Latest / Beyond Labels Premium / Episode #72: 10,000 UNTESTED Chemicals in Our Food & Solutions

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Episode #72: 10,000 UNTESTED Chemicals in Our Food & Solutions · Beyond Labels Premium

0:00
SPEAKER_00: It's more expensive to add in these a natural alternative.
0:04
SPEAKER_00: And the reason they get away with it is because consumers are not demanding the natural alternative.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: Okay, just like I had said that the brominated vegetable oil that was banned in Europe and Japan, right?
0:20
SPEAKER_00: And not in America.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: A lot of these things you'll hear people talk about this a lot in this food space, that this chemical was banned here.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: You know, craft makes their macaroni and cheese different in the other country than it does here in America.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: That's because, in large part, their consumers are standing up and saying, no, we will not consume that.
0:40
SPEAKER_01: Hi, everybody.
0:41
SPEAKER_01: Joel Salatin here with our favorite researcher, Dr.
0:44
SPEAKER_01: Cena McCullough, on another episode of Beyond Labels.
0:48
SPEAKER_01: We have exciting news to share with you today that as of today, uh tickets are on sale for our upcoming third annual Two Days of Truth summit.
1:00
SPEAKER_01: Many of you have come to this.
1:01
SPEAKER_01: We encourage all of you to try to come to this.
1:03
SPEAKER_01: It'll be next year on June 23 and 24 here at Polyface Farm.
1:10
SPEAKER_01: It's worth coming just for the food, but it's the it's the fun, the fellowship, it's the time to uh to to to share information and learn who else is in our tribe.
1:22
SPEAKER_01: Very, very practical.
1:24
SPEAKER_01: Um, and we're gonna have great uh presentations, a good you know, farm experience, grounding, and all sorts of cool things.
1:35
SPEAKER_01: So um, so yeah, we encourage you.
1:37
SPEAKER_01: This is our our first grand announcement for the two days of truth.
1:40
SPEAKER_01: Now, we do believe we are on to something uh regarding truth because we've been censored.
1:47
SPEAKER_01: And so here to tell us what happened.
1:49
SPEAKER_01: Uh Cena, tell us what happened.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: All right, Joel.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: So I would have to say I was not surprised that we were censored.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: You and I both know this has been coming.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so we actually had a backup plan.
2:02
SPEAKER_00: Instead of just having our videos on YouTube, we also have a Rumble account.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: So what happened was we loaded one of our videos from our first Two Days of Truth Summit.
2:13
SPEAKER_00: We loaded that onto YouTube to give you all free access to it.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: It was a video of the um the talk that Dr.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: Sabine Hazen gave at our first summit.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: She is a the world's leading expert in the microbiome.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: Well, in this talk, she happened to address how she's been helping patients in her clinic to recover from COVID, including long COVID.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: And it was the video was flagged by YouTube as medical misinformation.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so we got a hit on our account.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: So when you get your link to our video, our you know, the full-length video that you get each week as a part of the subscription service, it will now take you to Rumble.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: Instead of taking you to the video on YouTube, we are now having to switch and take them over to Rumble.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: So, but like Joel said, this is a badge of honor, right?
3:12
SPEAKER_00: We're standing in truth, we are speaking what we believe is is truth as we see it.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: And that's just been affirmed, Joel.
3:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it sure has.
3:22
SPEAKER_01: And so, and so as we segue into today's episode, uh that uh I think the important thing for all of us to understand is we we put trust in things.
3:33
SPEAKER_01: We, you know, we we pick where to put our trust, and different people put trust in different things.
3:40
SPEAKER_01: And so um, so here we are, you know, with these great big social media platforms, and they you know, they all have guardrails of of content.
3:48
SPEAKER_01: You know, what's what's acceptable, what's not.
3:50
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, it's like freedom of speech does not allow you to go into a crowded theater and yell fire uh and and create a stampede in a crowded theater, unless there really is a fire.
4:01
SPEAKER_01: Uh so you know, court courts have courts have put boundaries over even things allowed in the Bill of Rights for a good while, you know, reasonable boundaries.
4:09
SPEAKER_01: And so so as the social media giants really developed and developed boundaries for what was allowed, you know, uh pornography, you know, whatever uh uh uh threats against you know the prime minister or whatever, um most of us, most of us benignly, you know, uh thought, okay, well, they've got our back.
4:32
SPEAKER_01: You know, you know, our kids aren't gonna see pornography on here, you know, there's filters, there's all sorts of things, and and and they've set up these boundaries.
4:39
SPEAKER_01: Well, then suddenly we we find in this massive betrayal of censorship that they don't have our back, that that that that there that there is a definite betrayal there of our trust.
4:53
SPEAKER_01: What we thought, what we thought was protecting us and our kids in this space ended up not protecting us and in and indeed uh denying us uh truth as we as we as we think about it.
5:09
SPEAKER_01: And so it's this this betrayal of trust that we want to talk about today in what's called grass, that's generally recognized as safe.
