Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Right now, we have food companies growing genetically modified crops that, if subjected to unlucky gene mutations, could potentially wipe out significant portions of the global food supply, leading to devastating famine and a sharp decline in the global population. That's not fiction: It's the status quo in modern agriculture today. No special effects required.
The FDA and various food processing companies are also pushing for new regulations that would mandate the mass irradiation of all foods. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 And monosodium glutamate is perfectly healthy for children, which is why food companies add it to baby food! So is saccharin, hydrogenated oils and sodium nitrite in processed meat. Result: Massive malnutrition, liver damage, and the beginnings of the diabetes and obesity epidemics that would sweep the nation over the next generation.
1970's
Place mercury into the mouths of your little children by having their cavities filled with "silver" fillings (made with 40% mercury, a potent neurotoxin). |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Whether we're talking Big Pharma, food companies, toy manufacturers or even financial issues, virtually the entire United States government is aligned against consumers in a pro-business stance that sacrifices the lives of Americans for corporate profits. While there are minor exceptions to this, the big agencies that are supposed to protect consumers (FDA, EPA, FTC, FCC, etc.) have spent the last several years kow-towing to the interests of wealthy, influential corporations rather than protecting the interests of consumers.
Want examples? |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Tomorrow, the FDA could announce that "pasteurization" will suddenly mean jumping up and down barefoot on fresh produce with your tongue stuck frozen to a chilled flagpole, in which case all the food companies in the United States would suddenly have to comply. But for today, pasteurization has been announced by the FDA to mean the bombarding of food matter with high energy radiation. If this all seems rather extraneous, that's because it is. Pasteurization could just as easily be declared next week to be the soaking of fresh produce in moose drool. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Remember: We only want photos that are on-topic with health issues: Food, groceries, pharmaceuticals, hospitals, food companies, fast food, junk food, Big Pharma, etc. They have to be entertaining, educational and unique to warrant publication. |
Michael Pollan
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 Since that debacle, the FDA, under tremendous pressure from industry, has made it only easier for food companies to make increasingly doubtful health claims, such as the one Frito-Lay now puts on some of its chips—that eating them is somehow good for your heart. If you bother to read the health claims closely (as food marketers make sure consumers seldom do), you will find that there is often considerably less to them than meets the eye.
Consider a recent "qualified" health claim approved by the FDA for (don't laugh) corn oil. |
| If you install video cameras in the kitchen and dining-room ceilings above typical American families, as marketers for the major food companies have done, you'll quickly discover that the reality of the family dinner has diverged substantially from our image of it. Mom might still cook something for
*The study, commissioned by industry and unpublished, was conducted by John Nihoff, a professor of gastronomy at the Culinary Institute of America. herself and sit at the table for a while, but she'll be alone for much of that time. |
| Generally speaking, it is only the big food companies that have the wherewithal to secure FDA-approved health claims for their products and then trumpet them to the world. Recently, however, some of the tonier fruits and nuts have begun boasting about their health-enhancing properties, and there will surely be more as each crop council scrounges together the money to commission its own scientific study. Because all plants contain antioxidants, all these studies are guaranteed to find something on which to base a health oriented marketing campaign. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 There's no requirement for food companies to list chemical contaminants found in their foods.) A food labeled "all natural" can contain pesticides, herbicides, toxic heavy metals, trace amounts of PCBs, toxic fluoride, hidden MSG, high-temperature cooking byproducts, synthetic chemical vitamins and dozens of other non-natural substances. This is all perfectly allowed and tolerated by the FDA as well as all virtually every media outlet in the world. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Only specialty pet food companies offer genuine food. (My favorites are www.Azmira.com and www.TheHonestKitchen.com ).
The way pets are being treated today by many mainstream veterinarians amounts to nothing less than the chemical abuse of dogs and cats by an industry that has, sadly, exchanged ethics for profits and no longer sees its primary mission as helping improve the quality of life of our animal friends. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Fortunately, that was not ultimately allowed under the "organic" label, but the food companies tried to sneak it in!)
