated coffee drinkers have higher rates of pancreatic cancer. 

[Guest]

Just now, ChickenCoop said:

They use formaldehyde to decaffeinate coffee and they say that's why decaffeinated coffee drinkers have higher rates of pancreatic cancer. 

If God didn't want caffeine in coffee He would not have put it there.