Everyone knows by now that milk and milk solids coming out of China have been diluted with water and then loaded with the chemical melamine, because melamine cross reacts with the test for protein. That way the watered down milk looks like it has not been watered down--i.e. its looks like high protein pure milk. This allows the Chinese milk producers to sell x quantity of milk as 2x quantity. Way back when in the U.S,. before we had an FDA they used to do the same thing with water and chalk. The scary thing about this Chinese practice is that it has been an open secret for years, know in the U.S. for at least two years, and yet the contaminated products are still imported and the FDA does nothing (more about this in some of the links below).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/27/AR2008092702797.html?hpid=topnewsWell, in addition to ditching those cans of Mr. Brown's coffee drink and that White Rabbit candy,
I suggest being careful about your body builder protein shakes and your other protein supplements . If you read the label, you will note that it is full of "whey protein" or maybe "cassein protein"---forms of milk protein . How do we know that at least some of that "whey protein" is not purchased on the world market and that the world market is not contaminated with cheap Chinese adulterated milk?
Answer: we don't know. Not until some one tests the stuff. And while the European Union is actively running tests, the U.S. FDA has no interest in alienating China's export industry.
Body builders have suspected for years that "high protein" causes kidney stones--because they consume lots of protein and they get kidney stones. Well, the protein they have been consuming is in the form of powdered mixes that contain "whey protein" and other milk proteins. Could this be a factor in bodybuilders' kidney stones?
My husband used to drink body builder protein shakes daily. He developed recurrent, nasty kidney stones during that time. He stopped the supplements and, coincidence or not, his stones are gone.
Here is more information from a diabetes site about possible contamination of protein supplements with melamine:
http://diabetesupdate.blogspot.com/2008/09/whey-protein-powder-contaminated.html All we know is this: large food manufacturers who are buying millions of pounds of powdered milk, casein and whey to put into everything from bread, to cookies, to candy, to sauces on frozen vegetables are very likely to have been buying these products from the Chinese factories because the Chinese are able to offer much lower prices than competitors.
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This latest scandal has special relevance to people with diabetes. Many of us are already walking around with kidneys that have been damaged by years of exposure to high blood sugars. We have been assured that the tiny amounts of melamine that may have found their way into our packaged food products are only toxic to babies, not adults, but the truth is that melamine may very well be toxic for anyone with microalbumuria whose kidneys are already damaged.
The other issue relevant to people with diabetes who eat low carb diets is that a lot of us use whey protein powders as a base for baked goods since we try to avoid baking with grains. Given that whey powder is one of the products that the FDA has said it has been inspecting, and given that we have no idea where the makers of these whey protein powders have gotten that whey powder, it is not outside of the range of probability that some of this whey protein powder might be contaminated.
The article also condemns the Bush administration FDA for its laxness in testing food imported from China.
The Canadian government is also reluctant to test.
http://adultaddstrengths.com/2008/09/27/is-the-whey-based-protein-powderbardrink-you-eat-made-with-chinese-contaminated-milk-protein-aka-melamine/ It is now clear that China has exported dairy products like powdered milk and milk protein products around the globe and we know that some of them came to the United States,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food and Water Watch. “It is time for the F.D.A. to take this issue seriously and stop the import of dairy products from China until this situation is under control.
The US has imported two million pounds of a milk protein called casein this year, along with other powdered milk proteins that are used as ingredients in many processed foods, according to figures from the United States Department of Agriculture.
Since the FDA will not safeguard our "protein supplements" it up to consumers to protect their own health by avoiding such supplements until they can prove that they are safe.
Kidney stones, kidney failure and bladder cancer are not worth it, especially when there are plenty of other, natural ways to get protein in your diet.
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