The only way to truly know where your food comes from is to know your local farmers. When you know the people growing your food, and you can meet them face to face, then you know what you're getting. That's why I'm a huge supporter of CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture), farmers' markets, backyard gardening and local food co-ops. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 And don't even get me started about cosmetics companies, pet food companies and infant formula manufacturers.
Blame China? Give me a break. How about blaming the corrupt, criminally-minded FDA bureaucrats who have utterly surrendered their duties to profiteering corporations fixated solely on exploiting American consumers for maximum profits?
All this doesn't mean China's foods are any safer. They're not. But U.S. foods, drugs and personal care products are just as toxic. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| They might claim to, but in reality, they don't. food companies can get away with using all sorts of non-natural processes and chemical ingredients in a food product that they claim is all natural. For example, foods fried at high temperatures, resulting in the formation of cancer-causing acrylamides, are routinely labeled "all natural" in the snack section of the grocery store. And yet frying starches at high temperatures isn't natural at all -- it's a human-invented process for making boring foods like potatoes taste interesting by loading them up with fat and salt. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 You won't find food companies offering to pay for your medical bills if you have a heart attack from eating hydrogenated oils. They are basically passing the buck and demanding that you pay for the health consequences caused by their foods. In fact, they're working hard to pass legislation that would outlaw lawsuits against food companies!
Pepperoni-shaped poison
Not to be outdone, the meat processing companies in this country also want to make sure they get lots of poison into your food products. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| And yet today, numerous "all natural" food companies continue to use hidden forms of MSG in their foods, hiding them under innocent-sounding ingredients like yeast extract, autolyzed or hydrolyzed proteins (all of which contain MSG). Even the companies you've grown to trust in the "natural" food business are engaged in the blatant hiding of MSG in their products. Pay special attention to vegetarian food products such as veggie burgers. Read the ingredients on everything you buy and you'll find that the largest "natural" food manufacturers still use hidden MSG. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 As you may recall, yeast extract is a natural-sounding additive that food companies use as a flavor enhancer replacement for MSG. Yet it contains free glutamate, and for many people, it has the same effect as MSG -- migraine headaches, chemical taste enhancement and harm to the nervous system according to doctors like Russell Blaylock, author of Excitotoxins.
Editors' Note: This story has been updated with new information from Amy's Kitchen. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| There are, but they aren't manufactured by the big brand-name food companies. A few smaller, niche-market companies are offering real food these days, but you have to search them out. Companies like Ewehorn make honest cereals with no garbage ingredients, and there are lots of raw foods companies that produce truly outstanding food products (such as www.RawBakery.com). FoodsAlive (www.FoodsAlive.com) also makes real food, as do dozens of other companies I could mention.
But the real secret to being a smart, skeptical consumer is to read the ingredients labels yourself. |
Bill Sardi
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 But in fact, as revealed in this report, it is often food companies that exert their influence over researchers and public health authorities to continually disparage dietary supplements. Plant extract dietary supplements offer health benefits that simply cannot be achieved with foods. While pills do not replace food, food is not always superior to botanical extracts.
Cruciferous vegetables and cancer
In his treatise on medicine, Cato the Elder (234-149 BC), wrote: "If a cancerous ulcer appears upon the breasts, apply a crushed cabbage leaf and it will make it well. |
Michael Pollan
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| Of course, people tend to eat more when they can have exactly what they want—which is precisely why the major food companies approve of this modernized family meal and have done everything in their considerable power to foster it. So they market different kinds of entrees to each member of the family (low carb for the dieting teenager, low cholesterol for dad, high fat for the eight-year-old, and so on), and engineer these "home meal replacements," as they're known in the trade, so that even the eight-year-old can safely microwave them. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 When you buy refined, sugar-laden candy bars (also called "energy bars"), you're actually supporting the continued production of those products. food companies will produce whatever consumers buy, so when consumer demand shifts to healthier, raw food bars, that's what companies will gravitate towards! (Even the big food companies, too.)
