Sunday, January 3, 2010
Less than a year later Omaha Steaks has changed their policy about irradiating their dead meat products
Honestly I don't follow them closely enough to know when the change was made but it was sometime well before the end of 2009 and I am just posting it now: Omaha Steaks has stopped irradiating ALL their meat and now only irradiates their ground meat products. Details can be found on the Omaha Steaks Product Safety Information page. This is what they have to say NOW as to why they use irradiation, which makes one wonder what their justification was for using it on ALL their meat less than a year ago today?
Why is Omaha Steaks using irradiation on Ground Beef only?
Steaks and roasts are solid pieces of meat that bacteria cannot permeate. Any bacteria that may exist on the surface of the meat is eliminated as soon as the product is heated. Unlike solid cuts of meat, the potential exists that surface bacteria may have been mixed within ground beef.
Why is Omaha Steaks using irradiation on Ground Beef only?
Steaks and roasts are solid pieces of meat that bacteria cannot permeate. Any bacteria that may exist on the surface of the meat is eliminated as soon as the product is heated. Unlike solid cuts of meat, the potential exists that surface bacteria may have been mixed within ground beef.
Monday, March 23, 2009
To top it off they IRRADIATE their meat!
Mad Cow Omaha Steaks 'proudly' advertises on their website that they IRRADIATE ALL THEIR MEAT! This means they expose it to high levels of ionizing radiation to kill bacteria and any parasites that might be in it. This does NOT mean that the meat itself become radioactive, but it does mean that the radiation has caused a whole lot of chemical reactions to occur in their meat that otherwise wouldn't have happened.
Irradiation of food has been controversial for decades but has finally won FDA approval. With irradiation even the dirtiest food will be sterilized of its bacteria and parasites (NOT the misfolded proteins that cause Mad Cow Disease however) but what they don't tell you, and what the FDA worried about for years, was the possibility of the chemical reaction byproducts of irradiation being dangerous. That's mainly because ionizing radiation causes the formation of high levels of free radicals in food, and free radicals being highly reactive chemically will cause a lot of chemical reactions to occur INDIRECTLY as a result of radiation exposure, even more than DIRECT effects. DIRECT effects of radiation in this case would be the chemical reactions caused by the radiation itself instead of acting through the mechanism of free radical formation. Even though the INDIRECT effects usually outweigh the DIRECT effects of radiation, both are important, or should be to anyone concerned about food safety.
Free radicals in food can often react with antioxidants like vitamin C, vitamin E, and glutathione peroxidase (sometimes known as 'free radical scavengers') to prevent the free radicals from going on to do chemical damage, but in so doing they deplete the food of its antioxidants. Normally in living tissues new antioxidants will replace the used-up ones but of course this can't happen in dead meat, so what you wind up with with irradiated Omaha Steaks is dead meat depleted by radiation of much of its nutrient value. Of course you also have whatever radiation-induced chemical reaction products were produced by direct effects of the radiation and chemical reaction products produced by indirect effects of the free radicals that did not get successfully scavenged by antioxidants. And the new chemicals formed can be almost anything not naturally occurring in the food, which is why the FDA banned food irradiation for years. What they have done, and what they don't tell you, is that they decided to approve food irradiation after numerous studies showed that the nasty chemicals formed by irradiation were TOO LOW IN QUANTITY TO BE CONSIDERED DANGEROUS. In other words, only a little bit of poison is formed in food by irradiation, so the FDA figures you can handle it. And the people at the FDA who actually made that decision don't mind one bit the millions of dollars spent on them by food industry lobbyists to convince them that only a little bit of poison won't hurt you. It took decades for them to be convinced, but eventually they were. This is the same agency that DOESN'T REQUIRE ALL CATTLE TO BE TESTED FOR MAD COW DISEASE either, now isn't that comforting?
Mad Cow Irradiated Meat is what you get from Omaha Steaks. Nasty dead meat depleted of its antioxidants by irradiation but still able to transmit Mad Cow Disease to you. Omaha Steaks knows this, but you won't hear them admit it. They are knowingly and deliberately transmitting a horrible disease that causes people to literally lose their minds as they also drool on themselves and crap their pants. And they give this to you in substandard food depleted by radiation of much of its nutritive value and containing a witch's brew of who-knows-what chemical reaction products. You'd have to be crazy to purchase their products knowing what you know now. Tell all your friends about Omaha Steaks and the FDA approving irradiation so that they too can avoid irradiated foods and Mad Cow Disease.
