Cholesterol drugs for children? Are we dying for profits?

we tax payers spend mountains of cash maintaining an expanded food testing program

Expanded food testing? Not a chance, there are fewer inspectors than 30 years ago for the basic oversight. The gmo foods have never been subjected to human health testing. We have factory food handling that rival Upton Sinclair's time. No, testing costs are not a factor it's lobbying costs that allow such unsafe conditions to flourish that we need to worry about.

As for the imports, they're hardly as much of a problem as the routine fumigating and storage issues. Importing has it's own problems but the agribusiness giants, ADM and Cargill are the same corporations controlling the food from abroad as at home. It's one big fleecing of the consumers, that part you have hit right on the bulls eye.

That Creekstone case was a really telling point in our food safety and free markets, eh? I forbid my kiddies to eat ground beef a few years ago for just this reason. While we've always been super careful about foods, this turned me against anything ground from anywhere. What's worse than knowing that even the most vigilant producers are prohibited from doing safety tests?

No they should not, especially not for treating diseases of older individuals with unhealthy lifestyles.

You're right about depending too much on drugs, especially when the side effects are worse than foregoing the treatment. It always amazes me that drug ads include the list of serious and fatal effects the segue into the happy voice saying live better. We've lost our collective perspective.

One of the more tragic things about all these drugs is that so many people think that a doctor writing a prescription automatically means it is the best route to go.

Most doctors are pressed for time, know little to nothing about nutrition and natural remedies and treat the symptoms with the latest pharma option. I hope your grandmother does take control of their fate and go for another opinion.

The petrochemical companies like Monsanto have their hands in both foods and drugs. On the one side we swallow toxic additives and the other treatments to relieve the effects. They have something for you to swallow in both the cause and effect.

If you look at the big picture objectively you see the systematic destruction of low cost natural sources in favor of things that increase dependence on corporate sources. It's the reason marijuana is outlawed when statins are encouraged, safety and effectiveness take a back seat to corporate profits and control.

Of course the judges threw ou all my motions but they are still on record somewhere and they had the desired effect.They have an easier softer way policy in Norman,Ok. now.At the discretion of the officer. A little at a time.sigh....soon.

Three cheers for you and thank you for the good fight. It's a million little acts that help to create change and while every one may not be noticed, together they help to swing the balance. :~)i

Thanks for the link; I love having other sources added to the discussion and will go check it out.

Interesting paper and not exactly what I was expecting. I guess I was thinking there would be a study but in many ways what you have added is better. The truth is that the frequently cited "studies" backing up claims for or against certain food products are based on limited studies that are designed to support a forgone conclusion.

One of the biggest frauds in this area is the promotion of soy as a wonderfood and the FDA endorsement that came with it. Weston Price is a wonderful source of myths and truths about soy and other foods and claims about health effects positive and negative. The bottom line is that all this is driven by profit motives and health claims are a great marketing tool that may have no relation to the food product that they are associated with. It is a dangerous world for consumers.

It's the best plan and in my world you can do it with fresh Italian pastry daily, just not too many.

My kiddies all have great eating habits since kids love to do the opposite of their parents! :~) Half kidding there, they were all raised with me faking the balanced diet on my own and none will touch a drop of high fructose corn syrup or gmo or additives. If they want sweets it's pure and fair trade.

It wasn't meant to criticize, just an observation. The other link was a great one, but thanks for this.

Hi Ann and thanks for the question, there's nothing that's too off topic for me and only mean spirited commenting is discouraged in my columns. :~)

A few points to be clear on before I offer my theories and research. I am not a doctor but did seven years of primary care in a bone marrow transplant-cancer research environment before stumbling into the area of toxic food elements. I back into most of the studies from following the money trails.

That means when a health claim of drug is made that addresses a problem I find who stands to benefit and who funds the studies, the legislative changes or approvals to make it possible. The bulk of my energies goes to exposing political and scientific fraud and those who perpetuate it.

That said there are vast numbers of hormone altering elements that have been increasing in our diets over time. Much of these are given to all animals produced in factory farm environments, beef, chickens, pigs and dairy cows.

The studies of the downstream effects are rare since the corporate funding for most studies is based on a don't look- don't find model and for over a decade the media has helped by remaining silent on the changes in the foods, focusing instead on the drug treatments that provide revenue.

Of all the changes one of the least reported and direct hormone altering elements is the Monsanto rBGH given to cows to hype the yield by eliminating their natural cycles. The treatments have been shown to elevate IGF-1 hormones and that is associated with increases in small cell cancers like breast and colon, increased diabetes and other skeletal diseases, which led to this being banned in the developed nations of the world. Even with those known causes, very little followup is done but we do see a population that has consumed this exhibiting the rates of associated diseases increase as one would expect given the increase consumption population wide.

The bottom line is that hormones are extraordinarily sensitive to changes and very little is understood about how they operate or what triggers cause them to function or malfunction. We know that diabetes is one manifestation of hormonal balances gone awry.

The best to hope at this point is that the general public begins to demand that regulatory agencies institute policies of tracking the health effects of these altered foods. The best defense is to know that the hidden dangers are designed to increase agribusiness profits are not weighed for negative effects on humans.

From an economic and health view the more you can stay with foods and sources that are created in the way that Nature intended, small, organic or at least free from profit hyping drug additives the better your health will be. Nature's way plus chemicals and drugs, plus profits will never beat the health benefits of nature alone.

Hopefully that gives you a bit of what you wanted, it is frustrating to have such a void in the study data when it comes to negative effects but folks pay for news that sells products, even there the truth is manipulated so the biggest benefit is sales.

I am not exactly impartial but there are many groups that I see as trusted sources. One that most folks know for cars and appliances is just as good with food and labeling issues, Consumers Union, publishers of Consumer Reports has a great staff and wonderful information.

The quickest way to give you the broadest number of sources is to send you to my film site. Go to the page on the resources tab and there are links to dozens of groups with all sorts of tools for digging into the toxic politics, front groups and science of the foods themselves and a link to CU noted above.

The recommendations list on my Newsvine column is filled with great information links too Just click on my name here in comments and it will take you to my column. That actually works for alll users!! Most links are named to describe them clearly. If you go scan through those you should find the type of voices you are looking for. Weston Price linked above is another great one. Be warned, your view of food will change forever though. :~)

I'd love to be friends, thank you. :~)