Toxic Shock

Over the last weekend, it was really too hot to do anything. After all the days chores were finished, I sat down got out the remote and decided to watch some random movies. Usually when you are thumbing through the free movies, pickings are pretty slim because most of them get the old green tomato from rotten tomatoes. So I went with something light and entertaining and stumbled upon an old film that we used to talk about all the time when I did talk radio in the 1990’s.

The film believe it or not was “That Thing You Do.” It was a film directed by Tom Hanks about an amateur teen idol rock band that makes it big. The band is called The Wonders, because they truly were one hit wonders.

In the film, the father and mother of the band hold a party because “The Wonders” have made it big in a show that is the equivalent of the Ed Sullivan show. When they break for commercials we find that the TV show in the film is sponsored by Chemstrand, a division of Monsanto.

Chemstrand was well known in the 50’s and 60’s for making the chemicals used in nylon thread for stockings. The slogan was “A lady isn’t dressed until her legs are too.”

The commercial itself epitomizes the growing rate of chemical manufacturing in the United States during that 50’s into the 1970’s.

Back in the day, it would be common to see commercials from well known chemical companies like Du Pont, Union Carbon and Carbide, Dow, and Monsanto.

In fact during a speech in the movie, Network, where Arthur Jensen tells Howard Beale that his anti- chemical industry rant on television had tampered with the primal forces of nature. Ironically, Jensen played by Ned Beatty is referring to chemical and other companies when he tells Beale, “YOU… WILL… ATONE! Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.”

In its forward rush the $9 billion-a-year chemical industry has transformed American life. It has scrubbed the modern world with detergents, doctored it with synthetic drugs, dressed it in synthetic textiles, cushioned it with synthetic rubber and adorned it from head to toe with gaudy plastics.

It has penetrated industry as deeply as daily life. With its flood of discoveries, it has injected new life into some industries lace textiles which it has reconstructed with synthetics and strengthened with new chemicals that make natural textiles water-resistant, better wearing, and better looking.

It has absorbed whole industries, like paint and varnish, and has spawned entire new ones like plastics fabricating and synthetic rubber. The plants from which chemistry’s products come are tangled nests of crooked pipes, squat vats and giant revolving ovens (above) whose shapes are often as complicated as the chemicals they produce.

Now chemical companies like Monsanto are getting into genetically modifying crops that can take a chemical beat down and absorb the chemicals used to ward off insects and weeds.

These foods are being consumed on a daily basis and people are beginning to wise up about how many harmful chemicals they are putting into their bodies on a daily basis.

In fact, Aspartame is being removed by Soda companies like Coca Cola and Pepsi because consumers are choosing not to put this chemical into their bodies. Sales of Diet drinks for both Coke and Pepsi have dropped due to adverse reactions from the sweetener.

Diet Coke sales have dropped dramatically, according to Coca-Cola’s latest results.

The company said that global sales of Diet Coke fell 7 percent on the same quarter last year, continuing a decline that started in 2008.

Consumers went from dodging sugar by buying diet drinks, to switching back to sugar because of concerns about sugar substitutes.

Diet Coke and Coke Zero will be using Sucralose or Splenda in their drinks and will also provide Coca-Cola Life.

Coca Cola life contains 22g of sugar or 25 percent of your recommended daily allowance, because some of the sugar has been substituted with Stevia, a plant-based sugar substitute.

Pepsi’s North America CEO, Al Carey, said that diet drinks “are a definite drag on the business” at an investor conference in February.

“And the number one thing we see from consumers is a complaint about aspartame,” he said. “Aspartame is the sweetener that seems to get most of the negatives in the press and on YouTube.”

The new Diet Pepsi swaps one artificial sweetener for another. Pepsi already offers a low-calorie option made with Stevia, called Pepsi True.

Artificial sweeteners have been the subject of bad press, largely due to a 1970s study linking them to cancer in lab rats.

But cancer in lab rats is only the tip of the Diet Cola iceberg.