5:21
SPEAKER_01: You will see this throughout labeling, and it is a it is a snarly issue, but again, this is a this these are guardrails that supposedly experts put up in order to protect us, and and we now feel betrayed.
5:40
SPEAKER_01: And so to dig into that a little bit, here is our expert research analyst, Cena, to give us the details of generally recognized as safe, otherwise known as grass.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: Awesome, thank you, Joel.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so this is a packed topic, so I'm gonna move relatively quickly.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: Um, this is one of the most important topics for you to know about what's happened with our food supply, and you'll understand why in just a few minutes.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: So I always start with the question of what is the job of the FDA?
6:16
SPEAKER_00: Right.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: And ask yourself that.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: What is the job of the FDA?
6:20
SPEAKER_00: And Joel, if you're pretending to be a typical American, what would you say is the job of the FDA?
6:27
SPEAKER_01: Uh I would say it's to protect our food supply from hazardous stuff.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: So to make sure the food supply is safe, right?
6:36
SPEAKER_00: That it is not adulterated.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: Because we all have that ingrained in our mind, and because that's actually on the FDA website as its job, most of us do not question the safety of our food.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: The reason I say that is because most of us will walk into a grocery store or a fast food chain or a restaurant or go to a vending machine or eat from a gas station.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: And we don't sit there and ponder is this safe?
7:02
SPEAKER_00: We just buy it, we see it on the shelf, we assume that someone has tested it for safety, so we eat it, right?
7:08
SPEAKER_00: And I did this too for most of my life.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: I did this too until I got debilitatingly sick.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: So instead of asking, um, what if the FDA is not doing their job, right?
7:21
SPEAKER_00: Because that's that's the question you're gonna ask as we're going through this.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: I want you to start thinking of this question instead.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: What if the FDA is not doing the job that you think it's supposed to do?
7:33
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so what if our perception of the FDA's role is wrong?
7:37
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and let's dive into graphs and I'll ask you that question again at the end and see what you think.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: Okay, there over the past 60 years, there's actually been this dramatic shift in our food supply.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: We've shifted from predominantly whole foods to predominantly processed foods.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: About 70% of our diet, 75% of our diet, um, typically consists of processed foods, um, even including what we call now ultra-processed foods.
8:05
SPEAKER_00: The majority of these foods contain synthetic chemicals that are made in a laboratory.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let me give you a few quick examples so you can see how pervasive these chemicals are in our food supply.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: So, Mountain Dew, right?
8:21
SPEAKER_00: When I was growing up, we did not question that a glowing green solution was unsafe, right?
8:28
SPEAKER_00: Mountain Dew actually contains brominated vegetable oil.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: It is a patented flame retardant for plastics, and it's actually banned in Europe and in Japan.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: But the FDA thinks it's good enough for Americans to consume.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: All right.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, there's also BVO, which is an emulsifier, but we know now that it changes the gut flora and could lead to leaky gut.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: BVO is found in citrus flavored sodas.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: It's found in about 10% of sodas sold in the US.
8:59
SPEAKER_00: All right.
8:59
SPEAKER_00: Another commonly consumed food, Doritos.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: Doritos contain monosodium glutamate.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: It is an excitatory neurotransmitter that we know in the literature can damage cells and can actually kill cells, including brain cells.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: Doritos also contain disodium andosinate, which is suspected of damaging organs and affecting fertility.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: Um, let's say another example, cerrelee cinnamon rolls.
9:24
SPEAKER_00: They contain propylperapin, which is a known endocrine disruptor that can mimic estrogen and has been associated with breast cancer cells.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: All right, another one, um, pop secret popcorn, right?
9:38
SPEAKER_00: That's a family favorite for a lot of people.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: It contains propylgallate.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: Now, the reason it contains that is because it prevents the fat from going rancid, but it's also linked to damaging DNA and killing human endothelial cells.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: Also, it can elicit liver damage and cause allergic reactions.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: So, one thing I want you to mention, want you to pay attention to here is that number one, the chemicals are hard for even me to pronounce.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: And I used to teach biochemistry, right?
10:08
SPEAKER_00: So these are hard to pronounce chemicals.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: That's your first clue that it's probably something you don't want to eat, right?
10:14
SPEAKER_00: Because that would never be in your that would never be naturally founded in nature.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: The second thing is, um, I want you to keep this in mind because as I'm going through this list, you might think, oh, she sounds like an alarmist, right?
10:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm eating Doritos, I'm eating, you know, this popcorn, and I'm not keeling over and getting sick, right?
10:35
SPEAKER_00: What we're talking about here are the long-term health effects.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: We are not talking about an acute effect as though this is a poison.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: We are talking about the long-term consequences.
10:45
SPEAKER_00: And the problem is no one has looked at that, and that's where I want to go right now, is that these have not actually been tested for safety.
10:54
SPEAKER_01: But Sina, before you jump in there, I think it's important for us to to um uh I don't know.
