We Are Not Buying It

It does my heart good to see so many people choosing healthy, GMO Free and chemical free products.  And I am happy to see the power of the consumer driving stocks and profits down for companies that have been poisoning us and our environment for so many decades.

Yes, companies are now listening to the demands of the American consumer.  Some are coming “clean” totally like Chipotle and some are playing “footsie” with our minds, by eliminating one or two toxic ingredients and leaving in the rest.  Hershey’s Chocolate, as stated in my last publication, was just going to eliminate toxic high fructose corn syrup and leave the other cancer causing ingredients in their chocolate until they were on the receiving end of public backlash from educated consumers who are leading this food revolution in this country.  Also, incase you have not heard, waiting for your elected officials to act in your best interest is no longer the “trend”.  No longer the “flavor of the day”.  People are sick and tired of getting sick, and they are taking their health into their own hands.  So watch out corporate America, we are coming after you, one company at a time until we force “D.C.” to stop selling out the voters.

Even the FDA, of all infiltrated agencies, is becoming proactive in looking out for your best interest.  (I can not believe I am writing this).  Right now, if there is less than .5% trans fat in a product, the FDA does not require it to be on the list of ingredients.  So much for truth in labeling.  But just recently, June 16^th, on the New Moon I might add, the FDA announced that it will give the food industry 3 years to eliminate trans fats from foods in the food supply. Better late than never FDA, as Europe has been trans fat free for years.  Even though the FDA previously deemed trans fats safe for food consumption, the Institute of Medicines shows there is NO SAFE levels for trans fats, especially in children whose bodies and brains are more vulnerable to the health dangers of trans fats. 

What is so bad about trans fats you say?  Several studies have shown trans fats to be linked to inflammation in the body.  Inflammation in the body creates an acidic ph instead of an alkaline ph. And an acidic ph and inflammation in the body leads to disease and eventually death.  Diseases such as heart disease, cancer, respiratory disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and nephritis.  And this leads me to the topic of this article.  Carrageenan. 

A few weeks ago, Mary and I were shopping in our local grocery store and there was a very nice man demonstrating a product called Brooklyn Creamery Cream.  All natural ingredients.  No artificial preservatives, no sugar, salt or carbs.  Gluten free and kosher.  WOW!!!  Sounds perfect!  You can use it in many ways.  In cooking, baking and spoon on your favorite ice cream and desserts.  “Here, try some”, the nice man says.  OK, I will.  Hummm, very good.  I grabbed a package and started reading the ingredients.  That is when I woke up from my tasty, creamy dream.  It contained cream from a family owned dairy farm that does not use synthetic rBST on their cows, very good.  It contained nisin that is a natural antibacterial peptide, which is excellent.  But when I read it contained carrageenan, I put it back. 

The demonstrator was perplexed.  He said carrageenan is a seaweed, it is natural, which is true.  But it is a type of red edible seaweed that creates inflammation in the body which in turn creates an acid ph, which will set you up for cancer and other diseases.  I left this nice man scratching his head, “but it is all natural??!?”  Yes, but “all natural” does not mean it is safe to eat or use.  Poison Ivy is natural but I would not make a sandwich with it.

There are some foods that are considered to be more acidic and they are meats, eggs and grains.  But these foods have value.  They add to the over all health of your system.  You can make sure you counter balance the acid of these foods with foods that are more alkaline, which are your fruits, especially avocados and lemons: vegetables, especially celery: nuts and seeds. 

Carrageenan can not be digested by the body and has zero food value.  So why bother?  It is destructive to your digestive system and is now known to trigger your body into having immune responses as if it where being attacked by pathogens like Salmonella.  It is now being linked to causing ulceration of the stomach lining and intestinal bleeding, and gastro intestinal cancer in lab rats. The food industry uses it to thicken and emulsify a product but do they know what it is doing to you?  Do they even care?  So people, why torture yourselves? 

When you know better, you do better.  And if it is going to kill us, make us sick, we are not buying it anymore…..because we choose to live healthy chemical free…….

Hershey's Chocolate Kiss of Death

…..ummm, Chocolate.  I LOVE chocolate!  As a child my favorite was the Snicker’s Bar.  Snickers had a taste of it’s own. Then at the end of grade school came “Chunky”.  Chunky had a taste of it’s own too.  Melt in your mouth.  Creamy.  Smooth.  And BIG!  Remember how big they were?  What happened?

