Exploring the Health Benefits of Cottonseed Oil

[JorgeLobo]

well said, Jim.

concerned, try to understand the difference between technical and clinical. The former speaks to potential and titrates to effect. The latter to practical effect - as Paracelsus said - the poison is in the dose. The articles you provided address the former. Also. I appreciate that you are finally looking for data but please try to be unbiased. Try to find data that test the claim - not merely publications that support your bias.

Again - please provide proof of "killing animals".

 

[Monique]

As pointed out, only post references from credible (peer-reviewed) sources. I'd also prefer if the

tags were used when you cite a quote from the source.

23 concerned, I don't really understand the case you are making. Are you aware that many people have peanut-allergies and that peanuts can be contaminated with aflatoxins (produced by fungi)? What I mean to say is, what is the real risk of contamination of cottonseed oil by toxins (pesticides or other substances) and what is the dose-effect?

 

[23 concerned]

Thanks to you all.
I will return to post again, and will use your critiques as guides for future posts on this forum. Thanks again for the information as to where to obtain peer review materials.

23 concerned
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[23 concerned]

Monique, I am very aware of peanut allergy.
My cottonseed oil allergy is as serious as peanut allergy is; yet most people are NOT aware that cottonseed oil allergy exists. The cottonseed/cottonseed oil industry is a big bucks industry. You must have read the information I posted about Monsanto acquiring Pine Land. You must have also read the government post I placed on the forum about the cancer trials with gossypol. This information is just hard fact.

Those of us who are allergic to cottonseed oil would like to see it mandatory to include on labels wither or not cottonseed oil is in food products. Food labels state it in clear language when milk, egg, soy or peanuts are in a food product, and also state if the food product was produced in a factory where milk, egg, soy or peanuts were used in the production of other foods.
Are you aware that some food product labels only say ‘vegetable oil’ on their labels? And were you aware that if you are in a restaurant, and you want to order a sandwich, and you request your wait person to check the contents of the bread that is available, many times the restaurant bread label doesn’t state what is in the bread. Or sometimes it will state only that ‘vegetable oil’ is in the product. I am only telling how it is for those of us who are allergic to this oil to the point we need to carry an epi pen.

I will give you two examples of personal things that have happened to me to give you an idea of the scope of this allergy.

While I was still in college I was studying one day, and opened a can of soup to heat up. As I sipped my soup the skin all around my eyes, and even my eyelids swelled up to the point it looked like I had two golf balls on my face for eyes. The swelling caused my eyes to close up to the point I had only two slits to look out of.
I retrieved the soup can from the garbage and read the contents. The company had changed their recipe, and had put cottonseed oil in the recipe.
I spoke with my allergist that same week, and told him what had happened to me.
He told me to be extra careful in the future because the next time could be the time my throat would swell shut on me, and I would be in anaphylaxis.

Another time I put a name brand antibacterial ointment on a very bad burn I got on my wrist when I reached into a 400 degree oven to retrieve a roasting pan. As soon as I applied the name brand ointment to my burn, I experienced intense itching. Where I had applied this antibacterial salve, my skin rose up in a welt. I read the label on this product that I had used for years, and never had a reaction to it before, and I found that the company had changed the formula for the base. Instead of the old inert petroleum base there was a new base composed of various oils that included cottonseed oil.

Cottonseed oil is the only oil, the only food product I am allergic to so I knew what had happened to me.
I carefully washed off the cottonseed oil based antibacterial salve, and reapplied a generic antibacterial salve I also had at home that still used an inert petrolatum base. It took several hours for the itching and the welt to go down. The burned area on my wrist healed completely within a couple of weeks. But for months after the burn was completely healed I experienced a red welt coming back on my wrist where I had been burned. There would be intense itching in the same area. This would last for a day, and then be gone.

Each time I see a new doctor I caution them that I am very allergic to cottonseed oil both ingested and applied to the skin.

It is very difficult for me to view cottonseed/cottonseed oil as not personal. I will try, but I know what it does to me, and others have told me similar, personal stories.

23 concerned
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[Monique]

It is very difficult for me to view cottonseed/cottonseed oil as not personal. I will try, but I know what it does to me, and others have told me similar, personal stories.

I understand that you have had adverse reactions to cottonseed oil and that you are allergic to it, but that does not mean that there is a general public health hazard. I agree that manufacturers should give a detailed description of what is in their food products, but that is not a subject of this discussion.

 

[23 concerned]

Following are several documents from PubMed that establish gossypol/cottonseed has killed animals, both domestic and food animals. Yes, the poison is in the dose, and some get more doses than others do, in a given day.

