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VA-toxic food chain/chicken experiment/"walking corn"
I was thinking the problem might be McDonalds fries, but then I saw a video of pigeons ignoring mcdonalds fries. Now, Michael Pollen told us mostly everything at McDonalds can be traced back to corn...
https://www.livescience.com/58976-obese-monkey-thailand-reveals-growing-problem.html
"Among his favorite treats are noodles, sweet corn on the cob, milkshakes and sweet melons."
Look at all that corn. And does the milk shake contain corn syrup? And added vitamin A?
Retinol 0.0 mcg
Lutein+Zeaxanthin 1486 mcg
https://michaelpollan.com/reviews/were-living-on-corn/
"In America, foods as diverse as Gatorade, Ring Dings, and hamburgers have their beginning with corn. Indeed, huge factories transform its kernels into an almost unimaginable array of compounds. To illustrate how pervasive corn’s influence is, Pollan gives us the example of the chicken nugget, which he says “piles corn upon corn: what chicken it contains consists of corn” (because the chickens are corn-fed), as does “the modified corn starch that glues the thing together, the corn flour in the batter that coats it, and the corn oil in which it gets fried. Much less obviously, the leavenings and lecithin, the mono-, di-, and triglycerides, the attractive golden coloring, and even the citric acid that keeps the nugget ‘fresh’ can all be derived from corn.”
Just repeating this pic from the first page of this thread: egg laid on rice-based diet, vs egg laid on corn-based diet:
"If you doubt the ubiquity of corn you can take a chemical test. It turns out that corn has a peculiar carbon structure which can be traced in everything that consumes it. Compare a hair sample from an American and a tortilla-eating Mexican and you’ll discover that the American contains a far larger proportion of corn-type carbon. “We North Americans look like corn chips with legs,” says one of the researchers who conducts such tests." (also from the Pollan article)
Besides being high in VA, corn is probably exposed to roundup which interferes with A detox. Roundup was first used in the 1970's and genetically modified roudup-ready corn came in 1998.
I just looked up my (non-organic, common, backyard) chicken feed and the first ingredient is corn and the second is soy. Also on the list is vitamin A acetate. So that is why all backyard chix farmers get bright yellow eggs, even if their chickens are kept confined.
We aren't just walking corn, we are walking roundup corn.
I might have well have been feeding my family McDonalds, instead of going to the trouble of raising eggs!
This article is saying Lutein and Zeaxanthin get stored/used in the brain and eye. So what happens when we get too much?
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/lutein
I asked my new goat milk provider for his feed name and checked out the ingredients. Just like my chicken feed, it was very heavy in corn and soy, and contained "vitamin A acetate". I'm assuming, since it is not organic, the ingredients have been exposed to roundup and may even be roundup-ready gmo (just as my chicken feed may be)
I assume that vitamin A acetate is the synthetic A that is in many vitamins and milk?
"Retinyl acetate is a natural form of vitamin A which is the acetate ester of retinol. It has potential antineoplastic and chemopreventive activities. In the United States, retinyl acetate is classified generally recognized as safe in the amounts used to fortify foods with vitamin A. Wikipedia"
These thoughts also make me wonder about whether a baby born to an A-toxic mother is 100% bound to be A-toxic?
According to the google machine, lutein doesn't just go to the eye.
"Based on the lack of reported side effects in the studies that have been done, up to 20 mg per day of a lutein supplement should be safe for adults. ... Very large doses of carotenoids such as lutein and zeaxanthin can cause carotenodermia - a yellow-orange skin discoloration."
Didn't notice this the first time, my chicken feed also has ADDED lutein! Over and above the high "lutein/zeaxanthin" already in corn.
"Marigold extract
For consistent, deep yellow egg yolks and increased lutein in eggs"
It occurs to me that zeaxanthin is named for corn. It's like saying: "corn coloring" (zea mays is the corn plant)
We are using corn as an energy, a fuel, a grain for the growth and life of livestock.
But it has high levels of coloring, more like a vegetable, it isn't as clean an energy as other grains.
I suppose just using white versions of corn might be better, if we have to base our entire food pyramid on corn...
Chicken update:
Earlier in this thread I talked about how I'm worried that basing our entire agriculture on corn might set up vitamin A toxicity in the food chain. Also, adding to this burden is the fact that roundup is ubiquitous in agriculture (and Dr. Seneff has said it blocks pathways of VA detox)
I took my chickens off of regular feed and put them on organic feed. For several months I mixed white rice into their organic feed to give a head start to their "detox". (the rice which wasn't organic, but I wanted to lower the overall VA in the feed). I also stopped giving them kitchen clippings that had high VA foods (this is actually a bigger change than you would expect, especially because I usually produce loads of butternut squash which I've posted about. Super high in VA).
My chickens have always had a chronic issue with slight to moderate vent gleet. (see pic of a very bad case of vent gleet at the bottom of this post) I tend to keep an "old age home" of hens and I always blamed that. Well, wouldn't you know that their gleet problems have cleared up. It is thought that gleet is a yeast infection. I would now say it is INFLAMMATION. Probably of the digestive tract. Did you ever notice that VA symptoms are often explained away as yeast symptoms? I suppose yeast may come in to the picture, but the inflammation is what allows them to set up shop. I would say this is quite similar to diaper rash when a baby has a stomach bug.
Last week, my neighbor gave me some of her eggs, allowing me to see the results of my chicken experiment. She farms her hens very similarly to the way I did before. (non-organic, lots of VA scraps) Of course, we share the same ranging environment.
And there it was, visual confirmation that I had managed to bring the yolk color of my hens eggs back down to yellow (which is the color I always remember chicken eggs being before). While her egg yolks were BRIGHT ORANGE.
A very bad case of vent gleet: (not my chicken!)
very interesting this yeast connection!