Prepare to be Shocked...

The FDA is lying. It seems there could be health consequences of eating melamine-tainted food, including the pork, chicken and fish that entered our food supply. How do I know? I looked it up on the Internets (actually, at PubMed, the government's own medical research database).

As far as I can tell, there have been only a handful of animal studies done on the effects of consuming melamine. In every case, the animals developed bladder and/or kidney problems, including bladder stones, enlarged bladders, and tumors.

But here's the real problem -- in a study from 1985, researchers called the melamine connection to the formation of bladder stones and related problems an example of the threshold effect, and added that "there is strong evidence linking bladder stones with the induction of tumors...." This same study also found that the youngest animals were the most susceptible to developing these problems. Here are the researchers’ conclusions:

"A decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency concerning the levels of MA [melamine] allowed to occur in the food chain indicates that data regarding thresholds, even in the case of urolithiasis [stone formation], are not being utilized in the risk assessment process."

I could be wrong, but that seems to say that for the past twenty-plus years, the EPA has chosen to ignore evidence that melamine damages the bladder and kidneys, and, based on the results of the animal study, that children would be particularly at risk. Plus, let's not forget that tens of thousands of companion animals have been sickened and killed by the same food the pigs, chickens and fish ate.

It seems to me we should avoid chicken and pork for at least a few months. But as the FDA's newly appointed "food czar," David Acheson, told a Congressional committee today, the agency would need "proof of human illness" before it would issue a ban on imported fish. Apparently, it's too much of a stretch to believe that food poisoned with industrial waste might make humans sick, too.

As for farmed fish, melamine is just one more reason to stay away, given the chemicals that have been found in tested samples. To get the considerable health benefits of fish without the risks, buy fish oil that has been molecularly distilled to remove the toxins.