BBC3 aired the first of 3 programmes titled “Britain’s Really Disgusting Food” last night. The first programme uncovered the grisly truth behind meat products.

As you can imagine, products such as hot dogs, burgers and even chicken kievs were found to contain a lot more than “meat” - some burgers were only 47% meat (the legal minimum) with Mechanically Recovered Meat (MRM) (the “slurry” that comes off the bones when you put it through a machine) and other nastiness such as skin, connective tissue, fat and hearts making up the rest. They also found hot dogs with no actual meat in them at all.

Of course, none of the producers of MRM were prepared to share the process with the programme but the presenter, Alex Riley, found some stomach-turning YouTube footage which shows what comes out of the machine.

Presenter Alex Riley, ended up outside the Food Standards Agency with three animal friends and a banner “eat waste, save animals”, to thank them for their lack of regulations which allowed food manufacturers to feed us such disgusting “food”. After all, if everyone eats MRM “slurry” instead of actual meat, we are indeed actually saving animals and the planet. But for me, I think I will stick to a vegan diet - you can’t get better for animals, the environment or health.

Watch it here, if you dare: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nxcf3

The Cancer Project in America has sued McDonald’s, Burger King and Friendly Ice Cream Corp over the sale of chicken containing PhIP, a chemical which forms during the grilling process, that can cause cancer. The companies were accused of concealing the fact that the grilled chicken contained PhIP to avoid financial losses.

From Bloomberg:-

The residents who filed the Connecticut suit, Rebecca Delio, of Stamford, and Mary-Ann Ellison, of Meriden, want the court to force the companies to include warnings in their restaurants, menus and advertisements that the food is known to contain chemicals that cause cancer.

Delio ate grilled chicken from one of the three companies’ restaurants once a week, and Ellison four times a month at a McDonald’s in Wallingford, according to the complaint. Both stopped buying the grilled chicken about a year ago when they learned of the cancer risk, they said in the complaint.

Delio, 66, was diagnosed with breast cancer a year ago, she said in a phone interview. She can’t blame her diagnosis on eating grilled chicken, she said. “It’s a possibility,” she said, adding that cancer runs in her family.

“I happen to like grilled chicken,” Delio said. “I checked it out on the Internet, and I learned that this is true, that grilled stuff is really no good for you.”

Ellison’s boyfriend was diagnosed with colon cancer, Kinburn said. He has other medical issues and the couple turned to grilled-chicken salads for what they thought would be healthful meals, the lawyer said.

A spokesperson for the Cancer Project said “We’re not looking to have them stop selling the product. The product is a legal though dangerous product that should be sold with a warning, like a chainsaw.” Burger King has apparently agreed to put warning on the product in its California outlets.

In a separate case last month, KFC was also accused of knowingly selling chicken that contained PhIP.

Read the Bllomberg report here.

Last night, following the news of how Stephanie Smith’s life was destroyed by eating E Coli contaminated meat (more…), Larry King Live hosted a debate titled “Is meat safe?”

Three people from families wrecked by contaminated meat told their stories. Then T. Colin Campbell came head to head with Nancy Rodriguez of the University of Connecticut about whether meat is good for you. Colin’s China Study indicated a strong link between animal products, such as meat and dairy, and disease such as cancer and heart disease. Studies since have backed up the findings that a plant-based diet can not only help prevent disease but also cure it. Because of this, Colin strongly promotes a plant-based diet. For more on this, make sure you catch the up-coming movie PlanEat which interviews and shows presentations by Colin.

Nancy, a so-called nutritionist, objects to Colin’s arguement. Her biography univeristy website explains a lot.

Dr. Rodriguez has an active research program that has been extramurally funded by agencies including USDA, NIH, the American Heart Association, the National Dairy Council, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, and the Egg Nutrition Center.

