Beyond Prescriptions

A few months ago my grandson turned 16. It seemed like just yesterday I was sitting at a fast food restaurant with his mom and a then almost 4 year old eating the traditional “happy meal“. But only after a few bites, he decided he did not want it and moved on to the play yard outside. I scooped it up and put it into a paper bag, hamburger and french fries together, and put in on a shelf in my closet as I was told this meal would not decay and I wanted to check this out for myself.

That was October 27, 1997. I just recently took a picture of this burger and fries. It actually looks a lot like it did so many years ago (going on 14 to be exact)!  It still looks pretty much the same now as it did then.  You would expect mold?  Or perhaps bugs would have wanted it?  None of that…..just stale bread, half-eaten burger meat, and greasy fries…..and apparently a lot of chemicals.  I began to wonder about the nutrition of this meal.

Few people realize that April 15th marked the opening, 56 years ago, of Ray Kroc’s first McDonald’s franchise in Des Plaines, IL.    Who knew what the impact at that time would be on America’s obesity issues.  According to Mike Jacobson, posting on MomsRising.org, “Yes, thanks to McDonald’s, one can eat out quite cheaply.  And it’s hard to be dismissive of that achievement in a time of high unemployment and high income disparity.  But that low price obscures the financial toll exacted on Americans by McDonald’s and McDonald’s imitators in terms of the costs associated with treating obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and other conditions.  So in that way, McDonald’s has been taxing us for the past half-century-plus:  We now spend about $90 billion a year to treat heart disease and high blood pressure alone.”

Equally outspoken about our food industry, Jamie Oliver, a British chef,  presently being featured on ABC network television is  revealing  exactly what ingredients  are  in the foods being served in the LA public school cafeterias.  Jamie, determined to take on the high statistics of obesity, heart disease and diabetes in this country, where our nation’s children are the first generation not expected to live as long as their parents, shocked parents on this first episode with a description of “pink slime”…..a homogenized mix of the runoff from the meat packing industry, stuff normally used for pet food, processed with ammonia (a toxic household cleaner) to rid the substance of e-coli and salmonella. Up to 15% of this substance can then be added back into ground meat, creating quite a cost savings.  Over 5.5 million pounds of this is used in schools.  Ammonia is not required by the USDA to be listed as an ingredient in this substance.

If this were not bad enough, a recent study by the Translational Genomics Research Institute discovered that after taking  samples of meat and poultry around the country, they found that 47 percent had evidence of Staphylococcus aureus contamination. More than half of the bacteria they found were resistant to at least three classes of antibiotics, according to the study, published online today in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

This study was the first of its kind to examine the presence of staph bacteria...including MRSA, a strain of staph that is resistant to most commonly used antibiotics.  And, of course we all know that the source of the resistant bacteria are the animals, given antibiotics to counter unsanitary living conditions and increase the production of meat.

Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, states, “The industrial food chain, in its quest to produce vast quantities of cheap animal protein, has changed the diet of most of our food animals from plants to seeds, because animals grow faster and produce more milk and eggs on a high-energy diet of grain.  But some of our food animals, such as cows and sheep, are ruminants that evolved to eat grass; if they eat too many seeds, they become sick, which is why grain-fed cattle have to be given antibiotics.”

This is , of course all “food for thought.” As a parent and grandparent, my gut feelings would be to avoid the fast food, school lunch, processed food route and opt for wild, not farm-raised fish and grass-fed hormone-free beef, free-range chickens (for those not vegan or vegetarian), whole grains, lots and lots of wholesome veggies, and pure, natural supplements without pesticides and contaminants.  I would love to hear your suggestions as well!