*February 2004 issue of Dr. Greger's Newsletter*

[Guest guest]

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February 2004 issue of Dr. Michael Greger's Monthly

Newsletter

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CONTENTS

 

I. Latest Updates in Human Nutrition

A. Arsenic in Chicken

B. PCBs in Fish

C. Flax Seeds and the Stress

Response

D. Greens May Prevent Colon Cancer

 

II. Worldwide Premiere of Peaceable Kingdom

 

III. Update on Mad Cow Disease

 

IV. Personal Update - Back on the road

 

V. MAILBAG: " Why did the Ukraine ban our meat? "

 

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I. LATEST UPDATES IN HUMAN NUTRITION

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A. Arsenic in Chicken

 

After reviewing 5000 chicken samples, researchers from the

National Institutes of Health and the USDA's Food Safety Inspection

Service recently reported alarmingly high levels of arsenic

contamination in the flesh of broiler chickens[1] These

government researchers found that the amount of arsenic in chicken

greatly exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency's new upper

safety limit of arsenic allowed in drinking water. In fact, the amount

of arsenic found in chicken was 6 to 9 times that allowed by the EPA.

A " bucket " of Kentucky Fried Chicken would be expected to

have up to almost fifty times the amount of arsenic allowed in a glass

of water.[2]

 

How did the arsenic get into the chickens? The poultry

industry fed it to them. Most broiler chickens (which constitute 99%

of the chicken meat that people eat) are fed arsenic in the United

States[3,4] Although fish and shellfish also present significant

dietary sources of arsenic,[6] according to the Food and Drug

Administration arsenic compounds are extensively added to the feed of

animals--particularly chickens and pigs--to make them grow faster.[5]

The animals Americans eat are so heavily infested with internal

parasites that adding arsenic to the feed can result in a

" stunning " increase in growth rates.[7]

 

Dr. Ellen Silbergeld, a researcher from the Johns Hopkins School of

Public Health, said the poultry industry's practice of using arsenic

compounds in its feed is something that has not been studied.

" It's an issue everybody is trying to pretend doesn't exist, "

she said.[8] " Arsenic acted as a growth stimulant in chickens --

develops the meat faster -- and since then, the poultry industry has

gone wild using this ingredient, " says Donald Herman, a

Mississippi agricultural consultant and former Environmental

Protection Agency researcher who has studied this use of arsenic for a

decade. " And they've tried everything to refrain it from becoming

public knowledge, " .[9]

 

The poultry industry argues that the organic form of arsenic

given to chickens isn't toxic.[10] " This study appears to be much

ado about nothing, " says Richard Lobb, the public relations of the National Chicken Council. He says the less toxic

form of arsenic is " used responsibly and safely by poultry

producers. " [11] The researchers, however, found not only elevated

levels of organic arsenic in chicken meat, they found elevated levels

of the highly toxic inorganic form typically used only in insecticides

and weed killers.[12] And cooking the muscles of these animals may

create additional toxic arsenic by-products.[13]

 

Inorganic arsenic is considered one of the prominent

environmental causes of cancer mortality in the world.[14] Arsenic is

a human carcinogen linked to liver, lung, skin, kidney, bladder and

prostate cancers. It can also cause neurological, cardiovascular,

gastrointestinal and immune system abnormalities. Diabetes has also

been linked to arsenic exposure.[15]

 

The feeding of arsenic to chickens in the U.S. releases hundreds

of tons of arsenic into the environment every year in the form of

poultry manure which is spread on fields as fertilizer.[16] In fact

there's currently a coalition of families suffering serious health

conditions suing chicken producers like Tyson after research showed

cancer rates as much as 50 times above the national average in

communities neighboring factory farmed poultry operations.

 

The February 2004 Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA concludes

" Chicken consumption may contribute significant amounts of

arsenic to total arsenic exposure of the U.S. population... "

Levels of arsenic in chicken are so high that other sources may have

to be monitored carefully to prevent undue toxic exposure among the

population.[17]

 

--------------------------

 

 

B. PCBs in Fish

 

Those understandably scared away by the pesticides in shrimp and

the mercury in tuna sought refuge in farmed salmon. Of course every

study ever done on the flesh of farmed salmon found it to be swimming

with carcinogens,[1] but the salmon industry dismissed these prior

studies as too small to be meaningful. Finally, though, after 2 years

and almost 2 million dollars,[2]] a study was just released which

contained an exhaustive analysis of over 2 tons of salmon from around

the world.[3] The study was performed by some of the world's leading

experts on industrial pollution at Cornell and elsewhere and published

in one of the most prestigious scientific journals in the world.[4]

The results sent shockwaves around the world.

