Wednesday, December 29, 2010

This is Crazy!!

Ok raise your hand if you love you a whopper??Or a double bacon cheese burger??!! Well guess what, you are NOT eating what you thought you were eating!

I have been trying to learn more about food,healthy eating,etc.I’ve been learning about all the different things that are done to our food that can make it unhealthy.I am learning that natural and homemade are best. These idea’s were just confirmed by an article I read entitles “The truth about your weight gain” written by David Zinczenko. Here is just part of what he had to say:

“Most fast-food hamburger patties begin their voyage to your buns in the hands of a company called Beef Products. The company specializes in taking slaughterhouse trimmings—heads and hooves and the like—that are traditionally used only in pet food and cooking oil, and turning them into patties. The challenge is getting this byproduct meat clean enough for human consumption, as both E. coli and salmonella like to concentrate themselves in the fatty deposits.
The company has developed a process for killing beef-based pathogens by forcing the ground meat through pipes and exposing it to ammonia gas—the same chemical you might use to clean your bathroom. Not only has the USDA approved the process, but it's also allowed those who sell the beef to keep it hidden from their customers. At Beef Products’ behest, ammonia gas has been deemed a “processing agent” that need not be identified on nutrition labels. Never mind that if ammonia gets on your skin, it can cause severe burning, and if it gets in your eyes, it can blind you. Add to the gross-out factor the fact that after moving through this lengthy industrial process, a single beef patty can consist of cobbled-together pieces from different cows from all over the world—a practice that only increases the odds of contamination.”

I think its amazing that we can treat our food with ammonia gas(among other really scary chemicals) and then wonder why we as a country are fat and riddled with serious diseases such as cancer and diabetes.

The thought of dropping everything and buying all organic,non processed foods and cooking and baking everything from scratch is VERY appealing when I read articles like the one listed above.But because of time,cost,etc that just isn't realistic for me.Or for many other people either.BUT that doesn't mean we cant change SOME of our eating habits.It is realistic for me to say “No more fast food”. It is realistic to say “I’ll buy some organic foods”.The way I look at it any small change can help.

5 comments:

Tristan said...

Okay, that is completely disgusting. Did you really have to share that? You're killing my eating out options really fast here. I'm going to share this with Jason...sigh.

Anonymous said...

I read the same article and told Larry "I can never eat fast food burgers again!"

Alina said...

Ignorance is bliss, isn't it... If you look closely enough, there are such disgusting 'details' that are not common knowledge in pretty much all animal foods. When I first turned vegetarian 7 years ago I used to spam (I mean send) all my email contacts '3 reasons a day to become vegetarian'. One reason was health, one was ethics, and one environment. I would google such things and share. That year 9 of my friends became vegetarians, and even though only 4 of them are still vegetarian now, that is still something!

Anyways the ammonia is everywhere, and I was less grossed out by that, than by the 'heads and hooves' part! :) Ammonia is used to bleach white flour too, for instance, so it's in all baked goods too including bread.

Going organic and everything from scratch is a pain, but it can be done. Think food co-ops, grow-your-own-garden, bulk foods (even online) etc. I go to my Whole Foods store once a week and you wouldn't believe their organic bulk food prices, especially grains and nuts.

If you really want to know the whole truth behind the meat industry, watch Food Inc and Supersize me. Local libraries should have them. Real eye openers. Best of luck! (and thanks for following my blog)
xoxo

ChristinaB said...

I sure am learning alot and plan to keep reading and sharing! Alina I think its really cool how you shared/share your food convictions with other!

Stephanie Saunders said...

Thank you for not making some post about how people who feed their kids anything but organic are basically poisoning them. Don't get me wrong- I think it's disgusting. But I also think that these days, unless you're willing to probably double your grocery budget, you're not going to be able to buy all organic. You're totally right- any small changes help!