Is there Poison in Your Turkey?

[moshquerade]

Maybe this is why eating turkey makes us sleepy.... veeeeeeeery sleepy.

Posted: Monday, 23 November 2009 12:20PM

Is there Poison in Your Turkey?


NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- Arsenic in your Thanksgiving Day turkey? Could be...

It's actually contained in an additive to poultry feed called Roxarsone. Long Island Congressman Steve Israel says it's there for only one reason.

"It helps big poultry producers make more money. It's injected into birds like this one to speed the growth of the bird and to keep the poultry looking pink in the grocer's freezer," said Israel.

The Congressman has introduced legislation that would ban the use of the potentially dangerous additive. He points out that only meat products labeled "USDA Organic" are guaranteed not to contain Roxarsone.

http://www.wcbs880.com/Is-there-Poison-in-Your-Turkey-/5739395

 

[Sea Moose]

i am sure your turkey tastes fine mosh....

 

[destrekor]

Maybe this is why eating turkey makes us sleepy.... veeeeeeeery sleepy.


http://www.wcbs880.com/Is-there-Poison-in-Your-Turkey-/5739395

You do know the rumored reason why turkey "makes people sleepy", yes? Tryptophan.

And I'm also here to say, even that is false. Most, if not all other meats, contain similar levels of Tryptophan. And even bananas contain Tryptophan, of which is an Essential Amino Acid.

There is truth to the claim that Tryptophan, and the metabolites of Tryptophan, can cause drowsiness, the real truth to why many people get so sleep after Thanksgiving is not due to the turkey, it is due to the gorging. We consume so much food in a single sitting, often all high-carb foods, that it causes insulin spikes and drops the blood sugar level, which means the brain is running on low glycogen levels, and thus "running on empty", which results in a great deal of drowsiness that is often very very hard to fight.

 

[moshquerade]

You do know the rumored reason why turkey "makes people sleepy", yes? Tryptophan.

And I'm also here to say, even that is false. Most, if not all other meats, contain similar levels of Tryptophan. And even bananas contain Tryptophan, of which is an Essential Amino Acid.

There is truth to the claim that Tryptophan, and the metabolites of Tryptophan, can cause drowsiness, the real truth to why many people get so sleep after Thanksgiving is not due to the turkey, it is due to the gorging. We consume so much food in a single sitting, often all high-carb foods, that it causes insulin spikes and drops the blood sugar level, which means the brain is running on low glycogen levels, and thus "running on empty", which results in a great deal of drowsiness that is often very very hard to fight.

I also know that there isn't enough arsenic in turkey or cyanide in apple seeds to ever cause a problem. Unless you eat a truckload or something.

i am sure your turkey tastes fine mosh....

It's spectacular.

 

[spidey07]

A quick google search shows that Roxarsone is pissed out by the bird. Arsenic is not in your turkey, sounds like this rep got sold some alarmist "buy organic" nutjob. Or he is one himself.

 

[DrPizza]

Ummm, unless I'm mistaken, Roxarsone is organic & could be allowed to be fed to organically grown turkeys; I may be mistaken on this though.

Furthermore, if the amount of "poison" found in these turkeys is found to be harmless, then Mr. Congressman is simply fear mongering (and probably to help support someone who made some donations to him.) Modern farming techniques are being pushed to produce more and more food, safely, to feed the ever increasing world population. Already, one billion people are going hungry, and this congressman is targeting a harmless chemical that's been shown to improve yields?

 

[FoBoT]

a little arsenic won't hurt you
too much

 

[Newbian]

I just love the fact that since we breed them and inject them with so much crap to be so large they can't even mate naturally anymore...poor fat birdies.

 

[AbAbber2k]

It's spectacular.

Gobble, gobble!

 

[techs]

Every time I hear about a dangerous substance in our food that's OK because it's in such small amounts, it makes me wonder what the cumulative effect of all these substances is.

 

[DrPizza]

I just love the fact that since we breed them and inject them with so much crap to be so large they can't even mate naturally anymore...poor fat birdies.

That's okay - a lot of chickens that you eat are a cross between two different types of chickens. The chickens that you eat wouldn't be able to reproduce even by artificial insemination - by they time they reach sexual maturity, they'd be so overweight that they'd die of congestive heart failure. (Cornish cross can reach weights of 8 pounds in 8 weeks; chickens aren't usually sexually mature until 6 months of age or longer. I managed to keep a couple alive until about 5 months of age, but they died of congestive heart failure. Ditto my 54 pound turkey.)

 

[Gibsons]

Ummm, unless I'm mistaken, Roxarsone is organic & could be allowed to be fed to organically grown turkeys; I may be mistaken on this though.

Furthermore, if the amount of "poison" found in these turkeys is found to be harmless, then Mr. Congressman is simply fear mongering (and probably to help support someone who made some donations to him.) Modern farming techniques are being pushed to produce more and more food, safely, to feed the ever increasing world population. Already, one billion people are going hungry, and this congressman is targeting a harmless chemical that's been shown to improve yields?

I suspect the turkey farmers in Mr Congressman's district haven't contributed properly to the campaign.

 

[FoBoT]

most grains, fruit and vegetables we eat are hybrids, why not animals too

 

[TallBill]

I don't have the energy to care about such things. I'm not scared of death, rapists, or flesh eating disease.

 

[destrekor]

Every time I hear about a dangerous substance in our food that's OK because it's in such small amounts, it makes me wonder what the cumulative effect of all these substances is.

We too grow fatter faster..
Oh wait.

They've tricked us all into gluttony! They gonna eat us!

 

[AbAbber2k]

I don't have the energy to care about such things. I'm not scared of death, rapists, or flesh eating disease.

This.

Even if the media hadn't desensitized me to all the dangers of the world... life is too short to freak out about EVERYTHING.

Pass me the turkey... and that plastic bottle of water.

 

[destrekor]

dp
Ooops son of a... posting on my droid and not payig attention.

 

[RU482]

are you aware that just the right amount of arsenic added to poultry feed causes the birds to grow larger? iirc, if the fat of a bird is yellow, it has been fed arsenic enhanced feed.

 

[Schadenfroh]

sounds like this rep got sold some alarmist "buy organic" nutjob. Or he is one himself.

Agreed, I would not doubt that the rep is one of those "locally grown produce" people as well. Both are highly inefficient (unless your local area is very well suited for certain crops to be grown in mass quantities for export as well as local consumption).

 

[cliftonite]

That's okay - a lot of chickens that you eat are a cross between two different types of chickens. The chickens that you eat wouldn't be able to reproduce even by artificial insemination - by they time they reach sexual maturity, they'd be so overweight that they'd die of congestive heart failure. (Cornish cross can reach weights of 8 pounds in 8 weeks; chickens aren't usually sexually mature until 6 months of age or longer. I managed to keep a couple alive until about 5 months of age, but they died of congestive heart failure. Ditto my 54 pound turkey.)

Can you eat birds that die like that?

 

[WelshBloke]

maybe this is why eating turkey makes us sleepy.... Veeeeeeeery sleepy.

:\

i don't have the energy to care about such things.

:d

 

[Newbian]

They've tricked us all into gluttony! They gonna eat us!

 

[guyver01]

Upon entering the food chain, organic arsenics are progressively metabolised to a less toxic form of arsenic through a process of methylation.

Unless the bird has been massively injected with this substance, and unless you're eating tons of this... it's harmless.

 

[Zebo]

Yes there is poison in almost all the food you eat these days. Unless organic or you hunt/fish you are getting poisoned/hormoned/sterioded/pesticided up.

 

[Moonbeam]

I got an organic heritage turkey for about 56 dollars.