America the Munchausen Mama

Special feature on the dangers of GM foods and other household products you wouldn't expect; includes an audio version of this report.

Many have given their lives for the red white and blue; welcome to the battlefield in American foods. Courtesy: planetsave.com, partydavo.files.wordpress.com, momlogic.com, esquire.com, babble.com

(SALEM, Ore.) - The most important job in the world is being a mother. There is nothing more satisfying that raising a child, knowing that even though you’ve made mistakes, overall you did your best. You loved them, guided them and nurtured them into well adjusted adults.

It’s the job of a mother and I wouldn’t trade it for all the money in the world. I wouldn’t neglect that responsibility, put her safety in jeopardy or provide any sort of misguidance in sabotage of her development. I would never purposely lie to her or hurt her. You couldn’t pay me enough money. I would go to any extent to protect her, because that’s what a mama does for her children. It never changes, regardless of their age. At least that is the way it’s supposed to be.

I’ve learned in life, nothing is the way it’s supposed to be, nor is it what it seems.  It is foolish to believe that the world works that way. There are too many elements and control factors going on behind the scenes that we can’t possible have anything, but a limited concept of reality.

A child is a product of their environment. We become what we consume, both nutritionally and intellectually. We are a collective manifestation of our consumption habits. You’ve heard it before, you are what you eat. If Garbage in, then garbage out.

We are so busy and intentionally distracted keeping pace and surviving that we don’t take the time to reflect on the details, the ingredients, the ingredients that make up our food, as well as our daily lives.

Within the barrage of media stimulation we forget to think and act for ourselves. The line blurs and dulls the natural inclination to protect ourselves from harm.

Powerful, unseen forces are at work within the American food industry that are far beyond our control or conceptualization as individuals. We are nearly powerless to define it, much less confront it, lest we become overwhelmed and overtaken by the mere strength and convolution of it all.

Listen to the report: Audio Part One

It’s kind of how a child feels when it knows that it must submit to an excessively authoritarian parent. The best survival tactic, they soon learn, is to shut up and smile. Eventually they become complacent and unaware of just how entangled they are in the delusion of safety and false reality.

We, like our children, are in absolute danger of responding through the hand of complacency. America, like a mother, is accountable to the entire world through our righteous indignation in pursuit of global superiority.

Taking into account this inherent responsibility, I falsely imagined this concept would be diligently safeguarded by all means.

America has fallen short of expectations with regard to the length it will go to possess the almighty dollar in sacrifice of life and liberty of each and everyone of it’s citizen, and all of that pass by mother liberty for safe harbor.

America feeds the world and in a sense, she is the global mother. Until recently, she bore a proud past of agriculture and innovation, coupled with an absolute determination to build something great, something lasting.

Listen to the report: Audio Part Two

We have entrusted our safety to those that have other interests at heart. Profit is the heart of American industry, without concern for its casualties. Corporations are legally bound to their shareholders to attain the largest profits possible. That means they are continually looking for ways to cut corners, using the cheapest ingredients available. Buyer beware doesn’t even begin to cover it.

The food industry is a prime example of putting profit before humanity. Money is not more important than human life, not more important than the life of a child. You can call me naïve, you could say I don’t have any concept of the big picture. Sacrifices have to be made for the greater good. What is the greater good, if not in the best interest of our children?

The modern American child has no real notion of nutrition, much less a majority of adults.
 I thought I knew. I thought the fact that I was feeding her a well balanced diet, containing something from the fruit and veggie group, meat group, grain and dairy group meant I had it covered. Sure, I even read labels. I paid attention to salt and sugar content, fat content, and of course vitamins and minerals. Trans fats were avoided and calories were observed.

Like most Americans, I didn’t really read the ingredients, I didn’t know how to pronounce them, I figured they knew what they were doing. I trusted they wouldn’t put anything in there they wouldn’t eat themselves or feed their own families.

A mother who slowly poisons her child by adding minor amounts of chemicals to his/her food over a period of time is diagnosed with Munchausen syndrome. She is motivated by attention and America by the money. Think I’m reaching? Lets illustrate.

Bleached and Enriched Flour

In Modern Bread, The Broken Staff of Life, Dr. Elmer Cranton M.D., graduate of Harvard Medical School, exposed the flour bleaching process. He explains that flour is treated with a “chemical bleach, similar to Clorox to make bread a brighter white”. “The bleaching process leaves residues of toxic chlorinated hydrocarbons and dioxins.” “That toxic residue causes nervousness and seizures in animals.”

His article points out that experiments reported in a major British medical journal, The Lancet, showed that “dogs fed exclusively on white bread died of malnutrition within two months. Dogs similarly fed only bread made with stone-ground, whole-wheat flour lived indefinitely in good health“.

