Recent Posts

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Not sure if this is true or not....

but was wondering if anyone has heard of this before... I know that they do put stuff in the cows and therefore in the beef, but found this interesting!

Growth hormones in beef have been linked to infertility. A recent scientific study found that women who routinely ate beef were far more likely to give birth to boys who grow up to have lower-than-normal sperm counts.

Anyone have any comments

5 comments:

MaryM said...

I looked it up and found it on this site http://www.livescience.com/health/070327_sperm_counts.html

Firstly, Im sure there could be lots of other environmental reasons for lower sperm count in boys as time goes on, look at all the estrogen mimicking things around. Pthathalates (sp?) along with hormones in our food and environment.

Secondly, why the hell is north america so far behind in this stuff? Hormones in cattle have been banned in Russia since 1988? But not here? That is stupid! SO many harmful chemicals have been banned in russia and yet are still present in north america!

I wonder about all this hype with mothers consumption though...I mean doesn't a woman naturally make lots of extra estrogen/progesterone in pregnancy anyway? I would think it would be after the baby is born that outside infulence would be more important...I find it all pretty interesting. With more men becoming gay and fish being born with both ovaries and testicles...I think the hormones in our environment need to be addressed.

trijane said...

I also read that women who are trying to get pregnant should eat organic foods to reduce the chance of extra hormones effecting fertility. This is something I am trying to do incase I have an issue with my hormones. It doesn't hurt to try and see what happens.

Anonymous said...

Also it makes endometriosis a lot worse and this is why I don't eat so much meat like I use to.

Unknown said...

I have to disagree about the growth hormone issues in all meats. I an education in agriculture and have some experience with hormone administration. I know alot of people won't share my view on this but I would just like to pass on what I have taken classes on. Any hormones administered as well as medications and certain feed products require a withdrawl period to ensure that all chemicals have been metabolized (think of those of us who use HCG injections for ovulation induction and cannot take a HPT until after the hormone has passed through the system). Hormones and medications that are given to animals that are meant for food have been specifically designed and updated, with biotechnology they are getting something that thier bodies would creat on its own, it just gives the animal a little push. I know many won't agree with me, and I understand, like I said I just wanted to pass along information from a different perspective.

Chele said...

I'm agreeing with Dezerea on this one. My dh is from Texas and grew up in a ranching family.

More and more ranchers are avoiding any and all growth hormones, however, implants have the same effect on cattle as natural hormones produced by the animal’s body. In truth, the use of them produces leaner meat. Even a man’s body produces 15,000 TIMES more estradiol in a day than he ingests in a pound of meat, and a woman's produces several MILLION more times that amount. Europe’s distrust of hormones, btw, stems from the use of ILLEGAL stimulants a number of years ago, called DES, found in veal calves raised in ITALY, not the U.S. DES was been banned in the U.S., but as a result of Italy’s scandal, all imported beef had to be hormone-free.

But, again, producers on a large scale have stopped using any growth stimulants in their cattle, and others will continue to do so.

As for infertility I think pesticides used in the U.S. are having an affect on the infertility rates. Far more are used in vegetables and plants than in animal production, but there are also thousands of times more natural pesticides in our environment than man-made; these include natural "toxic chemicals" that appear in plants and serve to protect them against fungi, insects and animal predators, as per a report by Biochemistry Dept., UC Berkeley, 1987. Any person can have their blood tested today and find it loaded with toxic chemicals and when their children are born and tested they too have those same chemicals in their blood.