I’m traveling for a few days, visiting my mother in Sarasota. (Her condition has deteriorated significantly since I wrote about her last spring and she’s now in a nursing home.) I’m staying at a hotel, so I headed to a supermarket for a few things—some fruit, trail mix, kefir. In looking over the dairy case, I come across something called DanActive.
It’s not identified as either a kefir or a yogurt, but rather as a “probiotic dairy drink.” It’s made by Dannon, the people known for yogurt.
It seems DanActive has been around for a year-and-a-half or two years, so my apologies if what I say about it seems like old news. I realized as I looked through products that, because I’ve been drinking raw milk and making my own kefir, I haven’t spent as much time around the dairy counter over the last year-and-a-half as I used to.
But what struck me about its packaging (aside from the fact that it makes a frightfully small-portion product, 3.3 ounces, for an extremely high price of $2.49 for a package of four), was this prominently-stated claim: “About 70% of your immune system is in your digestive tract. This is where DanActive goes to work with the exclusive L.casei Immunitas cultures” (plus sugar, dextrose, and modified corn starch). And being in a place where there were no comparable substitutes, I bought some.
According to its web site, the notion that 70% of our immune system resides in our digestive tract is “a little known fact.” As for the intriguing scientific name, “L. casei Immunitas,” the FAQs (#4) have this explanation: “There are many L. casei culture strains, some already present in human intestinal flora. First identified in 1919, L. casei strains are used in a number of dairy products worldwide. The L. casei Immunitas™ culture in DanActive is a proprietary strain that can only be found in Dannon’s DanActive. L. casei Immunitas™ is the ‘fanciful’ trademarked name for the L. casei culture that is only found in DanActive…Multiple clinical studies have proven that DanActive with L. casei Immunitas™ can help strengthen your body’s defenses.”
DanActive is owned by Group Danone, a European company with something on the order of $15 billion-plus in annual sales. Probiotics is a huge business in Europe. So if a $15 billion company is saying it’s all about strengthening our gut flora, well, it must now be official.
Yet the people who make this product really have little interest in health or sustainable agriculture. Their only interest is in making a lot of money. So when they come across an opportunity in something as old as beneficial bacteria, they don’t just package up and sell it; rather, they come up with a "fanciful" name, attach a trademark to it, make it their own, and charge high prices for tiny packages.
They don’t want any part of unpasteurized milk, or almonds. They’d much rather make a marginally healthy product with no risk than a much healthier product with even a tiny amount of risk. You see, risk is out, fear is in, as we see in the next item.
***
There’s a new outbreak of E.coli 0157:H7, this time from hamburger—some 25 cases already reported. One television report I saw (sorry, couldn’t call it up online) was predictable: a girl who got sick (“I can’t believe I almost died from eating a stupid hamburger”), a woman in a supermarket (“It’s scary”), complaints about a shortage of USDA inspectors (“which keeps us from tracking these pathogens down”), a suit already filed against WalMart (for letting the hamburgers stay on the shelves 90 seconds too long?).
There’s no consideration in any of these reports that the farming methods might be contributing to an increase in E.coli problems, in beef and almonds. I’m just waiting for DanActive to begin advertising: “If you want to prevent E.coli infection in your active family, we have the perfect product for you…”
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/PDF/040_2007_Expanded_Recall.pdf
Dannon has actively been promoting this product in print media, on TV, and sides of busses, as if probiotics are something new. I roll my eyes whenever a a DanActive commercial comes on, of course. Although it could be worse, I suppose, such as another commercial for another drug for ED, GERD, cholesterol-lowering drugs, etc. 🙂
If you have not seen this short clip- please take a look: meatrix.com, you will enjoy it. It is a good clip for the kids to watch and comprehend about factory farming.
I would just stick with taking probiotics via supplement form and not even touch the imposter with the tantalizing claims of growing your intestinal flora to the extent of even making a health claim! How much of that stuff would you have to eat anyway to get any health benefit, right? And even if you were to eat a lot of it, say when you are on antibiotics, the sugar is counterproductive and probably gives you more of an insulin spike than anything else. Last thing you want to do is feed your gut sugar, dextrose and corn starch when you are trying to be healthy.