Dr. Cranton says that when grain is made into refined white flour, more than 30 essential nutrients are largely removed. Only four nutrients are added back in a process called "enrichment." He says, “using this same logic, if a person were robbed of 30 dollars and the thief then returned 4 dollars to his victim for cab fare home, then that person should be considered "enriched" by 4 dollars, not robbed of 26 dollars.”

In addition, Dr. Cranston reports that only vitamins B1, B2, B3, and the iron are added back. Nutrients which are removed and not returned, include 44% of the vitamin E, 52% of the pantothenic acid, 65% of the folic acid, 76% of the biotin, 84% of the vitamin B6, and half or more of 20 minerals and trace elements, including magnesium, calcium, zinc, chromium, manganese, selenium, vanadium, and copper. [1]

If you dig deeper you’ll find that Alloxan is one of the main active ingredients used in the flour bleaching process. Scientists have known for years that alloxan causes diabetes; in fact, they feed in to lab animals to give them diabetes in order to test the drug.  How does alloxan cause diabetes? Dr. Hari Sharma's Freedom from Disease, explains how alloxan causes diabetes. “The uric acid derivative initiates free radical damage to DNA in the beta cells of the pancreas causing the cells to malfunction and die.”[2]

Bisphenol A

On January 16th, 2010 both the National Toxicology Program at the National Institutes of Health and the FDA announced they “have some concern about the potential effects of Bisphenol A on the brain, behavior, and prostate gland in fetuses, infants, and young children.”

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an industrial chemical that has been present in many hard plastic bottles and aluminum food and beverage cans since the 1960’s.

BPA is also a synthetic estrogen and notable endocrine disrupter. That’s right, gentlemen. Tell me how do you feel about being force fed female sex hormones? It’s in all of your canned food products at varying levels, with the limited exception of Eden Foods and few other obscure brands.

Dr. Fred Vom Saal, Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri, released a study reporting that BPA exposure alters the way your cells function at extremely low exposure levels. It damages the male reproductive system, causes brain damage, prostrate cancer and breast cancer.

He measured BPA levels in several popular canned food products including tuna, tomato sauce and peas. Food was removed and the cans were filled with ultra purified water and allowed to sit for 24 hours. The ‘canned’ water was then added to human breast cancer cells causing rapid cell reproduction.[2] (watch video below)

Lisa Frack, a concerned mother, testified in favor of SB 1032 before of the Oregon State Senate. It would have phased out BPA from all reusable food and beverage containers intended for children under 3, including baby bottles and sippy cups. BPA from formula cans and baby food jars would have also been phased out.

Lisa’s testimony reminded us that the FDA assigned the very same level of concern to fetal exposure to amphetamines as they have to Bisphenol A”. The Oregon Legislature did not pass Senate Bill 1032 .

Revenue from BPA based products is estimated to be over $700,000 per hour. [5]

Money, money, money...

High Fructose Corn Syrup

Mercury is used to separate the corn from the corn starch to make High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).

In January 2009, The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy released a study finding 50 percent of tested popular food products were positive for mercury contamination from HFCS, according to a study in the scientific journal, Environmental Health.

A separate study was also issued earlier by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) detecting mercury in nearly one-third of 55 popular brand name products. They looked at food and beverage products where High Fructose Corn Syrup is the first or second highest labeled ingredient—including products by Quaker, Hershey’s, Kraft and Smucker’s. [6]

High fructose corn syrup is used as a sweetener in beverages and foods such as breads, cereals, breakfast bars, lunch meats, yogurts, soups and condiments. On average, it is estimated that Americans consume about 45 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup per year.

"Mercury is toxic in all its forms. Given how much high-fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered.” [7]

Seventeen of the fifty-five products tested contained more than detectable levels of mercury.

Those products were:

• Quaker Oatmeal to Go bars
• Jack Daniel's Barbecue Sauce
• Hershey's Chocolate Syrup
• Kraft Original Barbecue Sauce
• Nutri-Grain Strawberry Cereal Bars
• Manwich Gold Sloppy Joe
• Market Pantry Grape Jelly
• Smucker's Strawberry Jelly
• Pop-Tarts Frosted Blueberry
• Hunt's Tomato Ketchup
• Wish-Bone Western Sweet & Smooth Dressing
• Coca-Cola Classic: no mercury found on a second test
• Yoplait Strawberry Yogurt
• Minute Maid Berry Punch
• Yoo-hoo Chocolate Drink
• Nesquik Chocolate Milk
• Kemps Fat Free Chocolate Milk

Genetically Modified Foods

An estimated 75 to 80 percent of our processed foods contain some form of genetically modified (GM) ingredients. Many GMs are in the form of  inorganic sugar, corn and soy. Organic standards prohibit GMO contamination.