 

The study found that the levels of PCBs, dioxins and banned

insecticides such as toxaphene were so high that based on

Environmental Protection Agency guidelines, no one should be eating

farmed salmon from anywhere in the world more than once a month.[5]

Fillets bought in supermarkets in Boston and San Francisco were so

heavily contaminated that even a half a serving a month might be too

much.[3] And these recommendations just take into account the

increased cancer risk. The researchers warn that women and girls

should be eating even less, since pregnant women can pass on these

contaminants to their fetuses, impairing mental development and

immune-system function.[6]

 

We've known about the industrial toxins that accumulate in the

flesh of marine animals caught out in the polluted oceans, but how did

these salmon on fish farms get contaminated? Although farmed fish are

fed products like cattle blood[7] (which could theoretically infect

the fish with a form of mad cow disease),[8] most farmed salmon are

fed fish pellets made from wild fish hauled up and slaughtered by

giant industrial trawlers from the polluted sea floor. It takes 3 to 4

pounds of wild caught fish to produce just one pound of farm raised

fish, so people who think they are not contributing to the global

disaster of overfishing by eating farmed fish are deluding

themselves.[9] The fish stagnating in these aquatic feedlots are also

fed dyes to artificially color their flesh pink and massive infusions

of antibiotics to stave off bacterial diseases and sea lice.

 

The Association of Salmon and Trout Producers calls the new study

" dangerous, alarmist and a shot in the dark. " [10] George

Lucier, former director of the US Department of Health's national

toxicological program and author of more than 200 studies on toxic

chemicals, disagrees. Backed by other independent US experts, he calls

the results " undeniable. " [11]

 

One state health department suggested that instead of telling

people to limit their consumption of fish, they'd just tell consumers

to eat a variety of fish, cook them so the fat drips off, and avoid

eating the skin. David Carpenter, one of the scientists involved in

the study, calls the health department's position " total

nonsense. " " That's just totally irresponsible--totally

irresponsible, " he said. " It's the responsibility of state

health departments - and I worked for the one here in New York - to

prevent disease or at least provide people with information so they

can make judgments about whether they want to take an elevated risk of

disease. " [12] Carpenter recommends no one eat farmed salmon more

than once a month due to the unacceptable cancer risk alone.[13]

 

The fish industry argues that although the levels of carcinogens

in fish exceed EPA safety standards, they don't exceed FDA standards

which allow 40 times more toxins in food. The authors of the study

argue that the FDA standards are hopelessly out of date and

inconsistent with the stricter standards used in Europe, Japan and

Canada.[14] Critics argue that the FDA has a conflict of interest,

playing a role in protecting the commercial food industry's profit

margin as well as the health of consumers.[15]

 

Fish industry trade groups claim that giving up salmon

" would do more harm than good " because of the heart-healthy

omega-3 fatty acids found in fish fat.[16] Yes, one industry

consultant admits, salmon could cause thousands of cancer deaths, but

it might save even more lives by preventing heart attacks.[17] Is that

the choice Americans get? Do Americans have to slowly poison

themselves in hopes that the fish fat may prevent a future heart

attack? This sounds like the tired old dairy industry line about the

importance of calcium every time another study comes out questioning

the healthfulness of cow milk. Just like there are healthier

plant-based sources of calcium, there are healthier plant based

sources of omega 3 fatty acids. We don't have to choose between cancer

and heart disease.

 

Our bodies convert the short chain omega 3's found in flax seeds,

for example, into the long chain omega 3's found in fish fat, so one

can choose to get omega 3's packaged with soluble fiber and

antioxidants in flax, rather than getting them packaged with heavy

metals and carcinogens in fish. For those who want to take

supplemental long chain omega 3's directly, but don't want to be

exposed to the high concentrations of PCBs and pesticides in fish oil

capsules,[18] there are two vegan algae-based contamination-free

supplements currently on the market.[19]

 

Vegetarians have as little as 1 to 2 percent the level of many

pesticides and industrial chemicals in their bodies compared to

meateaters. Through food alone, nonvegan Americans are getting 22

times the maximum dioxin exposure set by the EPA. Nursing infants with

nonvegan moms get up to 65 times the maximum tolerable dose of this

toxic waste. Although the fat in the beef, pork, poultry and milk also

contain these carcinogens, this new study shows that the most

contaminated flesh food is fish.