1: J Vet Diagn Invest. 2005 Nov;17(6):626-9.
Gossypol toxicosis in a dog consequent to ingestion of cottonseed bedding.
Uzal FA, Puschner B, Tahara JM, Nordhausen RW.
California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System, University of California, San Bernadino, USA.
Six dogs died after accidental ingestion of cottonseed bedding. No clinical signs of illness were observed prior to death. A full diagnostic workup was performed on one of these dogs. At necropsy, the lungs were congested and edematous, and the liver was firm, congested, and had a marked reticular pattern. There was also moderate ascites. Histopathologic examination revealed multifocal myocardial degeneration and necrosis, severe pulmonary edema, and chronic passive congestion of the lungs, heart, liver, and kidneys. Transmission electron microscopy of the myocardium revealed disruption of myofibrils, chromatin condensation, and disrupted and swollen mitochondria. The cottonseed bedding contained 1,600 mg/kg of free gossypol, a concentration considered toxic for monogastric animals. The stomach content revealed the presence of gossypol, thus confirming ingestion of cottonseed. Gossypol poisoning in dogs is extremely rare and has not yet been associated with cottonseed bedding. This first documented case of gossypol poisoning in a dog, caused by the ingestion of cottonseed bedding, demonstrates how specific toxicological analysis is crucial in reaching an accurate diagnosis.
PMID: 16475530 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...nel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

1: J Am Vet Med Assoc. 1989 Sep 1;195(5):613-5.
Cottonseed meal (gossypol) toxicosis in a swine herd.
Haschek WM, Beasley VR, Buck WB, Finnell JH.
Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois, Urbana 61801.
Cottonseed meal (CSM) that contained a high concentration of free gossypol was inadvertently used as a protein supplement, without appropriate iron supplementation, for a swine herd in Illinois. Fifty percent of 300 grower and finishing swine died, and an additional 20% became ill during a 4- to 6-week period. Clinical signs included respiratory distress and abdominal distention. At necropsy, the hearts were diffusely pale, flaccid, and rounded because of dilatation of all 4 chambers, the livers were large and congested, and hydropericardium, hydrothorax, and ascites were evident. Histologic changes consisted of diffuse myocardial fiber atropy with perinuclear vacuolation, and multifocal myocardial and skeletal muscle necrosis. Changes in the liver included marked centrilobular congestion, loss of hepatocytes, and fatty degeneration. Differential diagnoses included monensin, selenium, and gossypol toxicoses, and vitamin E/selenium deficiency. Analyzed feed samples did not contain monensin. Feed selenium concentrations ranged from 428 to 1,513 micrograms/kg, and iron concentrations from 160 to 180 mg/kg. Cottonseed meal (3 to 10%) was detected by feed microscopy. A sample of the 40% protein supplement contained 19% CSM and 1,300 mg of free gossypol/kg, whereas feed samples contained 200 to 400 mg of free gossypol/kg. The history, clinical signs, pathologic findings, and feed analyses were compatible with a diagnosis of gossypol toxicosis. Cottonseed meal, a high-protein supplement used widely in southern United States, may contain gossypol (a polyphenolic binaphthalene pigment), which in its free form is especially toxic to simple-stomached animals. If CSM is used, supplementation with ferrous sulfate is recommended at a 1:1 weight ratio with free gossypol, up to 400 mg of FeSO4/kg.
PMID: 2777708 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2777708?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=1&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed

1: J Am Vet Med Assoc. 1994 Feb 15;204(4):642-3.
Apparent gossypol-induced toxicosis in adult dairy goats.
East NE, Anderson M, Lowenstine LJ.
Department of Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis 95616.
Consumption of a cotton-seed meal-based mineral supplement (cattle label) and a concentrate dairy mix (goat label) resulted in gossypol toxicosis in 3 adult dairy goats. The primary clinical signs were limb swelling and stiffness, ventral abdominal edema, and anorexia. All does died within a few days of the onset of illness. Necropsy revealed generalized subcutaneous edema, acute centrilobular necrosis of the liver, and myocardial fibrosis, consistent with a diagnosis of gossypol toxicosis. It was estimated that the does had consumed from 348 to 414 mg of free gossypol/d for at least 3 months. Apparent gossypol toxicosis in goats consuming this amount of free gossypol indicates that goats may be more susceptible than cattle to this substance.
PMID: 8163423 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE

]


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8163423?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=2&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed

1: J Am Vet Med Assoc. 1988 May 1;192(9):1303-5.
Gossypol toxicosis in a herd of beef calves.
Hudson LM, Kerr LA, Maslin WR.
Department of Large Animal Clincs, College of Veterinary Medicine, Mississippi State University 39762.
A 6-month-old crossbred calf was examined as representative of a herd of calves experiencing dyspnea and death, with few other clinical signs of illness. Physical examination of the calf identified pleural and peritoneal effusion and poor body condition. The calf did not respond to supportive treatment, and necropsy of it and another calf from the herd identified congestive heart failure as the cause of death. Gossypol toxicosis was the cause of congestive heart failure in this herd; the source of the toxin was a cottonseed meal and cottonseed hull ration fed by the owner.
PMID: 3391858 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3391858?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=3&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed

