Recently, a case of the highly dangerous Mad Cow disease was found in central California. The USDA has reported that it is the first time this has occurred in six years – a fairly long streak for the disease, which used to be occurring at an alarmingly high rate in the past. No matter what, it isn’t great news for beef eaters.

Should Beef Eaters Worry About Mad Cow Disease?

The cow “was never presented for human consumption, so it at no time presented a risk to the food supply or human health,” said John Clifford, the chief veterinary officer of the USDA. He also pointed out that the milk from the cow was not also transmitting the disease, which could potentially affect thousands of dairy consumers. During a press conference, Clifford stated that he was very confident that the nations cattle was safe and healthy for consumers who choose to buy it.

The animal in question had been picked out of a large portion of cattle headed to a rendering plant. Shortly after this random search of the infected animal, it was discovered it was a rare case of Mad Cow and USDA was immediately notified. As soon as the investigation concludes, the animal will be disposed of, likely via incineration to ensure that no infected tissue will survive.

Though only the fourth case of mad cow in the states, the disease has been found suspiciously enough across the group of nations that form NATO (Western Europe/North America). The USDA has also been criticized for having too small of a surveillance coverage, cutting the surveillance of cattle down to as much as 90 percent.

What does this mean for American beef eaters? Hopefully the answer is not a surge of Mad Cow disease across the country, but only time can tell if that were to occur. Mad Cow disease, known also as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, occurs when cows are fed reconstituted food made from other deceased cows. Farmers sometimes feed their cows the waste products that had been created from the use of other cows, such as bone marrow and meat bits leftover from butchering the whole cow. This abusive act is obviously highly unsanitary, and accounts for much of the stigma that occurs in first world nations’ population of beef eaters.

The consumers’ fear of the disease is what caused a very rapid decline in sales for the beef market, costing larger beef producers billions of dollars both here in the states as well as with the Asian countries that import American beef. As soon as word hit that another case of BSE was in the Americas, projected sales and contracts plummeted down to the lowest they have been in almost a whole year.

As one of many beef eaters, this validates the necessity of buying high quality grade A beef, a powerful method that may be used to to eliminate a considerable degree of rational fear of eating beef unfit for consumption.

According to recent research conducted by scientists from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the University of Granada, both junk food and fast food consumption ignites depression. In fact, the study, published in the journal Public Health Nutrition, shows that those consuming fast food are 51 percent more likely to be depressed than those consuming very little or none of the health-damaging food. What’s more, depression risk was found to increase with the more fast food and junk food consumed.

Fast Food, Baked Goods Shown to Increase Risk for Depression

The study sample involved 8,964 participants, all of whom have never been diagnosed with depression and have never taken any medication for depression. After a six month assessment, 493 became diagnosed with depression or began taking antidepressant medications — which have previously been shown to actually make depression even worse. The current results support what the SUN project, a lifestyle tracking program, have found in 2011 where a 42 percent increase in depression risk was found with those consuming fast food. Additionally, the increase in depression risk was just as high with the consumption of baked goods and junk food.

The research adds further evidence as to why everyone should avoid fast food at all costs. Representing some of the lowest-quality food on planet earth, fast food is loaded with health-wrecking ingredients, while the food itself is cooked in the most unhealthy manner possible. The meat used is conventional, and thus loaded with antibiotics, growth hormones, and up until recently was loaded with ammonia-treated ‘pink slime’ scrap meat.

Of course depression is not the only problem that can arise from fast food and junk food consumption, although the findings are very concerning. While many individuals may not realize is these foods have actually been shown to trigger extreme addiction and brain damage. A study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation shows that junk food has a brain-altering effect which makes you eat more of it. High-fat processed food consumption causes damage to the hypothalmus part of your brain – an area responsible for levels of hunger, thirst, and the body’s natural rhythms and cycles.

With fast food and junk food shown to cause depression, obesity, and countless other health problems, it is time for people to re-evaluate their eating habits and make overall lifestyle changes.

