Latest / Beyond Labels Premium / Episode #170: Cows Eating Plastic, Fluoride Ban & Lab-Grown Meat Loses in Court

Transcript

Episode #170: Cows Eating Plastic, Fluoride Ban & Lab-Grown Meat Loses in Court · Beyond Labels Premium

0:00
SPEAKER_01: For the first time, microplastics were found in the human brain.
0:06
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so we have found microplastics in the human body before, but not the brain.
0:13
SPEAKER_01: So we have found them in blood vessels.
0:15
SPEAKER_01: They've been detected in carotid artery plaques and samples of leg vein tissue.
0:22
SPEAKER_01: We have found them in the blood.
0:24
SPEAKER_01: We found them in saliva.
0:26
SPEAKER_01: Actually, one study found 21 different types of microplastics in the saliva.
0:33
SPEAKER_01: We've also found them in the lungs, the feces, in the placenta, the liver, the colon, right?
0:40
SPEAKER_01: The list goes on and on.
0:41
SPEAKER_01: So we have found these throughout the body, but now for the first time, they have found them in the brain, which is concerning to people.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: Welcome everybody to another episode of the Beyond Labels Podcast with yours truly, Farmer Joel Salatin and our favorite researcher, Dr.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: Cena McCullough, who's been on a tear lately, uh learning some new things, finding them some new things, and keeping her, as always, her ear to the ground of breaking stuff in especially the uh the toxin world right now today.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: So we've got a kind of three areas that we want to uh dig into here, all of them kind of dealing with with toxins.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm I'm putting lab meat as part of toxins.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: Um I hope you don't mind that.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: And and so she's gonna start with uh with kind of some new stuff on microplastics and then move to fluoride and then to lab grown meat.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: And there's been some interesting developments in this.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: This is a bit of a, you know, a bit of a current events kind of thing here, but uh it's good to keep up with what with how the culture is handling, responding, and moving uh in this in this arena.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: So uh Cena, take it away.
1:49
SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Joel.
1:50
SPEAKER_01: Yes, so we got lots to catch up on today.
1:53
SPEAKER_01: The first story I want to cover is for the first time, microplastics were found in the human brain.
2:01
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so we have found microplastics in the human body before, but not the brain.
2:08
SPEAKER_01: So we have found them in blood vessels, they've been detected in um carotid artery plaques and samples of leg vein tissue.
2:18
SPEAKER_01: We have found them in the blood.
2:20
SPEAKER_01: We found them in saliva.
2:22
SPEAKER_01: Actually, one study found 21 different types of microplastics in the saliva.
2:28
SPEAKER_01: We've also found them in the lungs, the feces, in the placenta, the liver, the colon, right?
2:35
SPEAKER_01: The list goes on and on.
2:37
SPEAKER_01: So we have found these throughout the body, but now for the first time, they have found them in the brain, which is concerning to people.
2:45
SPEAKER_01: Um, they were found in the olfactory bulb.
2:48
SPEAKER_01: That's the region of the brain located above the nose that's responsible for our sense of smell.
2:56
SPEAKER_01: So, what these researchers are hypothesizing is that the plastics entered the brain through our nose just from inhaling them.
3:08
SPEAKER_01: So, oftentimes we have talked about plastics can um being introduced to the body through our food and our water, but now we think we're actually inhaling them as we know microplastics can become airborne from different things, like the wear and tear of plastics, like tires.
3:27
SPEAKER_01: Actually, tires just running on the road, you know, like you're driving down your driving your car down the road.
3:32
SPEAKER_01: The wear and tear of the tire actually releases little microplastics and aerosolizes them.
3:37
SPEAKER_01: Um, another source are synthetic uh textiles like synthetic clothing that as it's continuing to degrade, it will release um different microplastics and different microfibers on it.
3:52
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I should I should mention that microfibers have also been found in the body.
3:56
SPEAKER_01: Um, so things like this, and also rugs, right?
4:00
SPEAKER_01: So you get rugs and carpets that are synthetic and you walk on them, kids play on them and run their toys over them.
4:07
SPEAKER_01: Those are also aerosolized.
4:09
SPEAKER_01: And we we are finding out that we are inhaling them, and at least in some people, they're ending up in the brain.
4:16
SPEAKER_01: Now, the way that they did this study, Joel, was they examined the brain of 15 deceased individuals, and these individuals ranged in age between 33 to 100.
4:30
SPEAKER_01: And they found in eight of these 15 individuals, they had these microplastics in that olfactory bulb area of the brain.
4:41
SPEAKER_01: Uh so one thing that I thought first scene.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: Let me, I gotta, I gotta ask you this.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: So they didn't did they look for them in other parts of the brain and couldn't find them?
4:53
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so they're saying that this is the part of the brain that they found them in.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: So that's why they're thinking that's why you're thinking it's it's an inhalation thing, not a um not an eating thing.
5:05
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
5:06
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
5:06
SPEAKER_01: That's why they're thinking it's inhalation and that and that there's a passageway um connecting the nose into the brain that they think that it actually may um may actually travel through that packaging.
5:19
SPEAKER_01: Uh, sorry, travel through that passageway up into the brain.
5:23
SPEAKER_01: So they know that there's two pathways that they know of to get into the brain.
5:28
SPEAKER_01: One is crossing the blood-brain barrier.
5:31
SPEAKER_01: And we know that that has happened in animal studies.
5:34
SPEAKER_01: They've shown that to occur in animal studies, and they've shown that when it is able to cross the blood-brain barrier in animals, it is a neurotoxin.