1: Vet Clin North Am Food Anim Pract. 1989 Jul;5(2):251-62.
Gossypol as a toxicant in livestock.
Morgan SE.
Department of Medicine and Surgery, Boren Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, Oklahoma State University College of Veterinary Medicine, Stillwater.
Many cases of gossypol toxicity have been misdiagnosed. The long-held belief that gossypol toxicity did not occur in ruminants has been a major hurdle to overcome. Field necropsies in which pulmonary congestion and edema were attributed to shipping-fever pneumonia, failure to examine the heart either grossly or microscopically, failure to believe that 200 ppm free gossypol could kill a calf, failure to believe that any age of sheep could suffer gossypol toxicity, and failure to believe that just because you fed the same thing last year, it will not cause a problem this year, all were factors in causing the misdiagnosis of this toxicity. Gossypol toxicity cases diagnosed will increase each year because of increased awareness among veterinarians. Continued research will help to increase our understanding of this multifactored toxin and, possibly, devise ways to detoxify it before it is utilized in a feed. Until then, it will have to be considered because it will continue to be present as a potential toxicant in the feed.
PMID: 2667706 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2667706?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=4&log$=relatedreviews&logdbfrom=pubmed


23 concerned
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[23 concerned]

The public health problem is a very real probability for our future from cottonseed in any form, and or cottonseed oil showing up in every day foods where it hadn't been before.
The following case of severe hives took place in Finland from eating bread with cottonseed flour in it, and luckily this case was documented for PubMed.

I remember when a friend got hives from penicillin he was told that the next time he took that particular antibiotic he was at risk for anaphylactic shock because hives were the ‘first warning’ that he had developed an allergy to penicillin.

1: J Allergy Clin Immunol. 1988 Aug;82(2):261-4.

Angioedema and urticaria caused by cottonseed protein in whole-grain bread.

Malanin G, Kalimo K.

Department of Dermatology, University of Turku, Finland.

A 29-year-old patient developed a severe allergic reaction after eating whole-grain bread. The bread appeared to contain cotton seed-protein flour. The skin prick tests with the bread and cottonseed were strongly positive. High level of circulating antibodies of IgE class against cottonseed protein could be detected in her blood samples. It is evident that cottonseed flour is used in diverse products and can cause unexpected severe hypersensitivity reactions.

PMID: 3403866 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3403866?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=2&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed

23 concerned
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[JorgeLobo]

Severe hives from cottonseed oil protein is hardly a public health problem - any more than strawberry allergies.
Again - you need to understand that one can find reports for virtually any condition - bathroom mildew causing terrible infections in AIDs folks. I understand this is your chosen cause but, if it were so bad, the body count would have told us well.

A simple pubmed search found the following allergy reports:
8 for cotton seed protein (6 from the 50's)
26 for strawberry
933 for peanut

Also found animals studies where cottonseed oil and protein were found to lower cholesterol and werre reported to be good feed for cattle.

You can cherry-pick the small number of reports and imagine a disaster but this is less of an issue (by an order of magnitude) than the overblown scares of mad cow, SARs, etc - there was actual mortality for those.

I know this is YOUR condition (or so you seem to believe) but it's overall a nonissue. Live with it and stop whining.

 

[23 concerned]

Jorge, hives are the beginning, not the end of this person’s story.

To illustrate this point that hives are only the beginning of this person’s story I wrote in the post about my friend who is allergic to penicillin.
The first time my friend got a reaction to penicillin he got hives.
Hives are most often the first manifestation of a severe allergy.
My friend’s doctor told him to never take penicillin again because the second time he would take penicillin the probability was very high that he would go into anaphylactic shock. His doctor told him that anaphylactic shock could very easily kill him. .

This is the same advice I have gotten from my doctor regarding eating foods that contain cottonseed oil. I could go into anaphylactic shock if I ingest this substance again because of what has happened to me in the past.

Very few doctors bother to write up and submit papers for peer review regarding patients they see who suffer allergy and or anaphylactic shock from ingesting any substance, not just cottonseed oil. They have enough paperwork, reports for the hospital’s records, patient’s records and the patient’s insurance etc…

Since you only accept website information from ‘peer’ reviewed web sites I was glad to find a PubMed, peer reviewed document on a patient who suffered the first manifestation of severe allergy from cottonseed flour; first manifestation being hives.
Hives are not as ‘simple’ as you are making them out to be!

23 concerned
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[Monique]

Again: the fact that you are allergic to cottonseed oil does not mean that it is a hazardous substance for the rest of the population.