Irradiation of food has been controversial for decades but has finally won FDA approval. With irradiation even the dirtiest food will be sterilized of its bacteria and parasites (NOT the misfolded proteins that cause Mad Cow Disease however) but what they don't tell you, and what the FDA worried about for years, was the possibility of the chemical reaction byproducts of irradiation being dangerous. That's mainly because ionizing radiation causes the formation of high levels of free radicals in food, and free radicals being highly reactive chemically will cause a lot of chemical reactions to occur INDIRECTLY as a result of radiation exposure, even more than DIRECT effects. DIRECT effects of radiation in this case would be the chemical reactions caused by the radiation itself instead of acting through the mechanism of free radical formation. Even though the INDIRECT effects usually outweigh the DIRECT effects of radiation, both are important, or should be to anyone concerned about food safety.
Free radicals in food can often react with antioxidants like vitamin C, vitamin E, and glutathione peroxidase (sometimes known as 'free radical scavengers') to prevent the free radicals from going on to do chemical damage, but in so doing they deplete the food of its antioxidants. Normally in living tissues new antioxidants will replace the used-up ones but of course this can't happen in dead meat, so what you wind up with with irradiated Omaha Steaks is dead meat depleted by radiation of much of its nutrient value. Of course you also have whatever radiation-induced chemical reaction products were produced by direct effects of the radiation and chemical reaction products produced by indirect effects of the free radicals that did not get successfully scavenged by antioxidants. And the new chemicals formed can be almost anything not naturally occurring in the food, which is why the FDA banned food irradiation for years. What they have done, and what they don't tell you, is that they decided to approve food irradiation after numerous studies showed that the nasty chemicals formed by irradiation were TOO LOW IN QUANTITY TO BE CONSIDERED DANGEROUS. In other words, only a little bit of poison is formed in food by irradiation, so the FDA figures you can handle it. And the people at the FDA who actually made that decision don't mind one bit the millions of dollars spent on them by food industry lobbyists to convince them that only a little bit of poison won't hurt you. It took decades for them to be convinced, but eventually they were. This is the same agency that DOESN'T REQUIRE ALL CATTLE TO BE TESTED FOR MAD COW DISEASE either, now isn't that comforting?
Mad Cow Irradiated Meat is what you get from Omaha Steaks. Nasty dead meat depleted of its antioxidants by irradiation but still able to transmit Mad Cow Disease to you. Omaha Steaks knows this, but you won't hear them admit it. They are knowingly and deliberately transmitting a horrible disease that causes people to literally lose their minds as they also drool on themselves and crap their pants. And they give this to you in substandard food depleted by radiation of much of its nutritive value and containing a witch's brew of who-knows-what chemical reaction products. You'd have to be crazy to purchase their products knowing what you know now. Tell all your friends about Omaha Steaks and the FDA approving irradiation so that they too can avoid irradiated foods and Mad Cow Disease.
Friday, December 12, 2008
The Undeniable Facts
Two good peer-reviewed studies were done a few years ago following up on earlier work in which brain tissue samples were taken from people who had died of Alzheimer's disease, or rather people who their doctors thought had died of Alzheimer's disease. The researchers analyzed the brain samples to determine how many of those patients had actually had Alzheimer's, and how many had had 'Mad Cow' disease (in humans it is usually called CJD for Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease; and sometimes people refer to "CJD variants" when they want the numbers to look smaller). The two diseases have very similar symptoms and at the time could only be conclusively diagnosed at autopsy.
One study found that about 5% of the "Alzheimer's" patients actually had CJD. The other study found that closer to 15% of their patients actually had had CJD instead of Alzheimer's. Earlier work is suggestive of similar ranges. Until larger studies are done, a reasonable number for risk estimation purposes would therefore be 10% of people with Alzheimer's actually have CJD.
The NIH says "Scientists think that up to 4.5 million Americans suffer from AD" (ref)
If that NIH estimate is anywhere near accurate, then somewhere around 10% of those people, or up to 450,000 Americans, actually have CJD instead of Alzheimer's disease. A very tiny number of those CJD cases probably arise spontaneously, maybe a few dozen at the most. The rest would result from infections, most of them presumably from eating animal flesh containing the disease.
This means that CJD is an unrecognized epidemic of huge proportions (for comparison, in 1952, the most severe polio epidemic year on record, more than 57,800 people were paralyzed or died from polio). The medical establishment knows these numbers and isn't saying anything though, the FDA and the meat industry knows these numbers and isn't saying anything either, in fact the FDA and the meat industry both adamantly insist that there is no need to test ALL animals at slaughter time to protect the American public (it costs a few bucks you know, and that would hurt profits). The best they do is say that animals too sick to stand up for their slaughter shouldn't enter the food supply, but as we all know from recent events even that weakest of protections doesn't always function as it should. So it shouldn't really be too surprising to learn that so many people are likely infected with CJD. It's probably very contagious too; much of the deer population in the Midwest is infected (I don't know if they call it "Mad Deer" though) and scientists think it may be spread in deer through saliva. So humans may even catch it by kissing an infected person, nobody knows for sure yet however.