5:43
SPEAKER_01: So it is damaging to the neurons.
5:45
SPEAKER_01: This is the second pathway that they're now theorizing, this olfactory pathway.
5:50
SPEAKER_01: And um, this is the pathway that sends the signals of odors to the brain.
5:54
SPEAKER_01: So they think that it can actually maybe it's traveling along uh even just the small space that's required to have the nerve connect from the nose area to the brain, that maybe it's even traveling through that area.
6:06
SPEAKER_01: They're not really sure.
6:07
SPEAKER_01: This is what they're theorizing is happening at this point.
6:10
SPEAKER_01: All right.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: So uh see, again, I gotta ask this, just you know, I'm sorry, I'm just so uh uh curious about this.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: Um did they these 15, these 15 brains that they looked at are did they differentiate between living conditions, like uh the ones that live in the country, ones that live in the city.
6:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking for no, they didn't differentiate there.
6:34
SPEAKER_01: No, but one thing that I was thinking of is that since the range in the age is 33 to 100, yeah, that's a big range, it's a big range, and also it tells you that let's say that people like someone in there at one who was 100 had the microplastics in the brain, that's hopeful to us because that person lived to 100.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but they couldn't smell anything.
7:04
SPEAKER_01: How bad is that?
7:06
SPEAKER_01: No, well, you know, I mean, I think that's hopeful.
7:10
SPEAKER_01: Like we tend to look at the negative of these things, like, oh my gosh, microplastics in the brain, like now we know it actually got there, right?
7:18
SPEAKER_01: But how damaging is it really?
7:20
SPEAKER_01: It comes back down to the individual physiology.
7:23
SPEAKER_01: So I so to me, we're gonna talk more about this, but that's one of my big takeaways that I want to say right up front is that this isn't all doom and glue.
7:34
SPEAKER_01: Like, clearly, I will walk you through this.
7:36
SPEAKER_01: Clearly, it does not seem that it's beneficial to have microplastics in the body.
7:42
SPEAKER_01: And um, if any of you who know me know that I'm really holding back on my words when I say that.
7:48
SPEAKER_01: So clearly, it's not beneficial to have them in the body, but it's not the end of the world.
7:53
SPEAKER_01: You know, there's things you can do about it.
7:55
SPEAKER_01: The body is so resilient.
7:56
SPEAKER_01: And I want to go through and talk about some of those things as well that you can do about it.
8:00
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
8:01
SPEAKER_01: Um, one thing I want to say is that in this study, they identified 16 different synthetic polymer particles.
8:09
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, plastics are just polymers, they're chains of carbon.
8:12
SPEAKER_01: So 16 synthetic carbon particles and also fibers.
8:16
SPEAKER_01: So these are the fibers that I'm talking about.
8:18
SPEAKER_01: They're on your clothes that are in the carpets.
8:21
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
8:21
SPEAKER_01: So they are getting into the brain.
8:24
SPEAKER_01: 75% of what they found was particle and 25% was fiber.
8:28
SPEAKER_01: So fiber just means it's a longer, think of it as a longer piece of plastic, okay?
8:34
SPEAKER_01: So we know that small particles in the fiber is is getting in.
8:38
SPEAKER_01: So one thing I want to talk about was, oh, wait.
8:42
SPEAKER_01: One thing I found very fascinating is Joel, did you know that some cows eat plastic?
8:47
SPEAKER_00: Uh I mean, well, I mean, I don't think they like to eat plastic, but um, but but but sometimes, but but a lot of times cow, you know, cows forever have been uh used as a garbage disposal for things.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: Uh I mean, I know, for example, little Debbie's hoho cakes, you know, if they have a if if they have a messed up batch, they feed it to cows and pigs.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: Uh so and I'm sure there's plastic in there, it gets ground up whatever in the silage.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: So um uh so I'm I'm not surprised that cows eat it.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: I don't think cows, I don't think cows want to eat it, but just sometimes it ends up in their feet and they just eat it along with everything else they're eating.
9:33
SPEAKER_01: Yes, and also, so I just found this from Kansas State University.
9:38
SPEAKER_01: This was published in October of this year.
9:41
SPEAKER_01: They said that some cows are eating plastic from the plastic wrap that's on the hay bales.
9:50
SPEAKER_01: So it says that when it's time to feed the bale, some producers put the hay with that plastic wrap in the grinder and they chop it up together while other producers choose to remove the wrap before offering free choice hay to the herd.
10:07
SPEAKER_01: So what happened was that apparently Kansas State University has a podcast and a question came into the podcast from a producer who discovered that one of his cows who died had a ball of plastic in her gut that likely came from eating the bale wrap, and it caused her to have a blockage that led to her death.
10:29
SPEAKER_01: And apparently, uh so apparently some people are doing this.
10:33
SPEAKER_01: And the question that came in to the podcast was is it like, should we be feeding the cows plastic?
10:40
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, oh my gosh, like, do we need someone to tell us that?
10:43
SPEAKER_01: So what they decided was the experts agree that the best strategy for the herd is to remove all the plastic wrap before offering the hay to the herd.
10:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, but uh yeah, but you know what, Cena?
10:56
SPEAKER_00: The the the truth is that it's um that's actually easier said than done.
