Stress-causing chemical additive in US meat, banned almost everywhere else.

[Happyflowerlady]

Ractopamine is a drug that is being fed to most of the meat that is produced here in the United States, and the side effects on both the animals and the humans who consume them are so serious that most countries have banned it to be used in their meat animals. Several countries, including Russia and China, have also banned meat from beef cattle, hogs, and turkeys from America, since just about all of the commercial growers add this to the animals diet.
Basically, it works somewhat similar to the steroids that athletes were taking, it makes them bulk up with muscle and lean meat, and to grow faster. It also causes extreme stress in the animal, makes them agressive to each other, as well as the people that are raising them. Some pigs have actually turned purple, and died of a heart attack from being stressed.
They did a test with 6 people, and one had to be taken out immediately because they started having an abnormal heart rhythm.
Veterinarians report this chemical has been responsible for more deaths in pigs than from any other chemical they are being given .

http://www.all-creatures.org/health/additive.html

 

[Bettyann]

and the sad part about all this is: the powers that be DON'T CARE... as long as the goal is profit, profit, profit...its all that matters...so people who 'look up to' the government to 'protect' us and so very misled and deluded... we each have to make decisions for ourselves and let our consciences be our guides....
The FDA does a few things here and there to keep giving the appearance of 'doing their duty'...and I am sure there ARE some people who really mean well...but we still have to keep ourselves informed... thank heavens for alternative news media.

 

[d0ug]

Nice thread I guess we need to protect ourselves and not rely on the government to make laws. It is good that we have people like Happyflowerlady to search out these things and inform us.
The only thing I found about the information it was brought to the news media by a vegan group that don't promote meat eating

 

[rt3]

they are beta-antagonist, the same type of drugs used in inhalers for people who have COPD, no way similar to steroids. In high enough doses it can mimic epinephrine or adrenaline (commercial name). The increase blood flow through smooth muscle tissue enabling the muscle to receive more nutrients (oxygen, real hormones etc)

 

[Happyflowerlady]

Nice thread I guess we need to protect ourselves and not rely on the government to make laws. It is good that we have people like Happyflowerlady to search out these things and inform us.
The only thing I found about the information it was brought to the news media by a vegan group that don't promote meat eating

D0ug, The page that I posted was only one of the pages that you will find if you do a search on ractopamine. I always look for a page that is easy to understand, yet explains the topic well to post on the forum; so sometimes it comes from more of an "alternative" source.
I actually found out about this when I was posting in the news section about Russia banning the pork; and one of the reasons that many other countries are banning our meat products is because of the drugs like this one that we put into the animal's food.
After reading that it was blocked in so many other countries (even China !), I decided to search out the ractopamine, and see what exactly were the effects it had on both animals and on humans. Once I started reading about what it can do to people who eat meat from animals who have this drug in their system, I thought it would be good to write another post about this for the health thread here.
The mad cow disease is another serious problem, but that is another thread.....

 

[rt3]

both china and Russia are banning meats from a lot of countries because of multiple contamination (mostly virus), not just this chemical. Pfizer no doubt, found this drug along with many in their first pharmacological screening. Now if we could just get those darn Chinese dog treats to stop killing our pets.

 

[CPA-Kim]

I think the US is far behind most other first-world countries when it comes to food production. We use chemicals here that many countries ban, not only because it alters the meat but because it is toxic to humans.

It really disgusts me and the politicians bow to the lobby groups that represent the producers of these chemicals.

 

[rt3]

ran into some tourists from Switzerland last time (Sept.) I was in San Fransicko, that came here just to eat some good steak, whats that all about. Name one first-world country that has many mouths to feed as the US.