Consumers Ingesting Mystery Meat Treated with Poisonous Gas

As a method of passing off decayed meat as fresh, meat industries in many countries are treating meat with highly toxic gas. In fact, 70 percent of all beef and chicken within the United States and Canada are subject to the treatment of the poisonous gas known as carbon monoxide. Add this knowledge to the recently exposed ammonia-tainted ‘pink slime’ used in meat being served to millions of people and schoolchildren, and you may be reluctant to ever eat meat again.

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a toxic colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas which essentially replaces oxygen in the blood. When individuals are exposed to higher levels of CO, it begins to cause detrimental effects after binding to a molecule in the blood that normally carries oxygen, known as hemoglobin. Lower levels of exposure results in headaches, confusion, fatigue, and nausea, while higher levels of exposure could result in unconsciousness, death, or long-term negative neurological effects.

In order for meat to stay fresh, it must be below a certain temperature before being consumed. Even a few degrees above the recommended temperature can result in bacterial growth and hastened spoilage. In addition, grocery retailers face a challenge in knowing the actual temperature of the meat since UV radiation from the display case penetrates the packaging. As a solution, the meat industry decided to use utilize carbon monoxide for atmospheric packaging to extend shelf life. It is also for this reason that meat exhibits a bright red color, even when it has spoiled.

Image provided by PreventDisease

“C. perfringens bacteria, the third-most-common cause of food-borne illness, has been proven to grow on what is considered fresh meat … about half of the fresh meat products [tested for these bacteria] are positive despite them being within the expiry period.  100% of … these cases come from packagers who adopted atmospheric packaging methods such as the use of carbon monoxide gas”.

Although meat itself has many beneficial properties, the processes in which most meat goes through is cause for alarm. Along with poisoning carbon monoxide being used to treat our meat, conventionally raised animals are injected with growth hormones, fed antibiotics, and given genetically modified grain – all of which are being passed along in the food chain to the consumers of these animals — humans. The use of antibiotics are creating drug-resistant superbugs, while growth hormones are causing various health problems due to hormone balance disruption. All the while, these animals are consuming life-threatening GM grain, which they would never naturally consume in the wild.

Being able to know of the many processes, treatments, and toxic ingredients added to meat and food as a whole is more important than ever. The labeling of genetically modified foods is an absolute must, as is the disclosure of the ingredients and processes food goes through before ending up in the hands of the consumer. However, until these changes come to pass, eating a well balanced organic variety of foods will cause avoidance of the numerous challenges which come with the consumption of conventional food.

Recently, the pink slime scrap meat used by McDonald’s to make various forms of ‘food’ was exposed, and its use subsequently came to a halt. A lazy public statement was issued, calling the pink slime “selective lean beef trimmings treated with ammonia that is a safe product”

Ammonia-Tainted ‘Pink Slime’ Ravaging US Meat Products

These ‘lean beef trimmings’ are what’s left after all the muscular cuts of beef have been taken from a cow. Experts state that the meat is not muscle, but fat trimmings and connective tissue that are separated from the bone – scrap meat that is not fit for human consumption.

The trimmings are then treated with an ammonia solution in an attempt to kill whatever may be lurking in it. The product is then minced into the now infamous pink slime, a pseudo meat replacement with no nutritional value whatsoever.

Since the alarm has been raised, McDonald’s and others have been urged to cease use of the product. Despite this, this pseudo meat is used in over 70% of ground beef products in supermarkets around the country. Along with the widescale use in supermarkets, the USDA has purchased 7 million pounds of the product to be used in school lunch programs nationwide.

Not only does the meat provide no nutritional value at all, but it is chemically contaminated from ammonia, the toxic cleaning agent found under the sink. The ammonia treatment is in response to the danger of contamination from salmonella or E. coli. The scrap meats themselves are more likely to contain pathogens, and despite the chemical treatment, they are still hardly safe or free from contamination.

This slime is used in many products, but is virtually impossible to track down because there is no nutrition labeling for it. There has also been little attention given to the dangerous chemical process used to attempt to render the slime as safe. The McDonald’s statement points out that this product has been regulated and “used for decades.”

