The Story About Our Toxic Food System > Farm to Fork Infographic

 
The conventional food system today is heavily dependent on synthetic/toxic chemicals and additives that negatively impact our health and well-being. It is no surprise to any of us that the process of producing food by food producers and manufacturers is about their bottom line and NOT the health of the consumer. Read about our scary and toxic food system in this incredible Healthy Child Healthy World farm to fork infographic, which is one of the best we have ever seen.
 
Today, our food manufacturers add over 6,000 toxic additives and chemicals into our conventional food system. Many of these chemicals and additives are used to preserve our food in addition to flavouring, coloring, texture and improving yield for cheap food. What is scary about our toxic food system is that many of us don’t even know what happens between the farm and our table, which is what this Farm to Fork Infographic tries to inform you about. Do you know where your food comes from? Or what is in our toxic food system? You may be quite surprised! Today’s conventional toxic food system depends on the use of unhealthy and synthetic chemicals that pose direct threats to our health, especially in our children and the elderly. For children, their developing bodies are more vulnerable to these toxins, but from the higher level, the toxic chemicals negatively impact everyone’s health and life. Here are a small but shocking snapshot of the food system.
 

 

At the Farm > It’s NOT Local, It’s Called Business

 
Today, 80% (eighty per cent) of all food in the United States is supplied by massive factory farms, associated with a myriad of both environmental and health risks. Do you know what our animals are being fed at the farm? According to the latest Union of Concerned Scientists study, animals at these business factories are fed the following: same species meats, manure and other animal waste, diseased animals, feathers, hair, skin, hooves, blood, drugs and chemicals in addition to plastic! In our toxic food system in the United States, nearly 900 million pounds of toxic pesticides are applied to farms each year. Since the 1990’s, millions of tons of potentially harmful and toxic sewage sludge have been applied to the US farmland as food crop fertilizer. Yum. In addition, an estimated 13.5 million pounds of antibiotics – the same classes of antibiotics used in our own medicine and health care system – are routinely added to animal feed or water.

 

Chemicals Rule at the Factory Too

 
Here are some of the chemicals and toxic chemical treatments that are applied in our food supply chain at the factory before they even get to the market. To become white flour, wheat flour undergoes bleaching with chemicals such as oxide of nitrogen, chlorine, chloride and nitrosyl. Whole soybeans are drenched in hexane, a byproduct of the gasoline refining industry, to separate the soybean oil from protein that is used in various processed and unhealthy foods. Chemicals used to make plastic packaging, like phthalates and BPA sometimes migrate and seap into our food supply system. The Food and Drug Administration considers these migrants ‘indirect food additives’. No kidding! But remember, they do NOTHING about it and don’t regulate it! Nearly 6,000 additives and toxic chemicals are used by food companies to process and produce our food. To produce orange juice, whole oranges are placed in processing machines and are sprayed with various acids to improve fruit peel quality and increase juice yield. As well, more than 70% of all processed foods include genetically modified ingredients or GMOs.

 

Stick a Fork in It at the Table > The Consumer

 
Over 70% of all calories consumed by the average American comes from highly processed foods! And this is increasing at an alarming rate. The average American child also consumes more than 5 servings of pesticides every day just from their food and water. The average child in the US consumes 150 mg of artificial food coloring every day, an increase of five times since the 1950s.

 

What are US Children Eating? Take a look at the health risks associated with a child’s favorite foods.

 

Cereal = linked to cancer, ADHD, neurological toxicity and obesity
Banana = linked to cancer and reproductive toxicity
Cheese Burger = cancer, hormone disruption and neurodevelopmental deficits
Milk = cancer, neurodevelopmental deficits, hormone disruption and developmental toxicity
Crackers = cancer
French Fries = cancer
Soda = cancer, hormone disruption, obesity and reproductive/behavioural problems
Chips = cancer
Macaroni and Cheese = reproductive toxicity, obesity, neurological toxicity and immune system impacts
Cookies = cancer, reproductive toxicity, obesity, neurological toxicity and immune system impacts

 
Luckily there are many simple, affordable actions you can take to reduce your exposure to harmful chemicals found in foods. For more in depth advice and statistics, we recommend the eBook “Easy Steps to Eating Healthy & Safe Foods” at www.healthychild.org.

CONSUMER ALERT! 75% of Honey from Supermarkets Are NOT Real Honey!