 

[23 concerned]

Jim,
quote;

LD50 in rabbits (they normally don't try to find ld50 using human subjects for obvious reasons) for sodium selenite is 2.56mg/Kg. So a teaspoon of sodium selenite- say 15000 mg would kill off 50% of a really large family of adult humans

Jim, I know that we do have to rely on LD50 stats on chemicals from animal studies.
I have been providing on this thread, peer review documents for animal studies showing how cottonseed foodstuffs have actually caused the deaths of animals.

No one has been able to document the amount of gossypol a human can withstand because each person does not eat the same food; we are not in controlled studies. How would you do a study like that? What would you do if the human subject you were studying suddenly passed away from toxic shock or developed cancer? There would still not be any way you could prove the cancer came from ingesting gossypol. The patient(s) in the study could develop cancer because of harm to DNA that occurred years before the study.
The question I would like to answer is wither gossypol is cumulative within cells in a human subject. I have read that this is true that gossypol is cumulative in the human liver up to the point it becomes toxic.
Once toxic, the human subject can no longer filter out toxins from the blood and what you have read in the peer review articles on animal studies, is supposed to happed in the human.. This assertion that what happens in animals also happens in humans is based on animal studies because we are able to control animal studies while we cannot do controlled studies on human beings regarding what they eat, unless we use an incarcerated population for this research, and this is prohibited.

My problem is that my references to this statement about gossypol being cumulative in the liver in human beings were not peer review articles. I am presently searching for peer review proof that gossypol is cumulative in human beings, and I want undeniable proof of how much gossypol is in fast food today.

I am sure Chinese research can answer my question about the cumulative effect in human liver tissue because extensive study was done in China on gossypol as a contraceptive. Many other pieces of data were collected on toxic effect in this lengthy government research project. The question is wither other countries will accept Chinese research?

No one has feed cottonseed cake to human subjects because there is irrefutable proof from animal research, that cottonseed cake is toxic. See the PubMed articles on this subject I posted on this thread already. Yet, in Finland someone put cottonseed flour into whole grain bread. I provided a peer review article citing this having happened, and what happened to a young woman who ingested this whole grain bread. Hives from ingesting foods are the first reaction that sets up allergic reaction within the individual. The peer reviewed article I cited states the amount of antibodies this person has circulating in her blood now after ingesting the cottonseed flour laced whole grain bread. These antibodies indicate that this person will be at risk her whole life now to have anaphylactic shock from ingesting cottonseed again, in any form. Anaphylactic shock can kill when the patient’s throat swells up and shuts off the windpipe. The protocol for a patient who has antibodies circulating in their blood from a food or antibiotic is for physicians to warn the patients to avoid the substances. Writing and submitting peer review articles on this subject is very rare.

I have already posted peer review articles in this thread stating how the toxic and sometimes fatal dose of cottonseed/gossypol varies in animals, from species to species, depending on wither they are ruminant or nonruminant, and toxicity also varies on the size of the animal, which translates into body weight for the animals as adults are heavier that their young.

Yes Jim, I know that most substances we ingest have the potential for harm. Even water can bring about death in humans if too much is drunk at one time. I know someone will jump in and strongly disagree with my statement about water. Here are two peer-reviewed references from PubMed on toxicity from ingesting too much water in too short a time,

1: Mil Med. 2002 May;167(5):432-4.
Comment in:
Mil Med. 2003 Mar;168(3):iii; author reply iii-iv.
Death by water intoxication.
Gardner JW.
Office of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rockville, MD 20850, USA.
With recent emphasis on increased water intake during exercise for the prevention of dehydration and exertional heat illness, there has been an increase in cases of hyponatremia related to excessive water intake. This article reviews several recent military cases and three deaths that have occurred as a result of overhydration, with resultant hyponatremia and cerebral edema. All of these cases are associated with more than 5 L (usually 10-20 L) of water intake during a period of a few hours. The importance of maintaining adequate hydration in exertional heat illness prevention cannot be overemphasized, but excessive fluid intake may lead to life-threatening hyponatremia. Current guidelines provide safety by limiting fluid intake during times of heavy sweating to 1 to 1.5 L per hour.
PMID: 12053855 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