11:02
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how to broach this particular idea, but but you know, as you as you go through that, you almost you almost when you get this whole um litany of things, my first reaction as a as just a regular eater is are these companies trying to poison us?
11:21
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, uh is there evil intent?
11:25
SPEAKER_01: And I think we need to understand there is no evil intent here.
11:29
SPEAKER_01: The reason that this stuff goes in processed food and it's not in a whole apple or a whole grape.
11:36
SPEAKER_01: The reason it's there is because it enhances taste, it stabilizes, it makes some sort of texture or or stabilization factor in the in the process.
11:48
SPEAKER_01: And so it it is the it is the the processing to to to keep it crisp, to keep it uh to I mean monosodium glutamate is a is a is a taste enhancer.
12:01
SPEAKER_01: Uh your your taste buds actually like uh monosodium glutamate.
12:06
SPEAKER_01: And so uh so it it it is the it is the it is the process of processing uh and and the and the the objectives they have to have to make this a shelf stable, a long shelf stable, like a year shelf stable edible product that is still has the same texture and the same uh attributes and everything over a long period of time.
12:32
SPEAKER_01: Uh they're not trying to poison us, we're not saying these are evil people.
12:36
SPEAKER_01: Uh it it it is just it is just a natural uh formulation to make the kind of product uh saleable and buyable uh that uh that that naturally goes in here.
12:54
SPEAKER_01: And uh and so you know um I wh while we while we disagree vehemently with a lot of this, I don't want anybody to think that that we that we believe that these businesses have evil intent.
13:11
SPEAKER_01: They're you know they're trying they're trying to make a brand name and make stockholders money, you know, and what what they have is a wrong philosophy.
13:20
SPEAKER_01: They have a wrong philosophy, but they don't have evil intent.
13:24
SPEAKER_01: And and so so it comes with the territory of making something that is that shelf stable and that uh that that similar from one bite to the next.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: That's right, Joel.
13:36
SPEAKER_00: And I want to piggyback on that.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: We'll get into this in just a moment um in more detail, but actually, so the companies are not doing anything illegal, all right?
13:45
SPEAKER_00: And we'll get into that in a minute.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's the first thing is we're not blaming the companies.
13:51
SPEAKER_00: Um, and and I also want to get more into this after I explain to you what grass is.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: Um, the reason, a big reason why companies are putting these chemicals into these foods is because it's cheap.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: So there are natural alternatives.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: So rosemary, for instance, um is a natural preservative.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: There are natural alternatives, okay?
14:14
SPEAKER_00: But there's a there's motivation here.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: It's cheaper to create these other chemicals.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: Most of them, um a large quantity of them, are derived from um subsidized crops, so like genetically engineered corn and soy.
14:30
SPEAKER_00: So these are already a cheaper source for them to procure, to make, to have these chemicals made.
14:37
SPEAKER_00: So it's cheaper to do it and it's more expensive to add in these a natural alternative.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: And the reason they get away with it is because consumers are not demanding the natural alternative.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: Okay, just like I had said that um the brominated vegetable oil that was banned in Europe and Japan, right?
14:59
SPEAKER_00: And not in America.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: A lot of these things you'll hear people talk about this a lot in this food space, that this chemical was banned here.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: You know, craft makes their macaroni and cheese different in the other country than it does here in America.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: That's because, in large part, their consumers are standing up and saying, no, we will not consume that.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: We are not doing that in large enough masses here in America.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: We have not hit that tipping point.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: So that's part of the reason to educate people today on what grass is, so that we can stand as a united front and try to move the market.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let's jump into it.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: So, grass was born out of an amendment that was passed in Congress in 1958.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: Congress passed the food additive amendment.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: The purpose was to test chemicals for safety before adding them to our food, right?
15:53
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I applaud Congress.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't like more laws being passed, but they got something right there, right?
15:58
SPEAKER_00: Test them for safety before you put it in our food, okay?
16:01
SPEAKER_00: Now, the problem is the food additive amendment contains the grass exemption.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: If a chemical is considered grass, as Joel said, it is generally recognized as safe.
16:15
SPEAKER_00: That means that chemical does not have to go through an FDA approval process, it gets a free pass from a laboratory to your dinner plate.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: Okay, now the grass exemption was actually um there was a good intention behind Congress.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: It was meant to exempt commonly used ingredients like water and vinegar, but it has actually turned into a loophole.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: So all those chemicals that I mentioned at the top of this podcast, you know, in the Doritos, Mountain Dew, some popcorns, breads, whatnot, all those chemicals are actually grass.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: There are roughly 10,000, 10,000 chemical additives in our food supply.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: And many of those fell through this grass loophole.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: In fact, almost all the chemicals that have been added to our food in the last decade have been added through the grass loophole.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: Means they are not tested by the FDA.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: They are not even regulated by the FDA.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: And even organic foods can contain untested and unregulated synthetic chemicals.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: So, what does this mean for us as eaters?
17:25
SPEAKER_00: It means that roughly, since roughly 75% of our calories of the typical American come from processed food, most of us are consuming these grass chemicals daily.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: Okay, now again, we're emphasizing here what we're concerned about are long-term consequences.