 

Most salmon served in the U.S. is farmed and dangerous.

 

--------------------------

 

 

C. Flax Seeds and the Stress Response

 

A study was just published in the Journal of the American College

of Nutrition on the effects of flax seed consumption on cardiovascular

responses to mental and psychological stress.[JACN 22(6):494] How your

body reacts to stress--like how much your blood pressure goes up when

you're anxious--is an important predictor of heart disease risk. So

Canadian researchers had people sprinkle 3 tablespoons of ground flax

seed onto whatever they were eating every day for a few months.

Then the researchers exposed the research subjects to a variety of

stressors and measured their stress response. And those eating flax

had significantly healthier physiological reactions to stressful

conditions. Their blood pressure, for example, stayed much more

stable.

 

The researchers attribute the heart healthy attributes of flax

not only to their omega 3 content, but their unique concentration of

these anti-tumor antioxidant phytoestrogens called lignans. So, if

anyone's stressed that they've been feeding their family toxic fish,

switching over to flax might help in more ways than one.

 

--------------------------

 

 

D. Greens May Prevent Colon Cancer

 

Japanese researchers recently investigated the relation between

the consumption of vegetables and gastrointestinal cancers in a

multicenter, hospital-based case control study.[Nutrition and Cancer

46(2):138] They found that cruciferous vegetables, and broccoli in

particular, to be associated with significantly reduced risk of

cancers of the digestive tract, especially colon cancer. People eating

broccoli three or more times a week seemed to cut their risk of

certain cancers almost 95%! Stated another way, this means that

compared to people who regularly ate broccoli, those that rarely ate

it seemed to be ten times more likely to develop certain types of

cancer.

 

Scientists suspect that the powerful anticancer properties of the

cruciferous vegetable family (which also contains brussel sprouts,

kale, collards, mustard and beet greens) may lie in a unique

class of compounds called glucosinolates that greatly enhance your own

body's ability to detoxify carcinogens. Because we've so polluted our

environment, even vegans can't escape exposure to a wide array of

carcinogens. By eating greens every day we can boost our liver's

ability to neutralize these toxins and reduce our risk of developing

cancer.

 

In this election season, vote for the greens party

 

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II. WORLDWIDE PREMIERE OF PEACEABLE KINGDOM

 

Having been blessed to see an earlier prerelease version, I can

say that Tribe of Heart's new documentary Peaceable Kingdom is quite

simply the best tool our entire movement has ever come up with to open

people's hearts to the universe of suffering on factory farms.

 

Come to the World Premiere at Lincoln Center in Manhattan

February 28th, or attend the West Coast premiere in March, or the

Midwest screening in April. Or even better, go to

http://www.tribeofheart.org/pk.htm and order copies of this

life-changing documentary on DVD or video for literally everyone you

know and a few extra copies for people you don't.

 

I've been waiting all my life for this day--the day that we would

have a tool powerful enough to melt through all the defenses of those

who couldn't otherwise bring themselves to face the reality. Our

movement is forever indebted to Jenny and James and the Tribe of Heart

staff and volunteers and supporters for the realization of this

masterpiece of education, advocacy and outreach. The least we

can all do is make it a personal activist priority over the next year

to getting this film seen by as many people as possible. Please go to

http://www.tribeofheart.org/pk.htm to find out how you can help.

 

And maybe I'll see you in Manhattan!

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III. UPDATE ON MAD COW DISEASE

 

My latest and most comprehensive report to date on the evolving

Mad Cow disease crisis in the U.S. is now available for download at

http://organicconsumers.org/madcow/Greger.pdf

 

Alas, though, the best piece of writing ever done of the subject is

the book Mad Cow U.S.A. by Rampton and Stauber, which just came out

this week in paperback. Their entire book is online free at

http://www.prwatch.org, but for those who'd rather snuggle up in bed

with a good book than a computer, you can order a copy of the new

paperback at http://organicconsumers.org/madcow/paperback12904.cfm

 

For daily updates on the crisis, visit my website

http://organicconsumers.org/madcow.htm or for just my latest writings

and commentary send a blank email to

DrGregersMadCowUpdates- to to my

new Mad Cow email list.

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IV. PERSONAL UPDATE - Back on the

road

 

Thanks to the tireless efforts of Alissa who volunteered to

schedule my national Mad Cow USA: Stop the Madness speaking tour, I am

back on the road full-time this month, starting in the Northeast.