Experts from the World Health Organization and the Food Safety News have released their latest large scale tests and analysis on US supermarket honey and the figures are scary! According to the latest studies by the Food Safety News, approximately seventy five per cent (yes, that’s 3/4) of ALL HONEY sold at US Supermarkets isn’t real honey after all.

The official definition of ‘real honey’ from the World Health Organization is: real honey MUST contain true microscopic particles of pollen (of course), to be considered real, with an identifiable source. Honey that is void of pollen is therefore, ‘artificial’ or not real honey at all. This artificial honey that is being sold at US grocery stores is watered down and void of most nutrients. According to the Food Safety News study, about 75% of all honey sold in US Supermarkets is ‘artificial’ and is ridiculously over processed, devoid of any nutritional value and sometimes imported and laundered from China and overseas! In many of these cases, the natural and real honey is over heated to high temperatures and high pressure. The real pollen and nutrients are thereby completely forced out of the honey before it is bottled for export to US supermarkets. This technique has been used for decades and is now of great concern. In some cases, the Chinese artificial honey has dangerous amounts of chemicals, antibiotics, preservatives, heavy metals and artificial sweeteners to make it look and taste like honey. However, it’s all artificial honey. If you would like to read more about the Food Safety News study on artificial honey in US grocery stores, please continue reading.

 

 

The Honey Investigation by The Food Safety News

Just Add Good Stuff is alarmed by the findings from The Food Safety news in regards to the artificial honey problem in US Supermarkets. The supply chain of honey has been contaminated forever, and it is up to us to make important and educated decisions on what types of honey are safe, and which are not for our families. The Food Safety News started investigating US grocery stores and ended up buying 60 different containers of honey from 10 US states. In addition, to further enlarge their scope of study, they also bought from a wide range of US supermarket chains. All of the containers of so called ‘natural honey’ were sent to Vaughn Bryant, a professor and melissopalynologist specialist at Texas A&M University.

The scary findings by Vaughn Bryant include these and many more:

Fact #1 > 100% (one hundred per cent) of Winnie the Pooh honey sold at Walmart stores had ALL POLLEN REMOVED. There was no trace of natural, nutrient pollen in this container of honey whatsoever. Be careful and eat at your own risk!

Fact #2 > 77% (seventy seven per cent) of various types of honey bought from Target, Sam’s Club and Costco (often referred to as ‘big box stores’) contained ZERO POLLEN. Again, just like the Walmart Winnie the Pooh honey, this product is ‘artificial’ and contains none of the natural nutrients that honey is known for.

Fact #3 > 100% (one hundred per cent) of McDonald’s and KFC honey packets contain NO POLLEN. Just like the above, these are all artificially manufactured honey, which means that the added chemicals, antibiotics and heavy metals are used to mimic what real honey should taste and look like. It’s not real honey whatsoever.

Fact #4 > 100% (one hundred per cent) of honey purchased from CVS Pharmacy and Walgreen’s (two trusted drug stores in the US) contained ZERO POLLEN yet again. All of the natural pollen had been filtered out and heated at extreme temperatures.

However, there was so glimpse of good news in the Vaughn Bryant/The Food Safety study:

Fact #5 > Local honey from Farmer’s Markets, Co-Ops and even Trader Joes contained the FULL AMOUNT OF ORIGINAL POLLEN. These were healthy, natural and organic honey that contained the full amount of nutritional value.

 

Add fuel to the fire, but we believe that the only reason why natural honey is filtered and heated is to hide where it came from. Both heating and filtering of natural honey costs a lot of money. Plus it diminishes the quality and nutrients of the honey.

Other interesting facts is that the United States as imported over 208 million pounds of honey from overseas in the past 18 months alone. The majority (over 60%) came from Asia… the most of that coming from China. However, the rest of the honey from Asia probably also came through China on its way to our shores and supermarkets. Further studies have shown that many of the imported honey is watered down and contains obscene levels of high fructose corn syrup in addition to lots of other heavy metals, chemicals and illegal sweeteners.

Not only are consumers misinformed about the origins of the artificial honey, but it is also detrimental to your health!

Therefore, in our conclusion, it is of utmost importance that you only purchase locally produced, non-GMO/organic honey. Natural honey in its unaltered, unheated and unfiltered state has many health benefits and is a great option to refined sugars.

 

 

Here are some of the sources for the facts and figures described in this article: The Food Safety News (www.foodsafetynews.com), Mother Earth News (www.motherearthnews.com) and Food Renegade (www.foodrenegade.com). Just Add Good Stuff originally learned about this honey problem through Natural News (www.naturalnews.com).