17:41
SPEAKER_00: We don't actually know what all of these chemicals are capable of doing because the long-term effects of any one chemical is not adequately studied.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: And most of the time, it's not studied at all.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: We don't require studies on the long-term effects of these chemicals.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: And we certainly don't know what happens when we combine the chemicals together.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: So, what's happening long term if you're eating like the Mountain Dew with the Doritos?
18:09
SPEAKER_00: We actually don't know.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: So we are now guinea pigs in this nationwide or worldwide chemical experience, right?
18:18
SPEAKER_00: We are a chemical experiment.
18:21
SPEAKER_01: So and Cena, if I if I may jump in right there, uh in in the vernacular, we call this, we call this cocktails.
18:30
SPEAKER_01: Uh and and in in farming, for example, uh, when they test herbicides, pesticides, um, insecticides, things like that, they always test just the one the one chemical for uh side effects and and things like that.
18:46
SPEAKER_01: But most farmers actually make a cocktail.
18:49
SPEAKER_01: They mix an herbicide with a with an insecticide or an herbicide with a pesticide, and and uh, and no testing is ever done um on these kind of combinations.
19:02
SPEAKER_01: And so even the even the chemicals that FDA has tested that are in a food have only been tested singularly, not in combinations that they normally are arranged in in a food product.
19:19
SPEAKER_01: So you get you get Doritos, it might have uh six or seven of these grass compounds in it.
19:28
SPEAKER_01: Maybe one of them was tested, but it was only tested singularly in some rat feeding trial.
19:34
SPEAKER_01: And so it wasn't tested in combination with these other things.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's an excellent point.
19:40
SPEAKER_00: And um, in just a few minutes, I'm gonna walk you through one example to show you how it was, how one of these grass chemicals was tested.
19:47
SPEAKER_00: I think you're gonna be shocked.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so when I learned about this grass loophole, I thought this can't be right, right?
19:54
SPEAKER_00: Like the FDA isn't even doing its job.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: Like, isn't it their job to protect our food from safety?
20:00
SPEAKER_00: They should be testing these chemicals.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: So I reached out to the government accountability office, the GAO.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: As you know, the GAO is supposed to be our government watchdog.
20:10
SPEAKER_00: They investigate how the federal government spends our tax dollars and they're supposed to hold the other organizations accountable.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: So when I talked to the GAO, they told me that Congress actually messed up.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: That Congress never declared who would be responsible for making grass determinations.
20:31
SPEAKER_00: Right.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: So they didn't say, oh, the FDA is responsible or the company's responsible.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: They just didn't say.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: So the companies began determining their own chemicals to be grass, right?
20:44
SPEAKER_00: This is what the GAO told me.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, wait a minute, that doesn't sound right at all.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: So then I dug deeper and I found the FDA's actual written policy on grass.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: And Joel, guess what?
20:58
SPEAKER_00: The FDA agrees that it is the company's responsibility.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: So if the FDA issued what's called a guidance document to industry, this guidance document contains voluntary non-binding recommendations.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: Voluntary non-binding recommendations.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: In that document, the FDA reminded companies that it's their responsibility to ensure the safety of the chemicals that they put in our food.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: So the FDA clearly believes that according to the law that was written, uh, you know, passed by Congress, the responsibility falls on the companies.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: So in that leadership vacuum, companies did begin declaring their own chemicals and products to be safe.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: Legally, to do that, a company just needs a quote unquote expert to declare that any given chemical is grass.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: So the next logical question is who are these experts, right?
21:53
SPEAKER_00: There was a study conducted in 2013, it was published in 2013 in Journal of American Medical Science.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Association, they reveal that the experts most often have financial ties to the industry.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: They're either employees of that company or they are a hired consultant.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, Joel, there are entire companies that are set up specifically to farm out scientists to these food companies that will declare their chemicals to be grass.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: So an entire industry is set up now where these scientists, in my opinion, are being bought off, right?
22:34
SPEAKER_00: They're in cahoots with industry.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: But it gets worse.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: As soon as one of these experts declares the chemical to be safe, that chemical can be immediately added to our food supply.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: There is no waiting period.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: And it gets worse.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: The companies don't even have to notify the FDA that they added a new chemical to our food.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: The process of notifying the FDA is actually voluntary.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: And it's estimated that there's at least 1,000 chemicals, a thousand chemicals that have been added to our food supply without the FDA even knowing it.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: So this means the FDA can't notify us.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: If there's a problem with one of these chemicals or a recall, they can't tell us.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: The FDA cannot issue a recall because they're not even monitoring it.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: They don't even have to be notified.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: They don't know what's happening.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: But the bigger issue for me here, outside of grass, is this means the FDA actually can't assure us that our food is safe because they don't even know what's in it, right?
23:47
SPEAKER_00: And this is the real kicker.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: I Joel, I know you know this, so just pretend you don't know the answer.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: Guess who made that process voluntary?