I'm hoping to hit the West Coast in March and finish up in April.

If anyone would like me to come speak in your home town, please email

Alissa at tour-schedule My current speaking schedule is

up at http://www.veganMD.org/dates.html For any of the cities I

miss, I had my new Mad Cow talk videotaped last week and should have

it available as a DVD in a month or two.

 

Thomas Manion, a good friend of mine with a huge heart (and a

huge harddrive , volunteered to fill article requests. So if anyone

wants to read the full text of any of the articles I cite here or

elsewhere, you can email him at article-request Thanks to

everyone who wrote me to offer their help in this regard.

Everyone's support and kind words are what keep me warm on those long

lonely drives between talks in the middle of the night

 

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V. MAILBAG: " Why did the Ukraine ban our meat? "

 

I just got an email from someone who read the hilarious column in

Friday's San Francisco Chronicle (online at http://tinyurl.com/2b2qr)

.. Her questions was " I've heard about bovine growth hormone in

the milk supply, but I didn't know that we used hormones in

meat. "

 

For more than fifty years, U.S. farmers have used both natural

and artificial hormones to increase the growth rates of livestock.

Just like bodybuilders can bulk up on steroids, these steroid hormones

make cattle grow bigger and faster. Of course the USDA doesn't like

to call them growth hormones, they call them " meat quality

enhancers, " which they note is a " more consumer friendly

term. "

 

According to the USDA, these hormones can eliminate as many as 21 days

of feeding time-same weight, 21 days earlier-which saves lots of

money. But Europe in the eighties had just gotten over this thing

where little babies started growing breasts and menstruating after

eating baby food made from veal calves pumped with the hormone DES and

then there were all these cancers and genital deformities and so

January 1st, 1989 Europe banned the production and consumption of

hormone laden meat.

 

Major beef exporters such as Argentina. Australia, New Zealand,

Brazil all agreed to ship hormone free meat to Europe, but the U.S.

was not going to be stopped. Not only would the profits of the beef

industry suffer (and we know how much the beef industry doesn't like

to see things suffer , but the profits of the hormone

manufacturers-Monsanto, Eli Lilly, Upjohn-would take a hit. And as

powerful as the beef lobby is, you do not mess with the pharmaceutical

industry.

 

The US took the European Union before the World Trade Organization

demanding that Europe drop its ban on American beef. And of course,

the World Health Organization struck down Europe's public health law,

and demanded Europe drop the ban or face stiff penalties. And

Europe decided to maintain the ban and stomach the financial

consequences, which it has for years now. They are willing to pay $50

million dollars a year to protect their citizens from American

beef.

 

Growth promoting hormones, with names like " Steer-oid " are

fed, implanted or injected into more than 95% of U.S. cattle. They

implant estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and a number of

synthetic steroids. The FDA insists that, when properly used, these

sex steroids pose no risk to humans. This is the same agency, though,

that, under pressure from the poultry industry, took 20 years to ban

DES, the hormone that caused all the vaginal cancers in the daughters

of mothers exposed to it.

 

The European Union commissioned their own panel of scientists

review the available research on the hormones in American meat and

concluded that they " may cause a variety of health problems

including cancer, developmental problems, harm to immune systems, and

brain disease. Even exposure to small levels of [hormone] residues in

meat and meat products carries risks. "

 

The European Commission identified one hormone in particular as a

" complete carcinogen, " acting as both a tumor initiator and

a tumor promoter. They explained, " In plain language, this means

that even small additional doses of residues of this hormone in meat,

arising from its use as a growth promoter in cattle, has an inherent

risk of causing cancer. " The French Agriculture Minister simply

declared that the United States had the, " worst food in the

world. " Even research done here by National Cancer Institute has

found that some of the synthetic estrogen-like hormones U.S. ranchers

continue to implant can indeed stimulate the growth of human breast

cancer cells.

 

The U.S. government was not happy with Europe's report. The U.S.

Agriculture Secretary held a press conference and said 'The

European Commission has issued yet another misleading

report. "

 

In response the European Union replied, " The commission is

deeply concerned about the US attempt to belittle the risk which

scientists have identified. [We] cannot understand why the US has not

reacted in a more responsible way to the conclusive findings of the

scientific committee. It is all the more incomprehensible as

pre-pube[scent] children are the population group most at risk from

the hormones. "

 

Indeed, because children they have such low baseline levels, an 8

year boy, for example, eating two burgers increases his level of sex

hormones by almost 10%. And lifelong exposures like that might

increase the risk of developing cancer.