11:02
SPEAKER_00: Uh, because when those bales sit outside, the plastic really deteriorates.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's uh yeah, UV, UV, it starts to deteriorate.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm just thinking, um, no, we we don't we don't use round bales here uh on our farm.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: We use square and we store them inside.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: But I'm thinking of all these round bales that that I do see it stored outside, a lot of times the plastic so deteriorates that that it's like trying to pull off rags, you know.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: It it just kind of it just kind of breaks up, and so you end up you end up kind of unable to you know to get it all off.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: Now, you know, our big square bales are um they're tied with twine, and that twine is plastic on the great big square bales because it's so compressed, you can't use um natural fiber twine.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: Uh we do on our hay on our on our little square bales, little hay bales, but on the big bales, they're they're compressed about twice as tightly.
12:04
SPEAKER_00: So the the Cecil twine um isn't strong enough to hold it, it'll blow apart.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: So they use plastic for that.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: Now we you know we pick all that up, but I can tell you that there are little bits and pieces of of of of that plastic twine out in the field.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it it it just it just is.
12:24
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, I don't I don't think the uh I don't think when it's just lying out there a little a little piece, I don't think the cows get it much because it quickly, you know, goes on to the ground surface.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, that that you know that does go.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: It's uh man, plastic is everywhere.
12:43
SPEAKER_01: It's ubiquitous, and just like the study was saying, one of their conclusions was the microplastics are ubiquitous, you know, in the air in particular.
12:52
SPEAKER_01: Um, so so Joel, like so to me, this was really surprising to learn that cows are eating plastic, particularly enough plastic that it would end up in a plastic ball.
13:04
SPEAKER_01: And it says it acts like a plug, either preventing the gas release or preventing passage down the digestive tract.
13:12
SPEAKER_01: This was really surprising to me, you know, because I'm not in the field like you are.
13:16
SPEAKER_01: And so how prevalent do you think this is that cows are consuming plastics?
13:22
SPEAKER_01: Like in, you know, let's say even in the industrial food system, is this a prevalent thing?
13:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh it it's it's hard to say.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's really hard to say.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people do stack their bales inside.
13:36
SPEAKER_00: Um but this this net wrap, I mean, I I I think the the so there's there's different kinds of plastic.
13:44
SPEAKER_00: So um round bales use use uh twine, a twine plastic, uh, which is which is not very much material.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's minimal material.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: And then they can also put them in in enclosed in like a plastic bag uh and make what's called baleage.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: That plastic holds together pretty well because it's um it's like a plastic bag.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: Um you know, fairly thick, and and you and and nobody nobody grinds that.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's always taken off, and and uh and I don't think any cows get that.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: I think the the what's really uh is the pla what's called the plastic net.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: And it looks like um it looks like fish net and uh and it goes on the bale instead of twine, and that sits on the ground and it deteriorates.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: It it's very, very um uh very fine and very fragile.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: It's a very fragile netting, and I can imagine that that would just whatever, go everywhere.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's it's very tiny, tiny little fibers, and it's out in the open, out in the air, and um, and there's not a lot of it on a bale, so I can imagine that a you know that a a farmer just you know not wanting to take care of things would just grind that up.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: I I can't believe that they would grind.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: Oh me, farmers, you gotta love them, you gotta hate them, you know.
15:17
SPEAKER_01: Um I know.
15:18
SPEAKER_00: Well, because I I I've I've never I've never heard of that, but um, but apparently, you know, apparently some are just tossing the whole thing into a a grinder, grind it all up, feed it to the cows on the bunk, and uh there it is.
15:32
SPEAKER_01: Yes, which is also another reason why you should know the source of your meat, right?
15:38
SPEAKER_01: Know your local farmer and figure out what they're what they are feeding these cows.
15:42
SPEAKER_01: And I guess the new question is do you feed them hay bells wrapped in plastic and don't remove the plastic first?
15:50
SPEAKER_00: Right.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: Who would who would have thought you have to ask that question?
15:54
SPEAKER_01: I know we missed that one in our book, Joel.
15:56
SPEAKER_01: Like we're slacking.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: We did.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm I'm at the end of the at the end of the uh winter, uh, we have literally uh a dump truck load of plastic twine that we've removed from all of our bales when we when we feed the cows out uh in the in the winter.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: We we literally have a dump truck load.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we we collect it and and it's a it's a I mean we have a lot of cows, uh, but I mean it's it's it's a dump truck load or more that we collect and then we you know we take that to the we take it to the landfill.
16:27
SPEAKER_01: Um well I'm glad to hear that.
16:29
SPEAKER_01: So maybe that's one thing you look for too when you're going to someone's farm to look for the dumped hay bale, like the plastic wrap around it to see if it's there.
16:39
SPEAKER_01: That's cool.
16:39
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm glad to hear that because let's get into possible what we know um based on studies about the possible health ramifications for both humans and the cows, right?
16:50
SPEAKER_01: And the animals.
16:52
SPEAKER_01: Um, they're not exempt from this.
16:53
SPEAKER_01: So um, so as we talked about, this is abundant, right?
16:58
SPEAKER_01: On land, in the air, and in the water.
17:02
SPEAKER_01: These microplastics are just abundant at these at this point.
17:05
SPEAKER_01: If you think of all the things that you have even in your house that have plastic on them, right?
17:11
SPEAKER_01: Even like TVs and computers and toys, and we talked about the textiles and using even the glass Tupperware containers I buy, the tops are still plastic, right?
17:22
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
17:22
SPEAKER_01: The PVC piping that brings your water in into your house.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: You know, wrapping uh all your food wrap, your meat wrap, your I mean vacuum-sealed packages, it's all it's it's everywhere.
17:35
SPEAKER_01: Your sunglasses if you wear them, your eyeglasses, water bottles, you know, it's it's it's pervasive.
17:41
SPEAKER_01: Your toothbrush, it could even be in floss, your phone.