23:59
SPEAKER_01: Who made it voluntary?
24:01
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: Who decided that it was voluntary whether or not the company would notify the FDA that they released a chemical into our food supply?
24:10
SPEAKER_01: Well, it must be Richard Nixon because he was he was because he was not a crook.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: Good guess.
24:18
SPEAKER_00: It was actually the FDA itself.
24:22
SPEAKER_01: Of course, of course.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: It is.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: And so I mean the story gets crazier and crazier, right?
24:34
SPEAKER_00: So I want to go over a couple consequences, health consequences of this loophole.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: And then I want to touch on um the FDA's response to all of this, right?
24:45
SPEAKER_00: And what they think their job really is.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: So um one consequence actually of this whole decision-making process and and the the fact that the when the FDA decided that the process was voluntary, what that did was it silenced Americans.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: Because during the approval process of a typical food additive, there is a public comment period.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: Right?
25:14
SPEAKER_00: When it's added to the federal registry, there's a public comment period before it becomes a rule.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: But when the FDA made this notification process voluntary, it effectively removed that public comment period, thereby shutting all of us out of the approval process.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: So we can't even voice our concerns to the government, to the FDA, about these chemicals.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: We've been silenced.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: All right.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: So that's one consequence in terms of our freedom.
25:45
SPEAKER_00: Now, some health consequences of the grass loophole.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: Two, I want to do two common examples, okay, that probably everybody has heard of.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: The first is trans fats, right?
25:59
SPEAKER_00: Everybody now knows don't eat trans fats, right?
26:02
SPEAKER_00: The FDA says that the trans fats are responsible for quote eight eight deaths a day in the United States.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, trans fats qualified for grass status.
26:13
SPEAKER_00: They were on the grass list.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: And after citizens petitions, it pushed, it basically forced the FDA to have to act.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: And so they finally did de-grass trans fats after citizens rose up.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: So that's one consequence was trans fats.
26:30
SPEAKER_00: They were assumed to be safe.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: And the FDA later said, nope, sorry, we got that one wrong, eight deaths a day.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: The other one may be surprising to people.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: By this time, we've all heard of GMOs, genetically modified organisms.
26:45
SPEAKER_00: All right.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: Most of us, uh, most Americans consume GMOs every single day because they're so pervasive in our food supply at this point.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: Now, um, if you think about it though, and you ask yourself the question, how did GMOs actually got approved?
27:02
SPEAKER_00: How did they actually get approved to be in our food supply?
27:06
SPEAKER_00: Most people will think, oh, well, the FDA tested them for safety, but they weren't.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: The FDA quote presumed GMOs to be grass.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: So they never tested them for safety and they don't regulate them.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: And that's the example I want to give.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: So you can go, if you if you look at, so for instance, if you go into your pantry and you pick up a box of you know some processed food and you read the ingredient label and you see one of those difficult chemicals to pronounce, for example, you can go online to the grass database.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: It's the FDA's own database, and we'll put a link to it in the show description.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: You can type that chemical in, and if it's grass, it will pop up and it will tell you its grass status.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: So I did this when I was researching for my first book, where I outlined this entire story.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: I found um one of the first chemicals that popped up on the grass database was called xylinase.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: Xylanase received grass status, which was very concerning to me because as I read about it, it is genetically engineered.
28:19
SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is a genetically engineered compound.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, according to the grass notice, uh, it was submitted as grass by um Denisco, and they plan to put xylinase in our food, including cereal, drinks, baked goods, and alcohol.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: Now, the the whole premise behind the um behind xyllenase being considered grass came from this evidence.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: Denisco determined xylinase to be safe for us to eat based on scientific literature, a few studies that included eye and skin reaction experiments on rabbits.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: So they didn't even do a feeding study, they did eye and skin experiments on rabbits, which by the way, just it coming from um somebody who is a trained Western scientist and was a lab director.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: It it just totally upsets me.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: Like I heard I feel it in my heart when we do these experiments on animals.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: All right, but that's from the side.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: This was a totally worthless experiment.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: And then they had a letter from an quote expert.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: The response from the FDA was no questions.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: So this is what happens when you sit when a company submits their grass notice voluntarily.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: The the best response they can get from the FDA, what they're trying to get, is a letter that says no questions.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and this is, I want to read to you what was actually written in this letter.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: Okay, this was written by the director of the Office of Food Safety, of Food Additive Safety, okay, FDA employee.
29:57
SPEAKER_00: This is what he says.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: Based on the information provided by DuPont, as well as other information available to the FDA, which they don't disclose what that is, the agency has no questions at this time regarding DuPont's conclusion that xylinase enzyme preparation is grass under the intended conditions of use.
30:15
SPEAKER_00: The agency has not, however, made its own determination regarding the grass status of the subject of xyllenase enzyme preparation.
30:24
SPEAKER_00: As always, it is the continuing responsibility of DuPont to ensure that food ingredients that the firm markets are safe and are otherwise in compliance with all applicable legal and regulatory requirements.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: So xyllenase, this genetically engineered compound that's that's added to our food, is now on the grass list because the manager claimed it's safe.
