The Kucinich Surprise
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Athletes Eat Plant-Based Diet for Health, Longevity and Environmental Concerns
http://www.NaturalNews.com/z028056_plant-based_diet_athletes.html
January 30 2010
by M.Thornley, citizen journalist
(NaturalNews) Vegan athletes are finding plant foods a source for renewed energy and achievement, and are proving, against the traditional wisdom favoring meat consumption, that a vegan diet will support competitive athletic performance. Three vegan star performers are Tony Gonzalez, a tight-end football player, Mac Danzig, a martial arts fighter and Brendan Brazier, a tri-athlete. Reasons these athletes gave for switching to a vegan diet were health and ethical issues related to meat consumption, long term health maintenance, and concern for the environment.
In an article titled "The 127 Lb Vegan," January 25, 2008, writer Reed Albergotti chronicles the odyssey of Tony Gonzalez of the Kansas City Chiefs, who switched to eating vegan after suffering a bout with Bell's palsy. Many doctors advise a vegetarian diet to combat this disorder. Gonzalez at age 31 was also concerned about shortened life span among athletes.
Prior to his brush with disease, Gonzalez had subscribed to the conventional wisdom about athletic performance. He ate steak, drank a gallon of milk a day, and loved macaroni and cheese. In ten seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs, Gonzalez established himself as the best tight end in the league. When he decided to become vegan, he worried that a vegan diet would not sustain his athletic performance. Under advice from a vegan strength coach, Gonzalez learned to prepare protein drinks, select fish oils and eat breads dense with whole grains, nuts and seeds to maintain his weight and strength. In his 11th season Gonzalez made 99 catches, and a nagging foot condition cleared up. He found renewed energy and stamina.
Like Gonzalez, Mac Danzig, a martial arts fighter, had encountered problems such as vertigo and ear infections. He discontinued milk and milk products, then gave up eating mammals and then poultry and fish in 2004, and eventually became vegan. Danzig says his diet improved his recovery from workouts while retaining his competitive edge. When questioned about his motives, Danzig, who is a nature enthusiast, cites environmental concerns.
Brendan Brazier is a vegan triathlete from Vancouver, Canada, who describes himself as 80% raw. He became vegetarian in 1990, and in 1998, a strict vegan. Since information on how to become a successful vegan athlete is not widely available, Brazier used trial and error. He noted that when he consumed highly processed protein isolate powders, he experienced muscle stiffness and joint pain. When he began to eat all raw, natural, alkalizing foods his recovery time improved, and his stiffness and pain faded.
Brazier is the author of "The Thrive Diet," and is a world recognized authority on plant-based nutrition. In 2006, Brazier won the National 50km Ultramarathon Championship, setting a new record. Brazier holds an impressive record of other triumphs. He credits his vegan diet to improved sleep and endurance. Brazier is a sought-after speaker who promotes environmental awareness, an interest also shared by Gonzalez and Danzig.
January 30 2010
by M.Thornley, citizen journalist
(NaturalNews) Vegan athletes are finding plant foods a source for renewed energy and achievement, and are proving, against the traditional wisdom favoring meat consumption, that a vegan diet will support competitive athletic performance. Three vegan star performers are Tony Gonzalez, a tight-end football player, Mac Danzig, a martial arts fighter and Brendan Brazier, a tri-athlete. Reasons these athletes gave for switching to a vegan diet were health and ethical issues related to meat consumption, long term health maintenance, and concern for the environment.
In an article titled "The 127 Lb Vegan," January 25, 2008, writer Reed Albergotti chronicles the odyssey of Tony Gonzalez of the Kansas City Chiefs, who switched to eating vegan after suffering a bout with Bell's palsy. Many doctors advise a vegetarian diet to combat this disorder. Gonzalez at age 31 was also concerned about shortened life span among athletes.
Prior to his brush with disease, Gonzalez had subscribed to the conventional wisdom about athletic performance. He ate steak, drank a gallon of milk a day, and loved macaroni and cheese. In ten seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs, Gonzalez established himself as the best tight end in the league. When he decided to become vegan, he worried that a vegan diet would not sustain his athletic performance. Under advice from a vegan strength coach, Gonzalez learned to prepare protein drinks, select fish oils and eat breads dense with whole grains, nuts and seeds to maintain his weight and strength. In his 11th season Gonzalez made 99 catches, and a nagging foot condition cleared up. He found renewed energy and stamina.
Like Gonzalez, Mac Danzig, a martial arts fighter, had encountered problems such as vertigo and ear infections. He discontinued milk and milk products, then gave up eating mammals and then poultry and fish in 2004, and eventually became vegan. Danzig says his diet improved his recovery from workouts while retaining his competitive edge. When questioned about his motives, Danzig, who is a nature enthusiast, cites environmental concerns.
Brendan Brazier is a vegan triathlete from Vancouver, Canada, who describes himself as 80% raw. He became vegetarian in 1990, and in 1998, a strict vegan. Since information on how to become a successful vegan athlete is not widely available, Brazier used trial and error. He noted that when he consumed highly processed protein isolate powders, he experienced muscle stiffness and joint pain. When he began to eat all raw, natural, alkalizing foods his recovery time improved, and his stiffness and pain faded.
Brazier is the author of "The Thrive Diet," and is a world recognized authority on plant-based nutrition. In 2006, Brazier won the National 50km Ultramarathon Championship, setting a new record. Brazier holds an impressive record of other triumphs. He credits his vegan diet to improved sleep and endurance. Brazier is a sought-after speaker who promotes environmental awareness, an interest also shared by Gonzalez and Danzig.
