Just a tad over a year ago, it was “hip, hip, hooray” for the FDA!
The agency appeared to have finally put on its big-boy pants and moved to hit the brakes on the overuse of antibiotics in farm animals.
Only… it didn’t.
All of that fanfare turned out to be a false alarm. Things are just as bad now as they were before… maybe even worse.
And no big surprise – those so-called “rules” the FDA ended up with contain a “giant loophole.”
That Grand Canyon-size gap is allowing the continuation of huge amounts of antibiotics to be pumped into healthy farm animals to fatten them up faster. That leads right to the creation of those antibiotic-resistant superbugs we’ve been telling you about.
The only good news here is that by taking four simple steps, you’ll be doing more to protect yourself and your family from this looming health disaster than the FDA has done to date!
A doomsday scenario
The FDA’s big move last year was supposed to prevent the use of antibiotics unless an animal was sick. Ranchers would need to get an Rx from a veterinarian instead of just purchasing these drugs on their own.
But according to at least one rancher, vets are just as trigger-happy when it comes to writing prescriptions as human doctors! Because in both cases, all you have to do is ask for an antibiotic… and bingo, you’ll get it.
And since the FDA doesn’t maintain any kind of database as to why these drugs are being administered, there’s no trail to follow.
You would think, however, that we don’t need Sherlock Holmes to figure out that something is wrong when 70 to 80 percent of our medically important human antibiotics are still going down the throats of farm animals.
That means that you and your family could be getting dosed with these drugs on a daily basis – because antibiotic residue on meat and poultry can hitchhike its way onto your plate!
There’s one thing we know to be true: If we continue to use these important drugs as we have been, we will soon be living in a world without viable antibiotics.
And that is a doomsday scenario if there ever was one.
Already, antibiotic-resistant superbug infections are killing 23,000 Americans a year and sickening over 400,000. But if we continue along this path, experts predict that those numbers will seem like “the good old days.”
These drug-resistant bugs that come about as a result can make you sick even if you simply touch contaminated raw meat or eat a slightly undercooked hamburger, steak, pork chop, or chicken dinner.
But there is at least one ray of hope: Scientists at Ohio State University have found that injecting antibiotics instead of taking them by mouth could offer a solution to this crisis.
Administering antibiotics via injection instead of in the form of a pill (or in the case of farm animals, in their food and water) can significantly reduce the population of what Dr. Wang calls the “antibiotic-resistant gene pool.” In other words, provide less opportunity for superbugs to develop.
Another benefit of this method is that it allows these meds to bypass the gut, where they kill off beneficial bacteria that Dr. Wang describes as playing “critical roles” in our health — another disastrous result of antibiotic overuse. Taking them orally, she says, “unnecessarily exposes the huge population of (good) gut bacteria to a high concentration of drugs.”
Down on the farm, that would also help ensure that antibiotics aren’t just haphazardly dispensed. Because lining up big steers for a shot isn’t easy, it would only be done when animals are really sick.
For now, however, it’s up to us to create our own safety committee! Fortunately, there are four precautions you can start taking right away:
#1 Only buy meat, poultry, or milk that is certified organic. On an organic farm, animals don’t get drugs unless they’re actually sick, at which time they’re no longer considered organically certified.
#2 Handle all raw meat and poultry (even organic) with extreme care. Use disposable gloves or wash your hands well after touching any raw items. Be especially careful not to cross-contaminate counters, cutting boards, and utensils.
#3 Take rare off your menu! All steaks, chops, and poultry need to be thoroughly cooked, and the best way to do that is to get a meat thermometer. Hamburger should reach at least 160 degrees F, with ground turkey and chicken cooked to a minimum of 165 degrees F. For steaks, the minimum temperature should be 145 degrees F, and you should also allow the meat to “rest” for at least three minutes after cooking.
#4 Do some research before eating out. In a study done by five consumer groups last year, certain restaurant chains were called out for buying meat and poultry from suppliers who haphazardly and routinely give their animals antibiotics.
Popular chains like IHOP, Chili’s, Olive Garden, and Cracker Barrel were among those with failing grades. Since only big-name chains were included in this study, it’s impossible to know how smaller eateries rank, but the takeaway is to limit consumption of meat or poultry to what you cook at home – or only to restaurants that can assure you that the meat comes from suppliers who have a “no-antibiotic” policy in place.
And that old standby has never been more important: wash your hands – especially after handling raw meat or poultry – and do it like you mean it!
“Antibiotics in meat could be damaging our guts” William D. Cohan, May 25, 2018, The New York Times, nytimes.com
