FDA has known processed meat causes cancer since the 1970s, but continues to cover up truth to protect meat industry

They're added to nearly every processed meat product sold in the U.S. today – nitrites and other synthetic curing chemicals that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says are safe to use for keeping meat products from spoiling too quickly. But an investigation by researchers from the University of Wisconsin has uncovered that, despite years of denial, the FDA has known since at least the 1970s that nitrites cause cancer, and yet continues to pander to the meat industry in allowing their use.

Meat curing has been around forever, with the historical record showing that this process allowed ancient cultures to preserve meats for extended periods of time, especially during periods of food scarcity. People didn't have refrigerators back then, remember, so they had to come up with novel ways of food preservation that would get them through harsh weather conditions and other volatile environmental factors.

The fact that people have been curing meats since time immemorial isn't necessarily a problem. Salt, after all, is a natural curing agent that, in and of itself, isn't harmful. It's when salt is transformed through synthetic chemical alterations – in this case, as nitrites – that it becomes harmful. And these same nitrites, according to independent scientists, have been the subject of intense debate over the years concerning their safety.

Sodium nitrite linked to leukemia, cancer

Sodium nitrite, one of the most popular curing chemicals found in processed meat products today, contains certain nitroso compounds that, under the right conditions, can transform into cancer-causing nitrosamines. Even at the time when sodium nitrite was first offered up for commercial approval in the 1970s, it was recognized that nitrosamines come with serious health risks, including the threat of leukemia and other forms of cancer.

The debate over whether or not to approve sodium nitrite in the 1970s was centered around the chemical's known carcinogenicity, and the fact that other, safer curing compounds were already readily available. Nitrite opponents did what they could to present sound science that highlighted all this, which they believed would win the FDA over in rejecting sodium nitrite in favor of safer alternatives.

But the FDA ultimately capitulated to the meat lobby, which saw dollar signs rather than people's health as being the priority. Synthetic nitrites, after all, are cheap to produce, they preserve the inherent color and flavor of meats, and most people don't even know they're there – unless, of course, they develop a serious health condition as a result of consuming them.

Naturally-occurring nitrites aren't harmful

Not to be confused with naturally-occurring nitrites, which aid in the body's normal regulation of blood pressure, immune response and more, synthetic nitrites have an almost opposite effect on the body, damaging the normal function of hemoglobin and possibly even causing brain damage, particularly in young people.

"Nitrite changes the normal function of hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in the blood to the rest of the body, into a form called methemoglobin that cannot carry oxygen," explains the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Sciences.

"In severe, untreated cases, brain damage and eventually death can result from suffocation due to lack of oxygen."

Dietary nitrites, on the other hand, offer many protective benefits, including their ability to spur production of nitric oxide in the body. Nitric oxide helps regulate blood pressure, boost immunity, aid in wound repair, and improve neurological function, among other benefits.

"[T]he normal production of nitric oxide and nitrite may prevent various types of cardiovascular disease including hypertension, atherosclerosis, and stroke," explains the University of Wisconsin report.

This is why purchasing only nitrite-free meats, or meats that contain only naturally-occurring nitrites from vegetables like celery, is critical for your long-term health. Reading food labels and making smart purchasing decisions will go a long way in protecting you and your family against cancer and other forms of chronic illness.

Sources for this article include:

MapleLeafFoods.com

DES.NH.gov

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/052531_sodium_nitrite_cured_meats_FDA_cover-up.html#ixzz3weE3Uu97

Obama launches 'secret' new immigration scheme

In the final hours of 2015 the Obama administration has quietly proposed a host of rule changes that critics say will end up being a bonanza for foreign students and illegal immigrants seeking work in the U.S. while putting a dagger in the hearts of thousands of American workers.

The rules, as proposed by Obama’s Department of Homeland Security, make it easier for employers to hire and retain foreign workers who have not yet received their green cards or “lawful protected resident” status.
The U.S. already hands out approximately 1 million green cards per year, but under the proposed changes those foreigners who apply unsuccessfully for a green card can enter the workforce with a temporary work permit.
The proposed changes, all 181 pages of them, showed up in the Federal Register on New Year’s Eve. They would ease regulations that govern the way work permits are handed out to foreign nationals, including some who enter the U.S. illegally or who come on visas that would not allow them to work.
One of the most pernicious of these new rules, according to immigration-watchdog groups, is the treatment of illegal immigrants who enter the U.S. seeking asylum.
Buried on Page 113 of the document is a provision that says, “Aliens who have properly filed applications for asylum or withholding of deportation or removal” will automatically be eligible to receive a work permit.
Anyone in the U.S. illegally who has filed an application for a suspension of deportation would be allowed to work legally under these new rules.
“Someone could just show up at the border, file for asylum, and get a work permit – without even having to meet asylum criteria,” said one congressional aide on Capitol Hill.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/12/obama-launches-secret-new-immigration-scheme/#cR2XWQduxtarXcwZ.99

ISIS: The ‘Enemy’ the US Created, Armed, and Funded

(MINTPRESS) Out of nowhere, it seems, Daesh, also commonly referred to as ISIL or ISIS, spontaneously formed, a group that perverts aspects of Islam for its own violent ends, and threatens, we are told, all that the civilized world holds dear.
The “war on terror,” governments inform their citizens, has a new front. And that front is Daesh.

Let us not be too hasty. Things are not always what they appear. Daesh is well-financed, and that money must be coming from somewhere other than a ragtag band of malcontents. Daesh soldiers have advanced weaponry and sophisticated communications methods. They have tanks and Humvees. None of these can be obtained without significant funding. Though the source is quite illusive, there is some evidence that will lead to a trail.
First, we must look at Daesh’s origins, and even that is not easily discernible. Writing for The Guardian in August 2014, Ali Khedery suggests:
“Principally, Isis is the product of a genocide that continued unabated as the world stood back and watched. It is the illegitimate child born of pure hate and pure fear – the result of 200,000 murdered Syrians and of millions more displaced and divorced from their hopes and dreams. Isis’s rise is also a reminder of how Bashar al-Assad’s Machiavellian embrace of al-Qaida would come back to haunt him.
Facing Assad’s army and intelligence services, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Iraq’s Shia Islamist militias and their grand patron, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Syria’s initially peaceful protesters quickly became disenchanted, disillusioned and disenfranchised – and then radicalised and violently militant.”
It is interesting that Mr. Khedery says that Assad’s “embrace of al-Qaida” came back to haunt him. It brings to mind a parallel situation in the United States. (Actually, there are many, but we will look at only one.)

Examining the theories of the origins of Daesh

In the early 1960s, when the U.S.-supported leadership of Iraq was becoming just a bit too big for its britches — at least in the United States’ view — in wanting to challenge Israel as a major player in the Middle East, the U.S. decided that its leader, Abdel Karim Kassem, had to go. Selecting a virulent anti-communist party to throw its support to, the U.S. worked closely with a young man named Saddam Hussein. We all know how well that ultimately worked out. The source of much, but not all, of the unrest in the Middle East today can be traced back to that U.S. decision.
Other theories on the formation of Daesh are also worth considering. Yasmina Haifi, a senior employee of the Dutch Justice Ministry’s National Cyber Security Center, asserted that Daesh was created by Zionists seeking to give Islam a bad reputation. “ISIS has nothing to do with Islam. It’s part of a plan by Zionists who are deliberately trying to blacken Islam’s name,” she wrote on Twitter in August 2014.

Read more: http://theantimedia.org/isis-the-enemy-the-us-created-armed-and-funded/