Most people don’t read labels anyway and these companies know that. Most people don’t care what is in anything, as long as it tastes good. So, if there is a little benefit, I guess that is better than none at all for those people who are attempting to get healthy, right? Baby steps…
In regards to hamburger, well, when it is not bought as a peice of meat and not taken to a reputable and clean butcher with a clean machine that you can go take a look at yourself…as far as I am concerned, as well as the majority of every journalist who has written and done there research on meat, e-coli and so forth…there is e-coli in hamburger meat, period. Hamburger meat that is packaged smells like feces and if you don’t cook it all the way, you just might get sick!
Buy pre-packaged hamburger meat, hamburger at a restaurant, or a hamburger from any fast food chain and you are eating a patty made up of thousands of cows and that is way too much cross-contamination for me to fathom anymore!
Buy a nice strip steak, t-bone, ground round , filet whatever…buy your own machine and do it yourself and eat it raw!!! Steak tartare is delish.
Unfortunately A LOT of our population shops and buys food at WalMart- it’s like the favorite hang-out place for many people who want to eat at McDonald’s, get a pedicure, make a deposit at the bank and then shop for food, clothes, plants, fill a prescription and buy a CD to listen to on the way home from your one-stop-shopping.
WalMart happens to be the SUPER STORE that caters to the majority of the population that also doesn’t care about the union either. What started off as a good idea, got really screwed up when the son took over, as I recall the story.
No union, no benefits and barely any pay. But, the consumer wins since everything is cheaper…especially the pre-packaged foods including what a lot of mom’s like to buy- pre-pakaged vegetables,fruits and meat. The less you have to do to it, the cheaper it is and if they don’t have to pay someone to cut it and package it themselves, they will out source it because it saves them millions of dollars.
If we only knew how much of our supposedly good restaurant food comes already made, (packaged or canned) and all they do is heat it up, we probably wouldn’t be eating out as much either!
We live life a little too trusting and we don’t question enough.
We like to eat out (who doesn’t like a vacation from cooking and washing dishes sometime?), but our family doesn’t go out to eat all that much anymore unless we are prepared to spend big bucks on a top-notch restaurant, the usual offerings for franchised casual and not-too-time-consuming meals being so dismal. It’s rare, even when time is short or I am cooking weary, that I can’t put something easy and wholesome together (such as a frittata, grilled sausages, or defrosted homemade soup or meatballs & a simple tossed salad) in less time than it takes to go eat out or get take-out delivery food.
I was delighted this week to find a new casual cafe/grill in our town, owned by a well-regarded nearby fine dining restaurant, that does dine-in casual table service as well as take-out. The new grill has a very basic menu of egg-based breakfast sandwiches and grilled hamburger and sweet potato fry lunches (there is one chicken option, too, I think) with lots of "house" prepared sauces to choose from (instead of bottled catsup and mustards) and toppings, as well as at least 7 excellent high quality cheese choices (some are CA artisan). I especially liked the signature house sauce (ground bacon & sausage in a heavy cream base). Everything is made fresh to order. The bacon is thick and handcut and might be house-produced, too (I forgot to ask). They make their own sodas, too, with some unusual flavors, though I had espresso americano (coffee’s good, too). Prices *are* higher than at fast-food franchises (which are exceptionally cheap), but I don’t think higher than at other franchise table service restaurants (TGIF, Chili’s, Macaroni Grill, etc.).
I tried the place out for an early lunch at a not-so-busy mid-morning time and had a chance to chat with the woman in charge. They do use disposables, but the plastic cups are compostable, the paper products are unbleached, etc. The bread is baked daily. The beef wasn’t grass fed, which didn’t surprise me, but it was ground fresh daily and never frozen. I was very surprised when she came back a few minutes later with a document that listed the ingredients in the feed fed to the cattle! That I never expected. This was one place where I would feel ok about eating a hamburger that wasn’t cooked to death. The 1/2 pounder I had with grilled onions, tomatoes, and CA artisan blue cheese (no bun) was fantastic & very juicy, perhaps even better than homecooked.
I ended up going back on Saturday with a few of my son’s friends and two other parents for a birthday meal for my son. Everyone was very happy with their meals and the other parents were glad to learn of a locally owned, fresh food option for casual family-friendly meals.
I only wish they were open past 6pm, as this would a better dinner-out option for us than breakfast or lunch. We may be eating there more often, to help make sure this new endeavor survives.
I wish more people would spend their hard-earned food dollars at places like this instead of the usual options. Real food might have a chance.