Friday, January 15, 2010
How Factory Farms Are Pumping Americans Full of Deadly Bacteria and Pathogens
By Kathy Freston, AlterNet
Posted on January 13, 2010, Printed on January 15, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/145068/
After reading www.BirdFluBook.org, by Dr. Michael Greger, I was stunned to realize the extent to which we have endangered our health by allowing factory farms to flourish and produce 99 percent of the meat, dairy and eggs we eat. Not only are dangerous flu viruses mutating because of these concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), but we are also being exposed to some other very serious bacteria and pathogens. Things have gotten out of hand in our food production, especially in the livestock sector.
In Part I of my interview with Dr. Greger, he explained the growing potential of deadly flu viruses. In Part 2 of the interview, we discuss E. coli, salmonella and other worrisome pathogens.
Kathy Freston: Where does E. coli come from and how does it get into food? Why is it often found on vegetables?
Michael Greger: E. coli is an intestinal pathogen. It only gets in the food if fecal matter gets in the food. Since plants don’t have intestines, all E. coli infections—in fact all food poisoning—comes from animals. When’s the last time you heard of a person getting Dutch elm disease or a really bad case of aphids? People don’t get plant diseases; they get animal diseases. The problem is that because of the number of animals raised today, a billion tons of manure are produced every year in the United States—the weight of 10,000 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers. Dairy cow and pig factories often dump millions of gallons of putrefying waste into massive open-air cesspits, which can leak and contaminate water used to irrigate our crops. That’s how a deadly fecal pathogen like E. coli O157:H7 can end up contaminating our spinach. So regardless of what we eat, we all need to fight against the expansion of factory farming in our communities, our nation and around the world.
KF: What percentage of the population gets hit by the bacteria? How many of them die? Could that number increase?
MG: While E. coli O157:H7 remains the leading cause of acute kidney failure in U.S. children, fewer than 100,000 Americans get infected every year, and fewer than 100 die. But millions get infected with other types of E. coli that can cause urinary tract infections (UTIs) that can invade the bloodstream and cause an estimated 36,000 deaths annually in the United States.
KF: We only occasionally hear of the very few fatal E. coli cases; is it really a widespread problem?
MG: When medical researchers at the University of Minnesota took more than 1,000 food samples from multiple retail markets, they found evidence of fecal contamination in 69 percent of the pork and beef and 92 percent of the poultry samples. Nine out of 10 chicken carcasses in the store may be contaminated with fecal matter. And half of the poultry samples were contaminated with the UTI-causing E. coli bacteria.
Scientists now suspect that by eating chicken, women infect their lower intestinal tract with these meat-borne bacteria, which can then creep up into their bladders. Hygiene measures to prevent UTIs have traditionally included wiping from front to back after bowel movements and urinating after intercourse to flush out any invaders, but now women can add poultry avoidance as a way to help prevent urinary tract infections.
KF: Are there any long-term problems for people who ingest E. coli and have a bad day or two with diarrhea, or is the problem over once out of the system?
MG: Last month the Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention released a report on the long-term consequences of common causes of food poisoning. Life-long complications of E. coli O157:H7 infection include end-stage kidney disease, permanent brain damage and insulin-dependent diabetes.
KF: Is E. coli a problem if the meat is cooked?
MG: With the exception of prions, the infectious agents responsible for mad cow disease and the human equivalent—which can survive even incineration at temperatures hot enough to melt lead—all viral, fungal and bacterial pathogens in our food supply can be killed by proper cooking. Why then do tens of millions of Americans come down with food poisoning every year? Cross-contamination is thought to account for the bulk of infections. For example, chicken carcasses are so covered in bacteria that researchers at the University of Arizona found more fecal bacteria in the kitchen—on sponges and dish towels, and in the sink drain—than they found swabbing the toilet. In a meat-eater’s house it may be safer to lick the rim of the toilet seat than the kitchen countertop, because people aren’t preparing chickens in their toilets. Chicken "juice" is essentially raw fecal soup.
KF: What goes on inside the body when a human ingests E. coli?
MG: Depending on the strain, the number of bacteria ingested, and the immune status of the victim it can fail to cause any disease at all, or in the worst cases, cause multi-system organ failure. Here’s how one mother described what E. coli O157:H7 did to her 3-year-old daughter Brianna:
The pain during the first 80 hours was horrific, with intense abdominal cramping every 10 to 12 minutes. Her intestines swelled to three times their normal size and she was placed on a ventilator. Emergency surgery became essential and her colon was removed. After further surgery, doctors decided to leave the incision open, from sternum to pubis, to allow Brianna’s swollen organs room to expand and prevent them from ripping her skin. Her heart was so swollen it was like a sponge and bled from every pore. Her liver and pancreas shut down and she was gripped by thousands of convulsions, which caused blood clots in her eyes. We were told she was brain-dead.
KF: What a horror. Why is it deadly for some and not others?
MG: We think it has to do with the virulence of the bacteria—some strains are deadlier than others—and the vulnerability of the host. We’re not sure why children under 5 years of age are at the highest risk for dangerous complications, but that is certainly a finding that has been consistent.
KF: Is factory-farmed meat more likely to get E. coli out into the market, or is all meat (even free range) carrying that potential?