17:44
SPEAKER_01: So, anyhow, it is pervasive.
17:46
SPEAKER_01: So here's gonna be one of the takeaways.
17:49
SPEAKER_01: You can't avoid it, right?
17:50
SPEAKER_01: We can't avoid it.
17:51
SPEAKER_01: And what what we're gonna talk about in later in this episode is how you can minimize your exposure.
17:57
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
17:57
SPEAKER_01: So um so what we have so far in the scientific literature, I would say is correlative data.
18:06
SPEAKER_01: It's not cause and effect, it's all correlations, okay?
18:10
SPEAKER_01: So we need to be careful with the conclusions that we're drawing um on this data.
18:16
SPEAKER_01: So some of the, like I already mentioned in animal data, it's been shown these microplastics have been shown to be neurotoxins.
18:22
SPEAKER_01: In humans, we have some evidence.
18:25
SPEAKER_01: This came out in 2021.
18:27
SPEAKER_01: Um, I think it was the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, that there are high levels of microplastics in the stool samples of people with irritable bowel syndrome or IBS.
18:38
SPEAKER_01: And that was compared to a control group.
18:40
SPEAKER_01: So this means either the accumulation of microplastics contributed to IBS, or it could also mean people with IBS were are not as good at detoxifying their bodies from the microplastics.
18:53
SPEAKER_01: So it's one or the other.
18:54
SPEAKER_01: We don't know, but again, it's a it's a correlation, not a cause and effect.
18:58
SPEAKER_01: Now, for reproductive health, we have more evidence, a stronger evidence.
19:02
SPEAKER_01: There's studies there showing that um in men, women, and children with elevated levels of phthalates and the metabolites from them, they're shown a decrease in blood testosterone levels.
19:17
SPEAKER_01: And so this is obviously associated with libido, um, brain development, um, you know, in children in particular, and and also it could be converted to estrogen.
19:28
SPEAKER_01: So this can be basically potentially associated with hormonal imbalances.
19:34
SPEAKER_01: In some of the studies, they showed that women over 40 had the highest level of um phthalate and the lowest level of testosterone, which also means they're gonna potentially, if you have low levels of testosterone, it is important for women as well.
19:48
SPEAKER_01: It means you can potentially not recover as well from exercise.
19:52
SPEAKER_01: It also means you can potentially not respond as well to stressful situations.
19:56
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so you can make correlations with what we're seeing on the, you know, out there in the public.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: So you mean like uh like like emotional meltdowns from the election?
20:07
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know.
20:08
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I saw a lot of those videos and I was like, I was feeling pretty good about myself.
20:12
SPEAKER_01: I was like, I was like, you know, because I have those days where I just feel like I've overloaded, I and I kind of lose it.
20:20
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, well, at least I don't do that.
20:21
SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, yeah, I keep it together somewhat.
20:25
SPEAKER_01: Right.
20:26
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, but so um it for those who don't know phthalates, phthalates are forever chemicals, right?
20:33
SPEAKER_01: And so there's a special group of plastics called forever chemicals.
20:37
SPEAKER_01: These are, you know, I mentioned that plastics are all polymers, which means they're just a chain of carbons.
20:43
SPEAKER_01: What makes one plastic different from another is actually adding different elements, like elements from the periodic table, adding different elements and molecules on to that polymer or that chain of carbon turns them into different types of plastics.
20:58
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
20:59
SPEAKER_01: Phthalates are a special type of plastic because they have a fluorine of the element fluorine attached to the carbon.
21:07
SPEAKER_01: And that's bad, right?
21:09
SPEAKER_01: This is a man-made plastic like the other plastics, but this one is particularly harmful.
21:14
SPEAKER_01: That's why we call it a forever chemical, because the fluorine is strongly bonded to that carbon.
21:21
SPEAKER_01: It that they do not want to let go of each other, and so it is hard to break them down.
21:25
SPEAKER_01: And as far as we know, there's nothing in nature that can break them down.
21:29
SPEAKER_01: But here's a little bit of good news, right?
21:33
SPEAKER_01: So there is a group of researchers, and let me get this right.
21:38
SPEAKER_01: They are at um Oxford Brooks University, and they have developed this new innovative approach to actually get rid of these forever chemicals in the water.
21:49
SPEAKER_01: So there's not much known about it right now.
21:51
SPEAKER_01: They're trying to scale it up so that they can clean up the water, which is where we think we get quite a bit of our exposure to phthalates, is in the water because.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: They don't break down, right?
22:02
SPEAKER_01: So this is pretty cool, Joel.
22:04
SPEAKER_01: What they figured out how to do is you need to have enough energy to break that carbon uh fluorine bond.
22:12
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
22:13
SPEAKER_01: They have they're using bubbles to break it.
22:18
SPEAKER_01: So they're literally creating and popping, creating and popping bubbles so fast that it somehow imparts that energy to break those bonds.
22:29
SPEAKER_01: And they've shown, isn't that kind of cool?
22:31
SPEAKER_01: Right.
22:31
SPEAKER_01: And they've shown it to be successful at a small level.
22:34
SPEAKER_01: And now they're trying to scale it up.
22:35
SPEAKER_01: We do know other ways to break the bonds, but it's very expensive and sometimes requires toxic reagents.
22:42
SPEAKER_01: So it's just not feasible ways to clean up our water.
22:45
SPEAKER_01: So this is a new breakthrough that I'm I'm very hopeful about that they're going to be able to scale this up because how great is that using bubbles to clean up our our water, our environment, right?
22:56
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so so that's so reproductive health.