There is no cure for CJD and due to its nature it is unlikely a cure will be found for a very long time. The disease has a very long latent period, it may take ten or twenty or even thirty years before it begins manifesting any symptoms. But when it does you lose your mind, you lose your memories, you lose your identity, and you lose your dignity drooling on yourself in your wheelchair and crapping your pants. Not necessarily in that order.
I have always been a believer in karmic justice, that people get what they ultimately deserve.
Meat eaters, uncaring of the suffering and death they are responsible for, deserve whatever consequences derive from their psychopathic pleasure in eating meat.
But Omaha Steaks does not deserve to benefit from pimping the disease. They know the meat they sell is only very rarely properly inspected for it, and they know there is a chance they will be passing the disease on to others. They may want to quibble over probabilities but that is the bottom line, despite their desire to make the probabilities sound astronomically low. But we know from the scientific data that the disease is epidemic in the human and animal populations of North America, even though the official government position is denial. They will tell you that inspection works, that there haven't been any new cases detected in months if not years, and that the disease can only be passed through brain and CNS tissue. All those statements are dead wrong lies. And Omaha Steaks participates in the charade.
One study found that about 5% of the "Alzheimer's" patients actually had CJD. The other study found that closer to 15% of their patients actually had had CJD instead of Alzheimer's. Earlier work is suggestive of similar ranges. Until larger studies are done, a reasonable number for risk estimation purposes would therefore be 10% of people with Alzheimer's actually have CJD.
The NIH says "Scientists think that up to 4.5 million Americans suffer from AD" (ref)
If that NIH estimate is anywhere near accurate, then somewhere around 10% of those people, or up to 450,000 Americans, actually have CJD instead of Alzheimer's disease. A very tiny number of those CJD cases probably arise spontaneously, maybe a few dozen at the most. The rest would result from infections, most of them presumably from eating animal flesh containing the disease.
This means that CJD is an unrecognized epidemic of huge proportions (for comparison, in 1952, the most severe polio epidemic year on record, more than 57,800 people were paralyzed or died from polio). The medical establishment knows these numbers and isn't saying anything though, the FDA and the meat industry knows these numbers and isn't saying anything either, in fact the FDA and the meat industry both adamantly insist that there is no need to test ALL animals at slaughter time to protect the American public (it costs a few bucks you know, and that would hurt profits). The best they do is say that animals too sick to stand up for their slaughter shouldn't enter the food supply, but as we all know from recent events even that weakest of protections doesn't always function as it should. So it shouldn't really be too surprising to learn that so many people are likely infected with CJD. It's probably very contagious too; much of the deer population in the Midwest is infected (I don't know if they call it "Mad Deer" though) and scientists think it may be spread in deer through saliva. So humans may even catch it by kissing an infected person, nobody knows for sure yet however.
There is no cure for CJD and due to its nature it is unlikely a cure will be found for a very long time. The disease has a very long latent period, it may take ten or twenty or even thirty years before it begins manifesting any symptoms. But when it does you lose your mind, you lose your memories, you lose your identity, and you lose your dignity drooling on yourself in your wheelchair and crapping your pants. Not necessarily in that order.
I have always been a believer in karmic justice, that people get what they ultimately deserve.
Meat eaters, uncaring of the suffering and death they are responsible for, deserve whatever consequences derive from their psychopathic pleasure in eating meat.
But Omaha Steaks does not deserve to benefit from pimping the disease. They know the meat they sell is only very rarely properly inspected for it, and they know there is a chance they will be passing the disease on to others. They may want to quibble over probabilities but that is the bottom line, despite their desire to make the probabilities sound astronomically low. But we know from the scientific data that the disease is epidemic in the human and animal populations of North America, even though the official government position is denial. They will tell you that inspection works, that there haven't been any new cases detected in months if not years, and that the disease can only be passed through brain and CNS tissue. All those statements are dead wrong lies. And Omaha Steaks participates in the charade.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Inside a Slaughterhouse
This is an example of relatively mild conditions inside a slaughterhouse. Living breathing creatures are routinely killed and cut up in facilities like this everywhere, institutions of pain and suffering and now disease transmission. If you are part of this cycle you deserve what you get. If you profit from it, you are worse than criminal, you cross the line into psychopathic mass murder for money like Omaha Steaks does every day of the year.