Aspartame is the technical name for the brand names NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, and Equal-Measure. It was discovered by accident in 1965 when James Schlatter, a chemist of G.D. Searle Company, was testing an anti-ulcer drug.

Aspartame was approved for dry goods in 1981 and for carbonated beverages in 1983. It was originally approved for dry goods on July 26, 1974, but objections filed by neuroscience researcher Dr. John W. Olney and consumer attorney James Turner in August 1974, as well as investigations of G.D. Searle’s research practices caused the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to put approval of aspartame on hold (December 5, 1974). In 1985, Monsanto purchased G.D. Searle and made Searle Pharmaceuticals and The NutraSweet Company separate subsidiaries.

Aspartame accounts for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA. Many of these reactions are very serious, including seizures and death.

The alternative sweetener wars don’t end with the swaps of Stevia and Splenda.

The High Fructose Corn Syrup vs. natural sweetener debate is a popular topic on social media and in PTA meetings around the country. High Fructose Corn Syrup is once again being defended by Monsanto Chemical.

When consumed daily, High Fructose Corn Syrup causes little tears in the lining of the gut which allow small particles of undigested food into the bloodstream, creating chronic inflammation. This condition is known in the alternative health community as leaky gut syndrome (intestinal permeability). There are also groups who blame the obesity epidemic in the United States on High Fructose Corn Syrup.

High fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is a food ingredient that has become widely used as a cheaper replacement for natural sugar during the past 40 years. That 40 year time span has also seen skyrocketing incidence of obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic diseases. While as yet it has not been established that HFCS is the direct culprit, the circumstantial evidence is hard to overlook.

If Monsanto is so proud of what it has created in its toxic chemical plant for human consumption then why is High Fructose Corn Syrup going through a renaming process?

They want to call it just Fructose.

Remember this is not the innocuous fructose that has sweetened the fruits humans have eaten since time began.

Fructose will be the product name for High Fructose Corn Syrup-90.

HFCS-90, is sometimes used in natural and ‘light’ foods, where very little is needed to provide sweetness. Syrups with 90% fructose will not state high fructose corn syrup on the label anymore; they will state ‘fructose’ or ‘fructose syrup’.”

A study just published investigated the effects of various sugar solutions on lab rats. It found that the isolated fructose solution, as opposed to other sugars tested, resulted in a doubling of circulating triglycerides.

Another study published in late summer found that consumption of HFCS-55 negatively impacts hippocampal function, metabolic outcomes, and neuroinflammation when consumed in excess during the adolescent period of development.

Yet even more research published this year found higher-than-expected amounts of isolated fructose in beverages they tested. Popular drinks made with HFCS contain 50% more isolated fructose than glucose. They concluded that beverages made with HFCS have a sugar profile very different than sucrose (table sugar), in which fructose and glucose are equivalent and balanced. Additionally, this research team suggested that current dietary analyses may underestimate actual fructose consumption.

What is frightening is that even when you think you are avoiding it; it sneaks under the radar in a lot of condiments. Things like ketchup and barbecue sauces have hidden in their ingredients HFCS-90.

Two studies released in 2009 revealed HFCS, may contain mercury. One of the studies published in the journal, Environmental Health, found that almost half of 20 commercial HFCS samples tested contained mercury. The second report revealed that of 55 foods tested—including yogurts, salad dressings and condiments containing HFCS—about one-third had detectable mercury levels.

The corn industry is spending millions of dollars on campaigns directly targeting consumers to convince us that HFCS is safe.

Almost 100 percent of the corn crop in the U.S. is genetically modified; it’s likely that the HFCS is made from GMO corn. In simple terms, HFCS is synthetically made as well; it is sweeter than any other sugar and is a taste you wouldn’t find in nature.

That means your taste buds and your children’s taste buds are likely to adjust to chemical sweeteners and sweeter products, causing the potential for real, natural foods to taste bland. Now are you beginning to understand why Americans consume more sugar in their products than their European counterparts?

Ever wonder why the majority of Americans are suffering from morbid obesity and diabetes?

