|
creating more and more exotic and hazardous ways to exploit the sick, the miserable and the gullible. Health and disease are inextricably matters of social ecological and physiological balance. They have no reductionist solutions." (End)
home Back to Autumn 1998 issue of CivAb 71
EGGS NON GRATIS from Autumn 1998 issue of The Civil Abolitionist
Before their yolks were denounced for being a rich source of cholesterol, eggs were generally considered a valuable source of protein. Now that consuming too much protein has been shown to accelerate calcium loss, concern about getting enough protein does not seem to make eggs a good dietary choice even from a strictly nutritional point of view. (From a humanitarian point of view they are, of course, strictly off limits - unless you keep chickens or know someone else who keeps chickens kindly.)
In the last decade or so, there has been another compelling reason to avoid eating eggs: Salmonella enteritidis, which can cause severe diarrhea, damage to the colon, arthritis, and death, especially in the very young, the old, and anyone with a weakened immune system, which would include cancer patients, transplant recipients, anyone who is ill or recovering from an illness.
In 1994, the Centers for Disease Control warned that no one should eat undercooked eggs. That was the year 224,000 people in 48 states became ill after eating ice cream that had been transported in trucks that had previously carried liquid eggs. This incident demonstrated that even trace amounts can sicken.
The US Department of Agriculture estimates that Salmonella poisoning kills 661 Americans a year and causes illness in another 661,663. The organism is inactivated by thorough cooking as in baked goods or "hard boiling" (20 minutes). Use in sauces and pancakes can be iffy.
The likely source of the problem is the the unhealthy conditions in which egg-laying chickens are kept. Dosing them with subtherapeutic levels of antibiotics gives the bacteria opportunity to develop resistant strains. Reproducing chickens from a narrow gene pool gives pathogens a stable environment in which to multiply resulting in chickens with infected ovaries.
Although eggs are classified as a "hazardous" food that needs refrigeration, this has not been enforced. Washing them in warm water (Chickens have a single vent for egg-laying and waste evacuation.) has been suggested as a source of spreading contamination.
The egg industry has been successful in thwarting regulation and making it impossible to trace the source of eggs found to be contaminated because they are not segregated during the packing operation. (Just as genetically-manipulated soy beans are not segregated from natural ones.)
Consumer education and warning labels would be an easy fix.
Source: The Economist , July 4, 1998
|
|
