Tag Archives: rats

Hunt’s removes HFCS from all its ketchups

A couple of weeks ago Melanie Warner predicted this, and now it’s happened: Less is More: Hunt’s Ketchup Removes High Fructose Corn Syrup From Entire Retail Line
OMAHA, Neb., May 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Hunt’s®, a ConAgra Foods brand, is pleased to announce that it has removed the high fructose corn syrup from every bottle of its ketchup products. Hunt’s 100% Natural Ketchup brings forth the naturally rich tomato flavor of Hunt’s tomatoes and contains only five simple ingredients: tomatoes, sugar, vinegar, salt and other seasonings, with no high fructose corn syrup, artificial ingredients or preservatives.

“In direct response to consumer demand(1), Hunt’s is pleased to offer ketchup sweetened with sugar and containing only five simple ingredients,” said Ryan Toreson, Hunt’s Ketchup brand manager. “Parents are looking for wholesome meals and ingredients they recognize—and the taste of Hunt’s ketchup is something both kids and adults love. Even with the new recipe, we have maintained the same great tangy, sweet taste that Hunt’s has always had and that consumers tell us they prefer.”

This is the same ConAgra that said:
“Our focus is on consumer preference, not the science.”
That would be the science that said:
“When rats are drinking high-fructose corn syrup at levels well below those in soda pop, they’re becoming obese — every single one, across the board. Even when rats are fed a high-fat diet, you don’t see this; they don’t all gain extra weight.”
So a corporation that doesn’t care about science that says a key ingredient in their product makes rats fat, every one of them, in ways that produce the same risk factors that in humans contribute to high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, cancer, and diabetes, that same corporation does care when its customers say they don’t want that ingredient.

As ConAgra says in the press release:

(1) The 2009 HealthFocus® Trend Report indicated consumer concern over high fructose corn syrup has risen from 27% of shoppers being extremely or very concerned in 2004 to 45% of shoppers in 2008.
Voting at the supermarket checkout works.

Monsanto Corn Causes Liver and Kidney Damage in Rats

The researchers used Monsanto’s own data, which was for a period of ingestion of only 90 days, and reached these conclusions:
We therefore conclude that our data strongly suggests that these GM maize varieties induce a state of hepatorenal [liver and kidney] toxicity. This can be due to the new pesticides (herbicide or insecticide) present specifically in each type of GM maize, although unintended metabolic effects due to the mutagenic properties of the GM transformation process cannot be excluded [42]. All three GM maize varieties contain a distinctly different pesticide residue associated with their particular GM event (glyphosate and AMPA in NK 603, modified Cry1Ab in MON 810, modified Cry3Bb1 in MON 863).
Why should GM foods have this sort of effect?
These substances have never before been an integral part of the human or animal diet and therefore their health consequences for those who consume them, especially over long time periods are currently unknown.
Humans generally have centuries of experience with most other foods, and have rejected or developed appropriate preparation methods for those that are toxic.

Plus until recently humans weren’t in the habit of eating pesticides that had been deliberately engineered to be toxic to other species. Especially without testing first to see if they might be toxic to humans….

One of the four authors of this research paper in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Biological Sciences, Gilles-Eric Seralini, had already established that Glyphosate Formulations Induce Apoptosis and Necrosis in Human Umbilical, Embryonic, and Placental Cells. In other words, RoundUp causes human birth defects. So if Monsanto’s pesticide doesn’t get you or your children directly, it can still get you in your food. And maybe not just in food containing corn, given that chickens fed feed including Monsanto corn show abnormal gene expression. Maybe somebody will study people who eat chickens fed Monsanto corn and see what effects that has.

But remember, while the evidence mounts that Monsanto is poisoning the world’s food supply, Forbes just named Monsanto company of the year! All this other stuff is just economic externalities, and profit is all that matters!