MG: In chickens, these bacteria cause a disease called colibacillosis, now one of the most significant and widespread infectious diseases in the poultry industry due to the way we now raise these animals. Studies have shown infection risk to be directly linked to overcrowding on factory chicken farms. In caged egg-laying hens, the most significant risk factor for flock infection is hen density per cage. Researchers have calculated that affording just a single quart of additional living space to each hen would be associated with a corresponding 33 percent drop in the risk of colibacillosis outbreak. This is one of the reasons many efforts to improve the lives of farmed animals is critical not only for animal welfare, but for the health of humans and animals alike.
In terms of other infections like Campylobacter, the most common cause of bacterial food poisoning in the United States, Consumer Reports published an analysis of retail chicken in its January 2010 issue. The majority of store-bought chickens were contaminated with Campylobacter, which can trigger arthritis, heart and blood infections, and a condition called Guillain-Barré syndrome that can leave people permanently disabled and paralyzed. Comparing store brands, 59 percent of the conventional factory-farmed chickens were contaminated, compared to 57 percent of chickens raised organically. So there might be a marginal difference, but the best strategy may be to avoid meat completely. With the virtual elimination of polio, the most common cause of neuromuscular paralysis in the United States now comes from eating chicken.
KF: What about salmonella? Is it really a big deal, or is it just a matter of an upset stomach?
MG: Salmonella kills more Americans than any other food-borne illness. There is an epidemic of egg-borne food poisoning every year in the United States. To this day, more than 100,000 Americans are sickened annually by salmonella-infected eggs.
KF: Do we have more salmonella now than we did 25 or 50 years ago? If so, why?
MG: There was a time when our grandparents could drink eggnog and children could eat raw cookie dough without fear of joining the thousands of Americans hospitalized with salmonella infections every year. Before the industrialization of egg production, salmonella only sickened a few hundred Americans every year and Salmonella enteritidis was not found in eggs at all. By the beginning of the 21st century, however, Salmonella enteritidis-contaminated eggs were sickening an estimated 182,000 Americans annually.
There are many industrial practices that contribute to the alarming rates of this disease. Most eggs come from hens confined in battery cages, small barren wire enclosures affording these animals less living space than a single sheet of letter-sized paper for virtually their entire one- to two-year lifespan. Salmonella-contaminated battery cage operations in the United States confine an average of more than 100,000 hens in a single shed. The massive volume of contaminated airborne fecal dust in such a facility rapidly accelerates the spread of infection.
Factory farming practices also led to the spread of salmonella around the world. Just as the feeding of dead animals to live ones triggered the mad cow crisis, this same practice has also been implicated in the global spread of salmonella. Once egg production wanes, hens may be ground up and rendered into what is called “spent hen meal,” and then fed to other hens. More than half of the feed samples for farmed birds containing slaughter-plant waste tested by the FDA were found contaminated with salmonella. CDC researchers have estimated that more than a million cases of salmonella poisoning in Americans can be directly tied to feed containing animal byproducts.
KF: What happens to the body when salmonella gets into the system?
MG: Within 12 to 72 hours of infection the fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps start. If the victim is lucky it’s over within a week. If not, the bacteria can burrow through the intestinal wall and infect the bloodstream, seeding its way to other organs, including the heart, bones and brain.
KF: Are there any long-term consequences from exposure?
MG: Thanks to salmonella infection one breakfast omelet can now trigger persistent irritable bowel syndrome and what’s called reactive arthritis, which can become a debilitating lifelong condition of swollen painful joints. Because salmonella can infect the ovaries of hens, eggs from infected birds can be laid prepackaged with the bacteria inside. According to research funded by the American Egg Board, salmonella can survive sunny-side-up, over-easy and scrambled egg cooking methods.
KF: Would free-range meat or eggs make a difference in preventing it?
MG: There is evidence that eggs from cage-free hens pose less of a threat. In the largest study of its kind (analyzing more than 30,000 samples taken from more than 5,000 operations across two dozen countries in Europe) cage-free barns had about 40 percent lower odds of harboring the egg-related strain of salmonella.
KF: Can we get salmonella just from touching something tainted?
MG: Absolutely. In fact the infective dose for salmonella is as few 15-20 bacteria, and a single egg can be infected with hundreds. It’s important to understand where the egg comes out. Eggs emerge from the hen’s vent, which is kind of a joint opening for both her vagina and anus, which explains the level of fecal contamination one can find on eggs.
KF: Is it contagious?
MG: Person-to-person transmission of salmonella can occur when an infected person's feces, unwashed from his or her hands, contaminates food during preparation or comes into direct contact with another person.
KF: Who is most at risk for serious illness or even death?
MG: More than half of all reported salmonella infections occur in children, who are especially susceptible to serious complications. Elderly and immunocompromised adults are also particularly vulnerable. In the United States, though, some strains of salmonella are growing dangerously resistant to up to six major classes of antibiotics, due in large part to the irresponsible factory farming practice of feeding millions of pounds of antibiotics to animals every year as a crutch to combat the stressful and overcrowded conditions of intensive animal agriculture systems. This puts everyone at risk.
KF: What is the overall solution to prevent these dangerous pathogens and bacteria?
MG: Over the last few decades new animal-to-human infectious diseases have emerged at an unprecedented rate. According to the World Health Organization, the increasing global demand for animal protein is a key underlying factor.
Swine flu is not the only deadly human disease traced to factory farming practices. The meat industry took natural herbivores like cows and sheep, and turned them into carnivores and cannibals by feeding them slaughterhouse waste, blood and manure. Then they fed people “downer” animals—those too sick to even walk. Now the world has mad cow disease.
