Zerenol - IS IT IN OUR MEAT? OUR MILK?

ZERENOL - this is one of the last chemicals on my list that I wanted to cover in a series of blogs and I am frankly stumped.  There is very little information as far as research available and what I did get was not "official information" but rather stories about a report by Monsanto that was buried in the government office of the USDA or the FDA or somewhere.  It was a report about a 90 day study that was done by Monsanto, the company that makes the feed for cattle, or makes the growth hormone.  What is troubling is that it points in the direction of causing breast cancer, early onset of puberty, is in the meat and the milk of cattle and yet there are no clear answers.  There is also information that alludes to the fact that "Zerenol" is not always used but that there are substitutes being used.So many questions, are the substitutes also bad?  If they are growth hormones than how could they not be bad.

So, I really think there is more to this story but I will give you what I found and we can go from there.
This next clip is from 2006, however, it is a very damning video for hormones in milk.

Next, I would question WHY HAS THE EUROPEAN UNION BANNED use of growth hormones and the UNITED STATES HAS NOT.  This is a question that that is little evidence to support the reasons.  I found the definition of Zerenol in wikipedia, of course, that is just the description of what it is. On the verge of boring.  But where are the reports for why it is banned in one place in the world and not here, where it is being used the most? This Q & A section will answer the main question.

Q. During the seven years after the EEC ban on hormone-raised meat, the U.S. beef industry has continued to use sex hormones in meat. Why?
A. Hormones can be used to stimulate growth in cattle. Because farmers are paid based on the weight of the animals they sell for slaughter, the use of hormones has been seen as a way to boost profits.
http://www.preventcancer.com/consumers/general/hormones_meat.htm


That is the easy answer - for a profit.  The EEC banned it in 1989. There are additional facts, from the Prevent Cancer website.  However, the interesting part about the information from that website, is the fact that reports from the FDA had to be obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, because they are "protected" or "confidential" with regard to hormone studies in meat.

I was able to get the following information from the Cornell University site that had the following information:


What are the different hormones used now by the meat and dairy industries?
There are six different kinds of steroid hormones that are currently approved by FDA for use in food production in the US: estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, zeranol, trenbolone acetate, and melengestrol acetate. Estradiol and progesterone are natural female sex hormones; testosterone is the natural male sex hormone; zeranol, trenbolone acetate and melengesterol acetate are synthetic growth promoters (hormone-like chemicals that can make animals grow faster). Currently, federal regulations allow these hormones to be used on growing cattle and sheep, but not on poultry (chickens, turkeys, ducks) or hogs (pigs). The above hormones are not as useful in increasing weight gain of poultry or hogs.
As mentioned earlier, FDA allows the use of the protein hormone rbGH to increase milk production in dairy cattle. This protein hormone is not used on beef cattle.
http://envirocancer.cornell.edu/factsheet/diet/fs37.hormones.cfm

From Wiki-Pedia:  Zeranol (α-zearalanol) is a non-steroidal estrogen agonist. It is a mycotoxin, derived from fungi in the Fusarium family, and may be found as a contaminant in fungus-infected crops. It is 3-4x more potent as an estrogen agonist than the related compound zearalenone.^[1]
Zeranol is approved for use as a growth promoter in livestock, including beef cattle, in the United States. In Canada, it is approved for use in beef cattle only.^[2] Its application is not approved for use in the European Union. Recently the group of Bern and collaborator has shown the inhibiting action of isoflavones on the growth of breast cancer cells induced by xenoestrogens such as o,p'-DDT and alkylphenols. Such studies have suggested phytoestrogens could be inhibiting the hormonal action of the natural estrogens.^[3]
Obese individuals may be at greater risk of developing zeranol-induced breast cancer.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeranol

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