Any efforts to make it safe or nutritionally viable are in vain however, as the base ingredients, the process used, and the end result are all high risk while providing no actual food value. Any attempt to feed this to growing children and teens should be met with a similar outcry, and effectively rebuked and replaced with a legitimate program for healthy foods and real nutrition.

Some individuals believe that protein negatively impacts bone health, but research shows just the opposite. In fact, a recent study shows that individuals with less than 15 percent of their calories coming from protein are nearly at a 3 times higher risk of having a fracture than those with higher protein intake.

Animal Protein Shown to Reduce Bone Fracture Risk

The study, involving 167 adults over the age of 65, aimed to examine the link between protein intake and fracture risk in elderly people. Researchers analyzed vegetable protein intake, animal protein intake, and animal/vegetable protein intake ratio in conjunction with calcium levels. They found that vegetable protein wasn’t as helpful for fractures as animal protein, and that higher overall protein intake was better than lower protein intake. Animal protein may rise above vegetable protein due to containing many tissue and bone supporting nutrients that do not exist in vegetable proteins.

There is, however, a fine line between healthy animal protein and unhealthy animal protein. The conventional method of raising animals and treating meat today is leading to illness and disease. Conventional livestock are injected with growth hormones and are fed antibiotics. Animals such as cows are fed genetically modified grain instead of naturally consuming grass. This GM food is not only ruining the animal’s health, but is taking a toll on the health of the consumer as well. Combining these factors with the insane living conditions animals suffer on factory farms makes meat in America the worst meat you could ever consume.

When we eat meat containing antibiotics, growth hormones, and medication, we are essentially eating those things ourselves. In addition, the milk produced by cows also contains what the cows consume. It is estimated that around 1/3 of cows in the United States are injected with Monsanto’s synthetic hormone, rBGH, which means that you have most likely been highly exposed to rBGH if you live in the U.S. or have eaten U.S. dairy products. So not only is conventional meat tainted, but dairy is as well.

McDonald’s has recently caved to consumer demands to cease the utilization of ‘pink slime’ scrap meat covered with ammonium hydroxide in their hamburgers and chicken sandwiches. The announcement highlights the fact that there are many health-crushing additives within the McDonald’s menu, and the reason that their hamburgers absolutely wreak havoc on your body actually has little to do with their high calorie and fat content. In fact, McDonald’s absolutely loves when health professionals neglect to mention the toxic ingredients hidden in their food.

The change was mostly made possible by Jamie Oliver, a celebrity chef who has recently gone on a campaign against the fast food giant. After heavily publicizing the fact that McDonald’s was using the ‘pink slime’ treated with ammonium hydroxide, food activists began to take action. However, the change does not mean that McDonald’s food choices are much better for you — in fact, they are still very damaging to your health. Oliver himself explains:

“Basically, we’re taking a product that would be sold at the cheapest form for dogs and after this process we can give it to humans,” said the TV chef.

A History of McDonald’s Additives

This is not the only known additive in McDonald’s food items that has sparked controversy. It was previously revealed that McDonald’s McNuggets contain a similarly-disturbing ingredient, helping to establish the reputation of worst food item on the planet. You would think that the ingredients for chicken nuggets would consist of bread and chicken, perhaps a bit of seasoning for flavor.

In contrast, McNuggets contain 7 different ingredients, many of which contain sub-ingredients. Among these include substances that make up the ‘meat’ of the McNuggets. Instead of using real meat, the ingredient list calls for sodium phosphate, safflower oil, wheat starch, dextrose, and a particularly dangerous substance known as autolyzed yeast extract. Autolyzed yeast extract is similar to MSG, an artificial sweetener that has been linked to obesity and other health conditions.

What’s more, McNuggets contain a whole other list of threatening ingredients like dimethylpolysiloxane. A type of silicone used in breast implants and silly putty. Dimethylpolysiloxane is used as an anti-foaming agent in the nuggets.