30:47
SPEAKER_00: So I'm sorry, the manufacturer claimed it's safe.
30:50
SPEAKER_00: So the fact that it's genetically engineered and it's safe because a a couple of experiments, right, on the eyes and skin of rabbits and a letter from an expert.
31:02
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't that make you start questioning are these chemicals actually safe for us to eat?
31:08
SPEAKER_00: And again, no long-term studies.
31:10
SPEAKER_00: No, there's no feeding study and no long-term study.
31:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Cena, um, probably the one that I'm that I'm most familiar with was back, you know, when GMOs really started coming and we were looking at them, and we uh, you know, I mean, intuitively, I didn't I didn't like the genetic engineering, uh, the GMO thing.
31:29
SPEAKER_01: But um uh when when Jeffrey Smith wrote Seeds of Deception, uh he's got a wonderful story in there about uh Monsanto doing uh rat feeding trials on on GMO potatoes.
31:44
SPEAKER_01: And and so for the trial, so so this is exactly what you're talking about.
31:49
SPEAKER_01: So the company, so the company set up feeding trials with geriatric rats.
31:55
SPEAKER_01: Well, what are they measuring?
31:56
SPEAKER_01: They're measuring, you know, uh uh psychological uh, you know, uh results, uh organ, organ, you know, what does it do to the organs?
32:07
SPEAKER_01: Da-da-da.
32:08
SPEAKER_01: Well, geriatric rats, they're fully developed, they've got whatever their uh behavioral traits are already the bullies are already bullies and the and the timids are already timids.
32:20
SPEAKER_01: And and so, you know, there there was really uh no effect.
32:24
SPEAKER_01: When a Scottish researcher, I forget his name now, but a guy in Scotland duplicated Monsanto's tests, and the only thing he changed was instead of using geriatric rats, he used juvenile rats.
32:40
SPEAKER_01: And all sorts of problems came up.
32:42
SPEAKER_01: Uh um miscarriages, behavioral problems, organ development problems, all sorts of things.
32:48
SPEAKER_01: Same potatoes, same parameters, same everything.
32:54
SPEAKER_01: Monsanto used geriatric rats.
32:56
SPEAKER_01: This guy used juvenile rats, all sorts of problems uh came up, and he was eventually basically run out of the country uh for exposing his findings.
33:06
SPEAKER_01: But but this is the kind of when you say it's been researched, even that is suspect when the company is going to research itself, they can set up the experiment to either cover up a problem or make sure a problem never happens or create or create a benefit that you know that they've orchestrated.
33:29
SPEAKER_01: And so um, so yeah, the whole thing is just it's just unspeakably uh ridiculous.
33:35
SPEAKER_01: We're about out of time.
33:37
SPEAKER_01: Uh um what what final words do you have for us on grass?
33:42
SPEAKER_01: And I've got one question for you, Cena.
33:44
SPEAKER_01: If if you were going, if you were going to cut out these grass chemicals in your diet, let's say that you say, man, I want to I want to drop my consumption of this stuff by 50%.
33:57
SPEAKER_01: What are what are the first two things that you would cut out?
34:02
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so that's great.
34:04
SPEAKER_00: So let's let's end with that.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: Let's end with a solution.
34:07
SPEAKER_00: Let me go on to as quickly as I can tell you the response from the FDA, because this will tell you um, this gets you into the mind of the FDA in terms of what is their actual job and who do they think is responsible.
34:20
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so this is what I found crazy about this whole process of learning about grass chemicals is that the FDA knows what's happening, they know about this grass loophole and the consequences.
34:32
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm gonna give you a couple examples.
34:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, the FDA Deputy Commissioner of Foods back in 2013 was Michael Taylor.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: Familiar name, right?
34:43
SPEAKER_01: Uh Michael, uh just so everybody knows, Michael Taylor was the attorney who shepherded the Monsanto genetically modified organism.
34:51
SPEAKER_01: Uh the first GMOs through Monsanto.
34:54
SPEAKER_01: He was the Monsanto attorney who shepherded the GMO program through, and so this guy is the FDA guy.
35:03
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is the revolving door.
35:05
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
35:05
SPEAKER_00: And he's gone back and forth.
35:06
SPEAKER_00: So, this is what he said um about the grass loophole and about, you know, are they concerned about these chemicals in the food supply?
35:16
SPEAKER_00: This is what he says.
35:17
SPEAKER_00: We're not driven by a sense that there is a pressing public health emergency.
35:21
SPEAKER_00: But there are decisions being made based on data we don't have access to.
35:26
SPEAKER_00: And that creates a question about the basis on which the decisions are made.
35:31
SPEAKER_00: So, this is what I'm saying.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: They know, they know that they don't have the information.
35:36
SPEAKER_00: They know companies don't even have to notify them, um, but they are not driven uh by a by the sense that there's a pressing public health emergency.
