Danger in Food Supplements/Gelatin/Mad Cow Disease

[Guest guest]

Here is the website for the international organization that does Kosher

certification for Jewish people who follow Kosher rules. Because even the

tiniest bit of gelatin is not allowed in a product in order for it to be

certified, I consider the lists on this website to be a good starting point

for safety. There are several emails below, including one I wrote, on this

subject.

I admit I only know a lot of details about the Shaklee Corporation's

practices in relation to this problem, and share those below. Hopefully

others may know something about some of the other companies listed, and will

share them with us, since Shaklee doesn't make absolutely everything we may

need, plus not all of its products are certified Kosher. I do know that if I

am going to trust the gelatin sources of any company, I trust Shaklee.

Perhaps others can vouch for the safety of gelatin sources used by some of

the other companies listed on the website.

Go into product guide on the home page, then go into categories, then scroll

down to vitamins and nutritional supplements and go into that for a list of

companies and their kosher-certified (gelatin-free) products. I find it

interesting that several of those listed are network marketing companies,

since a lot of people have a certain prejudice against them. But when it

comes to quality, the good MLM companies usually provide higher quality

products than those found on the shelves, and I think this list is a good

indication of that.

The entire website is fascinating for anyone interested in pure products.

The health articles are especially fascinating, I think, and I am not even

Jewish -- but I am very concerned about purity of products and being able to

trust people who are supposed to know about these things. Go into Kosher

Info on the home page, then go into Star K articles, then go to medical

articles for a lot of really good information.

http://www.star-k.org/index.html

What I am learning in this research process is that SO many things we use

contain gelatin. Taking vitamins and herbs in tablet form is no guarantee we

are avoiding gelatin. As I explain below in my email, for example, Shaklee's

calcium/magnesium product is not certified Kosher because it contains a

minute amount of gelatin in its fillers. ALTOIDS, the popular breath mint,

contain gelatin and are MADE in Great Britain. My husband and I quit

using them when we learned that, which we learned simply by reading the

label on

the container.

At this point, I think the only safe products are those from a company who

is wary of its gelatin sources, and therefore very careful, such as Shaklee;

also products from other companies listed on the Star-K website that are

certified Kosher, including over the counter medications, which often tend

to have gelatin in the fillers in their pills.

I find that when I write Star-K about various Shaklee products, for example,

they are very quick to reply, so if you have questions about specific

products from any company on their lists, I urge you to contact them

directly.

In the Feb. 19, 2001 issue of FORTUNE MAGAZINE, on page 42, is an article

about food supplements and Mad Cow Disease. Apparently the FDA is getting so

concerned about this, there is talk of regulations. The official government

stance is that the meat supply in America is safe at this point, but the

sources for gelatin used in our food supplements and other products may not

be safe because they come from all over the world and are not

well-monitored.

One of the daily newspapers in Tucson wrote a major feature last year about

a woman in Tucson who died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human version

of Mad Cow Disease. No one could figure out how she got it. The writer

mentioned that she was a real " health fanatic " and took LOTS of vitamins and

other food supplements. The context of that comment was not to connect those

with the disease, but to show the irony of how someone so concerned and

disciplined about caring for their health ended up dead in her 50s of this

mysterious disease that no one in this country tends to get -- yet. Now, as

more and more information is coming out in the mainstream media about the

danger of gelatin sources, it makes a lot of sense to me that she took lots

of dietary supplements and ended up with that disease.

I urge anyone interested in this subject to buy the Fortune magazine issue,

I think it still may be on the news stands, or read it in the library, for

it is scary but revealing.

Tucson

www.shaklee.net/tiger__medicine

Fwd: Mad Cow Disease - Unforseen Dangers

(Note: the following set of emails should be read from the bottom up, as the

one on top is my response to the one on the bottom; I felt this matter was

important enough to share both the original emails and my comments with

everyone, not just with the person who was thoughtful enough to send me the

original email. )

Response to email below about mad cow disease and food supplements:

Yes, I have been aware of these potential problems for some time. Someone on

one of the blood type lists just yesterday was recommending an adrenal

extract for me, and those usually are made from animal parts of unknown

origin. I wouldn't dare use something like that without knowing a LOT about

the company who made it, and even then....

