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[riversbend again]

Yoplait's campaign against breast cancer, called Save Lids to Save Lives .

The company plans to donate 10 cents to the fight against breast cancer for every cup of yogurt with with a pink foil lid that consumers purchase.

Yoplait touts its yogurt as being healthy for women, but what's inside is anything but.



The reality is that Yoplait yogurt is made with milk from cows that have been injected with a synthetic hormone called recombinant bovine growth hormone (called rBGH or rBST). Research indicates that there are numerous health concerns linked to the consumption of dairy from cows injected with rBGH - and breast cancer is one of them.

The bottom line is that rBGH is unsafe - and unnecessary. In fact, the use of rBGH has already been banned in Australia, Canada, Japan, and all 27 countries in the European Union. In addition to the many companies that offer rBGH-free products, big-box stores and food and beverage chains like Wal-Mart, Publix, Kroger, Starbucks, and Chipotle have committed to reducing or completely eliminating dairy products made with rBGH from their stores. If these companies can do it, Yoplait can too.

The Citizens for Health Team
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/750/t/1086/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26047

[BoatLady]

I clicked on the link and I signed letter to general mills and I got this response back from them. I did not pay close enough attention to the letter until I received another email pointing out that they weren't even talking about the same thing. 

This is General mills letter, I will post the other email next.

Thank you for contacting General Mills concerning BST.   BST (bovine somatotropin) is a hormone naturally found in cows.  The synthetic version of this hormone (not to be confused with a steroid hormone) has been subjected to extensive testing.  The Food & Drug Administration, American Medical Association, National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Agriculture along with a number of other science-based organizations have concluded that there are no food safety issues in conjunction with milk produced by BST-supplemented cows.   Because BST is naturally found in all cows′ milk, there is no scientific way to test the milk to determine if the BST present is from synthetic sources or natural sources.  The amount of BST present in milk will not be greater from a synthetic source than it would be occurring naturally.   For more information about Bovine Somatotropin (BST) or Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH) you may wish to visit the United States Department of Agriculture′s website at www.usda.gov. We hope you will continue to enjoy our products.    Sincerely,General Mills Consumer Services

[BoatLady]

This is the email from Citizens Healthcare

YOPLAIT FOLLOW-UP!

Were you surprised to get a response from General Mills?

We weren't.  It's just that their tidy little response was one that only a lawyer or a politician could love.  As many of you pointed out to us, General Mills didn't even address the issue!  If you go back and connect the dots, you'll see that our Action Alert was about rBGH, and General Mills' response was about BGH.

What's the difference between BGH and rBGH?

To reiterate, Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH) is a natural protein hormone produced in a cow's pituitary gland.  Recombinant BGH (a/k/a rBGH) is a synthetic, unnatural hormone injected into the cow so she'll produce more milk - unnaturally!

Why did General Mills only mention BGH and not rBGH?

Because if General Mills dealt with rBGH straight up, they would have to acknowledge that it's banned in Canada, Australia, Japan and all 27 countries in the European Union.  And Starbucks and Safeway stores in the northwest (among others) have voluntarily banned it in their products.

Why should you care?

Again, rBGH is not only synthetic; it also increases production of the hormone Insulin Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1), which in excessive amounts in humans beyond infancy is a cancer accelerator associated with breast, prostate and colon cancers.

In lawyer-land, we call this kind of reply by General Mills sophistry, which is a fancy term for deceitful bull****.  We need to make sophistry a thing of the past when it comes to the governance and business of our health.

[p.s.  Our thanks to those of you who logged in with observations about the health risks of milk and dairy in any form. We want you to know we hear you. But this hypocritical move by General Mills during Breast Cancer Awareness month called for a special alert.  Thanks for supporting us on this.]







To view our privacy policy, click here.

[riversbend again]

Interesting.  A few years ago I was on the FDA's website. It stated quite clearly there that BGH does cause cancer in humans. I didn't copy or save that. I wish I had. It is no longer there.
My guess is that BGH is a natural hormone in cows, but the amount we get is so insignificant that it doesn't matter. I am also wondering if cattle are like humans, we stop producing growth hormone at some point. If that is also true with cattle, then we wouldn't be getting any BGH from adult cattle.

Many, many farmers inject their animals with BGH to speed up the process of getting them to the slaughter house.