Watch the debate and make up your own mind:
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/health/2009/10/13/lkl.meat.safety.panel.long.cnn

The Times reports today that two thirds of chicken meat in the UK is contaminated with the bacteria campylobacter, which causes 80 deaths per year. They report:-

A survey for the Food Standards Agency (FSA) found that contamination in “home-produced” chickens was even higher, with 76 per cent of all samples of whole birds and chicken portions, including those farmed to free-range and organic standards, infected by campylobacter.

About 460,000 people a year suffer diarrhoea, cramps and abdominal pain caused by the bacteria, which can also be picked up from untreated water, unpasteurised milk and red meat. In the very young, the elderly and those suffering underlying medical conditions, campylobacter can be fatal.

An FSA spokesperson suggested that a vaccine for chickens would be the ideal solution. Another method of controlling the bacteria, which is used in New Zealand but banned in the European Union, is to soak chicken carcasses in chlorinated water before they reach the supermarkets. Sounds delicious. Perhaps the best way of avoiding the bacteria is to stop eating chicken?

Read the full story here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6863186.ece

This weekend the New York Times reported on a frightening story of how a home-cooked hamburger resulted in seizures, coma and paralysis of dance instructor Stephanie Smith.

The article, Woman’s Shattered Life Shows Flaws in Beef Inspection, described the effects of eating an E.coli contaminated hamburger on 22-year old Stephanie Smith’s health, “Then her diarrhea turned bloody. Her kidneys shut down. Seizures knocked her unconscious. The convulsions grew so relentless that doctors had to put her in a coma for nine weeks. When she emerged, she could no longer walk. The affliction had ravaged her nervous system and left her paralyzed“.

Although Stephanie’s reaction to E.Coli, which is found in the intestines of cows, was extreme, the investigation following her case revealed that the meat industry is failing to keep meat safe. The hamburger that Stephanie ate was “made by the food giant Cargill, labeled “American Chef’s Selection Angus Beef Patties.” Yet confidential grinding logs and other Cargill records show that the hamburgers were made from a mix of slaughterhouse trimmings and a mash-like product derived from scraps that were ground together at a plant in Wisconsin. The ingredients came from slaughterhouses in Nebraska, Texas and Uruguay, and from a South Dakota company that processes fatty trimmings and treats them with ammonia to kill bacteria“.

Perhaps the two most frightening sentences in the article were “An Agriculture Department survey of more than 2,000 plants taken after the Cargill outbreak showed that half of the grinders did not test their finished ground beef for E. coli; only 6 percent said they tested incoming ingredients at least four times a year” and “Many big slaughterhouses will sell only to grinders who agree not to test their shipments for E. coli, according to officials at two large grinding companies.”

Eating meat is a gamble with your health; if you’re one of the unlucky ones, the consequences could be catastrophic.

Read the full detailed article here; http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/health/04meat.html?_r=1

Today I was contacted by Planeat who are currently making a new movie about the meat industry and it’s impacts on health and the environment.

Sypnopsis
A group of leading international scientists, doctors and professors have spent their lives trying
to find out what is the best way to eat. A pattern has begun to emerge in their research, which shows that our animal-based diets are the cause of our most challenging health and environmental problems. Having to battle against their own beliefs, and those of the institutions they worked for, they have come up with a solution that will change people’s lives forever. They share their ideas on how we can not only prevent prevalent diseases like cancer and heart disease but also cure them. And also how applying the same principles can dramatically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, at the same time as providing more food for the planet. In accordance with this scientific evidence, pioneering farmers and chefs around the world are discovering new ways to produce and prepare the food we should be eating.

This is exciting news; more and more individuals and groups are realising the impacts of the meat industry and taking action - the movement is growing rapidly!

Watch the trailer on their website and sign up for updates.

Why is heart disease still the biggest killer in the UK, despite the fact that we know it’s main causes? Here’s one reason; the British Heart Foundation list risk factors such as weight, cholesterol, high blood pressure but it seems they aren’t putting a penny of their £185 million that they raise through donations every year in to telling people that. In fact, they’re doing the opposite!

