First Long-Term Study of GMO Corn Points to Cancer

The first tests longer than 90 days of genetically modified corn are in, and well... the results may cause you to newly support clear labeling of genetically modified foods. (See GMO Foods: Do Americans Have the Right to Know What They Eat?)

Corn and soy beans comprise a very large portion of GMO produce sold in the United States. About 85% of all corn now sold in the U.S. is genetically modified. 

A report released last month by Food and Toxicology Journal, a respected, peer-reviewed scientific journal, disclosed the results of an extensive, $4.1-million, two-year study of rats fed:

• Monsanto's NK603 corn, which is modified to be resistant to the corporation's Roundup herbicide, which kills weeds
• Roundup herbicide
• One of the above, but not both

The control group of rats was fed corn in its natural unmodified state and plain water, also over two years. (The study was timed to mime the lifespan of a rat, which is typically two to three years.)

The results, per Reuters:

"Gilles-Eric Seralini of the University of Caen and colleagues said rats fed on a diet containing NK603 - a seed variety made tolerant to dousings of Roundup - or given water containing Roundup at levels permitted in the United States died earlier than those on a standard diet.

"The animals on the GM diet suffered mammary tumours, as well as severe liver and kidney damage.  The researchers said 50 percent of males and 70 percent of females died prematurely, compared with only 30 percent and 20 percent in the control group."

Study authors reported that all three test groups of rats "experienced adverse health effects and died earlier than rats in the control group." 

"The results were really alarming" commented Dr. Seralini of test group rats. "Mammary tumors began to appear in females after 4 months, and after one year there was a high increase of a number of (kinds of) tumors." Concluded the report:

Meat Lobbyists Angered by "Hot Dogs Cause Butt Cancer" Billboard

Chicago commuters were greeted this week by a billboard shrilly proclaiming "Hot Dogs Cause Butt Cancer." 

The sign, located on the busy Eisenhower Expressway, is sponsored by longtime health activist group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, led by Dr. Neal Barnard of George Washington University. 
"The billboard’s blunt language was prompted by a recent survey showing that a surprising number—39 percent—of Americans do not know what the colon is," writes PCRM.com. 

Campbell's Tomato Soup: Bad Policy Spoils Good Soup

Andy Warhol painted it. The Paris Exposition awarded it the Gold Medallion for excellence in 1900.

American mothers have served it to children for over 100 years. My husband craves it when he's sick. Or busy at work.

In 2012, Campbell's Tomato Soup still ranks as one of the top ten selling dry grocery items in U.S. grocery markets.

Truth be known, it's fairly healthy, too, for canned, modern industrial food.  No fat, no cholesterol, no fake colors or flavors. Laced with minerals, iron and Vitamin C. An entire can... two servings... is only 270 calories (before requisite grilled cheese sandwich).

Campbell's has added a generous dose of high fructose corn syrup (i.e. sugar) to please America's sweet tooth. And all canned soups are inherently very high in sodium (i.e. salt). Clearly, canned soups are second best to homemade in both taste and nutrition.

The soup in Campbell's Tomato Soup isn't the health hazard. It's the can. 

Campbell's Soup Co., now a profit-hungry multinational corporation with $7.7 billion in annual sales, is one of the major food manufacturers to still line its cans with bisphenol-A (BPA), a hormone-disrupting chemical that can leach from can linings into the foods held inside.

Don't Blame Dr. Oz! Support Bill to Remove Arsenic from Apple Juice

Don't blame it on Dr. Mehmet Oz of Oprah fame, as the FDA certainly did. 

Aware of shoddy FDA standards for arsenic levels in most beverages but water, Dr. Oz paid for testing of apple juice by an independent toxicology laboratory.

And there it was: proof of high levels of arsenic, a deadly toxin, in popular, store-bought apple juices, the juice drink of choice of U.S. moms for their babies.

How did the FDA react?  With alarm for public safety? With expanded testing, to reconfirm
these dire results?


Nope. With an intimidating  letter to Dr. Oz, questioning his science and threatening to expose Dr. Oz as "irresponsible and misleading" if he aired the results on his daytime TV show.