In 2005 the world’s largest and deadliest outbreak of a pathogen called Strep. suis emerged, causing meningitis and deafness in people handling infected pork products. Experts blamed the emergence on factory farming practices. Pig factories in Malaysia birthed the Nipah virus, one of the deadliest of human pathogens, a contagious respiratory disease causing relapsing brain infections and killing 40 percent of people infected. Its emergence was likewise blamed squarely on factory farming.
The pork industry in the U.S. feeds pigs millions of pounds of human antibiotics every year just to promote growth in such a stressful, unhygienic environment, and now there are these multi-drug-resistant bacteria and we as physicians are running out of good antibiotic options. As the UK’s chief medical officer put it in his 2009 annual report, "Every inappropriate use of antibiotics in agriculture is a potential death warrant for a future patient."
In the short term we need to put an end to the riskiest practices, such as extreme confinement—gestation crates and battery cages—and the non-therapeutic feeding of antibiotics. We have to follow the advice of the American Public Health Association to declare a moratorium on factory farms and eventually phase them out completely. How we treat animals can have global public health implications.
KF: Sounds like part of the solution is to gravitate toward a vegetarian diet. Check out One Bite At a Time for information on how to do it.
Posted on January 13, 2010, Printed on January 15, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/145068/
After reading www.BirdFluBook.org, by Dr. Michael Greger, I was stunned to realize the extent to which we have endangered our health by allowing factory farms to flourish and produce 99 percent of the meat, dairy and eggs we eat. Not only are dangerous flu viruses mutating because of these concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), but we are also being exposed to some other very serious bacteria and pathogens. Things have gotten out of hand in our food production, especially in the livestock sector.
In Part I of my interview with Dr. Greger, he explained the growing potential of deadly flu viruses. In Part 2 of the interview, we discuss E. coli, salmonella and other worrisome pathogens.
Kathy Freston: Where does E. coli come from and how does it get into food? Why is it often found on vegetables?
Michael Greger: E. coli is an intestinal pathogen. It only gets in the food if fecal matter gets in the food. Since plants don’t have intestines, all E. coli infections—in fact all food poisoning—comes from animals. When’s the last time you heard of a person getting Dutch elm disease or a really bad case of aphids? People don’t get plant diseases; they get animal diseases. The problem is that because of the number of animals raised today, a billion tons of manure are produced every year in the United States—the weight of 10,000 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers. Dairy cow and pig factories often dump millions of gallons of putrefying waste into massive open-air cesspits, which can leak and contaminate water used to irrigate our crops. That’s how a deadly fecal pathogen like E. coli O157:H7 can end up contaminating our spinach. So regardless of what we eat, we all need to fight against the expansion of factory farming in our communities, our nation and around the world.
KF: What percentage of the population gets hit by the bacteria? How many of them die? Could that number increase?
MG: While E. coli O157:H7 remains the leading cause of acute kidney failure in U.S. children, fewer than 100,000 Americans get infected every year, and fewer than 100 die. But millions get infected with other types of E. coli that can cause urinary tract infections (UTIs) that can invade the bloodstream and cause an estimated 36,000 deaths annually in the United States.
KF: We only occasionally hear of the very few fatal E. coli cases; is it really a widespread problem?
MG: When medical researchers at the University of Minnesota took more than 1,000 food samples from multiple retail markets, they found evidence of fecal contamination in 69 percent of the pork and beef and 92 percent of the poultry samples. Nine out of 10 chicken carcasses in the store may be contaminated with fecal matter. And half of the poultry samples were contaminated with the UTI-causing E. coli bacteria.
Scientists now suspect that by eating chicken, women infect their lower intestinal tract with these meat-borne bacteria, which can then creep up into their bladders. Hygiene measures to prevent UTIs have traditionally included wiping from front to back after bowel movements and urinating after intercourse to flush out any invaders, but now women can add poultry avoidance as a way to help prevent urinary tract infections.
KF: Are there any long-term problems for people who ingest E. coli and have a bad day or two with diarrhea, or is the problem over once out of the system?
MG: Last month the Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention released a report on the long-term consequences of common causes of food poisoning. Life-long complications of E. coli O157:H7 infection include end-stage kidney disease, permanent brain damage and insulin-dependent diabetes.
KF: Is E. coli a problem if the meat is cooked?
MG: With the exception of prions, the infectious agents responsible for mad cow disease and the human equivalent—which can survive even incineration at temperatures hot enough to melt lead—all viral, fungal and bacterial pathogens in our food supply can be killed by proper cooking. Why then do tens of millions of Americans come down with food poisoning every year? Cross-contamination is thought to account for the bulk of infections. For example, chicken carcasses are so covered in bacteria that researchers at the University of Arizona found more fecal bacteria in the kitchen—on sponges and dish towels, and in the sink drain—than they found swabbing the toilet. In a meat-eater’s house it may be safer to lick the rim of the toilet seat than the kitchen countertop, because people aren’t preparing chickens in their toilets. Chicken "juice" is essentially raw fecal soup.
KF: What goes on inside the body when a human ingests E. coli?