Not to sound like a broken record, but I am at the point now where, when it

comes to sources of gelatin for capsules and ingredients in food

supplements, I only trust Shaklee. The company does not use vegetable

sources because it says the animal source gelatin works so much better in

terms of bioavailability and other things that are important in making food

supplements work properly in the body.

But I know that Shaklee tests EVERY batch of EACH ingredient that it buys

from other sources for purity, rejects a LOT of them because they don't meet

the Shaklee standards for purity, and those batches are used by other

companies regularly. It is scary.

Shaklee does more than 200 tests on each product, is the ONLY food

supplement company that does clinical studies that are published in peer

reviewed medical and science journals and is owned by the third largest

Japanese pharmaceutical company. Japan is well known for its strict food and

dietary standards, and so is Shaklee -- it tends to set the standards for

the rest of the industry.

About six factories make most of the food supplements you buy off the

shelves today. Very few " brands " make their own products and therefore,

don't have a lot of control over the ingredient sources. Unfortunately, even

D'Adamo's products fall into that category.

Shaklee has its own manufacturing facilities and therefore does have, and

exercise, that control from beginning to end.

Star-K, an international kosher certification organization, certifies many

Shaklee products and approves many others for people who practice kosher

that for various reasons cannot be actually " certified. " People who practice

kosher can eat things that don't break kosher law, but may not be " pure "

enough to qualify for actual certification. Then there is a third category

of items that DO break kosher law, and someone who practices kosher must

avoid them.

I have had quite a bit of dialogue with rabbis at Star-K about their

standards and about Shaklee products, and which ones people who practice

kosher can use (among the ones NOT certified), and have learned a lot in the

process.

I know Star-K inspects Shaklee's manufacturing facilities on a regular

basis, apparently several times a year, because to approve products for

people who practice Kosher, there are even certain methods of preparation in

terms of purity and cleanliness that have to be followed.

I know that all of this doesn't directly address the issue of mad cow

disease being in gelatin sources, but it reassures me that the products I do

use with gelatin in them are from the purest and most monitored sources

available today on the planet.

I read just the other day in Newsweek Magazine or one of those weekly news

magazines similar to it, I forget which one, that one of the biggest

problems for Americans in terms of exposure to mad cow disease right now is

not in the beef they eat, but in the gelatin sources from around the world

that food supplement and herbal manufacturers buy to make their products!

Partly because of kosher issues, Shaklee offers a lot of products in gelatin

capsule form OR in tablet form, such as Vitamin E, so people have a choice.

..But let me also add that many tablets on the market that are NOT gelatin

capsules ALSO have gelatin in them, so buying tablet forms of food

supplements and herbs off the shelves is NO guarantee you are getting

gelatin free products, which is yet another reason to buy ANY food

supplement or herb ONLY from a company that makes its own and that can be

trusted!

Shaklee gets its powdered milk from New Zealand for the products it makes

that include milk, because it can't find sources here pure enough in the

amounts it needs to meet its standards. It quit making ginseng for several

years because it couldn't find enough from anywhere in the world that wasn't

contaminated with a fungus or herbicide, I forget which. It recently started

started selling it again, and its source is Australia.

Independent labs have done studies on ginseng products on the market in

recent years, during the time Shaklee wouldn't sell it (and lost millions as

a result), and found the products contained NO ginseng, or, even worse, many

times, it was contaminated with fungus, herbicides, pesticides and/or lead!

Since there is NO regulation of these products by the government, companies

that have no integrity can sell ANYTHING and call it anything. The consumer

is very vulnerable.