 

The incidence of reproductive cancers has skyrocketed since U.S.

farmers started using these sex steroids in meat. Compared to 1950, we

have 55% more breast cancer, 120% more testicular cancer, and 190%

more prostate cancer here in the United States. Now that's not to say

that the hormones in meat are the cause, but as one prominent cancer

researcher noted, " The question we ought to be asking, is not why

Europe won't buy our hormone-treated meat, but why we allow beef from

hormone-treated cattle to be sold [here in America]... "

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REFERENCES (Arsenic in Chicken):

(Full text of specific articles available by emailing

article-request)

1 Environmental Health Perspectives 112(2004):18.

2 One KFC bucket contains 3 legs, 3 breasts, 3 wings and 3 thighs

[http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/letter_to_ftc.pdf] weighing a total of

1176 grams [http://www.yum.com/nutrition/documents/kfc_nutrition.pdf]

containing up to 108.5 mcg of inorganic arsenic [Environmental Health

Perspectives 112(2004):18] exceeding to EPA limit on an 8oz. glass of

water by a factor of 48.4 [EPA 815- Z- 01- 001].

3 Momplaisir, G. M; C. G. Rosal; E. M. Heithmar "Arsenic

Speciation Methods for Studying the Environmental Fate of

Organoarsenic Animal- Feed Additives," U. S. EPA, NERL- Las Vegas,

2001; (TIM No. 01- 11)

4 Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA February 1, 2004

5 Momplaisir, G. M; C. G. Rosal; E. M. Heithmar "Arsenic Speciation

Methods for Studying the Environmental Fate of Organoarsenic Animal-

Feed Additives," U. S. EPA, NERL- Las Vegas, 2001; (TIM No. 01-

11)

6 Ibid.

7 Texas Lawyer, January 23, 1995

8 Daily Times (Salisbury, MD) January 4, 2004

9 Texas Lawyer, January 23, 1995

10 Daily Times (Maryland) 11 January 2004.

11 Health Day News 19 January 2004.

12 Environmental Health Perspectives 112(2004):18.

13 Hanaoka, K., Goessler, W., Ohno, H., Irgolic, K. J., and Kaise, T.,

(2001). Formation of toxic arsenical in roasted muscles of marine

animals, Appl. Organometal. Chem., 15: 61- 66.

14 Smith, A.H., C. Hopenhayn-Rich, M.L. Bates, H.M. Goeden, I.

HertzPicciotto, H.M. Duggan, R. Wood, M.J. Kosnett, and M.T. Smith.

1992. Cancer risks from arsenic in drinking water. Environmental

Health Perspectives 97, 259-267.

15 Momplaisir, G. M; C. G. Rosal; E. M. Heithmar "Arsenic Speciation

Methods for Studying the Environmental Fate of Organoarsenic Animal-

Feed Additives," U. S. EPA, NERL- Las Vegas, 2001; (TIM No. 01-

11)

16 Ibid.

17 Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA February 1, 2004

 

--------------------------

 

 

REFERENCES (PBCs in Fish):

(Full text of specific articles available by emailing

article-request)

1 Los Angeles Times January 9, 2004 Friday

2 Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL) January 22, 2004

3 Global assessment of organic contaminants in farmed salmon. Science,

2004;303(5655):226-9

4 The Observer, January 11, 2004

5 National Public Radio (NPR) January 8, 2004

6 Los Angeles Times January 9, 2004 Friday

7

http://functionalproteins.com/products/biofend/images/pib-biofend.pdf

8 Molecular Psychiatry March 1997 Volume 2, Number 2 page 146-147

9 Mail on Sunday (London), January 18, 2004

10 Inter Press Service, January 23, 2004

11 The Sunday Herald, January 18, 2004 z

12 THE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER January 15, 2004,

13 National Public Radio (NPR) January 8, 2004

14 Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) January 21, 2004

15 Los Angeles Times January 24, 2004

16 U.S. News & World Report January 19, 2004

17 Los Angeles Times January 9, 2004 Friday

18 Times Newspapers Limited, January 11, 2004

19 http://veganessentials.com/ and http://drfurhman.com/

 

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Until next month,

love,

Michael

 

--

 

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HEART FAILURE: Diary of a Third Year Medical Student (Full text now

available free):

http://www.upalumni.org/medschool

The thinker that most changed my life: Noam Chomsky

http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/index.cfm

The single article that most changed my life:

http://www.petersingerlinks.com/famine.htm

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