Before I fell asleep the other night, I did one last run-through on Twitter. I was scrolling down when a tweet by Alyssa Milano, of all people, caught my eye. It said:
Alyssa_Milano If you buy/eat any Kraft products, please read http://bit.ly/flUYDt /via @teeco71 @FriendsEAT @HDonoho
I’m not a huge Kraft consumer, but I clicked on the link anyway. Basically Kraft came out and said they use milk from rBST and rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormones) supplemented cow herds. The hormone is injected into cows to help increase growth and milk production.
As I continue reading the article, some more facts jump out at me:
- Only the U.S and Brazil use rBGH. The European Union, Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand have banned the use of rBGH.
- And rBGH has been linked to colon and breast cancer in humans.
Now I’ve known for a long time about all the stuff they had to food. I mean, that’s one of the theories behind the increase in kids with food allergies. But for some reason, the more all this info marinated, the more perturbed I became. I don’t want my family eating that stuff.
So while I was at the store, I bought some Nature’s Promise Beef and fat-free milk. Both make claims to be hormone-free, injection-free, etc. I was pretty happy with myself.
Howeva …. after riding my high horse the whole way home, I did some internet research and find that there is some misleading information on the packaging.
So I don’t truly know if the milk I bought is rBGH free. But while it left me more confused, (Why is it so hard to eat well? There is so much talk about our obesity epidemic, yet confusing labels and prices make it tough to make good food choices) at least my awareness has been raised.
I found this kick-ass website: Sustainable Table. Tons and tons of information to check out, so I’ll do a separate post on that, but it really offers some eye-opening looks into our food chain.
Eating this way definitely takes more thought, care and effort, but I think those who feed kids with food allergies already deal with that, right?
There’s no denying that food allergies are a growing concern in the US. With about 3 million children affected -- 1 in 17 under age 3 -- it’s likely you know someone dealing with food issues.
My 2-year-old daughter, Ava, is part of that 3 million. But while her food allergies seem to bring never-ending challenges, I always remind myself that “having less may bring you more.”
Join me, a wannabe foodie, in my quest to make my daughter’s food experiences positive ones while trying to save time, money and my sanity.
If milk says it has no ADDED hormones, or it’s rBGH-free / rBST-free, then it probably is. I don’t know of any cases where a company claimed not to be using artificial hormones to boost their cows’ milk production when they actually were — most companies that use the rBGH just don’t mention it on their packaging, though they’ll often defend their use of it when asked specifically.
The FDA-required “but no difference can be shown” between cows on the artificial hormones and cows that are given rBGH, or the milk the two groups produce, is lobbying-induced bullshit, though. The difference between milk from untreated cows and treated cows is that milk from cows given rBGH has significantly more pus in it due to the artificial hormones making the cows’ udders more prone to mastitis and infection. Yes, PUS. Can’t imagine why industry lobbyists would want the FDA to tell people that’s never found in their cheap, nasty milk…