22:59
SPEAKER_01: We have stronger correlation in that area.
23:02
SPEAKER_01: Um also heart disease.
23:04
SPEAKER_01: This was a 2024 study, so it came out this year in the New England Journal of Medicine, and they found um polyethylene, another plastic, in the carotid artery plaque of about 58% of people who are studied.
23:18
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so once again, just like IBS, they don't know if it could if these plastics contributed to causing the plaque formation, um, but they are present in the structures that were actually occluding the blood flow.
23:33
SPEAKER_01: So either they're contributing to cradiolis plaques or the body, you know, there's a there's a thought that these plaques are formed kind of like tumors, that they're like the garbage collectors, and they're sequestering things out of the body, out of the blood to move it away from the brain in particular to protect you.
23:51
SPEAKER_01: So so there is that side of it.
23:54
SPEAKER_01: It may be that the body is you um collecting these like in little garbage cans, you can think of throughout the body, and that the microplastic didn't actually cause the plaque.
24:02
SPEAKER_01: We don't actually know at this point which ones cause and effect.
24:06
SPEAKER_01: So again, it's correlation, but clearly this is not a good thing.
24:09
SPEAKER_01: It's the body trying to sequester them and get rid of them.
24:12
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
24:12
SPEAKER_01: So so that's just a few.
24:14
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to belabor the point, but a few of the studies showing connections between some of these um microplastics and some of these disease conditions.
24:22
SPEAKER_01: Now, some of the ways that you can decrease your exposure.
24:26
SPEAKER_01: Oh, wait, let me add one thing.
24:27
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry to jump around here.
24:29
SPEAKER_01: One thing is the additive.
24:32
SPEAKER_01: So it's not just the microplastics themselves, it's additives that are used when making these microplastics microplastics or these plastics.
24:42
SPEAKER_01: So there are additives added to plastics, to these polymers to do different things like increase the strength, increase the flexibility, increase the lifespan, add color.
24:55
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
24:56
SPEAKER_01: These additives are concerning.
24:57
SPEAKER_01: So you may have heard of some of them.
24:59
SPEAKER_01: BPA, right?
25:01
SPEAKER_01: A common one that people know of that we now know can um lead to uh endocrine hormonal disruption.
25:07
SPEAKER_01: Um, BPS, right?
25:09
SPEAKER_01: Um, you can also have these forever chemicals added.
25:12
SPEAKER_01: You can also have um bacteria that get in there um that are introduced to the body.
25:19
SPEAKER_01: Um, so there's a whole range of different additives.
25:22
SPEAKER_01: And a good example is if anyone has ever gone, you know, to maybe Walmart or Lowe's and they bought a really inexpensive outdoor lawn chair, you know, over time you'll see like a little chalky residue that forms on the chair and the chair gets really brittle, right?
25:40
SPEAKER_01: So they actually add chalk to those chairs.
25:44
SPEAKER_01: That's an additive added to those chairs in order to initially make the plastics stronger.
25:49
SPEAKER_01: But as it degrades in the sun, the chalk leaches out and you get this chalky white film, and the chair is so brittle it falls apart.
25:56
SPEAKER_01: So that's just a real off example of of one of the one of the additives that can that you can find in plastics.
26:03
SPEAKER_01: But okay.
26:04
SPEAKER_01: Um one thing you can do to decrease your exposure is choose organic foods because phthalates can be used in pesticides, right?
26:17
SPEAKER_01: This is one area where a lot of people don't think of plastics being used, but yes, they could be used in pesticides.
26:23
SPEAKER_01: So uh choose organic or beyond organic, as we say.
26:28
SPEAKER_01: Um, grow your own.
26:29
SPEAKER_01: Eat foods that are not wrapped when possible.
26:32
SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, now you even have uh cucumbers that are wrapped, shrink wrapped in plastic, right?
26:39
SPEAKER_01: So just try to choose the foods that don't have the plastic wrapped around them.
26:42
SPEAKER_01: Clearly, do not microwave your food.
26:45
SPEAKER_01: The heat applied to the plastic can leach out some of these additives.
26:48
SPEAKER_01: Oh, another additive I failed to mention is heavy metals.
26:52
SPEAKER_01: Some of these uh plastics bring along with them heavy metals.
26:56
SPEAKER_01: So, Joe, when we're talking about the cows consuming these plastics, the plastics seem to have stayed in, you know, in their GI tract.
27:05
SPEAKER_01: But what's concerning about it is the additives that may have been released during the digestive process, you know.
27:13
SPEAKER_01: So, how is that harming the cow?
27:14
SPEAKER_01: And then how is that affecting potentially the milk or the meat that we're consuming from the cow?
27:19
SPEAKER_01: Um, store things in glass containers whenever possible, drink from glass containers.
27:24
SPEAKER_01: Don't cook using those nonstick pans, right?
27:27
SPEAKER_01: Use like uh stainless steel, for instance.
27:30
SPEAKER_01: Uh the nonstick pans, this is a great example of these forever chemicals, right?
27:35
SPEAKER_01: There's they're so good at things like nonstick pans and um waterproof material.
27:40
SPEAKER_01: So if you have jackets that are waterproof, they're lined with these plastics.
27:44
SPEAKER_01: And that's one reason why it's so hard to get them out of the body, is because they hate water, right?
27:51
SPEAKER_01: That's why they're good at being nonstick pans, they don't want to stick to things, so stop using those.
27:56
SPEAKER_01: Um, makeup and personal care products often have microplastics in them.
28:01
SPEAKER_01: So it's another thing you got to look on that label or call the manufacturer and ask um for the ingredient list.
