April 23, 2015 general

There is now a lot of empty space on grocery store shelves where the Blue Bell ice cream used to be. That is a bit sad for those of us for whom this brand was our favorite cheat. But, infinitely sadder is that families lost loved ones because of a disease attributed to Listeria bacteria in the ice cream. Listeria bacteria are the third-leading cause of deaths from food contamination. It is a bit of a puzzle how it came to contaminate the creamery since pasteurization is supposed to kill listeria and presumably Blue Bell would have made its ice cream from pasteurized milk.

The ultimate source of the various pathogens that affect our food supply is less mysterious. Campylobacter, Listeria, Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli are found in food products largely because of the farming and processing practices used by giant agribusiness. Animals are raised in unhealthy conditions and therefore become good homes for the bad bacteria. (Interestingly, cows fed on grass even for a couple of weeks are much less prone to harbor these bacteria.) You can’t even avoid the problem by becoming a vegetarian because manure from these animals is used as fertilizer and the farm runoff can also contaminate vegetable crops. Those problems are compounded by government inspections of producers, processors and manufacturers which are already inadequate and getting worse. (I discuss many of these problems in my upcoming book on probiotics.)

Animals are given antibiotics to fatten them and to prevent diseases that they might get from crowding. Antibiotics are even sprayed on plant crops. In both cases, these drugs create antibiotic-resistant strains and kill good bacteria that might otherwise later protect us. That brings me to an important point about humans.

Food contamination causes 3,000 deaths each year in the US. It is always reported in instances of these food-borne illnesses (just like with epidemics of contagious diseases) that those most affected are those who have weakened immune systems. Obviously, we should work on ours. One important part of that is to strengthen our probiotics because 70+ % of our immune system is in the gut! Also, those who block stomach acid with drugs for heartburn are removing their first line of defense.

The government should also be more concerned about another longer term food-borne threat: Genetically Modified Organisms—GMO crops. (This is another topic that I cover in my new book which I hope it will be out soon). There is growing evidence that these crops (mainly corn, soy, canola and sugar beets so far) are harmful as well as the herbicides typically used in conjunction with them. Learn more at NonGMOProject.org.

Unfortunately, there is such big money behind GMO’s that it is a battle to even get GMO products properly labeled. Join the fight. JustLabelIt.org is one effort. Food safety — ice cream to GMO’s, it is up to us. You can help by expressing your opinion to your elected officials. It is easy—just click the applicable links below to read a summary of the issue, look at the bill and/or just enter your zip code to take action:

Federal – Take action here. Read the bill here. This is a very bad bill that would override state’s rights to require labeling.
Alaska –  Listen to a hearing here.  Read the bill here.  Take action here.
Arizona –  Take action here. Read the bill here.  
Connecticut – Take action here.  Read the bill here.  
Florida – Take action here. Read the bill here.  
Hawaii – Take action here. Read the bill(s) here.  
Illinois – Take action here. Read the bill here.
Indiana – Take action here. Read the bill(s) here.  
Maine – Take action here. Read the bill here. A public hearing on the bill is scheduled for Thursday, April 30 at 12pm in Cross Building Room 214.   
Minnesota – Take action here. Read the bill(s) here.  
Missouri –  Take action here. Read the bill here.  
New York – Take action here. Read the bill(s) here.  
Oklahoma – Take action here. Read the bill(s) here.  
Oregon –  Take action here. Read the bill(s) here.  
TEXAS– Take action here. Read the bill here.  

Thanks to the National Health Freedom Coalition for this handy information and the work they do. And thank you, Dr. Oz for taking the risk to take a stand.