A Deadly Trade Secret in Our Food

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A Deadly Trade Secret in Our Food JoAnn Guest Nov 04, 2005 17:08 PST

http://www.healthliesexposed.com/articles/article_2005_09_17_0411.shtml

9/17/05 Author: Luise Light, MS, EdD Source: Crusador

 

A Deadly Trade Secret in Our Food

Health authorities sound alarm about a toxin in food – but only tell us

part of the story.

By Luise Light, MS, EdD

 

It's not often that the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and

Agriculture Organization (FAO) alert the world to dangers of an

industrial chemical in processed food capable of causing cancer, nerve

damage and reproductive abnormalities. The UN agencies urged people to

stop eating starchy foods commercially made by frying, roasting and

baking until levels of the hazardous chemical, acrylamide, are reduced

or eliminated.

 

Three years ago, Swedish scientists published a study that showed

significant levels of acrylamide in food products after commercial, high

temperature frying, roasting and baking of potatoes and grain products.

Processed foods with dangerously high levels of acrylamide were found in

many of the most popular foods consumed in North America by all age

groups, including children. High levels were found in: breakfast

cereals, potato and corn chips, French fries, bread, rolls, pizza and

pastries, among other foods.

 

International alarm followed from the discovery that high acrylamide

levels in foods greatly exceeded the EPA allowance for the chemical in

drinking water. For example, a large order of French fries was found to

have 300 times more acrylamide than what EPA allows in a glass of water.

Acrylamide is a potent nerve toxin that affects male reproduction and

causes birth defects and cancer in animals, and is considered a probable

human carcinogen.

 

Polyacrylamide is a non-toxic material that, when exposed to heat and

light, readily breaks down to un-polymerized acrylamide, which is a

neurotoxin. Polyacrylamide is extensively used worldwide in many

industrial processes because it is highly soluble and, through gelling

and binding actions, stabilizes flows of materials. Widely used as an

additive in water purification systems, other uses are in the pulp and

paper industry, oil-drilling and mining, permanent press clothing

manufacture, and contact lens manufacturing. The chemical is also used

as a gelling agent in the making of explosives. Acrylamide resins coat

home appliances, building materials, and automotive parts, and are used

in formulating cosmetics, soaps, hair grooming products, dental

fixatives, latex thickeners, and adhesives.

 

Residues on foods come from extensive use of polyacrylamide in pesticide

formulations and soil treatments and they also may be responsible for

acrylamide contamination of processed foods reported by Swedish

scientists. The alert sounded by international health agencies suggested

that the Swedish findings probably resulted from chemical reactions in

processing and the release of chemicals during high temperature cooking

and frying of foods. But that wasn’t the whole story.

 

The WHO/FAO release didn’t mention that polyacrylamide is a well-known

additive to commercial pesticides. The Monsanto herbicide, Roundup©

(glyphosate), is mixed with polyacylamide and likely to release

acrylamide when exposed to heat and light in the field, according to

Professor Joe Cummins of the British Institute for Science and Society.

 

Crops genetically modified to be herbicide-tolerant of the pesticide

Roundup©, and the use of the herbicide to prepare soils for normal

(non-GM) crops results in the release of acrylamide into the

environment. Additives used in herbicide mixtures are trade secrets in

North America so information on polyacrylamides in pesticides has not

been available until now. Monsanto’s Roundup© is the primary glyphosate

herbicide used in the world today. Monsanto’s herbicides are all around

us, and we can guess that acrylamide is, too. Here’s how Monsanto

describes the widespread use of its product:

 

“Monsanto’s herbicide products include more than 90 glyphosate-based

herbicides globally, including Roundup agricultural herbicides and

Roundup branded turf and ornamental products. These products can be used

to control weeds on the farm, the golf course and in home gardens,

create sustainable agricultural systems that preserve topsoil, help

retain soil moisture, and provide a valuable tool for integrated pest

management programs. They can be used to help prepare deforested land

for reforestation, reclaim land for grazing or agriculture that has been

taken over by weeds, restore wildlife habitats, control roadside

vegetation and rid school yards and parks of noxious weeds like poison

ivy, among many other uses.” (www.monsanto.com)

 

The UN agencies have called on governments to work with their food

industries to significantly lower the level of acrylamide in foods,

noting that it is currently technically feasible to do so. However, with

health and food agencies emphasizing the importance of consuming more

anti-oxidant-rich fruits and vegetables, believed helpful in mitigating

the damage from toxic contaminants, will we be exposed to even higher

levels of the potent neurotoxin, acrylamide? Furthermore, if there are

residues of acrylamide on vegetables, what will be the affects of

consuming more vegetables? Neither the USDA nor the EPA has conducted

any testing of the health consequences of acrylamide residues on

vegetables.

 

Unless the problem of acrylamide-laced pesticides is tackled, changes in

processing and cooking methods are unlikely to make a dent in human

exposure to the chemical. A ban on use of polyacrylamide in agriculture,

on golf courses, schoolyards and parks is essential. While we’re at it,

let’s also ban corporate trade secrets known to be harmful to people and

the environment. As Wendell Berry, the great environmentalist, reminds

us, “The world that is around us is also within us. We are made of it;

we drink, eat and breathe it; it is the bone of our bone and the flesh

of our flesh.”

 

##

 

Luise Light, MS, EdD expresses thanks to Pam Killeen for her assistance

in writing this article.

Watch for the release of Luise Light’s new book, What to Eat; 10 Things

you Really Need to Know about Eating for Health and Wellness, in spring,

2006. My email is: luval-.

 

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets

 

 

 

 

AIM Barleygreen

" Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future "

 

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