It is quite clear that even while ignoring the pink slime scrap meat from McDonald’s food items, these synthetic meal items are still a very real threat to your overall wellness. You can view Oliver’s video covering the pink slime below:

In a test of over 700 preschoolers’ packed lunches, less than 2% meats, vegetables and dairy products were cool enough to be safe against the development of food-borne illness. Currently 1 in 6 U.S. citizens get food poisoning each year, though the number of cases related to school lunches is unknown.

Reuters reports:

The study by Fawaz Almansour, a doctoral student at the University of Texas in Austin, was the first to check how the food that children take to school is doing in terms of health about ninety minutes before they eat it.

“It was a shock when we discovered that more than 90 percent of the perishable items in these packed lunches were kept at unsafe temperatures,” Almansour said.

According to his study, published in Pediatrics, some 705 lunches packed by parents for children in full-time daycare centers were checked for the temperature of perishable food items and the number of ice packs included.

The CDC says that perishable foods kept between 4 to 60 degrees Celsius (40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit) for more than two hours are no longer safe to eat.

Some 39 percent of the lunches had no ice packs, while 45 percent had at least one. Some 12 percent were kept in refrigerators.

Still, 88.2 percent of lunches were at ambient temperatures.

“Even with multiple ice packs, the majority of lunch items were at unsafe temperatures,” Almansour and colleagues wrote.

Almansour said the study had been an “eye-opener.”

“It shows there is a problem,” he added, recommending that lunches be packed with lots of ice packs and refrigerated once the children arrive at school.

Are you a smoker? How about a hot dog eater? According to a national medical group, hot dogs are just as detrimental as cigarettes to your health. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a Washington, D.C., alternative health group, unveiled a billboard Monday near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the message: “Warning: Hot dogs can wreck your health.”

USA Today reports:

The billboard features a picture of hot dogs in a cigarette pack inscribed with skull and crossbones. It aims to increase awareness of a link between colorectal cancer and hot dogs.

Hot dogs, like cigarettes, should come with a “warning label that helps racing fans and other consumers understand the health risk,” said Susan Levin, the committee’s nutrition education director.

Other health experts disagree.

Although hot dogs are certainly not health food, neither are they toxic, if consumed in moderation, they say.

“It is not necessary to eliminate consumption of red or processed meat; rather the message is that these foods should not be the mainstay of your diet,” American Cancer Society guidelines state.

About twice a month, Kimberly Hunt indulges. She harbors no illusions that hot dogs are good for her, but she’s not worried about the risks.

“Not any more than any other processed foods that we eat,” said Hunt, as she finished off lunch in downtown Indianapolis. “There’s a lot of things that are going to cause cancer. Are hot dogs on the top of my list? No.”

Hot dogs are low in nutritional value, said Dr. Jesse Spear, an internal medicine physician with St. Vincent Medical Group in Fishers, Ind. They’re high in salt, which can lead to hypertension and heart disease.

Should we avoid them at all costs?

That’s not what Spear tells patients. Instead, he advises them to eat a generally healthy diet — more fruits and vegetables, less processed meats.

“I don’t personally tell people never to eat hot dogs, because I guess I’m just realistic enough to know that people will still consume them to some degree,” he said.

But there’s something about a car race that encourages hot dog consumption. Last year, more than 1.1 million hot dogs were sold during the Indianapolis 500.

So this year, the Physicians Committee decided to target another Speedway event, Sunday’s Brickyard 400, with its $2,750 billboard.

The strong warning is needed to make people think twice about eating hot dogs and all processed meats, Levin said. That includes deli meats, ham, sausage, bacon and pepperoni.

“A hot dog a day could send you to an early grave,” said Levin, a registered dietitian. “People think feeding their kids these foods (is) safe, but (it’s) not.”

The research linking colorectal cancer and processed meat is convincing, says a 2007 report by the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research.

Just one 50-gram serving of processed meat — about the amount in one hot dog — a day increases the risk of colorectal cancer, on average, by 21 percent, the study found.

George Hanlin has his consumption down to one or two a month, as part of a plan to eat healthier. Monday, he contemplated the data linking hot dogs to health risks.