MG: Depending on the strain, the number of bacteria ingested, and the immune status of the victim it can fail to cause any disease at all, or in the worst cases, cause multi-system organ failure. Here’s how one mother described what E. coli O157:H7 did to her 3-year-old daughter Brianna:
The pain during the first 80 hours was horrific, with intense abdominal cramping every 10 to 12 minutes. Her intestines swelled to three times their normal size and she was placed on a ventilator. Emergency surgery became essential and her colon was removed. After further surgery, doctors decided to leave the incision open, from sternum to pubis, to allow Brianna’s swollen organs room to expand and prevent them from ripping her skin. Her heart was so swollen it was like a sponge and bled from every pore. Her liver and pancreas shut down and she was gripped by thousands of convulsions, which caused blood clots in her eyes. We were told she was brain-dead.
KF: What a horror. Why is it deadly for some and not others?
MG: We think it has to do with the virulence of the bacteria—some strains are deadlier than others—and the vulnerability of the host. We’re not sure why children under 5 years of age are at the highest risk for dangerous complications, but that is certainly a finding that has been consistent.
KF: Is factory-farmed meat more likely to get E. coli out into the market, or is all meat (even free range) carrying that potential?
MG: In chickens, these bacteria cause a disease called colibacillosis, now one of the most significant and widespread infectious diseases in the poultry industry due to the way we now raise these animals. Studies have shown infection risk to be directly linked to overcrowding on factory chicken farms. In caged egg-laying hens, the most significant risk factor for flock infection is hen density per cage. Researchers have calculated that affording just a single quart of additional living space to each hen would be associated with a corresponding 33 percent drop in the risk of colibacillosis outbreak. This is one of the reasons many efforts to improve the lives of farmed animals is critical not only for animal welfare, but for the health of humans and animals alike.
In terms of other infections like Campylobacter, the most common cause of bacterial food poisoning in the United States, Consumer Reports published an analysis of retail chicken in its January 2010 issue. The majority of store-bought chickens were contaminated with Campylobacter, which can trigger arthritis, heart and blood infections, and a condition called Guillain-Barré syndrome that can leave people permanently disabled and paralyzed. Comparing store brands, 59 percent of the conventional factory-farmed chickens were contaminated, compared to 57 percent of chickens raised organically. So there might be a marginal difference, but the best strategy may be to avoid meat completely. With the virtual elimination of polio, the most common cause of neuromuscular paralysis in the United States now comes from eating chicken.
KF: What about salmonella? Is it really a big deal, or is it just a matter of an upset stomach?
MG: Salmonella kills more Americans than any other food-borne illness. There is an epidemic of egg-borne food poisoning every year in the United States. To this day, more than 100,000 Americans are sickened annually by salmonella-infected eggs.
KF: Do we have more salmonella now than we did 25 or 50 years ago? If so, why?
MG: There was a time when our grandparents could drink eggnog and children could eat raw cookie dough without fear of joining the thousands of Americans hospitalized with salmonella infections every year. Before the industrialization of egg production, salmonella only sickened a few hundred Americans every year and Salmonella enteritidis was not found in eggs at all. By the beginning of the 21st century, however, Salmonella enteritidis-contaminated eggs were sickening an estimated 182,000 Americans annually.
There are many industrial practices that contribute to the alarming rates of this disease. Most eggs come from hens confined in battery cages, small barren wire enclosures affording these animals less living space than a single sheet of letter-sized paper for virtually their entire one- to two-year lifespan. Salmonella-contaminated battery cage operations in the United States confine an average of more than 100,000 hens in a single shed. The massive volume of contaminated airborne fecal dust in such a facility rapidly accelerates the spread of infection.
Factory farming practices also led to the spread of salmonella around the world. Just as the feeding of dead animals to live ones triggered the mad cow crisis, this same practice has also been implicated in the global spread of salmonella. Once egg production wanes, hens may be ground up and rendered into what is called “spent hen meal,” and then fed to other hens. More than half of the feed samples for farmed birds containing slaughter-plant waste tested by the FDA were found contaminated with salmonella. CDC researchers have estimated that more than a million cases of salmonella poisoning in Americans can be directly tied to feed containing animal byproducts.
KF: What happens to the body when salmonella gets into the system?
MG: Within 12 to 72 hours of infection the fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps start. If the victim is lucky it’s over within a week. If not, the bacteria can burrow through the intestinal wall and infect the bloodstream, seeding its way to other organs, including the heart, bones and brain.
KF: Are there any long-term consequences from exposure?
MG: Thanks to salmonella infection one breakfast omelet can now trigger persistent irritable bowel syndrome and what’s called reactive arthritis, which can become a debilitating lifelong condition of swollen painful joints. Because salmonella can infect the ovaries of hens, eggs from infected birds can be laid prepackaged with the bacteria inside. According to research funded by the American Egg Board, salmonella can survive sunny-side-up, over-easy and scrambled egg cooking methods.
KF: Would free-range meat or eggs make a difference in preventing it?
MG: There is evidence that eggs from cage-free hens pose less of a threat. In the largest study of its kind (analyzing more than 30,000 samples taken from more than 5,000 operations across two dozen countries in Europe) cage-free barns had about 40 percent lower odds of harboring the egg-related strain of salmonella.
KF: Can we get salmonella just from touching something tainted?
MG: Absolutely. In fact the infective dose for salmonella is as few 15-20 bacteria, and a single egg can be infected with hundreds. It’s important to understand where the egg comes out. Eggs emerge from the hen’s vent, which is kind of a joint opening for both her vagina and anus, which explains the level of fecal contamination one can find on eggs.
KF: Is it contagious?
MG: Person-to-person transmission of salmonella can occur when an infected person's feces, unwashed from his or her hands, contaminates food during preparation or comes into direct contact with another person.
