|
Over the last decade there has been a huge shift in our awareness of disease. Cancer in particular, has gone from whispers of the dreaded "C" word, into the mainstream for discussion. Growing understanding is very good for patients, families and hopefully a bit of prevention.
You need to understand a problem, before you can deal with it and health is no different. There are few more sobering events than a cancer diagnosis. For anyone close to the situation, and at this point that would be most Americans, there is a passion for surviving and fighting. That spirit has been tapped to help support a phenomenon of fund raising, notably walks for "The Cure".
The idea of raising money for good causes is probably as old as the very first village. Maybe it was when the poorest family lost their water in a shattered jug event involving a wild animal. The encounter left the family short so the clansmen all shared one cup of theirs. As each one helps in a small way, the unfortunate ones are aided with not so much downside for anyone. It's a good common sense approach to social problems.
People care and people share; so when it comes to something as devastating as cancer it is unthinkable for most of us to believe that there could be anything behind but good hearted caring behind all these efforts to raise money to search for cures.
Sadly that is not always the case. Occasional news reports individual frauds from time to time, but some of the best known names have made a business of hype. While many organizations do carry out the mission, the Pink Ribbon Campaigns often about cashing in.
Take the Susan B. Koman Foundation for example. It was founded and is run by Nancy Brinker, named for her sister who lost a battle with breast cancer many years ago. Prior to creating the foundation Nancy did public relations and marketing for the Neiman Marcus department stores, known for such gifts as his and hers helicopters.
The Pink Ribbon campaigns have grown like wild fire, but many of the supporting products are known to increase the risk of breast cancer. How can it be possible that a group that advocates for cancer cures could do that?
Now a thinking person will suddenly feel like this is a very bad joke, how in the world could we have products that are known to cause cancer as part of a fund raising effort to find a cure? Something doesn't fit and that is the money factor. Food politics is dirty business and when it comes to cancer causing agents, what you see is seldom what you get.
To me the biggest "pink" frauds are the dairy products, especially Yoplait and Dannon. For more than a decade these dairy products have been made with milk from Monsanto's Posilac treated cows. It's is also known as rBGH or rBST, but whatever name they choose in any discussion, it all refers to the bovine growth hormone.
The hormone treatment has been banned world wide since 1994. Here in the US, where it has been used to treat up to half of the cows, no one is allowed to say a word about the milk being different. The treated and untreated are measured by the FDA for the nutrients only and no one was talking about the hormone effects.
After a bit of study went into the bovine growth hormone, the worlds health experts became concerned. The milk from the treated cows had a hormone altering affect on the IGF-1 hormone in particular. The doctors found reason to ban it, the elevated hormone levels increased rates of cancers, diabetes, and other diseases.
The United Nations-World Health Organization JECFA and NIH research stated these findings yet it still went into the food supply in America.
"JECFA is an international expert scientific committee that is administered jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health organization (WHO). It has been meeting since 1956, initially to evaluate the safety of food additives.
The public health committee confirmed earlier reports of excess levels of the naturally occurring Insulin-like-Growth Factor One (IGF-1), including its highly potent variants, in rBGH milk and concluded that these posed increased risks of breast cancer, colorectal cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, lymphoma, arthritis from the elevated levels of IGF-1 hormones."
It is a terrible thing to realize that the Congress is so beholden to the agribusiness that cancer causing agents are permitted in the food supply. In this case they're subsidized, which is criminal when you think that taxpayers are actually supporting their own illness and they shop for things that will make them deathly ill. The only thing worse is selling the cause along with the hope for a cure.
Knowledge is power and being a well informed consumer is the best tool for change. Your health will be better and the dollars you spend will be votes for the products and standards that you value. One by one, day by day, each and every small action makes a difference.
If you want additional information about the rBGH, Organic Consumers has a full archive. My Roundup Ready Nation film site has a JECFA summary, by Consumers Union under the UN Logo on the sources page. Breast Cancer Action is also linked from the site under the Think Before You Pink logo or at BCA's site.
Trackback(0)
 |
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
