Health Alert, Part Three: “Alaskan Fish” from China

Many consumers may be unknowingly consuming dangerous fish from China.

 

In many supermarkets you may find in the frozen food section, bulk packages of fish fillets. These bulk packages include common varieties such as pollock, cod, and orange roughy.

 

A recent trip to the supermarket revealed something quite alarming. The prominent labeling on many of these bulk packages was that the fish was from Alaska. For example, the label may say on the front in bold print: “Alaskan Cod.” Surprisingly, if you flip over these packages and read the small print, in most cases you will see they are a product of China.

 

Even if you do not purchase these products from the supermarket, your favorite restaurant may. Be sure to ask what the country of origin is of the fish that you are eating. Even so, the labeling is so confusing that the restaurant may in good faith not realize they are buying Chinese processed fish.

 

Samples of fish products from China have revealed contamination from dangerous substances such as formaldehyde, malachite green, sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid.

 

These substances are used to preserve the food, hide spoilage, and treat fish for parasites.

 

Why do the Chinese use these dangerous chemicals?  One reason is that the country lacks the infrastructure that the United States has. Their road system is primitive, there is widespread lack of cold storage, and in the entire country, according to A. T. Kearney, there are only 30,000 refrigerator trucks for transporting food.

 

Another very important reason for the use of these chemicals is that a market economy is relatively new to China. Collectively, the Chinese simply do not understand how important trust is to the functioning of a market economy.

 

Under socialism, trust means nothing. Under socialism, power, political connections, and coercion is everything. Thus to some Chinese “businessmen,” violating trust and committing fraud to increase profits seems like an acceptable thing to do.

 

In time the Chinese marketplace will evolve. In the meantime, buyer beware!

How To Break a Bad Habit

You may want to break a habit, but by now you have realized that willpower only takes you so far in overcoming bad habits. Why? You’re continually struggling with what you believe is real and what you believe is part of you. As long as you identify with your habit, there is little hope of change.

By habit I mean anything we do to dull emotions such as anxiety, worry, or fear. Commons habits could be excessive eating, drinking, sex, surfing on the internet, shopping, television watching, etc. Usually when the habit kicks in, it is an automatic and mindless reaction.

Because the habit is so familiar, many identify with their habits. They may believe: “I am somebody who drinks too much.” “I am somebody who eats too much.” Or, “I am somebody who shops too much,” etc.

This is a case of mistaken identity. By identifying ourselves with our habits, we continually measure and judge ourselves. The judgment only solidifies the habit.

What if we didn’t identify with our habits? What if the origin of the impulsive thought to indulge in a bad habit was from what Thomas Hora calls the “sea of mental garbage”?

Puzzled? You may be thinking of course the thought is mine. I just thought it. But did you? Did you really voluntarily think these thoughts? If you did think up the thought, you should be just as able to stop thinking the same thoughts.

Of course it is not easy at all. But there is a way out.

If you are finding it hard to release your thoughts, it is probably because you are resisting your thinking. When a thought to indulge in a bad habit comes, you may clench against it, because you believe that the thought has real power over you.

The power that the thought has over you is proportional to the resistance that you give it. Thoughts have you in their grip when you entertain them and resist them. The alternative is to allow them to pass like the passing clouds.

For example, I might be sitting down with a writing project. My writing goes best if I have a block of uninterrupted time. When I hit a snag in my writing, a thought may appear that I should check my email.

Now, lacking understanding, I may act on this thought instead of recognizing that thought for what it is. It is a thought that comes from “the sea of mental garbage.” The thought would have me believe that I can reduce the anxiety I am feeling by checking my email.

Of course checking my email may temporarily relieve my anxiety by shifting my attention, but very quickly there will be a rebound effect and my anxiety will increase. Why? I have dropped a project that is important to me and I’ve chosen to honor a thought that came from “the sea of mental garbage” rather than thoughts that come from the strength in me.