28:08
SPEAKER_01: Um, don't consume things in bottled water.
28:12
SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness, Joel.
28:13
SPEAKER_01: There was a study that came out that showed that for one liter of bottled water, that initially they estimated there were 30,000 particles of plastic per one liter of water.
28:29
SPEAKER_01: Then our technology improved, our lab technology improved to be able to detect these microplastics in the water.
28:36
SPEAKER_01: And there's a 2024 paper came out using um imaging techniques, and they said that per liter of bottle, there's not 30,000 particles.
28:44
SPEAKER_01: There's anywhere between 110,000 and 400,000 particles of plastic in that bottled water, right?
28:52
SPEAKER_01: It's also in tap water, right?
28:53
SPEAKER_01: Because, like I said, it's contaminated the water supply.
28:56
SPEAKER_01: So you can use reverse osmosis to filter the water to get these out.
29:00
SPEAKER_01: It's not going to remove all of them, but the reverse osmosis will help remove them.
29:05
SPEAKER_01: Also, um, I would suggest don't consume sea salt because there's lots of plastic microplastics in the water.
29:13
SPEAKER_01: Um, because lots of it gets down into the ocean, right?
29:16
SPEAKER_01: The ocean seems to be our dumping ground for the water, the wastewaters and stuff.
29:21
SPEAKER_01: So the sea salt comes from that ocean.
29:23
SPEAKER_01: So don't get don't.
29:24
SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't buy personally sea salt.
29:26
SPEAKER_01: I would do like pink Himalayan salt or the real salt.
29:29
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, don't consume canned foods.
29:32
SPEAKER_01: They've taken BPA um out of some of them, but they've replaced them with like you know, BPS.
29:39
SPEAKER_01: Like, so so there's still not a good alternative for lining the cans.
29:45
SPEAKER_01: Um, and again, a major source of mycoplastic exposure is from the clothing.
29:49
SPEAKER_01: So if you want to reduce inhaling that, you can buy natural materials, natural clothing like linen or cotton, alpaca, wool.
29:59
SPEAKER_01: You got to be careful because sometimes they'll list 100% pure wool and it's not, it's got additives in it.
30:05
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, some other um textiles, so you have to call and ask to confirm.
30:10
SPEAKER_01: In your house, you can use HEPA filters in your air conditioning unit, in your vacuum.
30:17
SPEAKER_01: And if you're really concerned, they have those, you know, standing units, the air, the air purification units, they can use a high quality HEPA filter.
30:26
SPEAKER_01: A great one you can do is get outside.
30:29
SPEAKER_01: Get outside of your house because they're saying that even in this study, they show cited that the majority of our inhalation comes from being inside our homes.
30:41
SPEAKER_01: So, because you know, obviously of all of the compounds in our homes that have plastics in them.
30:46
SPEAKER_01: So get outside more when you exercise.
30:49
SPEAKER_01: Try to do it outside because, in particular, you're breathing, you're increasing your respiratory rate and you're breathing more deeply when you're exercising.
30:57
SPEAKER_01: So, higher chance of getting those uh microplastics and um fibers into you know the deep part of your lungs.
31:04
SPEAKER_01: Sweating, so sweating at least once a week.
31:10
SPEAKER_01: We don't know that the sweat actually removes the plastic, like the microplastics.
31:15
SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's not what I'm saying, but it can help remove other chemicals, these additives that are in the plastics, like the heavy metals and the BPA.
31:24
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so sweating, um, staying hydrated with microplastic free water, um, and consuming um sulforophane.
31:33
SPEAKER_01: So we've found that cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower can actually boost your phase two detox pathways.
31:41
SPEAKER_01: So it's it might be a good idea to consume more of those cruciferous vegetables if you want to try to remove these from your body.
31:48
SPEAKER_01: Uh glutathione has also been um shown to help in the detox process.
31:54
SPEAKER_01: So that's another thing you can consume glutathione if you'd like.
31:58
SPEAKER_01: But okay, Joel, that was my quick wrap-up.
32:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, we're we're uh we're pushing our time here.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: So uh so I know I know we have that that yeah, that's that's fascinating.
32:10
SPEAKER_00: Uh great problem and solution.
32:14
SPEAKER_00: Uh we want to give we want to give solutions to problems here.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that was good.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh thanks for the thanks for the rundown.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: Um so now I think you want to you want to touch this uh fluoride and lab-grown meat, these these kind of um government uh and court uh court decisions.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: Let's do that here very, very quickly and we'll wrap up.
32:35
SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
32:36
SPEAKER_01: So this is more exciting news.
32:38
SPEAKER_01: So you and I previously reported that in September of this year, a historic ruling came down where the f a federal judge in California stated that the fluoride in drinking water could pose a risk to the IQ of children, and that there's mounting research pointing to an unreasonable risk.
32:55
SPEAKER_01: He so then he consequently ordered the environmental protection agency to take steps to lower that risk.
33:02
SPEAKER_01: And he did not say what those steps should be, he just mandated um that they do something.
33:07
SPEAKER_01: So now one state is taking action, and that is Florida.
33:13
SPEAKER_01: There's Florida's surgeon general Joseph Ladapo.
33:17
SPEAKER_01: Is that how you say it, Joel?
33:18
SPEAKER_01: Ladapo.
33:20
SPEAKER_00: Um I think he says it Ladapo.
33:22
SPEAKER_01: Latipo.
33:23
SPEAKER_01: Okay, Joseph Ladapo, my new hero, he is advising against adding fluoride to the public drinking supply.