Third Sector magazine reports this week…

Congratulations to the 27,000 cyclists who completed the 54-mile London to Brighton bike ride fundraiser for the British Heart Foundation this month. But surprisingly the official refreshment stops lining the route were filled with burger vans. What next - organised fag breaks?

And a quick look at some of the participants who raised funds for BHF through JustGiving also shows that the message simply isn’t getting through (or is even being given at all). One participant, a smoker, reports how he’s been “eating lots of burgers for extra protein” and aims to “raise £125 for the British Heart Foundation (an investment in my future)”. Another participant gave a recount of how the event went, saying they had “a well deserved burger and chips on the beach before the coach ride back to London”.

Perhaps this is why BHF is one of the biggest charities in the UK. It seems their work is all about finding ways to allow people to continue with their unhealthy lifestyles by developing medication and surgical procedures rather than preventing the disease in the first place.

Hidden away on the BHF website is a report in which one of their senior dieticians says “we do know that meat is one of the main sources of saturated fat in the UK diet. A diet high in saturated fat is linked to raised blood cholesterol levels, a risk factor for heart disease”. So why on earth are they encouraging people to eat fatty burgers?

It seems the beef sector is having a bad week. The BeefSite.com reported the following news in this week’s e-newsletter.

Editorial: The Truth Behind Shock Stories

‘Farmed Fish May Pose BSE Risk‘ was one of our most dramatic headlines this week, but, according to a neurologist from the University of Louisville, this idea is cause for real concern. Friedland suggests farmed fish could transmit Creutzfeldt Jakob disease if they are fed byproducts rendered from cows. He and his team are now urging governments to prevent this feeding practice until safety in the food-chain can be confirmed.

Another shock story came from Reuters. A report they released earlier this week claims that the Brazilian beef giant, JBS, alongside other meatpackers, is under investigation for allegations of “bribing, racketeering, corruption, fraud and collusion.” According to the news agency, the information was passed from a representative at the federal prosecutor’s office.

Corruption and health risks in the meat industry? Never!

Read: Farmed fish article at Science Daily
Read: Reuters article on JBS

A survey of more than 2,200 people conducted by YouGov for the World Cancer Research Fund found that two thirds of people in mainland Britain are still unaware of the link between red and processed meats and bowel cancer.

Marilyn Gentry, chief executive of the WCRF, reminds us that experts’ advice is that the best amount of processed meat to eat is none at all. “But if people don’t know about the link between bowel cancer and processed meat they are not in a position to make informed choices. There’s still a lot of work to be done to spread the message about how people can reduce the risk.”

Cancer Research UK, the biggest charity in the UK, has an annual income of over £475 million. Why are they not putting more money in to educating people in order to prevent cancer developing in the first place, rather than spending millions on developing cures?

Alpro is set to be bought by Dean, the U.S.’s largest dairy processor. At the moment Alpro is part of the Vandemoortele group, Belgium’s largest privately held food company which makes frozen dough, margarines and vegetable fats. But, it seems 325 million euros was enough to pursuade them to sell Alpro and Provamel to Dean.

According to the Vandemoortele website, “for over 25 years, Alpro has been championing a healthier, more sustainable way of producing tasty products”. But now they will belong to a company that is in no way healthy or sustainable. Milk contains saturated fat and is not a healthy part of our diet. It has been linked to cancer, especially breast cancer, as well as heart disease. Dairy cows produce massive amounts of methane and often they are fed soy that is imported from Latin America, which causes the destruction of the rainforest and is often genetically modified.

What I liked about Alpro was the fact that their soy is not genetically modified, they take great care with regards to where the soy comes from (ie not from deforested Amazon) and that they really seem to care about health, fair trade and the environment. For many vegans, Alpro is the preferred choice, but knowing their money is now going to a milk company will no doubt change this. How do we know they’ll keep up the same standards? The Body Shop, Innocent, Green & Blacks - they’re all doing it. One day it’s just all going to be one huge company that owns all the others. What ever happened to consumer choice?