Weight Loss Blog

Raw And Organic Almonds To Be Treated With Banned Carcinogen

… treated with the banned carcinogen for your protection of course …

Almonds are a unique package of nutrients – a good source of protein (6 grams per one ounce) along with dietary fiber, phosphorus, calcium, potassium, magnesium, manganese, copper, zinc, iron and vitamin E. In fact, one ounce of almonds provides about 7.4 grams of alpha-tocopherol vitamin E, 50 percent of the RDA. Almonds are the only good source of protein that is also an excellent source of vitamin E.

Read more about Almond Nutrition and Facts

And now, Almonds will soon be a good source of Propylene Oxide, a possible human carcinogen and highly toxic flammable compound.

The nutrition of almonds, the vitamins, minerals, good fats and enzymes are heat sensitive.

Pasteurizing them kills them.

Pasteurization heats the fats and makes it rancid and promotes ill health.

Why does the USDA think that decreasing the nutritional value of the food will make it better for human consumption?

OrganicConsumers.org says this about the USDA’s pasteurization of almonds

While the USDA generously describes the new almond treatments as pasteurization, the most common treatment method expected to be used fumigates almonds with propylene oxide. In lab experiments, the chemical leads to gene mutation, DNA strand breaks, and neoplastic cell transformation. The U.S. EPA has classified propylene oxide as a probable human carcinogen. Its use in treating food for human consumption is banned in the European Union, Canada, Mexico, and most other countries.

So, the carcinogen is banned from the EU, Canada, Mexico and most other countries but they’re going to force the almond growers to sprinkle it generously on our Almonds. Nice. Who’s in charge of this again?

Stop The Insanity

Organic Consumers has been leading a campaign to stop this stupidity. I’ve participated as best I can and brought it to the attention of my readers.

It didn’t work, but we may have an opportunity to reverse it for a small period of time

A recent alert from Organic Consumers

Despite a negative backlash from almond producers, retailers and consumers, the USDA has implemented its ruling to require that all raw almonds sold in stores must be pasteurized. The rule went into effect on September 1st, and since then, all retail outlets have been forced to remove true raw almonds from store shelves. Consumers will be misled by this action as there will still be almonds on store shelves labeled as "raw", but they will actually be pasteurized.

One of the FDA-recommended pasteurization methods requires the use of propylene oxide, which is classified as a "possible human carcinogen" by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and is banned in Canada, Mexico, and the European Union.

Since the decision about the rule was made, Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Johanns, has stepped down. He is temporarily replaced by Chuck Conner. This may provide a new opportunity for reversal.

Please contact Conner today to ask that the rule be suspended for 6 months while the public comment period is re-opened.

Take Action Now

Why Pasteurization?

Unlike milk, eggs, and meats, for which real pasteurization or cooking offers an important protection from food-borne illness, no scientific evidence exists to show that almonds are an inherently risky food. In fact, Salmonella contamination of almonds can only occur when livestock manure or fecal matter is inadvertently transferred to the nuts through contaminated water, soil, or transportation and handling equipment. Almonds may also be infected by poor employee sanitation either on the farm or in processing facilities.

You may remember E. Coli tainted Spinach from 2006 that killed 3 people and sickened more than 200. That has now been linked to a Pig and Cattle farm.

Source of tainted Spinach linked to Pig and Cattle Farm

March 23, 2007

FRESNO, Calif. - The likely source of an E. coli outbreak in spinach that killed three people and sickened more than 200 was a small cattle ranch about 30 miles from California’s central coastline, state and federal officials said Friday as they concluded their investigation. cite

Suzanne Nelson of the Cleveland Free Times puts it very well in her story Don’t Eat That when she says

This is a story about a regulatory system increasingly friendly to the notion that consumers aren't smart enough or sufficiently informed to make the "right" choices

She adds…

It's also a story about nomenclature. At some undetectable moment in recent history, modern food parlance parted ways with common standards of forthrightness and left us in an up-is-down world where food manufacturers may soon be able to subject food to ionizing radiation and call it "cold pasteurization," where "chocolate" may not have to actually contain cocoa, and where almonds labeled "raw" must be sprayed with a suspected human carcinogen.