By buying these raw food bars, you are supporting small, passionate companies that are offering genuine food. You're creating a marketplace that can have a positive impact on others due to the success of these raw food bars in the retail channel. |
Ann N. Martin
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 Doane Products Company, a Tennessee company that produces dry and semi-moist foods as well as soft treats and dog biscuits for numerous pet food companies, had produced the contaminated pet food. The recall included at least fifty brands, including Ol'Roy, Winchester, and Hill Country Fare, all of which were suspected of being contaminated with aflatoxin.
Many of the grains used in commercial pet food contain levels of herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides that are cancer-causing agents. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| Check the labels of Gardenburger, Boca Burger, Cedarlane and other "vegetarian" or "natural" frozen food companies to make sure you never buy yeast extract from them, either. (Most of these companies continue to use the ingredient.) Also watch out for yeast extract or other hidden sources of MSG in flavored snack chips.
5. Stay tuned to NewsTarget.com for more news on this topic by subscribing to our free email news update. When we learn more about Amy's Kitchen and the yeast extract question, we'll pass it along to you!
Remember, as consumers, we vote with our dollars. |
Ann N. Martin
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| Since writing the original edition of Food Pets Die For in 1997 and exposing what goes into those attractive cans and bags of commercial pet food, a growing number of consumers are realizing that many of the claims made by commercial pet food companies about their products being "balanced and nutritional" are false.
While researching and writing, there were times that I was absolutely horrified with what I discovered. |
| Some pet food companies also conduct theit own research or have an independent company test their foods. Such testing is discussed later in this chapter.)
In my opinion, AAFCO's feeding trials are inadequate and limited in scope, oversimplifying the acceptable test results and limiting the feeding trials to only eight dogs. In addition, the feeding trials only last a matter of months and give no indication of how these foods might affect animal companions who eat commercial foods for years. |
Jack Challem
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 People tend to buy what's at eye level, and food companies pay supermarkets handsomely (tens of thousands of dollars) to place their products at eye level and in other highly desirable locations. You'll often find less expensive, equivalent, and sometimes better products at knee level.
The Different Sections of Supermarkets
Most supermarkets have seven to ten major sections. These are the most common ones.
Produce department. It's hard to go wrong in the produce section as long as you stick to high-fiber, nonstarchy vegetables and fruit. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Voluntary labeling by food companies
If any foods actually contain dangerous or cancer-causing ingredients, food companies shall voluntarily print such warnings on their food labels in good faith, thereby greatly reducing the cost of requiring federal oversight on food safety and subsequently saving the American taxpayers millions of dollars each year. We, the members of Congress, have been promised so by Kraft Foods, Heinz, the Grocery Manufacturers of America and other campaign contributors.
12.3. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 I doubt there is anything that food companies wouldn't put in their foods as long as it's legal. I believe that food companies, especially the food giants, would put any chemical in their foods no matter how harmful, as long as it helps sell their products. The food industry has used hydrogenated oils for decades, and continues to use them in many foods, despite the fact that the scientific evidence has, for decades, demonstrated hydrogenated oils to be extremely harmful to human health. |
Michael T. Murray and Michael R. Lyon
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 Bit by bit, portion sizes have increased in restaurants, packaged foods, and on our dinner plates. food companies have long known that people want to get value for their money and simply giving consumers more food is the easiest way to keep people coming back to a restaurant or a food product. Fat, sugar, and refined flour also sell food,
U.S. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| Background information: Yeast extract contains from 6% - 12% MSG (or "free glutamate") and is used by food companies who want to add an MSG-like taste experience to their foods without using MSG on the label. It causes extreme headaches in some people, and according to Dr. Russell Blaylock, the author of Excitotoxins, MSG is damaging to the brain, nervous system, endocrine system and even promotes obesity by interfering with appetite regulation. |
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