Melamine, the New Juice Booster at Jamba Juice

It's not just for bookshelves anymore.

If you've been following the melamine-tainted pet food and human food stories and are as stunned as I am, you must read this post from David Goldstein's blog. As extra enticement to read the post, I will add that just yesterday the Chinese government blocked internet access to his blog. And not because it's called HorsesAss.org.

Here's an excerpt:

First we were told that none of the adulterated wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate had made its way into the human food supply, and then we were informed that a mere 6,000 hogs had eaten feed contaminated by “salvaged” pet food. Next it was chickens. 3 million of them. Slaughtered, butchered and eaten by unsuspecting Americans.

Then 20 million more chickens, and today another 50,000 hogs… not to mention the God-knows-how-many fish in the US and Canada raised on farms now known to have received Canadian fish meal manufactured from contaminated Chinese flours.

Still… not to worry, we are told, because large manufacturers are “unlikely to have exposed their animals to large amounts of the tainted pet products.”

[Off-topic question...does "free trade" = "zero standards"? Talk amongst yourselves.]

Here's the sick part (and explanation for the sardonic title of this post): melamine was intentionally added to the purported wheat gluten (that we know now was actually wheat flour) by the Chinese supplier to make it appear more protein rich. Apparently there are chemicals in the melamine that bump up test results for protein, bringing the typical 14% protein-by-weight in wheat flour closer to the 75% that is typical for wheat gluten. Sick.

When ingredients are refined, dehydrated, synthetic, or stripped down to powder, who's going to notice a few added chemicals here and there ... at least, until they start causing problems.

So, people, there's no better time than the present to step away from "the matrix" and begin to optimize your health and nutrition through use of local and organic foods.