1: Arch Psychiatr Nurs. 1990 Oct;4(5):308-12.
The water-intoxicated patient.
Cosgray RE, Hanna V, Davidhizar RE, Smith J.
Logansport State Hospital, IN 46947.
In a long-term psychiatric setting, self-induced water intoxication may be a life-threatening situation. At first glance, the symptoms or behaviors of self-induced water intoxication are similar to schizophrenia, i.e., inappropriate behavior, delusions, hallucinations, confusion, and disorientation. In some cases, the symptoms of water intoxication mimic schizophrenia and thus, are disguised as a part of the psychoses. Affected individuals develop polydipsia, which is accompanied by overhydration and dilutional hyponatremia. If untreated, the symptoms may progress from mild confusion to acute delirium, seizures, coma, or death (Ripley, Millson, & Koczapski, 1989). Under normal circumstances there is a delicate balance of water requirement and water intake. If the balance of water is altered, electrolyte imbalance can occur. The recognition of water intoxication or self-induced water intoxication and psychosis among chronic, institutionalized patients may prevent their death or the development of neurological damage (Arieff, 1985). Because self-induced water intoxication often goes unrecognized in its early stages and may have irreversible or fatal complications, early detection is crucial. This article will discuss the etiology, nursing assessment, and interventions associated with patients suffering from self-induced water intoxication.
PMID: 2260889 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

23 concerned
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[23 concerned]

F.Y.I. a positive on cottonseed oil/gossypol.

1: Phytomedicine. 2008 Aug;15(8):563-5. Epub 2008 Jun 24.
Long-term clinical remission of a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia using alternative treatment option: cottonseed oil (gossypol).

Politzer WM.
Department of Hematological Pathology, P.O. Box 111, University of Limpopo (Medunsa Campus), Medunsa 0204, South Africa. bernice@medunsa.ac.za

Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) results from the accumulation of malignant immunologically incompetent lymphocytes.

A routine full blood count of a single patient revealed that he had CLL. The daily intake of 700ml of fresh bovine milk resulted in a decrease in the lymphocyte count from 85.5x10(9)/l to 12.5x10(9)/l over a period of 5 years. The aim was to establish which constituent(s) in milk would be responsible for the decline of the lymphocyte count. It was found that the higher vitamin D constituent in the milk, the lower the lymphocyte count. Whilst the milk from large dairy farms which use supplements in the feed in order to increase milk production, considerably decreased the lymphocyte count, the milk from small dairy farms, which do not supplement, had hardly any effect. The present study indicates that gossypol in cottonseed cake and oil are potentially responsible for the decrease in white blood cell count. It appears that gossypol is a very powerful anti-neoplastic agent. Free gossypol (Fig. 1) is a toxic phenolic compound which becomes detoxified in ruminants by binding to milk proteins, but gossypol is still an active inhibitor of tumour growth in the excreted milk.
PMID: 18573644 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...nel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

 

[23 concerned]

For anyone interested in the issue of pesticide/chemical companies, in our environment there is a book that will open your eyes to this issue, and while you learn about pesticide issues you will also learn about how chemical companies do business. How chemical companies do business affects how the issue of cottonseed/cottonseed oil/gossypol is handled by these companies today.

The book I am writing about is ‘Silent Spring’ written by Rachel Carson.
Ms. Carson published this book in 1962.
It chronicled what DDT was doing to the environment; this book chronicled how DDT affected human reproductive systems by interfering with reproductive hormones, as well as the reproductive systems of all creatures, and most especially what DDT was doing to birds. Ms. Carson was also concerned with what was happening to human children at this time. Some young girls were becoming mature as young as the age of 8, and this was thought to have a great deal to do with DDT in the environment. You can read some of this information concerning the onset of puberty in young children, on the Internet.

Bird’s eggs were a major concern to Ms. Carson because they were becoming thinner with each generator while DDT was utilized on food crops as an insect killer. The fear that Ms. Carson had was that the day would come when bird’s eggs would be so thin that they would break away soon after being laid, and no more baby birds would be born. Thus we would have a ‘Silent Spring’, and this would be true worldwide. That is how far DDT spray had reached…to the ends of the Earth!

In 1972 DDT was outlawed in the United States and most of the credit for this legislation is due to Ms. Carson’s book. Rachel Carson was a marine biologist. Ms. Carson ironically, died from cancer.
I haven’t looked for peer-reviewed literature concerning the results of DDT sprayed on crops. It may not exist, I don’t know. I do know that chemical companies strongly denied that Ms. Carson was correct. You really need to read this book to understand what this is all about.

Remember that Ms. Carson was a marine biologist so she saw first hand what was happening to sea birds. First hand information from educated individuals, working in the field, is valuable information regardless if it is chronicled in peer review publications.

Please remember too that Chemical companies have big money staked in selling their chemicals. Money is the bottom line for executives of chemical companies.

Today, much DDT still remains in the environment.
It is in water, and in land.
It is all around the globe.

23 concerned
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[23 concerned]

Concerning gossypol/cottonseed/cottonseed foodstuffs/cottonseed oil.

FYI
Monsanto Chemical a U.S. based company, acquired Delta & Pine Land (D&PL), and the Terminator seed on June 1, 2007 after a 10 plus year battle. D&PL is the largest producer of cottonseed foodstuff/cottonseed oil on the planet.