33:31
SPEAKER_01: He issued a new guidance on November 22nd, advising against this long-standing practice.
33:38
SPEAKER_01: And what he said on um on the social media platform X, he said, and I quote, adding fluoride to water increases the risk of neuropsychiatric disease in children and reduces their IQ.
33:49
SPEAKER_01: We can strengthen teeth without consuming this neurotoxin.
33:53
SPEAKER_01: He this guidance, in this guidance, he cites that historic court ruling that we discussed, as well as that report that was published in August that we also discussed.
34:04
SPEAKER_01: This was the one from the national toxicology program that they tried to suppress and that did show a connection between consuming this um fluoridated water and lower IQ.
34:15
SPEAKER_01: So those two things combined, he then um set forth these guidelines.
34:19
SPEAKER_01: He did admit in a press conference that he was previously in favor of the fluoride in the water.
34:26
SPEAKER_01: And after this report and the court ruling, um, he said he was appalled by the findings.
34:33
SPEAKER_01: And then he, so what I thought was kind of cool too is he announced this in Winter Haven, Florida.
34:40
SPEAKER_01: Winterhaven, Florida recently announced its own decision to remove fluoride from its public water supply.
34:46
SPEAKER_01: And their commissioner said that it was because of the district judge's ruling in September, along with RFK Jr.'s nomination.
34:55
SPEAKER_01: So those were his reasons for removing the fluoride.
34:58
SPEAKER_01: And as you, as our listeners know, Kennedy has argued for removing fluoride from the water, from the the nation's water supply.
35:05
SPEAKER_01: So I thought that was fascinating that states are stepping in and taking the initiative, which is which is where this right lies is with the state.
35:14
SPEAKER_01: So they stuck, stuck, took initiative, and also that a commissioner was influenced already by you know Robert Kennedy Jr.
35:24
SPEAKER_01: He's not even in his position yet at Health and Human Services, but he's having influence.
35:28
SPEAKER_01: So I thought that was a positive uplifting story.
35:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Cena, uh, you'll love this.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: A guy sent me a picture this week of a label on baby formula fortified with fluoride.
35:41
SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
35:42
SPEAKER_00: Baby, I mean, so so you know, a formula for a kit that doesn't even have teeth yet, and uh a baby formula that's uh fortified with fluoride.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: I knew you'd get a kick out of that.
35:54
SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah.
35:55
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'll tell you, Joe, Joe, uh, Joe Lattipo is uh is a hero of lots.
36:00
SPEAKER_00: And you know, um Governor Um DeSantis got him down there because of his stance against the COVID mandates and all this, and he's the reason Florida, or one of the big reasons Florida uh was so outspoken against the mask mandates and the and the closures and all this stuff.
36:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he's a he he's an amazing guy.
36:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, he's pretty cool.
36:25
SPEAKER_00: All right, and then we've got a lab-grown meat uh thing.
36:29
SPEAKER_01: Yes, and once again, it's Florida in the headlines.
36:34
SPEAKER_01: There is just uh there's a landmark ruling in the U.S.
36:37
SPEAKER_01: District Court in the Northern District of Florida, and they have ruled in favor of Florida's law that bans the sale and distribution of lab-grown or cultivated meat.
36:50
SPEAKER_01: The ruling now prohibits the marketing of food products developed from cultured animal cells, and it's being marked as a significant victory for not only advocates of traditional meat production, but of states' rights.
37:04
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know if people are already familiar with this one, but um, this is really involving a company called Upside Foods, and they were a leading player in the cultivated meat sector, and they wanted to bring their lab-grown chicken to market in Florida, and the Florida legislature didn't want it.
37:23
SPEAKER_01: And so the company is now arguing or argued that its products should be regulated under federal law, the same way that conventional poultry is regulated under federal law.
37:36
SPEAKER_01: But um, this Florida law is is basically saying no, that we're just gonna bar those products from being in our state, meaning that if upside foods would distribute their cultivated chicken, it could result in criminal penalties, civil fines, and stop sale orders.
37:54
SPEAKER_01: So upside foods um challenged this Florida law.
37:59
SPEAKER_01: And again, claiming that it conflicted with the federal law, and this is the Federal Poultry Products Inspection Act, the PPIA.
38:06
SPEAKER_01: They said that it's the U.S.
38:07
SPEAKER_01: Department of Agriculture that has authority over if they can sell the food or not.
38:14
SPEAKER_01: And the judge said that um they've the upside foods failed to demonstrate that the lab-grown chicken meat met the federal definition of poultry or poultry product.
38:28
SPEAKER_01: Because under PPIA, the poultry products are defined as carcasses or items derived from birds.
38:34
SPEAKER_01: And the judge said that cultivated meat is grown from the animal cells and not the whole bird.
38:39
SPEAKER_01: So it falls into kind of a gray area that's not explicitly addressed by the existing federal standards.
38:47
SPEAKER_01: So basically, what this means is that until the USDA issues specific regulations for the cultivated meat, this debate can happen at the state level, right?
39:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's pretty cool.
39:02
SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, what I mean, what it means is that all that this uh artificial artificial stuff is um is outside right now, outside the jurisdiction of the Food Safety Inspection Service.
39:21
SPEAKER_00: Which is which is a which Sina is a brand new category in the uh it's not a word, the the uh the edibility, the edibility department.
39:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, we we we've never we've never had we've never had foods that are not within the uh whatever, you know, the the definition of food of the yeah, of the USDA uh of the FSIS oversight.