“Will it keep me from never eating hot dogs? No,” Hanlin said. “But there’s no question I will try to limit it a lot more.”

As is standard in the food industry, you are consuming a number of ingredients that food manufacturers do not have to explicitly detail. Currently, meat products that are plumped up through solutions such as chicken broth or salt may only state on that label that it is “enhanced” and is often not very visible. The Agriculture Department estimates that 40 percent of all raw meat and poultry products contain added ingredients that may not be properly labeled.

Faulty labeling has always been a concern among health-conscious consumers who want to know what they are feeding themselves and their families. Even more ‘transparent’ food store chains like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods oftentimes do not label products that contain genetically modified (GM) ingredients. (Take action: Tell Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods to label their GM products).

It is a step in the right direction to require manufacturers to label hidden additives such as salt solutions, but it is even more dire to require companies to be open about their usage of hormones and antibiotics. Consumers need to know what they are purchasing in order to make informed decisions about whether or not they are helping or hurting their bodies. Shockingly, approximately 80% of all antibiotics used in the U.S. are used on livestock. Deceptive labeling is a result of greedy companies who have no concern for their customer’s health.

A new report released Monday claims the science is clear: Eating too much meat is bad for your health.

The so-called Meat Eater’s Guide, compiled by the Environmental Working Group, is generating buzz for its “cradle-to-grave” look at the environmental impact of 20 popular types of meat, dairy and vegetable proteins. But it also emphasizes the potential health impact of eating too much meat, recommending that people cut back to decrease their risk of heart disease and certain cancers.

“The goal is to really make this information accessible to consumers,” said Kari Hamerschlag, an agriculture analyst with the research and advocacy group. “On the health side, we really pulled together all of the information and tried to make it as clear as possible that there’s not just one reason to limit meat consumption; there are a whole host of reasons.”

The report, which weaves together statistics from various earlier studies, allows that meat can be an important source of protein and vitamins when eaten in moderation. But in the U.S., moderation may be a problem. The report cites data from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization suggesting that Americans consume almost 60 percent more meat than their European counterparts, and four times more than in many developing countries. And much of that meat is either red or processed.

The health effects of this, the EWG report claims, are myriad: A 2009 report from the National Cancer Institute found that people who ate the most red meat — which can have high levels of cholesterol-rising saturated fat — were 27 percent more likely to die of heart disease. That same report also found serious meat eaters were 20 percent more likely to die of cancer than those who consumed the least amount of meat.

Marjorie McCullough, Sc.D., strategic director of nutritional epidemiology with the American Cancer Institute, cautioned that the link between high meat consumption and a broad range of cancers — including prostate and pancreatic — is possible, but not entirely clear. However, she said there is a consistent association between red and processed meats and a risk of colon cancer. Scientists have hypothesized that the nitrates in processed meats are a possible culprit, as are the chemicals formed when red meat is cooked at high temperatures.

“What people always ask next, is ‘what is the magic number?’ in terms of servings of meat to aim for,” McCullough said. “Unfortunately, there is no real magic number. I generally say that if you currently eat red meat, you should cut back by half.” (The American Cancer Society recommends that people limit their intake of red and processed meats, but also does not provide an exact figure.)

The EWG report calls for people to limit their intake of meat by enjoying “Meatless Mondays,” and when they do eat it, opting for meat that comes from grass-fed, certified organic and pasture-raised animals. The American Institute for Cancer Research and the American Dietetic Association recommend limiting red meat consumption to 18 ounces per week — a little more than a pound.

The American Meat Institute, a trade association representing companies that process most of the red meat and turkey in the United States, did not immediately return calls for comment.

But others say the simplest move health-wise is increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables in line with the My Plate recommendations, leaving less room for other foods, like meat.

“If you focus on filling up on fruits and veggies, so they’re at least half your plate, you’re not going to have a lot of room left to even eat all that meat,” said Joan Salge Blake, R.D., a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. “The biggest thing is just getting down the amount we eat.”