The USDA reports that the average American consumes anywhere between 150 to 170 pounds of sugars in one year!

Even if you are looking to tone down on the sugar intake

For every American who eats only 5 pounds of sugar each year, there is one who eats about 295 pounds per year.

Where does it hide?

It can be found in cake, candy, cookies, doughnuts and ice cream.

Oh, but you say you avoid these obvious “sugary” foods.

But think about how hard it is to avoid.

Things like barbecue sauces, breads, canned-fruits, crackers, frozen waffles, frozen dinners, hot dogs, ketchup, marinades, peanut butter, pickles, salad dressing, soup, and of course vegetables that include potatoes, porn and peas.

Think of the typical American meal. It is usually served with a meat, generous helpings of mashed potatoes, leveled with starch and fat in the gravy, served with a cob of corn or peas and a huge biscuit or dinner roll, served with an ice cold soda.

How much sugar is in that meal?

How about that High Fructose Corn Syrup and modified starches in your takeout pizza, or think of the burger meal that includes a bun made with flour, and HFCS. Topped with pickles that also hide HFCS, ketchup and special sauces made with HFCS. French fries made with GMO potatoes grown by J.R. Simplot, salted and boiled in fat and loaded with starch and another ice cold soft drink.

Anyone want to explain how American consumers do not think about the sugars they consume?

If Monsanto is saying that their product does not cause Obesity, they may be half right. The part they will not concede is how it has turned Americans into “sweetener” addicts and thus consume more sugar than they really need which is about 32 grams or 8 tsp per day.

Balance is key to everything.

Food now has to be seen in the same way drugs are taken. If you over do it with some drugs you will find yourself killing yourself slowly with the abuse of the prescription.

It is the food we eat and the dugs we consume that give us an excuse to become fatter, sexually inert and unhealthy. People take pills. Their bodies absorb some of the medication, but the rest of it passes through and is flushed down the toilet. The waste-water is treated before it is discharged into reservoirs, rivers or lakes. Then, some of the water is cleansed again at drinking water treatment plants and piped to consumers. But most treatments do not remove all drug residues. No matter what we do, whatever we consume, whatever pills we take we all seem to be failing.

There is one other disorder that this GMO tend has released and that is a strange eating disorder called “orthorexia nervosa.”

Orthorexia nervosa is not currently recognized as a clinical diagnosis in the DSM-5, but many people struggle with symptoms associated with this term.

Those who have an “unhealthy obsession” with otherwise healthy eating may be suffering from “orthorexia nervosa,” a term which literally means “fixation on righteous eating.” Orthorexia starts out as an innocent attempt to eat more healthfully, but orthorexics become fixated on food quality and purity. They become consumed with what and how much to eat, and how to deal with “slip-ups.” An iron-clad will is needed to maintain this rigid eating style. Every day is a chance to eat right, be “good,” rise above others in dietary prowess, and self-punish if temptation wins, usually through stricter eating, fasts and exercise. Self-esteem becomes wrapped up in the purity of orthorexics’ diet and they sometimes feel superior to others, especially in regard to food intake.

Orthorexics’ become so obsessed with food that they will read the labels of everything they eat. If there is something in the list that does not sound healthy the food is rejected.

Eventually food choices become so restrictive, in both variety and calories, that health suffers – an ironic twist for a person so completely dedicated to healthy eating. Eventually, the obsession with healthy eating can crowd out other activities and interests, impair relationships, and become physically dangerous.

Orthorexia appears to be motivated by health, but there are underlying motivations, which can include safety from poor health, compulsion for complete control, escape from fears, wanting to be thin, seeking to improve self-esteem, searching for spirituality through food, and using food to create an identity.

They say it begins with being overly concerned about food quality, namely food paranoia. Then everything you eat becomes suspect, and you begin to wonder if your food is killing you.

They say that we are what we eat, and it seems that what we eat is creating a whole new version of Toxic Shock, where we cannot trust what we are consuming.

Text – Check out Ground Zero Radio with Clyde Lewis Live Nightly @ http://www.groundzeromedia.org