Here’s the deal from my perspective: The USDA is making choices for us because they think that we don’t know how to wash our own fruits and vegetables. If you’re not washing your fruits and vegetables to remove as much herbicide, pesticides, insects, insect eggs and any other wastes or debris, then you should begin now.

Sunrider produces a fantastic Fruit and Vegetable rinse for this exact purpose.

I can only imagine that the USDA is doing what they think is best, but from outside, their actions seem quite irresponsible and damaging to the public. That’s you and I. I feel that I am in charge of my life. I make the choices about what goes in my body, good or bad, but without an option here for raw Almonds, I’m pretty much fucked. I won’t put a known carcinogen into my body, so where does that leave me now?

I did some reading from the USDA’s website and from what I understand, since this rule goes into effect, we wont be able to buy anything unpasteurized in the US or Canada, but almonds shipped anywhere else just have to be labeled "safe for human consumption, free of carcinogens and perfectly raw and organic" to warn the consumer that they’re not pasteurized. If we can get a hold of those Almonds somehow, we’re good to go.

We may have to resort to Almond smuggling. It could be that simple. Forget cigarette smuggling, lets get into Almond smuggling.

To be honest, the USDA says that Almonds shipped outside of the US have to be "clearly" labeled "unpasteurized" so that we know that they’re (in their words) "safe" for consumption.

So here’s the current campaign that Organic Consumer is running.

Since the ruling Sept 1st, Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Johanns, has stepped down and has been temporarily replaced by Chuck Conner.

We have a chance for a reversal if our voice is heard.

I’m Canadian and I’m doing what I can do for this. If you’re in the US, your voice may be more powerful than mine. Do what you can. Visit Organic Consumer and participate in sending this email to Chuck.

I’ll see what I can do about getting a fax number so we can fax him as well.

Lets bombard him with emails and Fax’s

Standing by quietly is not an option.

Further reading

Cornocopia Institute Authentic Almond Project

Organic Consumers Democracy in Action Campaign

Suzanne Nelson's Don't Eat That Article

Labels: Almonds

Raw And Organic Almonds To Be Treated With Banned Carcinogen
was posted by Rob @ 10/17/2007 12:50:00 PM 1 comments
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Almond Growers Want Delay Before They Have To Kill Their Almonds

Almond growers of California ABC are asking for a delay in their requirement to kill and add the necessary highly toxic flammable compounds to the almonds you'll be eating as required by the United States Government. They're being forced to pasteurize their almonds and if you don't act by the August 31st, 2007, your raw organic or natural almonds will be a thing of the past.

Remember the salmonella outbreak in 2004 which affected a few people? Well, the USDA have decided that spending a few dollars on educating people (running a few TV advertising spots) on how to wash their fruits, vegetables and almonds would not be as efficient as killing all the nutrition and sterilizing the Almonds.

From the San Fransisco Gate:

In January, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that virtually all almonds would have to be pasteurized as of September 1. This new rule was a result of Salmonella outbreaks in 2001 and 2004 that were traced back to raw almonds.

The California Almond Board is now requesting the USDA delay the implementation until March 1, 2008 in order to ensure there’s enough pasteurization capacity available to comply, without disrupting the flow of nuts to the market.

The USDA has stated it will consider the request and publish their decision in the Federal Register by September 1.
source

Remember dear reader that if they do this for almonds, they'll do it for everything in your food supply.

My guess is that the US is realizing that the farm land and areas used to grow food will no longer be able to support the amount of people on this planet. So to aleviate the strain on the food supply, it would be a good idea to have more humans perish from lack of nutriton, and to quickly die off, thus leaving the rest of us "in the know" to have food grown locally.

I'm not kidding.

Dr Mercola has this to say about the pasteurization process

As gentle and safe as this may sound, pasteurizing almonds means they are no longer natural or raw.