On the Board of Directors of Monsanto Chemical is Janice L. Fields who is the executive vice president and chief operating officer of McDonald’s USA, LLC, a subsidiary of McDonald’s Corporation, the world’s leading global food service retailer.

http://www.monsanto.com/responsibility/corp_gov/directors.asp#fields

Ms. Fields being on the Board of Directors for Monsanto Chemical, which controls Delta & Pine Land, the largest cottonseed/cottonseed oil producer on the globe, is a merger of executive power from two of the most powerful commercial companies on the globe, planet, THE world. One being THE major chemical company centering on agricultural chemicals, and the other being the major fast food franchiser in the world.

Does this information about these two major, big money companies make you think twice about who controls what is being published as peer reviews in PubMed in regards to both cottonseed/cottonseed oil and the Terminator seed?

23 concerned
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[Monique]

Does this information about these two major, big money companies make you think twice about who controls what is being published as peer reviews in PubMed in regards to both cottonseed/cottonseed oil and the Terminator seed?

In peer-review you need to declare conflict of interest.

 

[23 concerned]

http://www.mcdonalds.ca/pdfs/IngredientFactsEN.pdf

I was curious about what McDonald’s was putting in their food items today because in the past I couldn’t find any web pages containing information pertaining to a breakdown of exactly what was in their menu items other than nutritional information such as amounts of various nutrients, calories etc… I had been told at one of the restaurants that cottonseed oil was in the fryer and breads and in other menu items but this was not verified for me in writing. Articles on the web declared that cottonseed was in many menu items so I avoided going to McDonald's for a very long time.

I pulled up the document there is a link to at the top of this post, and found that McDonald’s no longer uses cottonseed oil in their fryer. I read that they used to use an artery clogging mix of beef tallow/cottonseed oil in their deep fat fryers but this has changed.

This menu is a very complete 14 pages long.
My printed copy is dated:

As of March 12, 2009

.

There are still a few menu items that contain cottonseed oil but the number of items containing this oil has dramatically decreased.

It’s been a long time since I visited McDonald’s. There are still hydrogenated oils, and a lot of preservatives in their foods, but this is true of where ever you go unless you prepare ‘fresh’ food at home, and even then, when you cook at home, many pre-prepared ingredients you may use, contain mold inhibitors, preservatives, etc… .

The good news here is that McDonald’s has removed the cottonseed oil out of many of their menu items that previously had contained cottonseed oil in them, like the French fries.

Big improvement!

23 concerned
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[23 concerned]

In peer-review you need to declare conflict of interest.

Thank you Monique.

23 concerned
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[23 concerned]

Following are cited PubMed documents concerning the bleaching of cottonseed oil, as well as other edible oils, to render edible oils to a light color that is preferred by consumers. With cottonseed oil the deep color of the crude, unrefined oil is due to the presence of a toxin called gossypol. I haven’t found documented, peer reviewed proof, that bleaching out the color of gossypol renders it non-toxic.

Comparison of Respiration, Free Fatty acid Formation, and Changes In The Spectrum Of The Seed Oil During The Storage Of Cottonseed

Lillian Kyame And A. M. Altschul

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/pagerender.fcgi?artid=437306&pageindex=1

Following is an excerpt from this lengthy document from PubMed;

…As yet too little is known concerning the chemistry and biochemistry of cottonseed pigments to permit one to draw any significant conclusions from the above mentioned data. Inasmuch as Skellysolve F does not rupture the pigment glands, the observed changes in light absorption may be due…

...yet too little is known concerning the chemistry and biochemistry …

Following PubMed, peer reviewed articles on bleaching food, edible oils including cottonseed oil..

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/989152

1: Nahrung. 1976;20(2):117-24.
Cottonseed colour fixed pigments. Part I. Selectivity of hexane isomers.
El-Nockrashy AS, Zaher FA, Osman F.
The selectivity of hexane isomers towards cottonseed pigments and colour fixed pigments was illustrated by using spectrophotometric analysis of crude, refined and bleached oils, and by refinability and bleachability criteria. Crude cottonseed oil contains besides the alkali-refinable gossypol and gossypurpurin, several colour fixed pigments. Anhydrogossypol, gossyfulvin, anthocyanins and carotenoids seem to be responsible for the colour-fixation of the oil. Only carotenoids are eliminated by bleaching. Selectivities of hexane isomers towards colour fixed pigments are in the following order: isohexane less than n-hexane less than cyclohexane less than benzene less than methylcyclopentane.
PMID: 989152 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

...Only carotenoids are eliminated by bleaching ...