39:53
SPEAKER_00: And and so um so you know this this is wonderful because it doesn't just go along with the generally recognized as safe uh with a grass designation.
40:04
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't be because that's how GMOs got in.
40:07
SPEAKER_00: GMOs got in because of of grass.
40:10
SPEAKER_00: So well they're they're basically the same, so it's no big deal.
40:13
SPEAKER_00: And and and finally now um this apparently went past the line that um that they're saying, no, it's not it's not the same as, and of course the industry keeps saying, well, it's the it's this, you know, it's the same thing.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: It's you know, it's blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
40:28
SPEAKER_00: So uh fast, fascinating, um, fascinating tension uh in in the culture.
40:35
SPEAKER_00: That's uh the culture, yeah, cultured meat, yeah.
40:38
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, pun intended.
40:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I'm like, you know, so it's for me, it was kind of a mixed bag of emotions on this one.
40:46
SPEAKER_01: You know, uh the tension is palpable.
40:48
SPEAKER_01: You have Senator Um Senator Collins uh from Florida, and he said that Floridians will not be lectured by billionaires like Bill Gates on how to feed their families.
41:00
SPEAKER_01: So you can feel the tension, you know.
41:02
SPEAKER_01: And well, I mean, I agree.
41:04
SPEAKER_01: I agree.
41:05
SPEAKER_01: We should we should all be able to choose, you know, what we want to eat.
41:09
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I'm a little and I want to know your thoughts on this because number one, all the USDA has to do now is change the definition, right?
41:19
SPEAKER_00: Right?
41:19
SPEAKER_00: And then it's like, oh, which they very well may.
41:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they can easily do that, change the definition, you know.
41:26
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not I don't know that I'm so in favor of okay, let's just ban it, even though I'm against it, right?
41:34
SPEAKER_01: I don't I'm not gonna eat that meat.
41:35
SPEAKER_01: I'm not so much in favor of let's just ban it so that the market can't speak.
41:39
SPEAKER_01: I'm more like, let's let it happen and let's educate the people and move the market, you know?
41:47
SPEAKER_00: Yes, well, I I I am too, except, except um you know, if if we if we want to reduce the federal, the federal oversight into things, and I'm using oversight, yes, uh, it it's an adulterated oversight, but but anyway, it it is over if if we want to reduce the federal intervention, um, the incremental step, you know, just just strategically, diplomatically, yes, the strategic step is get the federal out of it and let the states do it.
42:22
SPEAKER_00: And so so those of us that are you know that are on the kind of libertarian side, we have to we have to grant our culture right now states' rights, that if a state wants to do this, I mean that's what we've done with abortion, okay?
42:38
SPEAKER_00: And and and and so one and and so you can go to another state.
42:41
SPEAKER_00: You you you you can still get this stuff.
42:44
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, if Florida bans it, well, you just cross the border into Georgia and you load up your car and you take it home, you know.
42:51
SPEAKER_00: But but uh but there are there are things that we we have to, I think strategically and practically, those of us that want a more limited federal government need to grant an incremental move to state uh to state intervention to to let the experiments go forward, to let the experience the experiments in in the 50-state experiment go forward.
43:22
SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, uh if I were in Florida, I would probably be opposed to a ban just because, yeah, I don't want to ban anything, because if you ban that today, then you can ban you know raw milk tomorrow or whatever.
43:34
SPEAKER_00: Uh I I get that.
43:36
SPEAKER_00: But um, you know, uh uh I I I I think I think we have to give room, we have to give some latitude for incrementalism to go.
43:47
SPEAKER_00: And if it and and if the I'm thrilled that the judge says federal, you don't I love any ruling that says federal, you don't have jurisdiction here.
43:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
43:57
SPEAKER_00: That's that's that's great.
44:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
44:00
SPEAKER_01: And I yeah, I I completely agree with you there.
44:04
SPEAKER_01: I mean, those are words of wisdom.
44:05
SPEAKER_01: It's taken us well over a hundred years to get where we are today.
44:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so it's not like a magical snap of the finger, it's gonna reverse.
44:13
SPEAKER_01: So stepwise process is is great.
44:15
SPEAKER_01: And hopefully, you know, now that we're getting new people soon in January into the system, hopefully a a new um definition is not created between now and then for this lab-grown meat.
44:30
SPEAKER_01: And hopefully they don't change the definition.
44:31
SPEAKER_01: So that would give four years for the rights to get back to the states, and that would be a great step forward.
44:37
SPEAKER_00: It would indeed.
44:37
SPEAKER_00: It would indeed.
44:38
SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks, you know.
44:39
SPEAKER_00: We've we've covered a lot of ground here uh from microplastics to fluoride to lab-grown meat.
44:45
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for bringing us up to date on all the um you know the current happenings and uh making sure that our our um listeners are um the most educated people in a community.
44:58
SPEAKER_00: That's our that's our goal here, is we want you to be informed and we want you to be um you know to be well educated.
45:07
SPEAKER_00: I guess I guess if we were gonna um ask a question today, uh maybe it would be, you know, in the last year or two, have you made a life change regarding microplastics?
45:20
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is not new material, this is not microplastics are not new information for those of us with our ear to the ground.
45:26
SPEAKER_00: We've been watching this for some time.
45:28
SPEAKER_00: And um, and is there is there one thing in your life that you've uh that you've made a change on to try to reduce your um your use, uh both ingestion and inhalation of uh microplastics.
45:42
SPEAKER_00: Uh if you have tell us.
45:44
SPEAKER_00: Um other than that, we're really glad that you listened today, and we will uh join you next week for another Beyond Labels podcast.