IT'S A FACT!
The U.S. government does not require all cattle headed for slaughter to be tested for Mad Cow Disease (i.e. BSE, Bovine Spongioform Encephalopathy), this is a FACT. It is also a FACT that when Europe went to full testing of cattle for slaughter, thousands of infected animals were found. Yet our callous meat industry (you have to be pretty callous to do what they do in the first place) doesn't want to spend the $20 per animal for BSE testing, but spends millions lobbying Congress to maintain the status quo. This is simply not right, and Omaha Steaks is a figurehead in this industry. They CLAIM to only sell high-quality meat, but can that claim be true if the very meat they sell you can easily be tainted with a disease that will make you lose your mind? NOT HARDLY. The purpose of this blog is to pressure the meat industry's figurehead Omaha Steaks to lobby the U.S. government for full testing of every animal headed for slaughter. Anything less is completely irresponsible, even criminal in intent. To think that such crass disregard for humanity could exist in our 'free market' system is not only an indictment of the system but exposes the careless disregard such companies as Omaha Steaks have for their own customers. And if that's how little they care, how can anything else they do or say be trusted?
WHAT MOST PEOPLE DO NOT UNDERSTAND IS THAT MAD COW DISEASE IS FAST BECOMING AN EPIDEMIC IN HUMANS IN AMERICA AND OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD:
A clinical series with 13% of Alzheimer actually CJD
Manuelidis, Elias E. and Laura Manuelidis
Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders_ 3 (1989): 100-109
Suggested Links between Different Types of Dementias: Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, Alzheimer Disease, and Retroviral CNS Infections
"In our own neuropathological material, in 46 cases diagnosed clinically as AD [(Alzheimer's)], 6 cases were proven to be CJD at autopsy [13%}."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peiffer, J. :
Gerstmann-Straussler's disease, atypical multiple sclerosis and carcinomas in a family of sheepbreeders.
Acta Neuropath. 56: 87-92, 1982.
Peiffer (1982) described a family of sheepbreeders in which a father and 2 sons had GSS. All 3 also had congenital hip dysplasia, as did at least 3 other members of the kindred, all females. Atactic symptoms, dysarthria, and personality changes characterized the clinical course of this disorder, which might be labeled atypical multiple sclerosis.
Like CJD , GSS is a form of subacute spongiform encephalopathy. Cases of GSS are clinically similar to the atactic type of CJD. Although there are many neuropathologic similarities, GSS differs from CJD by the presence of kuru-plaques and numerous multicentric, floccular plaques in the cerebral and cerebellar cortex, basal ganglia, and white matter. Whereas only 5 to 15% of CJD cases are familial, most cases of GSS are familial.
WHAT MOST PEOPLE DO NOT UNDERSTAND IS THAT MAD COW DISEASE IS FAST BECOMING AN EPIDEMIC IN HUMANS IN AMERICA AND OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD:
A clinical series with 13% of Alzheimer actually CJD
Manuelidis, Elias E. and Laura Manuelidis
Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders_ 3 (1989): 100-109
Suggested Links between Different Types of Dementias: Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, Alzheimer Disease, and Retroviral CNS Infections
"In our own neuropathological material, in 46 cases diagnosed clinically as AD [(Alzheimer's)], 6 cases were proven to be CJD at autopsy [13%}."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peiffer, J. :
Gerstmann-Straussler's disease, atypical multiple sclerosis and carcinomas in a family of sheepbreeders.
Acta Neuropath. 56: 87-92, 1982.
Peiffer (1982) described a family of sheepbreeders in which a father and 2 sons had GSS. All 3 also had congenital hip dysplasia, as did at least 3 other members of the kindred, all females. Atactic symptoms, dysarthria, and personality changes characterized the clinical course of this disorder, which might be labeled atypical multiple sclerosis.
Like CJD , GSS is a form of subacute spongiform encephalopathy. Cases of GSS are clinically similar to the atactic type of CJD. Although there are many neuropathologic similarities, GSS differs from CJD by the presence of kuru-plaques and numerous multicentric, floccular plaques in the cerebral and cerebellar cortex, basal ganglia, and white matter. Whereas only 5 to 15% of CJD cases are familial, most cases of GSS are familial.
One of the Omaha Steaks Disease Spreaders
Todd Simon above is part of the family-owned Mad Cow Spreading business at Omaha Steaks. In the video below he actually gives a marketing talk about Omaha Steaks being about "love". Is that amazing, or what? Love for the animals killed? Love for the people whose brains become diseased from Mad Cow Disease? Or just love of money? YOU DECIDE.
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