You know the saying “You are what you eat.” well in the case of consuming animal products “You are what they ate!”
So if the recent news of “Pink Slime” has you squirming and feeling nauseous keep reading because there are other more dangerous things lurking in your burger or glass of milk.
Commercialized meat is serious business. Ranchers are under intense pressure from Wall Street to produce meat and milk the fastest way possible turning their cattle into drug addicts. The alarming amount of antibiotics and hormones given to livestock should cause anyone to pause and really think about what is really in their food.
Seventy percent of the antibiotics produced in the United States are given to Livestock. The Union of Concerned Scientists say about 24.6 million pounds of antibiotics are fed to livestock for non-therapeutic reasons. In other words they are used to speed growth and to prevent disease in the animals due to their confined and unsanitary living conditions. If you add in the amount of antibiotics used to treat sick animals that number increases significantly. Overusing antibiotics in the raising of Livestock means we consume more antibiotics and the more we consume the more susceptible we are to drug-resistant bacteria and superbugs like the staph infection MRSA.
Hormones are other drugs given to cattle on a regular basis. According to Science News, 80 percent of all U.S. feedlot cattle are injected with hormones. In 2005, of the 32.5 million cattle used for meat products about two-thirds of them were injected with hormones solely to make them grow faster.
Conventional dairy cows in the United States are given a genetically engineered hormone called rBGH, or recombinant bovine growth hormone, to increase milk production. Consider back in the 1950’s the average dairy cow produced almost 5,300 pounds of milk a year. Compare that to today’s typical dairy cow which produces more than 18,000 pounds! This means bigger dollars for the dairy industry…but it comes at a cost.
rBGH was approved by the FDA in 1993 after barely any testing. In fact, the only testing conducted was a 90 day study by Monsanto using 30 rats as subjects, the results were never published. After farmers began using rBGH in their cows they reported a significant increase in Mastitis a painful inflammatory infection, deformed calves being born, open sores, and death from internal bleeding.
The use of hormones disrupts the human hormonal balance which can cause developmental problems, interfere with the reproductive system and even lead to the development of unhealthy cell growth in reproductive areas. Hormone residues are also suspected in the early onset of puberty in girls, which can put them at greater risk of developing unhealthy cell proliferation in reproductive areas.
What can you do? Choose wisely. I only recommend organic, green-fed, free-range meats. Where the use of antibiotics and hormones are never used. It’s also a ton healthier too! Grass-fed beef is lower in fat than commercialized beef and, more importantly, contains three to five times more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a fatty acid, than grain-fed animals. CLA’s have amazing health benefits like fighting cancer and diabetes, enhancing your immune system, increasing your metabolism, and aiding in weight loss.
If I can give you one piece of advice it would be to avoid all commercialized meats. They are contaminated with drugs, pesticides, fungicides, hormones, and dioxins. All of these toxins are poisonous to your body causing disease and illness. Try to find organic green-fed products at your local farmers market, or use a trusted resource like this one.
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