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A Review of the Article “The Food You Eat”
Published in Consumer Bulletin, September 1957.
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“All diseases are caused by chemicals, and all diseases can be cured by chemicals. All the chemicals used by the body–except for the oxygen which we breathe and the water which we drink–are taken in through food. If we only knew enough, all diseases could be prevented,and could be cured, through proper nutrition.”
The statement above made by Dr. Tom Douglas Spies, at the 1957 yearly meeting of the American Medical Association, comes at a time when many people, including eminent professional men of medicine and science are beginning to be very concerned about the many chemicals being used in our foods.
Recently, an outstanding medical pathologist came out with the information that some dyes used in our foods caused cancer when injected into test animals. Some of the dyes were so toxic that the test animals dropped dead. The government has made no attempt to stop the use of the dyes and there is no indication that they will.
Dr. W. C. Hueper, an eminent cancer researcher, said, “The actual or possible existence of cancer hazards related to carcinogens (cancer-causing substances) in foodstuffs…poses a serious public health problem, since the daily and lifelong exposure to such agents would represent one of the most important of the various potential sources of contact with environmental carcinogens for the population at large, acting on both the healthy and the sick. the metabolically normal and abnormal alike.”
Unfortunately, there are strong vested interests who are out to protect themselves rather than the health and welfare of our people and “Anyone who speaks up against food adulteration in any of the many forms is subject to ‘name calling.’ The most common epithets are ‘food fadist’ or ‘food fakir.’ If you object to spraying foods with poisonous chemicals, picking fruits green and then applying a dye, to injecting or administering antibiotics to poultry and dairy herds, to removing minerals and vitamins from natural foods, to adding chemical adulterants to preserve foods from normal chemical changes, you are offending…some of our largest and most influential corporations…we can be certain that the public relations counsellors will go to work to change the situation–even if that requires a bit of character assassination directed against those who are in the opposition,” said Dr. Edward J. Ryan, Editor, Dental Digest, Evanston, Illinois.
But, nevertheless, something has got to be done, even though we anger those whom, because of the lack of knowledge or because of the ill-gotten monetary gains involved, are harming our people, subjecting them to untold financial and physical injury, when we should have the healthiest people in the world.
Food additives fall into something like 20 different categories. These include antioxidants of fats and fatty substances, synthetic sweeteners, coal tar dyes, preservatives, Agene (Nitrogen Trichloride), thiourea, dihydroacetic acid, and diethylstilbestrol.
Agene has only been recently discontinued after being used for several decades as a flour bleach, thiourea has been shown to cause cancer, and diethylstilbestrol which is powerful enough to castrate animals has not been tested as to what will happen to humans getting this in their foods over a long period of time.
Our Food and Drug Administration should take steps to correct the picture, as “There is no requirement that food processors shall first obtain approval from state and federal governmental or other independent, noncommercial experts and authorities in the fields of toxicology and medical pathology.” So, maybe the people will have to write their senators and congressmen to speed up some of our civil servants who draw salaries to protect us and do not do so.
The International Symposium held in Rome in August, 1956, came to the conclusion that not a single one of the accepted dyes added to foods had been sufficiently studied to see whether they were safe.
A reputable cancer Researcher, Dr. William E. Smith, says, “It is simply not in the public interest to expose consumers to the unforeseeable risk of a host of biologically foreign food additives that may provide eye-appeal or advertising values, but often no nutritive benefit.” Dr. Smith reports that marketed poultry has contained thousands of times the amount of diethylstilbestrol which was necessary to induce cancer in mice.
When anyone makes an effort to do anything about these toxic substances he is attacked by the food industries and chemical manufacturers. The making of profit is a part of our system. Making profits has built industry and business which is part of our capitalistic system, but ill-gotten gains are not a part of our system. The human being not representing any money value, since slavery has been abolished, is protected the least of all. An example is one order of the Food and Drug Administration which protected the cows against a poisonous insecticide, but not the people. Cows are worth money, but the most precious thing of all, human life, seems to be of no value to some people.
In the meantime, until we can get something done, the consumer can protect himself by avoiding dyed or synthetically colored foods, caponized poultry, burned fats and overheated oils, overbroiled meats, and anything that has additives to prevent spoilage or mold inhibitors. Examine your labels carefully!!
Leave off so many starchy and sugary foods and eat good protein foods and those rich in the B Complex vitamins. This will help prevent the development of cancer and other diseases.
All of us who are interested in health and welfare will agree with Dr. Edward J. Ryan, Editor, The Dental Digest, Evanston, Illinois, when he said, “…Every time a natural substance is removed from a food, every time an adulterant is added to a food, the balance in nature is disturbed…The chemical and cellular processes within the body cells cannot react to the passing whims of chemists without disturbance in functioning. It took thousands of years for the body to adjust itself to changing environmental conditions. When these conditions are suddenly altered by actions of men, the cells cannot make the adjustment–disease is the result. “
All of this poses a question: Why does every war see our physical requirements lowered in order to obtain men? Our physical standard is on the downgrade. Many infectious diseases are under control due to the fact that we have refrigeration to preserve fresh vegetables and fruits throughout the year and because of better sanitation but not because of “shots” or immunization programs. Yet, we must now die of greater degrees of physical degeneration and our young people have old people’s diseases.
When we are all too sick to fight, who is going to protect the vested interests from foreign attack and where will be our domestic market? It is better to be satisfied with a little less and have something, than to become too greedy and ruin everyone, including yourself.
We cannot have our cake and eat it too!!