This Is YOUR Food Supply On Steroids

Hormones: Here's the Beef
Environmental concerns reemerge over steroids given to livestock

Each year, U.S. farmers raise some 36 million beef cattle. Farmers fatten up two-thirds of these animals by using hormones.

Many cattle are fed the same muscle-building androgens—usually testosterone surrogates—that some athletes consume. Other animals receive estrogens, the primary female sex hormones, or progestins, semiandrogenic agents that shut down a female's estrus cycle. Progestins fuel meat-building by freeing up resources that would have gone into the reproductive cycle.

While federal law prohibits people from self-medicating with most steroids, administering these drugs to U.S. cattle is not only permissible but de rigueur.

So far, almost all concern about this practice has focused on whether trace residues of these hormones in the meat have human-health consequences. But there's another way that these powerful agents can find their way into people and other animals. A substantial portion of the hormones literally passes through the cattle into their feces and ends up in the environment, where it can get into other food and drinking water.

Some scientists say that it's time to better manage livestock's hormone-laced waste stream, which has flowed unabated in North America for decades.

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"Not In My Cart!" (from the Consumer's Union)

Did you know...

• 80% of all toys sold in the U.S. are now manufactured in China.
  
  
• The Consumer Product Safety Commission inspects less than 1% of imported goods.
  
  
• The FDA inspects about 1% of imported food.

Yeah. Not too reassuring, is it? The "Not in My Cart" website from the Consumer's Union posts the most recent recalls of products as well as asking you to encourage your lawmakers in Congress to pass laws that protect your safety and the safety of your loved ones.

From the website:

Bright toys coated with lead paint, savory fish with illegal chemicals, toothpaste with a poison used in antifreeze--the recent wave of recalls reminds us that ordinary things we use every day may not be safe. Consumers Union created NotInMyCart.org to give you a place to check for recent product recalls and take action to make all products safer in the future. The U.S. market is now flooded with imported products--tens of millions of items arriving in cargo ships stacked high with containers. Recalls, after a dangerous product is found on store shelves, are important, but not enough.

Also from their website:

Consumers Union (CU) is an expert, independent, nonprofit organization, whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers. CU publishes Consumer Reports and ConsumerReports.org in addition to two newsletters, Consumer Reports on Health and Consumer Reports Money Adviser with combined subscriptions of more than 7 million. Consumers Union also has more than 500,000 online activists who help work to change legislation and the marketplace in favor of the consumer interest and several public education Web sites. Since its founding in 1936, Consumers Union has never taken any advertising or freebies of any kind.

CHECK OUT THIS WEBSITE TODAY.

FDA Warnings for Consumers (that's YOU!)

Consumer Updates

Consumer Updates: Animal & Veterinary

Consumer Updates: Cosmetics

Consumer Updates: Dietary Supplements

Consumer Updates: Drugs

Consumer Updates: Food

Consumer Updates: Medical Devices

Consumer Updates: Radiation-Emitting Products

Consumer Updates: Vaccines, Blood & Biologics

SAMPLE WARNINGS:

Caution to Dog Owners About Chicken Jerky Products

Use Eye Cosmetics Safely

Potentially Harmful "Cosmetic" Eye Product Seized

Warning on Hydroxycut Products

More Weight Loss Products Added to Consumer Alert

Consumers Warned Not to Use Clarcon Skin Products

Medications for High Blood Pressure

Find the Latest Drug Product and Safety Information

Kidney Risk Spurs Warning on Bowel Cleansers

Using Over-the-Counter Cough and Cold Products in Children

Warning for Nursing Mothers Taking Codeine

FDA Warns About Raw Alfalfa Sprouts

Some "Vanilla Extract" Produced in Mexico is No Bargain

Recalls and Melamine Contamination

Salmonella Illnesses May be Linked to Recalled Cereal

How Safe are Color Additives?

Animal Cloning and Food Safety

Patients Alerted to Pacemaker Recall

Is It Really FDA Approved?

Avoid Fetal "Keepsake" Images, Heartbeat Monitors

Getting Up to Date on Glucose Meters

FDA 101: How to Use the Consumer Complaint System and MedWatch

A Parent's Guide to Kids' Vaccines

FDA Warns Not to Eat Nestle Refrigerated Cookie Dough

FDA Warns Not to Eat Nestle Toll House Prepackaged, Refrigerated Cookie Dough

On June 19, 2009, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned consumers not to eat any varieties of prepackaged Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough due to the risk of contamination with E. coli O157:H7 (a bacterium that causes foodborne illness).

What to Do

• Throw away any prepackaged, refrigerated Nestle Toll House cookie dough products you may have in your home.
  
• Do not cook the dough because you might get the bacteria on your hands and on other cooking surfaces.
  
• Contact your health care professional immediately if you or your family have recently eaten the dough and have had stomach cramps, vomiting or diarrhea, with or without bloody stools.

If you have additional questions about the recalled products, contact Nestle consumer services at 800-559-5025 or visit the company’s Web site.

What Action Has Been Taken?

• Nestle has voluntarily recalled all varieties of prepackaged, refrigerated Toll House cookie dough and is fully cooperating with the ongoing investigation by FDA and CDC.
  
• CDC is conducting an ongoing study with the help of several state and local health departments.

Since March 2009, there have been 66 reports of illness across 28 states. Of 25 people who were hospitalized, 7 have a severe complication called Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome. No one has died.

About E. coli O157:H7

• The bacteria cause stomach cramping, vomiting, and diarrhea, often with bloody stools.
  
• Most healthy adults can recover completely within a week.
  
• Young children and the elderly are at highest risk for developing Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, which can lead to serious kidney damage and even death.

Safe Food Handling

FDA reminds consumers they should not eat raw food products that are intended for cooking or baking before eating. Use safe food-handling practices when preparing these products, including

• following package directions for cooking at proper temperatures
  
• washing hands, surfaces, and utensils after contact with these types of products
  
• avoiding cross-contamination
  
• refrigerating products properly

This article appears on FDA's Consumer Updates page, which features the latest on all FDA-regulated products.

Date Posted: June 19, 2009

Chew Gum for Bigger Ta-Ta's (WTF???)

B2UP Bust Up Gum is the product's name and if you chomp on it, it promises to do the following for your body:

• Larger, fuller firmer breasts
• Improved Circulation
• Healthier Menstruation (PMS Relief)
• Relief of Menopausal Symptoms
• Increased Vaginal Secretion
• Healthier Hair and Skin
• Reduced Stress
• Look Younger

And if that's not your particular cup of what-not, you could always try their... [DRUM ROLL, PLEASE]... F-cup Cookies!!! Oh yeahhhhhh! Really. You couldn't make this shit up, only someone DID because they know some people will believe this hooey and shell out the bucks for it.

FDA, are you listening? This crap is being sold here in the United States, thanks to the internet. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? Hmmm???

F-cup? What's so wrong about a good old-fashioned double-D?

Told ya. I wasn't kidding.