KF: Who is most at risk for serious illness or even death?
MG: More than half of all reported salmonella infections occur in children, who are especially susceptible to serious complications. Elderly and immunocompromised adults are also particularly vulnerable. In the United States, though, some strains of salmonella are growing dangerously resistant to up to six major classes of antibiotics, due in large part to the irresponsible factory farming practice of feeding millions of pounds of antibiotics to animals every year as a crutch to combat the stressful and overcrowded conditions of intensive animal agriculture systems. This puts everyone at risk.
KF: What is the overall solution to prevent these dangerous pathogens and bacteria?
MG: Over the last few decades new animal-to-human infectious diseases have emerged at an unprecedented rate. According to the World Health Organization, the increasing global demand for animal protein is a key underlying factor.
Swine flu is not the only deadly human disease traced to factory farming practices. The meat industry took natural herbivores like cows and sheep, and turned them into carnivores and cannibals by feeding them slaughterhouse waste, blood and manure. Then they fed people “downer” animals—those too sick to even walk. Now the world has mad cow disease.
In 2005 the world’s largest and deadliest outbreak of a pathogen called Strep. suis emerged, causing meningitis and deafness in people handling infected pork products. Experts blamed the emergence on factory farming practices. Pig factories in Malaysia birthed the Nipah virus, one of the deadliest of human pathogens, a contagious respiratory disease causing relapsing brain infections and killing 40 percent of people infected. Its emergence was likewise blamed squarely on factory farming.
The pork industry in the U.S. feeds pigs millions of pounds of human antibiotics every year just to promote growth in such a stressful, unhygienic environment, and now there are these multi-drug-resistant bacteria and we as physicians are running out of good antibiotic options. As the UK’s chief medical officer put it in his 2009 annual report, "Every inappropriate use of antibiotics in agriculture is a potential death warrant for a future patient."
In the short term we need to put an end to the riskiest practices, such as extreme confinement—gestation crates and battery cages—and the non-therapeutic feeding of antibiotics. We have to follow the advice of the American Public Health Association to declare a moratorium on factory farms and eventually phase them out completely. How we treat animals can have global public health implications.
KF: Sounds like part of the solution is to gravitate toward a vegetarian diet. Check out One Bite At a Time for information on how to do it.
Monday, January 4, 2010
PETA to Pope Benedict XVI: Veganize the Vatican
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unleashed/2009/12/peta-pope-benedict-vegan.html
PETA to Pope Benedict XVI: Veganize the Vatican
December 31, 2009
Taking a cue from Pope Benedict XVI's message for the Catholic Church's World Day of Peace, in which he calls for "a real change of outlook which will result in new life-styles" as a means to combat damage to the environment, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals vice president Bruce Friedrich fired off a letter asking the pontiff to become a vegan and decree that only foods free of animal products be served in Vatican City.
Citing a 2006 report from the United Nations' food and agriculture organization titled "Livestock's Long Shadow," in which the harmful environmental affects of meat production are detailed, Friedrich urges the pope "to consider the fact that the most effective action an individual can take to fight climate change is to go vegan."
By cutting meat, dairy products and eggs from the Vatican's menu, Friedrich argues, Benedict XVI could further not just his goal of reduced energy consumption worldwide, but also influence his followers to live healthier lives as a result of vegan eating habits. (Of course, he notes, animals raised for food stand to benefit from the Vatican's shift to veganism as well.)
The Catholic Church marks World Day of Peace on New Year's Day, but the pope's remarks were released in advance of the event. No word from the Vatican yet on PETA's request, but we suspect the group isn't holding its breath.
PETA to Pope Benedict XVI: Veganize the Vatican
December 31, 2009
Taking a cue from Pope Benedict XVI's message for the Catholic Church's World Day of Peace, in which he calls for "a real change of outlook which will result in new life-styles" as a means to combat damage to the environment, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals vice president Bruce Friedrich fired off a letter asking the pontiff to become a vegan and decree that only foods free of animal products be served in Vatican City.
Citing a 2006 report from the United Nations' food and agriculture organization titled "Livestock's Long Shadow," in which the harmful environmental affects of meat production are detailed, Friedrich urges the pope "to consider the fact that the most effective action an individual can take to fight climate change is to go vegan."
By cutting meat, dairy products and eggs from the Vatican's menu, Friedrich argues, Benedict XVI could further not just his goal of reduced energy consumption worldwide, but also influence his followers to live healthier lives as a result of vegan eating habits. (Of course, he notes, animals raised for food stand to benefit from the Vatican's shift to veganism as well.)
The Catholic Church marks World Day of Peace on New Year's Day, but the pope's remarks were released in advance of the event. No word from the Vatican yet on PETA's request, but we suspect the group isn't holding its breath.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Quitting Meat Is at the Heart of 2009's Health Zeitgeist
Quitting Meat Is at the Heart of 2009's Health Zeitgeist, And Author Kathy Freston Is Leading the Debate
By AlterNet
December 20, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/144683/
Author Kathy Freston promotes a body/mind/spirit approach to health and happiness that includes a concentration on healthy diet, emotional introspection, spiritual practice, and loving relationships. Over a dozen of her most popular articles for AlterNet this year concern the health benefits of a meat-free or vegan diet. Freston is a New York Times best-selling author, and her latest book is The Quantum Wellness Cleanse: A 21 Day Essential Guide to Healing Your Body, Mind and Spirit. You can find more of her work at kathyfreston.com.