Of course you are a number and the more the numbers the better, but reputation, consistancy as well as (real) healthier type foods are a BIG reason to stay away from what everyone else is doing. People get bored with the same foods, we want different and now that obesity and type II diabetes have become epidemics, if you are not in the health industry, you better get in on it.
Organics are hitting the markest everywhere as well as the grass-fed and no GMO’s/antiboiotics/hormones in meat. We are questioning and just as Mark McAfee said, we should no longer be sheepish…we need to step out of the pack of mindless zombies and make new waves and cause a ripple effect throughout our Western culture.
We are ranked 33 in the world in regards to longevity. For how rich we are and the resources we have, we could turn everything around in a couple of months. We spend more money on war and not enough on nurturing the planet and ourselves. Pretty backwards logic, if you ask me.
Too many people don’t go inside and listen to themselves, they just do what everyone else is doing. Different is scary to people, but we are meant to be different and when we accept this, there is no comparison or competition.
at the center or your being you have the answer
you know who you are and
you know what you want
-lao-tzu
increasing in number and location. Essentially all of these were
preventable, independent of the contamination, by appropriate kitchen
hygiene and cooking techniques. – Mod.LL"
In other words, even if we are purchasing food in a first-world country with good money, a toxic level of microbes should be expected and we should know that it needs to be cooked thoroughly. No medium-rare allowed.
Why are we expected to have the knowledge of how to cook a hamburger but not the knowledge of how to deal with the raw milk?
The statement about the beef implies that it is the consumers fault they became ill, instead of placing the focus on why pathogens our in our meat supply. We have the belief of control over becoming ill if we cook our meat at the correct temperature and for the correct length of time. This method does kill e-coli, but skirts the real issue regarding pathogens in hamburger meat.
As for raw milk, there is no belief of control after it is put in the bottle, unless of course you pasteurized it when you get home. This defeats the purpose of drinking raw milk.
I think its about our perception of control over our food once its in our home.
You are comparing pre-packaged hamburger meat to a small dairy where there is a difference between quality and quantity, no?
Yes, you have to go to the source, so how’s about not putting cows on top of each other and making them sit in their own feces for one.
Or, when they are grinding the meat, they take extreme measures to make sure everything is clean, but if the first step above is not done, then it negates the second step.
Next, making sure every single table, person’s hands and so forth are clean as well as the package itself, but if step one is not followed, it does not matter anyway.
The last step would be the stores issue, right? Making sure the food is at the right temperature and no tampering, but if step one is not followed, it really does not matter as well.
The point being…Factory farming methods leads to e-coli outbreaks. When it concerns raw milk, dairies don’t practice these methods and the cows are, as Mark McAfee preaches, let to graize on green grass and allowed to move around.
His milking stations help prevent contamination. His practices of cleaning the tit with iodine and then throwing out the first part of the milk and bottling the rest and then cleaning the tit again after the milking, helps to reduce contamination.
These cows are not made to stand or sit in a lot and they can roam all over his property. They clean the feces on a regular basis as well, which also helps reduce contamination.
The practice is a lot different than hamburger meat from a factory farm. If you know that, then you know you need to cook the meat thoroughly. When was the last time you heard of a factory farm give out test results on their website for all to see?
They know the e-coli is in there and that is why now there are laws that do not permit restaurants to serve hamburgers no less than medium to ensure it is cooked throughout. There are many medical university tests that would validate e-coli being found in factory farmed hamburger meat and if you would like I can send you lot of information on the research or you can contact Eric Schlosser, an award-winning journalist that makes meat and health his business.
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser- a must read, or rent the movie.
Interstate Shipment of State-inspected Meat & Poultry
S.T.O.P. strongly opposes any new provisions to the Farm Bill that would allow state-inspected meat and poultry products to be sold in interstate commerce. Adoption of these new provisions would lower standards and put additional consumers at risk by permitting wider distribution of meat and poultry produced under less rigorous state inspection programs. It would also mark the beginning of the end of our nation’s uniform federal meat and poultry inspection system and would undermine the public health protections that the federal system has advanced over the decades.
Under current law, public health risk from lax state meat and poultry inspection programs is limited because product is confined to the state in which it is produced. While providing a clear economic boon to companies operating under state inspection, these new provisions to the Farm Bill would be at the expense of public health and safety and therefore must not be adopted.