35:45
SPEAKER_00: Now, the GAO um also questioned the FDA.
35:50
SPEAKER_00: The GAO said a couple these couple things about like why isn't the FDA doing something about this, right?
35:56
SPEAKER_00: That was the question.
35:57
SPEAKER_00: The FDA, according to the GAO, has authority to degrass a chemical, which, as I've told you, they've done that.
36:04
SPEAKER_00: They degrass trans fats.
36:06
SPEAKER_00: The FDA can also affirm that a chemical is grass if they wanted to.
36:12
SPEAKER_00: The FDA also has authority to monitor companies to make sure the grass determinations have been conducted properly, but it doesn't.
36:20
SPEAKER_00: And in 1997, the FDA said it would conduct random audits of companies, but it didn't.
36:27
SPEAKER_00: The FDA also has authority to issue guidance on what constitutes a quote-unquote expert, but they haven't.
36:35
SPEAKER_00: And the FDA has taken such a laxadacal approach to this grass issue that the GAO concluded the following FDA oversight process does not help ensure the safety of all new grass determinations.
36:48
SPEAKER_00: FDA is not systematically ensuring the continued safety of current graph substances either.
36:55
SPEAKER_00: Now, according to the FDA, um, when the GAO interviewed them, this is the this is what the FDA officials responded as.
37:03
SPEAKER_00: They said this the agency has higher priorities and currently has no specific schedule for doing so.
37:12
SPEAKER_00: The um the FDA officials also reported that, quote, the program has been operating effectively under the proposed rules, and they claim insufficient budget to be able to address this, right?
37:26
SPEAKER_00: So um these are some examples of the FDA's insight.
37:30
SPEAKER_00: Now, when you so now the the FDA knows what's happening, the GAO knows what's happening, the industry knows what's happening, every single person seems to know except us, the American people, right?
37:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's the purpose for this show.
37:44
SPEAKER_00: So again, I want to uh leave you with a couple thoughts.
37:48
SPEAKER_00: I want to ask you again is the FDA doing the job that you think they're supposed to do?
37:55
SPEAKER_00: So is the FDA doing the job you think they are supposed to do?
38:01
SPEAKER_00: Okay, if the FDA is not testing brass chemicals, uh they're not testing GMOs for long-term safely safety, then who is actually ensuring the safety of our food?
38:12
SPEAKER_00: Whose job is it?
38:14
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I have to read you this one last quote and then we'll go into the quick solution.
38:18
SPEAKER_00: The FDA sees it as our responsibility, it's the people's responsibility.
38:25
SPEAKER_00: Now, you and I would agree with this, Joel, right?
38:28
SPEAKER_00: It is our responsibility to hold companies accountable, to hold the government accountable.
38:34
SPEAKER_00: It's our responsibility to know what we put in our food.
38:36
SPEAKER_00: But I think most people would be shocked by this.
38:38
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
38:39
SPEAKER_00: Here is a direct quote from the FDA.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: So I wrote in my book, even the FDA agrees that consumers need to place demand on companies to ensure the safety of the chemicals in our food supply.
38:50
SPEAKER_00: FDA says, quote, the lack of awareness and information about the safety risks suggests that an ineffectively low demand may exist for food products that are produced using adequate measures to prevent foodborne illness, adulteration, or contamination.
39:10
SPEAKER_00: Because that demand for many manufactured or processed foods may not be sufficiently affected by safety considerations, incentives to invest in safety measures from farm to fork is diminished.
39:25
SPEAKER_00: Consequently, the market may not provide the incentive necessary for optimal food safety.
39:31
SPEAKER_00: So, Joel, we are filing an agreement with the FDA on something.
39:35
SPEAKER_00: They think it's the people's responsibility because as we started out this segment, and you pointed out, the companies are giving the people what they want.
39:45
SPEAKER_00: Right?
39:46
SPEAKER_00: The people in other countries, they're rising up saying, we won't eat this.
39:49
SPEAKER_00: And what happened?
39:49
SPEAKER_00: The company changes.
39:51
SPEAKER_00: You know, we have numerous, we can go on for an entire show about how consumer pressure has changed.
39:56
SPEAKER_00: Even companies in America have changed their formulations.
40:01
SPEAKER_00: They've gotten ingredients out of foods that we didn't want in there when we have actually risen up and fought against it together.
40:08
SPEAKER_00: Other countries are doing the same thing.
40:09
SPEAKER_00: So the FDA sees this.
40:11
SPEAKER_00: We are the solution.
40:12
SPEAKER_00: The people are actually the solution here.
40:15
SPEAKER_00: All right.
40:15
SPEAKER_00: So talk about being empowered, right?
40:18
SPEAKER_00: We were designed, the system is designed for us to be the watchdogs.
40:23
SPEAKER_00: And so let me end with some solutions like you suggested.
40:27
SPEAKER_00: Um, some things that you can do to get grass chemicals out of your food supply.
40:33
SPEAKER_00: When okay, an uh a quick one is to cut out processed foods, right?