Each of Freston's essays were read by tens of thousands of people on AlterNet. Here are 10 of her most popular from 2009:
1. 10 Signs Vegetarianism Is Catching On
Martha Stewart promotes a vegetarian Thanksgiving? Recently, much attention has been lavished on the horrors of factory farming and the advantages of a meatless diet.
2. Jonathan Safran Foer's 'Eating Animals' Book Will Fundamentally Change the Way You Think About Food
"He is the Michael Pollan of a younger generation: grittier and more daring, more insightful and decisive."
3. There Is a Way to Help Avoid Heart Disease and Diabetes: You Are What You Eat!
A plant-based diet is both preventative and healing, whereas a diet high in animal protein is destructive to our health.
4. A Solution For Diabetes: A Vegan Diet
More Doctors and nutritional scientists are saying that a diet high meat is disastrous to our health, while a plant-based (vegan) diet prevents disease and is restorative to it.
5. Is Eating a Plant-Based Diet a Cure for Cancer?
Experts are saying a plant-based diet is not only good for our health, but it's also curative of the very serious diseases we face.
6. Meatless Mondays: Do Something Good for the Earth and Your Health
A new campaign is focused on convincing the world not to eat chickens, pigs, and other animals -- just one day per week.
7. Eating Meat Is Not Natural
Eating meat is a relatively recent phenomenon in human evolution. And our bodies have never adapted to it.
8. Will We Still Eat Meat, Drink Milk, and Fry Eggs in 2109?
The world will be a much better place in 100 years if we rethink the way we eat.
9. Our Appetite for Animals Is Taking Us Toward Apocalypse
Cutting your meat-eating habits is one of the most impactful ways you can prevent drastic changes to our climate.
10. Are We So Addicted to Meat That We Can't See Where the Swine Flu Came From?
A virus like swine flu is a completely predictable outcome of our cruel and appallingly filthy factory farming systems.
By AlterNet
December 20, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/144683/
Author Kathy Freston promotes a body/mind/spirit approach to health and happiness that includes a concentration on healthy diet, emotional introspection, spiritual practice, and loving relationships. Over a dozen of her most popular articles for AlterNet this year concern the health benefits of a meat-free or vegan diet. Freston is a New York Times best-selling author, and her latest book is The Quantum Wellness Cleanse: A 21 Day Essential Guide to Healing Your Body, Mind and Spirit. You can find more of her work at kathyfreston.com.
Each of Freston's essays were read by tens of thousands of people on AlterNet. Here are 10 of her most popular from 2009:
1. 10 Signs Vegetarianism Is Catching On
Martha Stewart promotes a vegetarian Thanksgiving? Recently, much attention has been lavished on the horrors of factory farming and the advantages of a meatless diet.
2. Jonathan Safran Foer's 'Eating Animals' Book Will Fundamentally Change the Way You Think About Food
"He is the Michael Pollan of a younger generation: grittier and more daring, more insightful and decisive."
3. There Is a Way to Help Avoid Heart Disease and Diabetes: You Are What You Eat!
A plant-based diet is both preventative and healing, whereas a diet high in animal protein is destructive to our health.
4. A Solution For Diabetes: A Vegan Diet
More Doctors and nutritional scientists are saying that a diet high meat is disastrous to our health, while a plant-based (vegan) diet prevents disease and is restorative to it.
5. Is Eating a Plant-Based Diet a Cure for Cancer?
Experts are saying a plant-based diet is not only good for our health, but it's also curative of the very serious diseases we face.
6. Meatless Mondays: Do Something Good for the Earth and Your Health
A new campaign is focused on convincing the world not to eat chickens, pigs, and other animals -- just one day per week.
7. Eating Meat Is Not Natural
Eating meat is a relatively recent phenomenon in human evolution. And our bodies have never adapted to it.
8. Will We Still Eat Meat, Drink Milk, and Fry Eggs in 2109?
The world will be a much better place in 100 years if we rethink the way we eat.
9. Our Appetite for Animals Is Taking Us Toward Apocalypse
Cutting your meat-eating habits is one of the most impactful ways you can prevent drastic changes to our climate.
10. Are We So Addicted to Meat That We Can't See Where the Swine Flu Came From?
A virus like swine flu is a completely predictable outcome of our cruel and appallingly filthy factory farming systems.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Mayo reports on slaughterhouse illness research
If working with dead pigs does this to some people, think of what eating them can do to you!
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5huQrUAGc7wv-FEaeH5kUcDqTs6-AD9CAJ9Q81
Mayo reports on slaughterhouse illness research
By CHRIS WILLIAMS (AP) – Dec 1, 2009
MINNEAPOLIS — Doctors at the Mayo Clinic and government public health experts have confirmed the mysterious illnesses in 24 slaughterhouse workers in Minnesota and Indiana from 2006 to 2008 was caused by an autoimmune response to a mist of pig brain tissue.
Their article was published Monday in the British medical journal Lancet Neurology. Mayo Clinic neurologist Dr. Daniel Lachance, the lead author, said it was the first comprehensive account of the outbreak and response from Mayo, the state Health Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"This was really a kind of unique experiment of nature where an unusual form of harvesting a part of an animal was utilized and inadvertently exposed individuals through their respiratory tract or their eyes or mouth and ended up triggering an autoimmune response in their own bodies," he said.
The immune response attacked the nervous systems of the 21 workers in Minnesota and three in Indiana from November 2006 to May 2008, causing painful symptoms that included weakness and fatigue to confusion and seizures.