If you are following along so far, you may be wondering how is dropping a thought different from exercising willpower? With willpower, you are treating your thoughts as reality. Then you use your willpower to struggle mightily to resist these thoughts. This is almost impossible to maintain for long.

The approach I am suggesting does not involve resistance. It suggests instead beginning to undo a habit by gently understanding that you did not think up the thoughts that are driving you to indulge in the habit. Thus these thoughts are nothing you need to honor or resist. You are thus simply aware of the thoughts, and you drop them.

With simple non-judgmental awareness you are neither resisting your thinking nor indulging your thinking. When you try this, you just might find that the strength in you has space to appear. And when it does, the habit will lessen in severity or disappear.

Health Alert, Part 2: Imported Ingredients – A Breach of Trust

My last post on the potential dangers of isolated soy protein, particularly the imported variety, generated much interest. I began to consider the issue further and to my dismay, found that the problem was more widespread than I first realized.

The source of the problem is a little-known loophole in the requirements for labeling ingredients on manufactured food products. If you are like me, you may have assumed that if a food product was made in the USA, than the ingredients were from the USA.

This incorrect assumption is potentially dangerous to your health. The law does require that food labels inform the “ultimate purchaser” of the country of origin. However in the case of processed foods, the consumer is not considered the “ultimate purchaser.” According to the logic of the government, when an important ingredient undergoes a “substantial transformation,” the “ultimate purchaser” becomes the manufacturer of the processed food.

The sole authority of what is a “substantial transformation” is the United States Customs Service. However most processed foods are considered to have undergone a “substantial transformation.” Thus if your favorite cookie uses imported wheat, the product has undergone a “substantial transformation”. The maker of the cookie does not have to inform the public that they are using imported wheat.

Clearly this non-labeling of imported ingredients rule is a huge loophole. My wife and I became curious as to what we would find if we began to call major manufacturers and inquired if they used imported ingredients in their products.

Our survey was far from complete, but the only company that we found that would unequivocally state that they were not using imported ingredients was Gerber’s Baby Food. Every other company we called such as Campbell’s Soup, Post Cereals, and Kraft Foods, admitted that they used imported ingredients.

For instance if you purchase a can of Campbell’s soup, you have no way of knowing if the chicken, beef, pork, or vegetables in the soup came from the United States or from some unknown foreign country.

I found one product, Post Cranberry Almond Crunch cereal, which contains glycerin. Glycerin from China has been contaminated. Diethylene glycol which is a poison found in an anti-freeze has been substituted for glycerin in Chinese manufactured toothpaste. When we called Post, they could not tell us the country of origin for the glycerin they use.

Many of the consumer representatives of food manufacturers we spoke to were quick to say they use human grade ingredients and not animal grade ingredients. They were quick to say they test their supplies, although they could not provide us with any third-party certification services that they used. We were hardly reassured by their vague claims.

Overall, food safety standards in some overseas countries are not up to the standards of the United States. The consumer has a right to know the country of origin of the ingredients they are ingesting.

A recent survey showed that just 1.3% of imported fish, vegetables, fruit, and other foods are inspected by the government. This is in spite of the fact that imported shipments that are inspected frequently turn up tainted goods. This is especially alarming since the average American eats about 260 pounds of imported foods a year.

Unlabeled ingredients are a breach of trust. One way manufacturers can restore our trust is to label their products with the country of origin of each imported ingredient. Each consumer can then decide if they care about the issue.

A modern market economy depends upon trust. Every day millions and millions of transactions take place. When we engage in a transaction, both parties trust each other to keep their word. Without trust, faith in a market economy quickly erodes.

I want to make it clear that I am a firm supporter of free trade. I buy clothing manufactured from countries all over the world, I have purchased cars from Japan, and I knowingly consume imported chocolate, olive oil, and jams.

When I knowingly buy an imported product, it is a win-win situation. I’m helping my family through lower prices, and I’m helping to grow economies all over the world.

Imported ingredients that are not labeled however are another case. The consumer does not know what they are eating and in many cases would not choose to consume the imported ingredients. They are a potential threat to our health and a breach of our trust.