Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Kidney Disease on the Rise

There is a study by the National Institutes of Health reporting findings of a 30% increase in chronic kidney disease over the past decade.

Is it possible that ingesting even low levels of melamine over a decade or so has caused this increase? It's been two years since thousands of pets died from eating pet food tainted with melamine. Melamine is still being added to animal feed and is a part of the human food chain in products like milk, yogurt as well as raw ingredients like vegetable proteins added to our processed foods. No regulating agencies or food manufacturers can really say (if they know they aren't saying) how long melamine has been used in raw food ingredients. Some research indicates that it has been going on for quite a long time; perhaps many decades. It is more commonly used now? And in higher levels?

The FDA is asking manufacturers to do their own testing; they can test some products but don't have the resources to do it all themselves. Despite this, we are not hearing anything about such testing from food manufacturing companies. We are not even hearing about results that prove that low or no levels of melamine were present in foods. If I had a company that used milk protein concentrate, vegetable proteins such as soy or wheat gluten or corn protein, I would be shouting from the rooftops that my product is free and clear of melamine. Just wondering...

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