Greetings! 

I don't like to write scary or negative posts. I much prefer to bring you good news about scientific studies that have found another natural healing method or a plant that can reduce inflammation or headaches, etc.

I believe, however, that you should know what may be in the food you are eating - even though it's not allowed... 

So, today I am letting you know about a joint study where researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Arizona State University found evidence that a class of antibiotics previously banned by the U.S. government for poultry production is still in use. Results of the study were published March 21 in Environmental Science & Technology. 

The researchers discovered a class of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones in samples of feather meal, a type of feed that is routinely added to commercial feed for chicken, pigs, cattle and fish. The FDA banned use of these antibiotics in poultry production in 2005 principally because they can accelerate the development of antibiotic-resistance in bacteria that could be very harmful to human health.

Study co-author Keeve Nachman says that in recent years, the resistance to antibiotics has slowed, but not at the rate expected. Perhaps these findings offer an explanation.

Commercial growers add antibiotics to chicken, pig and cattle feed to make the animals grow faster - not to treat diseases. Small local, and larger organic farms, however, use all natural feed. These animals are grass fed, or eat bugs and caterpillars. When I visited my cousins in Iowa last year, there was a bucket on the back porch for kitchen scraps that were fed to the chickens at the end of each day. We also gave the chickens a treat of big fat caterpillars that were trying to eat the tomatoes whenever we found one...

The researchers in this new study found the banned drugs in 8 of 12 samples of feather meal in a multi-state study. Samples of feather meal the group tested had residues of between two and 10 antibiotics, as well as acetaminophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol); an antihistamine that is the active ingredient in Benadryl; fluoxetine, an antidepressant used in Prozac; and  caffeine. In a companion study, arsenic was also found in feather meal - YIKES!

In small doses, these contaminants may or may not pose a danger to human health, but I for one, don't want even trace amounts of these things in anything I eat. Better safe than sorry, as my mom used to say. When eating chicken, I'm taking the advice of Keeve E. Nachman, Ph.D., co-author of the Hopkins study. When asked about his family's chicken buying habits, he replied, "We buy organic." I'm with you Keeve!

Best of Health,