Gov't strikes again, now almonds won't be healthy

Rosemary44

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_4859.cfm

While the USDA generously describes the new almond treatments as pasteurization, the most common treatment method expected to be used fumigates almonds with propylene oxide. In lab experiments, the chemical leads to gene mutation, DNA strand breaks, and neoplastic cell transformation. The U.S. EPA has classified propylene oxide as a probable human carcinogen. Its use in treating food for human consumption is banned in the European Union, Canada, Mexico, and most other countries.

rmc

Thanks for this alert Rosemary. I happened to be speaking by phone to a small local grower of almonds and asked her about this. She said the regulation would only apply to large scale growers and that people could still get non-treated almonds from small scale growers. I would imagine a natural foods store or co-op would have access to these small scale growers.
Marina

Cynthia1962

"The only exemptions to these new regulations will be organic "raw" almonds, which will not be fumigated, but will undergo the steam-heat treatment, and small-scale growers who can sell truly raw almonds but only direct to the public from farm stands." It sounds as if the only way to get unpasturized raw almonds now is at farm stands. I've read that Trader Joe's will sell only the heat pasturized kind, so other stores may follow suit.

Cynthia

Anonymous

That sounds awful! Does anyone know how nuts, in general, are typically processed? What is done, commercially, by companies such as Planters?

Marin

Sierra

Good Grief

Where am I to get my almonds

I eat l2 every day..



(

Brazil nuts too

Cynthia1962

Hi all,

I just noticed that the original post doesn't mention that the new regulations only apply to "raw" almonds. So, if you eat roasted almonds, then nothing has changed.

Cynthia

katymom

Rosemary: Where in Texas are you? I am near Houston. Let me know if you find a place to get the right kind of Almonds. What a pain! I feel like we should grown our own food!

Katymom

Rosemary44

Katy,

I'm outside Houston also. Ever go up to Fredericksburg for Octoberfest? There's a store there that sells home grown nuts from the local farmers. Pecans are native up there, plus they sell other varieties.

http://www.oktoberfestinfbg.com/

Wal-mart sells raw nuts which are somewhat fresh. They aren't as fresh as we would like. If you want the real fresh kind, you have to know someone living in San Francisco, they sell them at the farmer's market at the Ferry building.

biondi

every time i try to pull up following site, i get server error, i guess they have it blocked, and don't want to hear from us.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_4859.cfm

rosemary, is their another site we can contact?

biondi

sorry, this is the site i can't get.

http://cornucopia.org/index.php/238.

Indigoblue

awwwww nuts!!!

Thanks for the information; just ate some before I read this post, gag

Pet food, baby food, fruits, nuts, veggies, bread, yikes!
canned food, bottled water, pesticides, DDT, blow-fish poison accidently mixed up in shrimp! It's amazing anyone on this planet is living!

I suppose we shouldn't be too shocked with a cancer dx when you read about all this goo in our food, water, air, soil, atmosphere, oceans, and landfills.

Indi

Rosemary44

biondi,

It works fine for me. I just hit it and it takes you there from my original post. That's the only one I have.

Cynthia1962

The pasturization requirement has been delayed until next year. I can't remember the specifics, but when I find where I read it, I will post the link. It was a result of all the complaints they got.

Cynthia

Well, that was quick...it suddenly dawned on me where I read it (that doesn't happen very often anymore, lol).

http://www.naturalnewswire.com/2007/08/usda-plan-to-pa.html

Rosemary44

Are you sure it's delayed? It only says they're asking for a delay. I think we should keep sending our nutsy notes.

Cynthia1962

Oh my gosh, I didn't even really catch that so I did some checking and the USDA DIDN'T approve their request!

http://cornucopia.org/index.php/usda-rej...treatment-plan/

This is all the almond growers doing, btw. The Almond Board was the one that requested the USDA require the pasteurization, not the other way around. Many growers have already begun having their almonds pasteurized.

Cynthia

Rosemary44

I guess we'll have to buy raw almonds from out of the country. I don't have access to small growers. Was the almond board trying to put the small growers out of business? I hope this all turns on them.

dpbrown523

Awwww I love almonds!  I don't think I can give them up!

Fireweed

This was implemented in response to persistent problems with salmonella infections (probably secondary to rodent and reptile contamination) in raw almonds. Salmonella is bad if you are healthy and potentially lethal if you are immunosupressed.

TenderIsOurMight

I ate tons of raw almonds from TJ the year or so before my BC dx, never got sick. I love them.



After BC, I read that almonds are estrogenic? I saw them listed as one food source to avoid if you're ER+.



Anyone know about this?



Tender

Rosemary44

A lot of foods are estrogenic  but I don't pay any attention to that cause  I'm not sure we'd have much left to eat if we did.   The fats in nuts are the heart healthy fats that we really should be eating daily.

It's not good enough to get the unhealthy fats out of our diet alone without  taking in the good fats.  Nuts are also great to eat right before we take vitamins that need fats to be absorbed.  

The gov't is not doing us any favors here by making such an important food so unhealthy.

Fireweed,

From what I've read, there were only 2 outbreaks of samonella in the last 10 years.  Something like that.  This is overkill.  Meanwhile, I just heard on the news that the gov't did nothing about the spinach outbreak we had recently.  So we are on our own when eating spinach that come in plastic bags.

leaf

Well, I think salmonella outbreaks are fairly common for food in general ,but I found 4 in almonds (one of these not in *raw* almonds) since 2004 (internationally).



These are from almonds (or not)


23-MAY-04 PRO/EDR> Salmonella, almonds - worldwide recall 20040523.1381


19-MAY-04 PRO/EDR> Salmonella, almonds - USA (multistate): recall 20040519.1336


26-AUG-05 PRO/AH/EDR> Salmonellosis - USA (CA)(02): not raw almonds 20050826.2524


24-AUG-05 PRO/AH/EDR> Salmonellosis - USA (CA): raw almonds: susp. 20050824.2499





(From the International Society for Infectious Disease)



http://www.promedmail.org/pls/promed/f?p=2400:1000:17942455795104880077:::::(Just thought I'd offer this as a potential database.)



I love almonds, and I think this is overkill too.