A good example of gelatin in non-gelatin capsules is the Shaklee

calcium-magnesium tablet. I learned from Star-K that the reason that product

is not certified kosher is because it contains a minute amount of gelatin in

the filler. It is not enough to put on the label, and it is not enough to

cause it to be considered unusuable by people who follow kosher. The rabbi

explained that for certification, not one iota of gelatin could be in the

product, but for people who practice kosher to use it without breaking

kosher law, it only needs to be less than a certain percentage, something

like one percent of the product, and the gelatin in it is less than that

designated standard. If it had more than that, then people who follow kosher

wouldn't be allowed to use it at all, but since the amount falls inside that

allowed percentage, they can.

I am not Orthodox Jew, not even Jewish (my husband is Sephardic Jew, but

doesn't practice the Jewish religion), but we both feel that kosher laws and

especially in today's world, the kosher certification process, is an

excellent guide to quality of products -- and to companies that can be

trusted. They have a website if you want to peruse it, for they talk about

Shaklee a lot in some of their articles on that website. They have offices

in the U.S. and Hong Kong and probably Israel, can't remember for sure, but

they are a worldwide organization, and they obviously consider Shaklee one

of the few trustworthy companies for the types of products it makes.

Hope this helps you clarify your understanding and helps you shop more

safely!

Thanks again for sharing with me,

Subjectt: Fwd: Mad Cow Disease - Unforseen Dangers

I received this from a friend and thought it might be of interest to you.

C.

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Hello All!

I have recently been made aware of a possible connection between Mad Cow

aka Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), and the consumption of gelatin. I

did a search on Google and found the following interesting (scary?)

items.

This is definitely " food for thought " for those of us, whether

meat-eaters or vegetarians, who consume herbal, or other supplements,

because most of these products are encased in gelatin capsules. Also,

be forewarned that so-called " glandulars " , which are popular with

alternative medical practitioners, are made from questionable animal

byproducts.

Because these preparations do not fall under the jurisdiction of the

FDA, the likelihood that the gelatin used in the manufacture of the

capsules could very well originate in Europe, as well possibly from

domestic tainted livestock.

Gulp!

~V~

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Luckily there is a web site dedicated to keeping abreast of Mad Cow

Disease developments in our country. Unfortunately, things do not look

good...

http://www.mad-cow.org/00/may00_late_news.html

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Here is a letter to a British periodical, the " Byron Echo "

http://www.echo.net.au/archives/Echo_15.09/letters_15.09.html#Letter_5

Mad Cow Dangers

I used to think that if all the Mad Cow infected animals were killed and

burned and uninfected animals were brought in

to establish a disease free herd, then the disease would be eliminated.

Research now shows that burning at 600 degrees C

(1000 degrees F) for five minutes does not completely deactivate the

infectious CJD agent, nor does nuclear irradiation. In fact

burning may spread the lethal agent downwind.

Cow dung may continue to transmit the agent to uninfected cows for many

years according to Dr Alan Dickenson,

director of an Edinburgh unit researching the disease. If this is true

for animal waste it may also be true for human

waste; no process in any sewerage plant can deactivate the CJD/Prion

agent. Perhaps the fish in Belongil Creek are

already asymptomatic Prion disease carriers, from asymptomatic English

tourists.

The big question is, 'can imported gelatin transmit the disease'?

British gelatin has been the subject of a European

ban, but as an increasing number of countries experience the disease,

the gelatin question grows.

!!!!!!!!!Clare Tomkins, a strict vegetarian, died from the disease,

perhaps through consumption of infected gelatin.!!!!!!!!!

Although there are eleven European countries experiencing Mad Cow and

CJD at the moment, it should be

remembered that for nine years Britain continued to export the infected

feed to many Asian countries; Indonesia

received over 30,000 tons of infested feed. Which means there is

unreported Mad Cow and CJD throughout Asia.

signed,

Olson

Googengery

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This last item is a technical research article from Germany. It is not

so jargon-filled as to be undecipherable to the layperson, but it is

long, so I only include the URL. I will be happy to email it to you, in

its entirety, if you do not have a web browser. Just let me know!

The Safety of Gelatin, It's Production, & Mad Cow/CJD Prion Theory

http://www.rense.com/general5/theory.htm