Anytime you heat a food much above 105 degrees you start destroying the value of the food. The higher the temperature the more damage that is done.

The requirement to pasteurize ALL almonds means that it may be next to impossible to find an almond in the United States that's still in the state nature intended, and no one knows how this process will impact the nutritional value or other properties of the nuts.

This is not rocket science folks. Nearly everyone readily accepts that when you cook vegetables to death they do not provide the same nutritional value as when they are eaten raw. Similarly, I have documented the enormous problems with pasteurized milk. It would seem rational to conclude that one would see similar reduction in the nutritional value of the almonds once they are pasteurized. Fortunately hundreds of thousands of Americans are finally appreciating this truth

In response to an article Mercola posted, he was told that

the ABC [Almond Board of California] will not use any heating or radiation to “pasteurize” their almonds. Instead, he explained, they will use propylene oxide in their almond “pasteurization” process. In the FDA’s “Guide to Inspections of Manufacturers of Miscellaneous Food Products,” this process is referred to as “terminal gas sterilization.”

Even a simple search for proplyene oxide in Wikipedia provides the following information: "Propylene oxide is a highly toxic flammable chemical compound. It was once used as a racing fuel, but that usage is now prohibited under the US National Hot Rod rules for safety reasons. It is also used in thermobaric weapons. It is an epoxide."

Maybe they just have too much of this crap and have to get rid of it much like the whole fluoride issue.

Protect your health, protect your rights, learn more, fight for clean water, clean air and for God sakes, clean food!

Take Action - See Say Goodbye To Raw And Organic Almonds

Be Well

Labels: Almonds

Almond Growers Want Delay Before They Have To Kill Their Almonds
was posted by Rob @ 8/30/2007 11:22:00 AM 1 comments
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Say Goodbye To Raw And Organic Almonds

USDA has quietly approved a new regulation that will effectively end distribution of raw almonds. The regulation is scheduled to go into effect in just a few short days on September 1st, unless thousands of consumers take action now.

Take Action NOW!!!

USDA SAYS ALMONDS LABELED AS 'RAW' OR 'ORGANIC' MUST BE PASTEURIZED

Under pressure from industrial agriculture lobbyists, the USDA has quietly approved a new regulation that will effectively end distribution of raw almonds, while putting many smaller almond farmers out of business. The regulation is scheduled to go into effect on September 1st, unless thousands of consumers take action now. The rule requires pasteurization of almonds, including organic, yet allows those same almonds to continue to be labeled as "raw". Nutritionists point out that raw, organic almonds are far superior, in terms of nutrition, to pasteurized almonds. One of the FDA-recommended pasteurization methods involves the use of propylene oxide, which is classified as a carcinogen in California and is banned in Canada, Mexico, and the European Union. Organic and family-scale almond farmers are protesting the proposed rule, saying it will effectively put them out of business, since the minimum price for the pasteurization equipment is $500,000.

[Rob's Note:] Not to mention that people who know about this won't eat the Almonds anymore. Where do they get off messing with my foods. Geesh, let me make my own fucking decisions about this. I want the raw almond... I'll take care of cleaning it myself. How dare you, the Government get involved in my food supply.

The Authentic Almond Project

California-grown raw almonds may soon no longer be available. A new USDA mandate requires raw almonds to be sanitized through treatment processes that the industry generously describes as “pasteurization.”

The rule requires "pasteurization of almonds" with a toxic fumigant or treatment with high-temperature heat. The scheme imposes significant financial burdens on small-scale and organic growers, lacks scientific justification, damages domestic almond markets, and does not address the unsustainable methods used on the industrial-scale almond orchards where the only traced-back Salmonella outbreak occurred. And the treated almonds can still be deceptively labeled as “raw!”

Click here to read the full news story on this issue.

Labels: Almonds

Say Goodbye To Raw And Organic Almonds
was posted by Rob @ 8/26/2007 08:54:00 PM 3 comments
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