The Alkaline Body and pH Balance

Posts Tagged ‘Organic Ingredients’

Some veggie burgers found to contain harmful substance, hexane, used to process soy.

BY Tracy Miller
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, April 14th 2010, 10:25 AM
Yasukawa for NewsMany brands of frozen soy
veggie burgers that are not 100 percent organic
may have been produced using a harmful
substance, according to a report.
Think you’re being healthy by choosing a veggie
burger instead of red meat? Think again.
In an effort to make their products as low-fat as
possible, many veggie burger manufacturers are
turning to a potentially harmful chemical, according
to an investigation by the non-profit Cornucopia
Institute.
Most non-organic veggie burgers contain hexane, a
neurotoxin that’s also a petroleum by-product of
gasoline refining. Hexane is listed as a hazardous
air pollutant with the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), according to the report, which called
hexane the “dirty little secret of the ‘natural’ soy
foods industry.”
To keep down the fat content of energy bars, veggie
burgers and other products, food manufacturers
submerge soybeans in a bath of hexane to separate
them into soy oil, protein and fiber.
Products labeled “organic” aren’t allowed to contain
any hexane – but foods that are less than 100%
organic, such as those labeled “made with organic
ingredients,” may contain the chemical.
Veggie burgers that are likely to contain hexaneextracted
soy ingredients, according to the
research, include popular brands such as Amy’s
Kitchen, Boca Burger (conventional), Garden Burger
and Morningstar Farms, along with others.
Boca Burger and Morningstar burgers labeled “made
with organic soy” are not produced using hexane.
The full list of veggie burger and nutrition bar
brands researched can be found on page 37-38 of
the report. Click here to read.

Learn about Asherah’s gourmet soy and gluten free 100% Organic Vegan Burgers made with Quinoa and vegetables.

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Researchers have discovered a possible reason why green vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower are good for the heart.

Their work suggests a chemical found in the vegetables can boost a natural defence mechanism to protect arteries from disease.

The Imperial College London team hope their work could lead to new dietary treatments to prevent heart problems.

Details appear in Arteriosclerosis Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.

The Imperial College London team hope their work could lead to new dietary treatments to prevent heart problems.

Details appear in Arteriosclerosis Thrombosis and Vascular Biology. Much heart disease is caused by the build up of fatty plaques in the arteries known as atherosclerosis.

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However, arteries do not get clogged up with these plaques in a uniform way.

Bends and branches of blood vessels – where blood flow is disrupted and can be sluggish – are much more prone to the build-up.

The latest study has shown that a protein that usually protects against plaque build up called Nrf2 is inactive in areas of arteries that are prone to disease.

However, it also found that treatment with a chemical found in green “brassica” vegetables such as broccoli can activate Nrf2 in these disease-prone regions.

Lead researcher Dr Paul Evans said: “We found that the innermost layer of cells at branches and bends of arteries lack the active form of Nrf2, which may explain why they are prone to inflammation and disease.

“Treatment with the natural compound sulforaphane reduced inflammation at the high-risk areas by ‘switching on’ Nrf2.

“Sulforaphane is found naturally in broccoli, so our next steps include testing whether simply eating broccoli, or other vegetables in their ‘family’, has the same protective effect.

“We also need to see if the compound can reduce the progression of disease in affected arteries.”

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Targeted approaches

Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, which funded the research, said: “These fascinating findings provide a possible mechanism by which eating vegetables protects against heart disease.

“As well as adding evidence to support the importance of eating ‘five-a-day’, the biochemistry revealed in this research could lead to more targeted dietary or medical approaches to prevent or lessen disease that leads to heart attacks and strokes.”

Using normal mice, and mice engineered to lack the Nrf2 protein, the research found that in straight sections of arteries Nrf2 was present in the endothelial ‘lining’ cells.

Through its action on other proteins, it prevented the cells from becoming inflamed, an early stage in the development of atherosclerosis.

In the lining cells of disease-prone sites – such as bending or branched arteries – Nrf2 was attached to a protein that made it inactive. This stifled its protective properties.

But the addition of sulforaphane re-activated Nrf2 in the disease-prone regions of the artery, restoring the cells’ ability to protect themselves from becoming inflamed.

The researchers believe that this will enable these artery regions to remain healthy for longer, or even reduce the progression of existing disease.

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