Of course if you can handle Fear Factor bug eating scenes and fingers falling in the nations food supply, how the industry removes flesh from animals shouldn’t shock or nauseate you at all. It seems to be the direction of world wide news these days, murder, mayhem and maggots!

Lately, I began to real labels and question everything that written on them.For instance, this very cheap package of hot dogs I bought at a local Graveyard Grocery (my pet name for stores that sell surplus and old grocery items). Eight hot dogs for a dollar – how can they make them look so good for so little?

These are the ingredients : MECHANICALLY SEPARATED chicken and turkey,pork, water , corn syrup, salt, potato starch. contains 2% or less of beef, dextroseflavorings, oleoresin of paprika, sodium potassium lactate, sodium diacetate sodium nitrate, sodium phosphate and Vitamin C. Now the real mystery of this packet is what do all the strange ingredients really mean? I can assure the average shopper has no idea why nor will they take the time to investigate. So I have done it for you.

Firstly, why do some cured meat products say mechanically separated as the first ingredient but others which are more expensive do not carry these words? Simple explanation: economy – you’re getting animal paste versus hand-sorted cuts of meat. To produce mechanically separated meat products, the carcass (after removal of the spinal cord and bone) of the animal is then compressed by intense pressure into a meat paste. This paste is now turned into low cost hot dogs, bologna, et cetera.

There are no current statistics as to how many plants use MSM in America but the abundance of cheap hot dogs indicates the number is pretty high. Well, this way we utilize our meat supply there is always a chance that a fraction of spinal and brain tissue is not removed, and that possibly infected prions (found only in spine and brain tissues) could find their way into the food supply. Therefore it cruical that they be completely removed before processing.

In Europe, 101 people were infected with vCJD (human similarity of mad cow) after consumption of MSM products. This happened in 1996 when 10 persons were afflicted with a neurological disease after eating meat with diseased proions that came from brain or spinal tissue of animal meat processed into various cured meats products. Since then apparently, new laws and precautions have been put into place but perhaps they are not enough. For complete assurance of safety, the entire spinal cord must be removed preventing any diseased prions entering the cured meat supply.

The Center of Science in the Public Interest who has thoroughly investigated this subject feels that we need to urge the USDA to require meat companies to remove neck bones and spinal columns (including spinal cord) from carcasses before processing them by MSM and AMR systems. Find complete details in a review of today’s subject on their website, http://www.cspinet.org.

In the meantime, it appears your hot dogs are perfectly safe to eat, but just keep in mind after bone is gone there is still a lot of chicken and cow parts that are ground into gruesome gruel and highly seasoned with mountains of salt and paprika and other life sustaining chemicals. BON APPETTIT !

While laws have been passed to help the consumer know exactly what he is eating, nutritional labels remain cloaked in confusion. It’s likely that most people who take the time to decipher the nutritional information for the food they eat would be shocked at learning the degree of fat, salt, and sugar which is being foisted upon us by the food industry.

While writing this article, I retrieved from the recycling bin the box that contained the quiche I ate for dinner. Note figure D, showing the nutrition facts. I consumed 490 calories and I was still hungry. I had just sent 16 grams of saturated fat to my arteries and ate 30% of the recommended salt consumption for the entire day.

Next, snacking light: hours at the computer often requires one to have some nourishment in order to make it to dinner. On this occaision, I had a 3 ounce “fun size” bag of chips. Never consuming more than these paltry 3 ounces, I thought this was a fairly reasonable snack. One day I finally read the label (refer to figure C) and discover that 1 ounce (or 15 chips) contain 10 grams of fat and 160 calories! Of course, I never ate just a single ounce, intending always to knock off the entire bag. With the help of a calculator, I was able to figure that in doing so, I end up consuming 480 calories and 30 gram of fat – just 3 grams less than that quiche I ate for dinner yesterday.

Now let’s that look to another choice for that mid-day treat. Say I choose instead a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup (figure B). I am now consuming only 230 calories, and my fat is only 13 grams (17 less than my bag of chips). The sugar is 20 grams and that is about 8 less than your average soda Acceptable choices are out there but they require detective work and a perhaps a nod from your cardiologist.

Lastly, figure A shows the label from a instant Macaroni & Cheese meal, a commonly chosen snack or lunch choice for millions of office workers or kids left on their own. A little water and microwaving and you have an instant reservation at your hypertension specialist having consumed 1390 grams of salt and 14 grams of the worst fat (palm oil and hydrogenated soy oil). What protein you do get comes in the form of hydrolyzed soy. Macaroni & Cheese is available in every dollar store for 50 cents but few ever read over the ingredients on the box.

Learn to love the labels……… they just could save your life!

NEXT WEEK: All about the dark side of chocolates