FACT: Every company currently has the opportunity to ship in interstate commerce as long as it agrees to have its plant inspected under the federal inspection program. Plants varying in size from very small to very large have successfully managed to conform to the more stringent requirements of the federal inspection system. S.T.O.P. does not support providing advantages to companies that don’t or can’t make the commitments necessary to comply with all federal food-safety requirements.
FACT: The USDA Office of Inspector General (OIG) reports that plants subject to state inspection may not be as clean and sanitary as federally inspected plants. In 2006, the OIG released an audit describing sickening examples of state inspection programs failing to meet basic sanitation requirements. For example, in 2003, 11 state-inspected plants in Mississippi were found in violation of serious food-safety requirements but were allowed to continue operating by the state inspection system.
FACT: In December 2002, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals maintained that Congress is justified in limiting the shipment of state-inspected meat to the state in which it is produced. In its decision, the Court stated that though the USDA keeps an eye on state inspection programs, it is possible that a state program could deteriorate without the USDA’s knowledge, therefore providing Congress a rational basis to restrict the interstate transport of state-inspected meat. (Ohio Dept of Agriculture vs. USDA, Case 01-3146 2002 U.S. App. Lexis 24623)
FACT: There is no effective way for state governments to recall and recover adulterated meat or poultry that has been shipped out of the state where it was produced. Neither the USDA nor state governments have mandatory recall authority. The USDA, however, has the staff and capacity to manage a recall that spans multiple states across the country. No individual state agriculture department has the authority or the capacity to institute and manage a recall of adulterated product outside its own state.
FACT: These new provisions would also allow up to 80% of all current federally-inspected meat and poultry plants to switch to a more "business friendly" state inspection program. It is therefore no surprise that trade associations such, as the American Meat Institute and the National Meat Association, whose members fall under the more rigorous federal inspection system, support these new provisions.
FACT: For the past 100 years, consumers have had one strong identifiable USDA mark of inspection. With the potential for 50 different marks of inspection to be found on meat and poultry products in the marketplace, confusion will result. S.T.O.P. is concerned that this confusion could even lead to black market meat and poultry products appearing in commerce, produced without any governmental inspection at all.
You make some very good points. I like your last statement, makes a whole lot of sense to me.
You do need to choose your meat carefully and if you can only afford WalMart hamburgers, then cook your meat thoroughly!
Money talks and the almighty dollar walks. Factory farming has a whole lot of lobbyists behind them, who will pay off everyone and their brother to ignore the filthy mess that they have created.
Less government intervention and more government money used for health and education.
OOPS, I forgot, education would mean less people would be sick…
I am sure you have seen on Dr. Mercola’s website, Town of Allopath. That is our government at work once again best summed up in a cartoon easily understood by children.
Salatin makes very good points about careful producers like him being unable to profitably sell their products across state lines (think of the central Atlantic coast with lots of nearby markets in nearby states) because of interstate inspection regulations. He gives great examples of the ineffective, yet cumbersome regulations that required excessive transporting and handling, higher costs and aggravation to comply with federal inspection codes so he could sell his VA produced chickens at a Washington DC farmer’s market an hour or two away from his farm. The chickens were shipped all over the place to processors of dubious quality and much faster prosessing times, and his chickens were returned mangled and largely unsaleable. The whole endeavor was a money loser. How does that make the chickens "safer" than processing in the small scale, careful, local state-licensed facility for sale a few miles away over a state line?
Granted, doing things the way Joel Salatin wants won’t fix situations where someone is doing something unsafe or shady. But frankly, I think those situations are rare in small operations (& very problematic and likely in large operations, which federally inspected facilities usually are). Joel and other careful producers can raise and process chickens in open air on-farm situations with less bacterial contamination than any federally inspected chicken. He has tested it himself. Even if problems should occur, I think they will be more contained and easier to trace.
Anna… I was very impressed with Joe Salatin’s farm (post on this blog). I will have to buy his book.
I purchase all my food from the health oriented middle man–a family owned health food store that purchases mostly local produce and the healthy (raised and fed naturally) chicken, turkey, and meat. This store has been open for about 8 years. I pay a fortune for food, but feel blessed that I can afford it and have a store like this available.
I would like to be able to buy directly from the farmer, but that is unrealistic for my lifestyle.
I’d have to say that while I’ve never had a bout with ecoli, I’ll bet Danactive would probably kick it’s butt, if one started drinking it, if they knew they had ecoli..