American Food - Could Additives, Hormones, Toxic Chemicals That Are Added to Our Food Be Causing IBD?

I agree with most of this writers thoughts on what you put in your body will effect how it runs. Of course! One way to know that this is right on, is just look at your parents or grandparents. They don't have digestive issues ( cant say that for everyone.. but the majority of people with IBD are the young when it begins.) Also , I never remember having kids in my class when I was in elementary school with jacked up stomach issues. Yes, we all had the usual puker that would hurl right at his desk .... that's vile I know, but that's not IBD. I'm curious as to how many , approximately how many children in grade school are diagnosed with a digestive problem per class. So sad.

I don't agree with the writer's  opinion that all people with a digestive disease will eventually end up getting cancer.  That's not true.  What is true, is that the person with Crohn's or UC have higher chances of getting cancer.  Also people with Crohn's and UC can live a long healthy life once they find a treatment that is effective for them, screen regularly, have surgeries if necesary, live a healthy life with exercise and the proper diet and most of all staying in tune with your body.

                                          
The Question:  Crohn’s, Ulcerative Colitis, IBS and IBD: Are They Really Diseases?
Absolutely.... I do believe that the disease is pushed into full effect because of the diet .  People ignore the body when it reacts to something negatively.  Making no changes to your diet when everytime you eat pizza, you get sick, and like a fool, you continue to eat the freaking cheesy delicious pizza, well eventually the body will get sicker and sicker & that's when you make an appointment and get your diagnosis.  It also doesn't help much that doctors don't believe diet is the cause.  That's just ignorant.  I have had very little encouragement from doctors to change my diet.  If I didn't restrict foods and adhere to a strict diet, I'd be so so so ill.
Another point that these diseases are real and not allergies, is that when you eliminate the allergen,  people remain sick. Take MAP for example... It's the bacteria that's highly resistant that comes from cows milk and is said to be a possible cause of Crohn's.  A high % of people w/ Crohn's , had the MAP bacteria in their body.  

Crohn’s, Ulcerative Colitis, IBS and IBD: Are They Really Diseases or Just Allergies to Chemically Tainted Food

This is a guest article by Mannie Barling and Ashley F. Brooks.
It is undeniable that there has been a marked, if not alarming increase, in the number of Americans diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowl syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease in the last two decades.
It is also undeniable that the increase in statistics coincides with the increase of factory farms and the introduction of genetically modified produce as well as the increased use of Monsanto’s Roundup pesticides, bovine growth hormones and daily doses of antibiotics.
Not surprisingly, the increase in obesity among Americans, particularly among our youth, has erupted into an epidemic proportion following the same time line as the introduction of factory farming and the increase in synthetic chemical sweeteners and preservatives.
Multinational corporations, already profiting from the increased illness and disease in America by selling prescription and over the counter drugs, have no interest in addressing the underlying causes because to do so would reduce their bottom line profits.
To make matters worse, many American corporations, especially Monsanto, are in an unholy partnership with the U. S. Government to participate in the profits from the sale of drugs and the production of genetically modified foods that harm Americans.
The increase in Crohn’s, IBS and IBD are directly related to a person’s individual food sensitivity to the chemicals found in processed, packaged and farmed foods, including meat and poultry.  These chemicals include but are not limited to Roundup pesticides, rGBH, antibiotics, nitrates, MSG, Maltodextrin, carcinogenic caramel food coloring and incredible amounts of genetically modified soy and corn byproducts.
MSG, genetically modified soy and corn are in every package.  They are used as cheap fillers and to enhance the flavor of flavorless genetically modified foods.
A simple look at the ingredient’s label of a frozen food item will disclose as many as 150 different chemicals on the package.  And where the label includes artificial or natural flavoring, those flavorings contain up to 300 different esters (artificial chemicals) that are not required to be listed on the package.  Why?  Because they are protected by the trade secrets of multinational corporations.
Our grandmothers didn’t have to put more than 150 ingredients into the food they served our families to make them yummy.  Most Americans don’t have more than 20 spices in their spice cabinet.  I doubt that you can find one American that can name more than 50 ingredients in their food, let alone 150.
Yet, American food manufacturers faced with tasteless genetically modified ingredients are compelled to add these chemical ingredients to fool your taste buds not only into buying their food but to become addicted to it.
As we note in our books, Doritos has more than 39 ingredients in their recipe.  Yet, you only need three ingredients to make chips at home.  So, what are the other 36 ingredients?  Chemicals, chemicals and more chemicals.
Pepsi and Coke finally acknowledge that the synthetic caramel coloring in their soft drinks is carcinogenic and have planned removal of these ingredients by the summer of 2012.  Now if the industry will only acknowledge the dangers of high fructose corn syrup and remove it from their soft drinks, the world could be a safer place to eat and drink.
For people with digestive diseases and syndromes, these chemicals upset their stomachs, inflame their colons, irritate their bowels and eventually lead to colon cancer.  If you total up all of the chemicals off the ingredients labels on the packages of food you eat daily, you may find that you are eating and drinking the equivalent of five to six ounces of chemicals a day.
If you drink sugary soft drinks, that number may increase to as many as 20 ounces of some form of chemicals daily.  Just imagine pouring yourself a tall glass of chilled chemicals every day and ask yourself what are they doing to your body?
Then ask yourself, how many days, weeks, months and years can you drink eight to 20 ounces of chemicals a day before it rots your insides out, causes Crohn’s, IBS, IBD, heart disease, diabetes or leads to cancer?
It is simple math that, when applied to infant children, is even more alarming.  The ingredients of baby food now contain the same dangerous chemicals that adult food contain.  Only, starting a child on chemicals almost immediately after birth has far reaching consequences on the future of our society.  The recent increase in childhood maladies is dramatic proof of this.
Additional proof can be found in research conducted by UC Davis scientists found in an article in the Los Angeles Times, Groundwater Nitrate Contamination Grows in California Farm Areas, that cites nitrate pollution leaching into aquifers from fertilizers and manure applied to cropland as the cause of high levels of nitrate linked to cancer and reproductive disorders that can be lethal to infants.
The research also pointed out the long term danger when it said, “Because it can take years or decades for nitrate to migrate through aquifers, the authors warned that the effects of the rising volume of manure may not be evident for some time.”
Our water is polluted.  Our food is polluted.  And over time, our bodies will be polluted with these chemicals resulting in illness and disease.  For Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowl syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease sufferers, it is a prescription for pain, suffering and ultimately colon cancer.
If you doubt it, go to various websites, including the CDC, FDA and other more independent sites, and chart the increases in these illnesses and diseases from 1994 until 2011.  The numbers are increasing exponentially and are projected to increase even more dramatically in the next 25 years.
The only way to reverse this trend is to eat organic foods and demand that the U.S. government require full and complete disclosure of chemicals in the labels found on foods sold in markets.  True disclosure will enable Americans to make their own decisions and not let our government, twisted and turned by political contributions and legalized bribes, make those decisions for us.
To do otherwise will be to condemn our children and grandchildren to a shorter life punctuated by obesity, illness and disease.
Mannie Barling and Ashley F. Brooks are the authors of the award winning books – Arthritis, Inflammation, Gout, Crohn’s, IBD and IBS (Books and Authors 2010 Best Books in the Health, Diet & Reference Categories); Mannie’s Diet and Enzyme Formula (Blogger News Net 2010 Best Health And Nutrition Book Award winner); It’s Not Your Fault; and The Food Revolution Papers  –  available at HowToEliminatePain.com, Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and other booksellers around the world.