40:39
SPEAKER_00: When you mentioned one of the top solutions, shift to a whole food diet.
40:44
SPEAKER_00: Now that's a really tall ask for a lot of people.
40:49
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
40:50
SPEAKER_00: So all you have to do is um maybe even shift one meal or part of your meal, right?
40:55
SPEAKER_00: Instead of the chips, um, grab an apple, right?
40:58
SPEAKER_00: So just make those small shifts on, you know, baby steps is what I always promote so it's sustainable.
41:05
SPEAKER_00: Do a small shift, um, swap the chips for an apple, um, eat carrots and and a homemade hummus, uh, you know, instead of that sandwich with the bread on it.
41:16
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's all kinds of whole food alternatives you can you can utilize.
41:19
SPEAKER_00: You can also do uh really simple things at the grocery store.
41:23
SPEAKER_00: When you're looking for chips, crackers, or cookies, always buy ones that say no preservatives or preservative free.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: Buy processed foods that don't contain artificial or natural flavor.
41:36
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna look for words that are like no artificial flavoring on the label.
41:40
SPEAKER_00: Or um, you know, if you see, flip it over, read the label.
41:43
SPEAKER_00: If you see it says artificial flavor or natural flavor, do not buy it.
41:48
SPEAKER_00: Don't buy pre-made desserts, right?
41:51
SPEAKER_00: Instead, bake from scratch, if if you can.
41:55
SPEAKER_00: Or um go to if you're you know, if your grocery store has a bakery section, go to the bakery section where they make the fresh baked goods and ask them for the um the ingredients.
42:06
SPEAKER_00: Ask what's in it.
42:07
SPEAKER_00: They're less likely to use, you know, harsh preservatives and things like that when it's in the in the bakery than if it's an item that's been sitting on the grocery store shelf.
42:17
SPEAKER_00: And then what I did in my pantry um years ago when I found out about grass, I went through, so I didn't get overwhelmed.
42:25
SPEAKER_00: I chose one processed food at a time.
42:29
SPEAKER_00: And I would read the label and I'd either look up the ingredients on the grass database or I'd even call the company and ask them.
42:36
SPEAKER_00: Now, they are not required, right?
42:39
SPEAKER_00: They're not required to divulge the information.
42:41
SPEAKER_00: And so my my kind of litmus test was if they won't give me the information, I'm not gonna give them my dollars, right?
42:49
SPEAKER_00: So those are just some quick, easy, easy tips.
42:53
SPEAKER_00: Again, the easiest one is go toward whole.
42:56
SPEAKER_00: There's some exceptions with the Whole Foods, but that's a whole nother show.
42:59
SPEAKER_00: Go toward the Whole Foods away from the processed food.
43:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
43:03
SPEAKER_01: I mean, uh for for me, for me, my quick answer on it is to eliminate the um eliminate the uh the the beverage, the you know, the canned beverage, uh, I mean the Coca-Cola, the sprites, the all that stuff.
43:19
SPEAKER_01: Uh eliminate that and eliminate the cereal aisle, the boxed cereal aisle.
43:25
SPEAKER_01: To me, boxed cereal, and of course you mentioned snacks, but um, to me, box cereal and the artificial drinks are like the the two uh the two top things.
43:36
SPEAKER_01: But um thanks, Cena.
43:38
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for digging into this.
43:39
SPEAKER_01: This is this is a a powerful, powerful thing.
43:42
SPEAKER_01: What we'd like is for our listeners to be able to say generally recognized as safe to their friends and their family, to be able to um you don't have to preach the whole sermon, but to be to to but to feel comfortable, to feel comfortable enough with your with your with what you know to be able to walk up to somebody and and speak um intelligently and credibly about grass.
44:14
SPEAKER_01: Uh this isn't lawn grass, this is G-R-A-S, generally recognized as safe.
44:21
SPEAKER_01: And I'm I'm I'm beating this dead horse because I I do think that there are things that the things that you and I can do to empower ourselves in the conversation.
44:32
SPEAKER_01: And if you walk into a conversation and you can actually say generally recognized as safe, do you know what grass is?
44:42
SPEAKER_01: Suddenly all eyes turn to you and they're listening.
44:45
SPEAKER_01: They're listening.
44:45
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to be uh, you know, uh uh obtuse, you don't have to be angry, um, but just all you have to do is be educated, uh 2% above norm.
44:59
SPEAKER_01: And the fact that most people don't know anything about this, you don't have to know a lot to come across as someone who, oh, Jane knows something.
45:08
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna listen to her.
45:10
SPEAKER_01: And this is how we move this agenda forward.
45:13
SPEAKER_01: Um uh play on words, grassroots, uh, you know, bottom up.
45:17
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but remember, remember the phrase generally recognized as safe.
45:24
SPEAKER_01: Let's use it in our conversation and be empowered as eaters as we go beyond labels.
45:30
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening to this podcast.
45:32
SPEAKER_01: We look forward to seeing you next week.