Many consumers don’t understand the process used to develop genetically modified crops.  It involves a careful re-configuration of genes combining e-coli bacteria, soil bacteria and in many cases the cauliflower mosaic virus that causes tumors in plants. They add an antibiotic gene and then artificially force the new genetic combination into plant cells using several gene invasion techniques.[9] (watch video below)

The cells of the bacteria and virus combine and invade the cells of the plant to the point that our food can now be referred to as transgenic.

The seeds are designed to be Round Up Ready and now the same company that produces the pesticide, also produces the seed. Some crops even produce their own insecticide, in fact, bt corn, produces a bacterial toxin. The corn itself is actually registered as an insecticide.

In the documentary ‘Seeds of Deception’ we see then Vice President George Bush Sr. on a field trip to the Monsanto plant. Earnestly, he splices a few genes and then, Monsanto executives complain about difficulties getting around FDA regulation, so Bush advises them to call him because “we’re in the de-reg business”.

Later George becomes president and we see his Vice President, Dan Quayle announcing that there would be no regulation of Genetically Modified Foods outside the normal over-site received by other products.

FDA scientists were outraged, pointing out the lack of testing and serious health effects reported in lab animals. So George hired Monsanto’s Sr. Attorney and created a position for him within the FDA. Now GMs are categorized as “Generally Recognized As Safe” and “substantially equivalent to other foods”, so they require no testing or labeling.

Animal studies reported that GM foods caused stunted growth, impaired immune systems, bleeding stomachs, abnormal and potentially pre-cancerous cell growth in the intestines, impaired blood cell development, misshaped cell structures in the liver, pancreas and testicles, altered gene expression and cell metabolism, liver and kidney lesions, partially atrophied livers, inflamed kidneys, less developed organs, reduced digestive enzymes, higher blood sugar, inflamed lung tissue, increased death rates and higher offspring mortality as well.[10]

Twenty-five countries require labeling of GM food, including all 15 countries of the European Union. The ‘GE Right To Know Act’ has yet to decided upon by Congress. [11]

Transparency, hope and change somehow escaped Obama’s mind in support of a worldwide ban on the labeling of GMs.  In February, he appointed Islam Diddiqui (former Monsanto lobbyist) as chief agricultural negotiator.

Now, USDA and FDA released a position paper opposing labeling for genetically modified food. The U.S. claims that letting consumers know whether or not GM/GE products are contained in food is “false, misleading, or deceptive.”

Have our regulatory agencies sold us out to corporate America, allowing them to experiment on us and our children and the entire planet via our food?

I see it worse than a bad plotted science fiction movie, that appears to be slowing destroying all real creation with little drops of poison and mutant organisms. But maybe I’ve watched too much T.V. Nevertheless, organic food is looking better than ever. Cost and all.

By all means, considering all of this is just a drop in the bucket, if we as a nation continue to feed our children like we do,  might we conclude Munchausen syndrome?

See the Non- GMO Shopping Guide - from Center For Food Safety and The Institute for Responsible Technology http://www.nongmoshoppingguide.com.


References:
^[1] Dr. Elmer Cranton - Modern Bread, The Broken Staff of Life
^[2] Natural News - Alloxan
^[3] FDA
^[4] Dr. Fred Vom Saal, Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri on Fox News Video
^[5] Bisphenol A - Political Hell Freezes Over - April Scott
^[6] US News and World Report - High Fructose Corn Syrup Jan. 2009
^[8] Web MD - Mercury in High Fructose Corn Syrup
^[9] What is Genetically Modified Food
^[10] While We Were Sleeping…GM Food and the Brink of No Return - April Scott
^[11] “The Future of Food” - Full Length Documentary

Some of April Scott's past reports on this subject:
May-20-2010: Protesters Block Monsanto in the Netherlands - Demanding End to GMOs - April Scott Salem-News.com
Mar-01-2010: While We Were Sleeping... GM Food and the Brink of No Return - April Scott Salem-News.com
Apr-26-2010: GM Food... Feeding the Hungry or Population Control?April Scott Salem-News.com
Mar-06-2010: Giving Away the Farm... Sugar Beet Farmers Await Federal Decision on GM CropsApril Scott Salem-News.com
Feb-11-2010: India Says No to Cultivation of Genetically Modified Eggplant - April Scott Salem-News.com

In 2002 she worked as a copywriter and online editor for KATU News (Portland). She is dedicated to sharing her knowledge and experience, and hopes that by educating people about the chemical content in our modern food supply, they will become smarter consumers.