Carotenoids are found throughout nature and provide the color in vegetables, microorganisms, and in the tissues of some animals. Carotenoids act as biological antioxidants and from what has been learned already, carotenoids are important for maintaing good health in all animals by protecting cells within tissues from danage from free radicals. Add to this, bleaching edible oils eliminates carotenoids from the oil, this pretains to all edible oils, not just cottonseed oil.. No where can I find a peer reviewed reference that states that bleaching removes toxins from edible oils, and this includes cottonseed oil. So if you thought that bleaching cottonseed oil made it non-toxic you should rethink this idea until further research is done to prove it one way or the other.


The orange color of the vegetable, carrot, comes from the orange colored carotenoids within the carrot’s structure, and the biological term carotenoid, was coined from the English word for the bright orange vegetable, carrot.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1173937

1: Nahrung. 1975;19(7):525-36.
The sterol hydrocarbons in edible oils.
Niewiadomski H.
Since 1957 we have published the results of our research on the transformation of sterols in vegetable oils due the industrial treatment. During bleaching sterol hydrocarbons are formed which are partly removed due the deodorising. Hardening transforms them partly into other steroids. Thus the sterol hydrocarbons are also present in margarine. We have found that the content of those compounds amounted to a quantity of 0.023%. The apolar steroids are highly sensitive to the conditions of autoxidation. All margarines and edible oils contain not only steroid hydrocarbons but also the products of their oxidation and hydrogenation.
PMID: 1173937 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Deodorising edible oils is done by means of low pressure and high heat in corrosive proof equipment.
Apolar refers to having no polarity, the substance is anionic, in chemistry and physics the substance has no dipole. In the case of the above abstract from PubMed, steroids refers to male/female hormones formed within edible oils after bleaching with further formation of steroids forming after the oil hardens, this refers to all oils, not just cottonseed oil.

23 concerned
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[23 concerned]

Chickens are domesticated birds, and are the only animals that have feathers. They are relatively small in physical size as compared to, for instance, a cow or a hog. Egg layers can live from 5 to 11 years. Producers/farmers are reluctant to feed their chicken flocks cottonseed feed because of the very real fear of gossypol poisoning of both eggs, and of the birds themselves, leading to the death of these animals.

It has been shown to be near to impossible to regulate the level of gossypol within cottonseeds themselves therefore the cake, flour, oil and animal feed/foodstuffs all have varying degrees of gossypol.

Bleaching removes carotenoids, which are generally thought of as the ‘good stuff’ in any vegetable, oil, seed, meat, etc… See the post before this one to read the peer reviewed material on bleaching edible oils including cottonseed oil. Nowhere can I find a peer-reviewed article that states that bleaching cottonseed oil removes the toxic properties of gossypol. It is not stated that removing the color removes the toxicity.

Low levels of cottonseed feed fed to animals like cows, deer and elephants, have the gossypol rendered non-toxic in the first stomach because these are ruminants that have two stomachs. As far as I can ascertain most of us humans don’t have two stomachs but sometimes I wonder about this. The way some people eat you might think that they have two stomachs!
Other animals such as swine, dogs, horses etc… do not have two stomachs so there is no first stomach to render the toxin gossypol, non-toxic. Please refer to the post from peer reviewed PubMed I put up concerning how the cow, which is a ruminant, had it’s milk with gossypol in it, rendered non-toxic from the cows first stomach. This milk with non-specific, non-toxic properties from gossypol is keeping a cancer patient in remission. Vitamin D is also credited for this remission.

Here’s the PubMed reviewed article on broilers, which as you know are chickens.

1: Poult Sci. 2005 Sep;84(9):1376-82. Links
Relative toxicity of gossypol enantiomers in broilers.
Lordelo MM, Davis AJ, Calhoun MC, Dowd MK, Dale NM.
Department of Poultry Science, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2772, USA.
Use of cottonseed meal in poultry diets has been avoided in large part because of fear of gossypol toxicity. Gossypol exists naturally as a mixture of 2 enantiomers that exhibit different biological activities. Two experiments were conducted to determine the relative toxicity of gossypol enantiomers on broilers. In the first experiment, 3-d-old broilers were fed a standard diet containing 0, 100, 200, 300, or 400 mg of gossypol from gossypol acetic acid per kilogram of diet from 3 to 42 d of age. This form of gossypol contains both enantiomers in an equimolar ratio. Each dietary treatment consisted of 6 replicate pens of 4 birds. In the second experiment, 3-d-old broilers were divided into 15 pens of 4 birds each and fed a standard diet supplemented with either no gossypol or one of the gossypol enantiomers at 200 or 400 mg/kg of diet from 3 to 21 d of age. In both experiments, feed intake and BW gain were measured. In addition, several organ and tissue samples were collected at 21 d (experiments 1 and 2) and 42 d (experiment 1) of age and analyzed for gossypol. In experiment 1, feed consumption and BW gain were reduced (P < 0.05) at 21 and 42 d for the birds fed the highest level of gossypol. The concentration of gossypol in the heart, kidney, and plasma were equivalent at 21 and 42 d of age. In experiment 2, total feed consumption was reduced only in birds consuming (-)-gossypol, but BW gains were lower for birds fed either enantiomer. However, (-)-gossypol was more detrimental to growth than (+)-gossypol. The liver had the highest tissue concentration of both enantiomers, and accumulation of (+)-gossypol was higher than (-)-gossypol in all tissues examined. No racemization of the enantiomers was apparent in the tissues analyzed. Our results indicated that both gossypol enantiomers were toxic to broilers but that (-)-gossypol was more harmful to efficient broiler production than (+)-gossypol.
PMID: 16206558 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...nel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

