Saturday, June 23, 2012

Ready for a rant??

There I was....fixing a nice taco salad for my supper. I don't put chips in my taco salad so I opened a can of kidney beans & rinsed them.  Then it happened.... I decided to read the label. Good grief...corn syrup, sugar, cane syrup and high fructose corn syrup plus a couple of chemicals. Our so-called American food industry can ruin perfectly healthy beans.

We hear on the news and read in all the media how fat Americans are....60% over-weight, 30% obese with growing numbers of obese children. Type 2 diabetes is running rampant. It used to be unheard of in children but growing numbers of them have it too.  Some "expert" is constantly telling us to eat less, exercise more,  lose weight, lower our blood sugar, lower our cholesterol. People try, honestly they do, but with all the sweeteners (the worst of which is high fructose corn syrup) in pretty much all processed food it's a losing battle...and it's not weight we're losing, it's our health.

Back in 1906 Dr. Harvey Wiley, the first head of what would become the FDA, banned corn syrup in food because it was the only sweetener that caused diabetes in all of the bureau's test animals..... 1906 people!!!!!!! Dr. Wiley predicted that if we ever allowed corn syrup to be used as a food additive, we would become a nation of diabetics. (I cringe remembering all the Karo corn syrup we ate on pancakes as kids.) Today, due to pressure from food manufacturers, high fructose corn syrup is in 98% of food in America.  And we are a nation of diabetics. 

Dr. Wiley was forced from office after six years because his work was a threat to the profits of food manufacturers.  In 1929 he wrote a book exposing the failure of the FDA to protect the American people. In 1930 he died in his home. Within weeks his book disappeared from libraries and bookstores. Draw your own conclusions, people. I have.   The book has since been republished by some brave soul and I intend to get a copy for the local library.
Update:  Dr. Wiley's book can be seen online at -- http://www.whale.to/a/wiley_b.html
Over 300 pages of pretty heavy reading.  The reprint is way expensive!!

Anyone who thinks the FDA (Food & Drug Administration) exists to look out for our safety is living in a dream world. It's only job is to protect the profits of big business, specifically the processed food industry and the pharmaceutical industry. What better way to do that than allow everything that's bad for us to be put into our food so the pharmaceutical companies can sell us over-priced pills.

READ the labels on your food!! If it contains high fructose corn syrup or ingredients you can't pronounce it isn't good for you. Put it back on the shelf.  The health you protect will be yours and your children's. Unless people quit buying it, it will never go away.  One more thing-----just recently the food processors petitioned to change the name of high fructose corn syrup because too many people are getting wise to it. Thankfully, that petition was denied, so if they use it they still have to list it on the label.  For now.

2 comments:

  1. Well said! It takes a bit longer to food shop, but the health benefits from actually READING the labels on everything are well worth the time. I canNOT believe all the junk in our food supply (and this doesn't even get into the various sprays which can cause problems on fresh fruits and veggies when they're eaten)...Some Co.'s are making huge profits on the "easy" ways w/o any care for the population at all. This is one of my bugbears, too....Julierose

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  2. Just found you via another blog...THANKS for sharing this!! YOU are brave to even share this much online!! Hubby and I both have diabetes now. You are right...we grew up eating Karo corn syrup on our pancakes too!! We have been quite careful for several years, but it caught us anyway...maybe the damage is done when we were kids even.
    Elizabeth

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