1. Sugary
Drinks, Diet Drinks are Addictive and Fattening
Sugary drinks, especially soda, run
rampant in the U.S., with corporations shelling out millions to
advertise to both children and adults.
Kids are taking in 7
trillion calories of sugar each year from soda alone, with sodas
making up 15-25% of the daily recommended caloric intake for
kids aged 2 to 19. Sugar-sweetened sodas can contain upwards of
200 calories per can, but even artificially sweetened drinks
should not be considered safe.
Several studies show that
artificial sweeteners - like
cancer-linked aspartame - can contribute to tooth decay,
obesity,
kidney damage, and depression.
2. Bisphenol
A and Other Chemicals in Canned Goods
BPA is a hormone disrupting chemical
used in canned goods and
plastic bottles.
The chemical, which is labeled as "toxic"
in other nations, had a chance to be banned of March 2012. In a
move that angered activists within the US and even
internationally,
the FDA ruled against the ban.
This ubiquitous
chemical has been linked to:
3. Buying
Out and Creating Organic Companies
You may not know this, but many
organic companies are actually owned and operated by major
corporations like Coca-Cola or Kellogg.
Companies like Honest
Tea and Odwalla may appeal to health conscious
shoppers, but they are actually owned by Coca-Cola. Another
popular ‘health’ brand is Kashi, owned by the Kellogg
corporation.
Some products from these companies may be ’100%
organic’, but do you really trust their labeling practices? Or
perhaps more important, do you really want to give support to
the corporate producer?
Further, these large corporations
are buying out some of the companies many natural-health
advocates have grown to love.
One example is when New Chapter, a
vitamin and supplement company offering worthy products since
1892, was bought
out by mega-corporation Proctor and Gamble.
4. Antibiotics
are Making People Fat
These days, physicians are a little
stab-happy with their antibiotics, often to just please the
patient with a medical solution (a placebo effect, if you
will).
But it could be setting us up for lifelong obesity
- at
least that’s what
some
research has to say. In addition to killing "bad" bacteria,
antibiotics kill "good" bacteria in the gut, thereby disrupting
digestion even in the long run.
There’s also mounting evidence
that antibiotics may be promoting diabetes and metabolic
syndrome - but not killing the cold and flu viruses that parents
think they are (antibiotics cannot kill viruses, only bacteria).
5. Antibiotics
in Livestock are Promoting Bacterial Resistance
Last year,
The Guardian wrote about 150 scientists and 50
farmers - including a former FDA commissioner - demanding that
Congress regulate antibiotic use in livestock.
The European
Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has even blamed
overuse of antibiotics for the global resistance to
antibiotics, which could make antibiotics futile against
disease-causing bacteria.
And this is not even considering the
other ill effects antibiotics have on the animals we eat.
6. Supporting
Genetically Modified Foods and Herbicides
If you are into organic foods and
have been following GM news, you know that the latest and
greatest chance for GM labeling was with
California’s
proposition 37.
Needless to say, the bill was not passed, but
Prop 37 did teach us a lot about the interest of various
companies and mega corporations.
It was no surprise to see
biotech giant
Monsanto dish out
over $4 million to fight the bill, but some people were
surprised to see Naked Juice, Kashi, Cascadian Farm Organic,
Honest Tea, and some others on the side of anti-GM
labeling.
As mentioned above, many of these companies are owned
by corporations like Coca-Cola or General Mills.
They all support GM food, are
anti-GM labeling, and subsequently support the use of herbicides
and pesticides. Pesticides that are being used in greater
amounts each day thanks to mutated insects that become resistant
to Monsanto’s Roundup-ready GM crops.
According to numerous pieces of
research, GM foods like Monsanto’s corn have been implicated of
contributing to,
-
weight gain
-
organ disruption
-
tumor development
-
infertility,
...in rats (in a lab).
Roundup - a glyphosate-based herbicide - is to
thank for contributing to
water
pollution, resistant
rootworms and superweeds, and environmental devastation.
7. Herbicides
and Insecticides Contributing to Bee Colony Collapse
Although technological products like
cell phone towers and cell phones are hurting the bee
population, herbicides, insecticides and pesticides brought to
us by,
-
Bayer
-
Monsanto
-
Dow AgroSciences,
...appear to be the
main culprits.
It has been shown time and time again that these
chemicals are
ravaging
these tiny insects that are essential for agriculture
purposes and pollinating food crops.
"…a
document
was leaked revealing that a
bee-killing pesticide
put in
use by the EPA may be to blame [for the bee decline].
Adding
to the controversy, more records have emerged showing that
the USDA was fully
aware of the pesticide’s threat to not only bees, but
humans…
Neonicotinoids, the particular type of pesticides
used, are absorbed systemically into plants, including the
pollen and nectar. Once the bees begin to pollinate, they
also absorb the insecticide, and die."
Neonicotinoids have been banned in
France and Germany, but not the United States.
8. Factory
Farms Devastate Land and Sea
If you purchase your meat from a
grocery store instead of a farmer’s market or co-op, it was
probably raised in a factory farm.
Not only are these farms
known for extreme animal cruelty (which many undercover videos
have gruesomely pointed out), but they are also responsible for
polluting groundwater, drinking water, and contributing to
massive deforestation.
Actually, they produce
100 times more waste than the entire U.S. population.
Run-off from these establishments as
well as non-organic crops are contributing to
blooms and dead zones in coastal waters.
Earlier this year,
a scientific paper
argued against the case of factory farms feeding the world,
but with the USDA and FDA deep in industrial farming’s pockets,
it will take considerable time and effort before we see any
changes.