Well, progress happened.  Greed happened.  Let’s make this product for less, change the formula, no one will notice, good for the “bottom line”.  Let’s replace real food ingredients with alternative chemicals. And Monsanto happened with their unnecessary pesticides and Genetically Modified Frankin Foods.  There are too many studies out now showing that GMO food and ingredients contribute to the cause of cancer, as well as other diseases.  The World Health Organization has proclaimed glyphosate, the main ingredient in Round Up, most likely to cause cancer.  The pesticide Roundup is sprayed on crops and absorbed into the food you eat, unless you purchase “organic”.

If Round Up and Genetically Modified Foods are so harmful, why are they still on the market for people to purchase?  GOOD question!  WHY, indeed?  It all comes down to Buyer Beware.  Do not assume that if it is sold in stores, it must be safe to eat and use.

But times, they are a changing.  People are becoming educated, informed and if our elected officials will not look out for OUR best interest…we will take our power back at the check out counter.  Consumer Power!!!  People are not going to purchase this crap anymore, causing stocks to drop and forcing companies to change their tune, get honest and remove the toxic ingredients that are contributing to the ills of this nation. 

And this is just what happened to Hershey’s Chocolate.  Last year while the people of California were trying to get Proposition 37 passed, which would require GMO foods to be labeled, The Hershey’s Company contributed $519,000 to defeat Proposition 37 and Monsanto, the world’s largest biotech seed company, spent $8.1 MILLION to defeat this proposition, preventing the consumer from their RIGHT to know what is in their food.  If Genetically Modified Food is so safe for people to eat, why do Monsanto and the food companies that offer it spend millions of dollars to prevent “GMO” from appearing on the label?  Are they hiding something?  Are they guilty of something?  Are they ashamed of something?  Or are they afraid people will not purchase their product?

Getting back to the Hershey’s Kiss.  It is made with mostly all GMO ingredients.  But Hershey’s manufactures a GMO FREE chocolate to be sold in Europe.  Why?  Why does Hershey’s put genetically modified ingredients in the candy sold in the United States, but they make special GMO Free candy to be sold in Europe?  Because the people in Europe do not consider genetically modified foods to be safe.  In the European Union there are restrictions and out right bans on the sale and production of genetically modified food. 

Two years ago, concerned and educated consumers voiced their displeasure to Hershey’s by giving them an ultimatum.  You either offer Americans the same GMO Free candy that you sell in Europe or we will no longer purchase your product.  Hershey’s received tens of thousands of Facebook posts, emails and telephone calls from consumers urging them to remove the GMO ingredients in their candy due to concerns over health issues and environmental degradation.   

At the end of 2014, feeling the pressure of public opinion, Hershey’s promised to phase out toxic high fructose corn syrup, only.  Keeping one step ahead of this deception, consumers urged Hershey’s not to use any form of GMO sugar such as GMO sugar beets.  Consumers demanded that Hershey’s go non GMO on all it’s ingredients and get a third party verification for non GMO ingredients such as The Non-GMO Project Verified Seal.  This includes sourcing milk from cows that are not feed GMO grass or grain.  Hershey’s was urged to forego any synthetic biological ingredient, starting with vanilla.  In other words, Hershey’s was urged to go back to using the natural ingredients of days gone by. 

Hershey’s must have done it’s homework and found that consumers were jumping ship and purchasing organic and non GMO Verified candy, because on February 23, 2015, Hershey’s Chocolate released a statement that it “will feature a lineup of simple ingredients, and transition some of it’s most popular chocolate brands, including Hershey’s Chocolate Kiss and Hershey’s milk chocolate bars to be GMO free by the end of this year.

Another David and Goliath story….I just love them.  And it is not just Hershey’s that is following the money. Kraft Foods just announced that due to competition with Annie’s Organic Macaroni and Cheese, Kraft will be removing the dyes and preservatives from it’s product.  Needless to say, Kraft decided to make this change after noticing a shift of preference towards Organic Foods.

And General Mills is also feeling the heat.  After reviewing their drop in sales for the 6^th straight quarter, it decided to offer Americans GMO free Cheerios, but only for it’s Original Cheerios.  General Mills has been selling GMO free cereal in Europe for years, for the same reason why Hershey’s has.  Europeans prefer non GMO food.

It seems that Monsanto’s multi million dollar campaign to stop the labeling of Genetically Modified foods is loosing ground.  The American consumer is winning the labeling wars by getting food manufacturers to remove the toxic ingredients engineered in laboratories and replacing them with “real” food that naturally occurs in nature.  I am happy to report that more and more educated Americans are choosing to Live Healthy Chemical Free……..