Sunday, November 21, 2010

chemicals in the food

            Many of the foods that we eat look safe, like there’s nothing to worry about when we make it because it’s approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). But what consumers don’t know is that some of these chemicals put into our food or that’s sprayed on our fruits and vegetables when they are growing can cause illnesses that sometimes can’t be cured by antibiotics. These chemicals can also have adverse effects on the human body and might be the main reason as to why we are going through our normal changes at an early age.
            Consumers in today's society are being fed food that looks pretty. Food that has a lot of flavor in it, food that’s ultimately not real. Real in the sense that it’s not as nutritional as it was back in the days of actual farming and when people weren’t so fat or had all these health issues floating around now. These additives or chemicals can pose different health risk on a person, some might cause cancer or some might even cause them to be obese.  For example sugar additives especially in diet sodas can cause the consumer to gain weight, which it’s not primarily intended to but it just does.
            Some of the chemicals that are also being put in our food are High Fructose Corn Syrup, which is found in almost everything we consume. This type of chemical can make the consumers blood pressure to rise and can lead to heart disease. In the article “Chemicals found in everyday food cause cancer, wild hormonal shifts” it says that these Dutch researchers have found that man made milk, bread and butter can build up in the body and harm it. They even state that low doses of the chemicals in the food, over time can accumulate and have an effect inside and the consumer is left with serious medical problems. Natural Health advocate Mike Adams stated that “certain chemicals in foods have already started causing problems for humans and environment,” he also states that due to the chemicals in food girls are going through puberty at ages such as thirteen or even younger.
            Growth hormones in meat and milk can cause girls to start going through puberty as early as seven years old that are growing breast tissue and getting their periods all thanks to the chemical in the meat. These growths on a girl can lead to social and physical problems. For example girl that’s eight years old with breast make them look older than what they are and can also make them feel as if they don’t fit in with the rest. This growth hormone in the meat/milk  is also a contributor to the high rate of child/adult obesity in the US.
`           Ashley Armstrong  a what seems to be normal five year old, she dances and plays softball and is learning to play guitar has kidney disease and needs a few transplants. Her kidney failure can even prevent her from having children when she is older. The disease she has isn’t hereditary; she caught it from when her mom gave her spinach for dinner that had E. Coli in it. A study in the Pew Charitable Trusts Produce Safety Project found that food borne illnesses such as E. Coli and Salmonella and other pathogens alike are on the rise and have been linked to getting 76 million people sick and about 5,000 people dying yearly.
            Even low dosage of hormones and antibiotics can pose a threat to the consumers even though the FDA and USDA claimed it wouldn’t. These low dosage hormones and antibiotics that’s  fed to the cows have adverse effects on a fetus and younger children. David Wallinga says that “it’s not the size of the dose, but the fact that there’s any exposure at the wrong time.” He says this because if the body is still in the process of growing and going through changes these synthetic hormones as it’s called can create complications and be a major factor in prostate and breast cancer, early onset puberty and infertility.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

prospectus

what my research paper will be about is on how chemicals are being put into our food to better the taste rather than better the health part. i will discuss what chemicals are being put into the food and what advantages/disadvantages it may cause on the consumers. Also on how because of the chemicals a lot of the natural nutrients isnt found as much in food now.

a couple questions that might arise in this paper:
what chemicals exactly are being put into the food?why would the companies care more about the taste instead of the health aspect?

where i will get my research:
from the two books we are reading in this class and our environmental ethics class, also on the internet fidning out what our food is being processed by and food labels. also interviews online as well on why chemicals are more of a prominent factor in out food than the actual nutrients