23 concerned
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[Woody101]

"Chickens are domesticated birds, and are the only animals that have feathers. They are relatively small in physical size as compared to, for instance, a cow or a hog. Egg layers can live from 5 to 11 years. "

Did I miss something here or are the turkeys, ducks and geese running around naked?

Since I am going to die eventually anyway I have decided I might just as well be sick when it happens. I would hate to waste a perfectly good body by dying healthy. Therefore, I intend to eat all the "forbidden" stuff I can and enjoy it as much as possible. With any luck I will be walking across the street eating a Double bacon, cheese Whopper and slurping up greasy fries cooked in pure lard when I get hit by a bus.

 

[Monique]

You have not provided any sources that mention the levels of glossypol in cottonseed oil for human consumption, nor have you provided sources that tell us how cottonseed oil is refined before it enters the human food chain. This thread is going severely off-topic.

Here is a reference that shows that cottonseed oil is refined (thus removing free glossypol) before it enters the food chain.

Preparation of an edible cottonseed protein concentrate and evaluation of its functional properties.

Cottonseed could be used as a source of dietary protein for human food production. The cottonseed component, gossypol, is toxic, however, which has limited the potential of cottonseed in human food production. Free gossypol was removed from glanded cottonseed using a two-stage solvent extraction method utilizing aqueous and anhydrous acetone. A cottonseed protein concentrate with a low level of free gossypol and a protein content of 72.2% was obtained . The cottonseed protein concentrate had good organoleptic characteristics, and had functional properties allowing its use as a food additive.

 

[Monique]

Or here an http://www.foodsafety.gov/~rdb/bnfm074.html".

In a submission dated June 29, 2000, Monsanto Company submitted to FDA a summary of the safety and nutritional assessment they have conducted on the new bioengineered insect-protected Bollgard II cotton line 15985.

..

Cotton, Gossypium hirsutum L., is grown worldwide primarily as a source of fiber in the textile manufacturing. Cottonseed is a by-product of fiber production. Cottonseed contains natural toxicants, gossypol and cyclopropenoid fatty acids. Cottonseed is processed into four major products: oil, meal, hulls, and linters. Cottonseed oil and to a lesser extent processed linters are routinely used in human food and have a long history of safe use. Cottonseed, cottonseed meal, and hulls are used in animal feed.

Cottonseed oil intended for human consumption is highly purified. The purification process substantially reduces the content of cyclopropenoid fatty acids. The refined cottonseed oil is used as frying oil, salad and cooking oil, and in various foods including mayonnaise, salad dressing, shortening, and margarine. Linters are also highly processed to obtain pure cellulose for use in food, for example, in casings for bologna, sausages, and frankfurters, and in products such as ice cream and salad dressings.

..

Monsanto also measured the levels of cyclopropenoid fatty acids (CPFAs), gossypol, and aflatoxins. As noted earlier (section 5.1), CPFAs and gossypol occur naturally in cottonseed. Aflatoxins are mycotoxins produced by certain species of the fungus Aspergillus that may infect cotton, mainly Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. According to the literature cited by Monsanto, cottonseed is one of the commodities most commonly contaminated by aflatoxins.

..

Monsanto pooled [purified] cottonseed samples collected by line across eight field sites, thereby creating one composite sample for each line. Each composite sample was processed into oil and analyzed for the following parameters: fatty acid composition, vitamin E content, gossypol content, and cyclopropenoid fatty acid content.

..

Gossypol was not detected in any of the [purified] oil samples at the detection limit of 0.005 percent. The levels of cyclopropenoid fatty acids (sterculic, dihydrosterculic, and malvalic) in oil from the 15985 line were similar to those in the oil from the parental line and were within the range determined for oil derived from commercial varieties.

 

[Monique]

And here a Code of Federal Regulation that states that levels of gossypol in cottonseed products intended for human production should not exceed 450 ppm. There is a clear regulation of the substance.

http://law.justia.com/us/cfr/title21/21-3.0.1.1.3.9.1.59.html

This case is closed.