10 Things People Have No Clue Are Inside Meat

Prevent Disease.com

The factory farmed meat industry tells us that beef is a nutritional powerhouse with essential nutrients we need for energy. They tell us that meat is one of the best sources of iron and packed with vitamins. According to the authorities on meat, it’s also calorie-wise and part of a heart healthy diet to manage cholesterol. Despite all these outlandish claims by the industry, they never tell us what actually goes into meat. What preservatives are permitted after slaughter? What chemicals are used to inhibit growth of bacteria or enhance color? How is shelf-life prolonged? These are all details the meat industry does not elaborate on or explain at any length. Here are the facts they don’t want you to know. 

Synthetic preservatives are added to 70 percent of all factory farmed meat and poultry to prevent spoilage, rancidity and mould growth. If you’re going to invest your money in meat products, the only way to preserve your health is to stay away from factory farmed, chemically and artificially produced meat. Here are 10 things most people have no clue are inside most meat products at major grocery retailers.

1. Sodium Benzoate, Sodium Proprionate and Benzoic Acid 

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has amended regulations that once banned the use of sodium benzoate, sodium propionate and benzoic acid in meat and poultry products, the Food and Drug Administration has announced.

In combination with ascorbic acid (vitamin C, E300), sodium benzoate and potassium benzoate form benzene, form known carcinogens. If a individual happens to consume any of these toxins after consuming ascorbic acid, a carcinogenic process may initiate.

Professor Peter Piper, a professor of molecular biology and biotechnology, tested the impact of sodium benzoate on living yeast cells in his laboratory. What he found alarmed him: the benzoate was damaging an important area of DNA in the “power station” of cells known as the mitochondria. “These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it: they knock it out altogether.” he stated.

The three preservatives had been on the list of prohibited antimicrobial substances the FSIS considered to have the potential to conceal damage or inferiority in meat and poultry.

The change follows a petition by Kraft Foods Global Inc., which wants to use the substances to help inhibit the growth of bacteria. 

After consideration, the FSIS said it has “determined that sodium benzoate, sodium propionate and benzoic acid, under the conditions proposed in the petitions, are both safe and suitable for use as antimicrobial agents in certain RTE (Ready-to-Eat) meat and poultry products.”

2. Asthma-Like Drugs

There is another way factory farmers make animals grow faster besides antibiotics and hormones. The asthma-like drug ractopamine is used in 45 percent of US pigs according to Bacon Bits, the Canadian Pork Industry newsletter. It’s also used in 30 percent of ration-fed cattle and a growing number of turkeys. Unlike most livestock drugs, ractopamine is not withdrawn before the animals are slaughtered even though its warning label says, “Individuals with cardiovascular disease should exercise special caution to avoid exposure. Not for use in humans. Keep out of the reach of children,” and recommends protective clothing, gloves, eye wear and masks.

Ractopamine’s effects on animals are documented, say the groups, but effects on humans remain a mystery. Codex, the UN food standards body, established ractopamine safety residues on the basis of only one human study of six people and one subject dropped out because of adverse effects! Data from the European Food Safety Authority indicates that ractopamine causes elevated heart rates and heart-pounding sensations in humans.

In an early Canadian study, monkeys given ractopamine “developed daily tachycardia”– rapid heart beat. Rats fed ractopamine developed a constellation of birth defects like cleft palate, protruding tongue, short limbs, missing digits, open eyelids and enlarged heart.

Cardiac stimulating drugs like ractopamine cause stress and hyperactivity in animals and they are “not appropriate because of the potential hazard for human and animal health,” wrote researchers in the journal Talanta. “Adding these drugs to waterways or well water supplies via contaminated animal feed and manure runoff,” is also a concern, said David Wallinga of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in an interview, “because this class of drugs is so important in treating children with asthma.”

Could ractopamine, added to the food supply in 1997 with little public awareness, be contributing to skyrocketing rates of obesity and hyperactivity in children?

Certainly the ractopamine label puts no one at ease. “WARNING: The active ingredient in Topmax, ractopamine hydrochloride, is a beta-adrenergic agonist. Individuals with cardiovascular disease should exercise special caution to avoid exposure,” says the label for the turkey feed. “Not for use in humans. Keep out of the reach of children. 

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Reposted with permission