All are improving and most no longer have measurable symptoms, Lachance said, although two may have permanent damage.
All the patients worked in or near areas where compressed air was used to extract pig brains, which are considered a delicacy in some Asian countries. It was a rarely used process then, he said, and he knows of no slaughterhouses that still use it.
Lachance said the Minnesota patients told them the symptoms started to appear within weeks of a speed up on the production line in 2006. "The line speed, the line speed, that's what we heard over and over again," he said.
At slower speeds, he said, workers were able to use compressed air to blast the brains down out of the head and into a bucket under the table.
"But it sounds as if as the line speed increased, the operator was not able to handle the process properly and as a consequence this material was being directed in all directions," Lachance said. "That's our best estimate of what was really going on."
Lachance said it's interesting that blood drawn by the Health Department from more than 85 other employees of the Minnesota slaughterhouse showed that 29 of them had antibodies indicating they were exposed to the brain mist, but didn't get sick. It's not clear why.
"There are actually many, many examples of this in medicine," he said. "There are people who have antibodies to HIV, yet don't have AIDS. There are many instances where the antibodies are the markers for a disease, but aren't a main factor in the appearance of the disease."
The researchers also found a strong connection between how sick workers got and how closely they worked to the head table, he said.
The paper doesn't report on the exact biological mechanism of the disease and Lachance said it might never been known. The slaughterhouses stopped removing brains with compressed air in late 2007, and the Mayo Clinic hasn't seen a new case to study in more than a year.
"Essentially, this is something that has come and passed," he said.
The cluster of the unusual neurological disease was first identified by the Mayo Clinic among workers at the Quality Pork Processors plant in nearby Austin in September 2007. The clinic reviewed its records and discovered it saw its first patient with the symptoms in November 2006. The last patient was in May 2008.
QPP is a privately owned supplier to Hormel Foods Co. The name of the slaughterhouse in Delphi, Ind., has not been made public.
Minnesota Health Department epidemiologist Dr. Aaron DeVries said his department hopes to have its own article published soon. It will focus more on what changed in the slaughterhouses in 2006 to prompt the outbreak and the work done nationally by public health authorities to identify other victims.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5huQrUAGc7wv-FEaeH5kUcDqTs6-AD9CAJ9Q81
Mayo reports on slaughterhouse illness research
By CHRIS WILLIAMS (AP) – Dec 1, 2009
MINNEAPOLIS — Doctors at the Mayo Clinic and government public health experts have confirmed the mysterious illnesses in 24 slaughterhouse workers in Minnesota and Indiana from 2006 to 2008 was caused by an autoimmune response to a mist of pig brain tissue.
Their article was published Monday in the British medical journal Lancet Neurology. Mayo Clinic neurologist Dr. Daniel Lachance, the lead author, said it was the first comprehensive account of the outbreak and response from Mayo, the state Health Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"This was really a kind of unique experiment of nature where an unusual form of harvesting a part of an animal was utilized and inadvertently exposed individuals through their respiratory tract or their eyes or mouth and ended up triggering an autoimmune response in their own bodies," he said.
The immune response attacked the nervous systems of the 21 workers in Minnesota and three in Indiana from November 2006 to May 2008, causing painful symptoms that included weakness and fatigue to confusion and seizures.
All are improving and most no longer have measurable symptoms, Lachance said, although two may have permanent damage.
All the patients worked in or near areas where compressed air was used to extract pig brains, which are considered a delicacy in some Asian countries. It was a rarely used process then, he said, and he knows of no slaughterhouses that still use it.
Lachance said the Minnesota patients told them the symptoms started to appear within weeks of a speed up on the production line in 2006. "The line speed, the line speed, that's what we heard over and over again," he said.
At slower speeds, he said, workers were able to use compressed air to blast the brains down out of the head and into a bucket under the table.
"But it sounds as if as the line speed increased, the operator was not able to handle the process properly and as a consequence this material was being directed in all directions," Lachance said. "That's our best estimate of what was really going on."
Lachance said it's interesting that blood drawn by the Health Department from more than 85 other employees of the Minnesota slaughterhouse showed that 29 of them had antibodies indicating they were exposed to the brain mist, but didn't get sick. It's not clear why.
"There are actually many, many examples of this in medicine," he said. "There are people who have antibodies to HIV, yet don't have AIDS. There are many instances where the antibodies are the markers for a disease, but aren't a main factor in the appearance of the disease."
The researchers also found a strong connection between how sick workers got and how closely they worked to the head table, he said.
The paper doesn't report on the exact biological mechanism of the disease and Lachance said it might never been known. The slaughterhouses stopped removing brains with compressed air in late 2007, and the Mayo Clinic hasn't seen a new case to study in more than a year.
"Essentially, this is something that has come and passed," he said.
The cluster of the unusual neurological disease was first identified by the Mayo Clinic among workers at the Quality Pork Processors plant in nearby Austin in September 2007. The clinic reviewed its records and discovered it saw its first patient with the symptoms in November 2006. The last patient was in May 2008.
QPP is a privately owned supplier to Hormel Foods Co. The name of the slaughterhouse in Delphi, Ind., has not been made public.
Minnesota Health Department epidemiologist Dr. Aaron DeVries said his department hopes to have its own article published soon. It will focus more on what changed in the slaughterhouses in 2006 to prompt the outbreak and the work done nationally by public health authorities to identify other victims.
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