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.â€
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.
23 users commented in " Crohn’s, Ulcerative Colitis, IBS and IBD: Are They Really Diseases or Just Allergies to Chemically Tainted Food "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a Trackbackalot of the chemicals and additives mentioned aren’t allowed in food in the UK and people here have IBD’s. IBS isn’t the same and I don’t like it being grouped with Crohn’s and Colitis.
I agree with you that chemicals are bad for you and for your health and that there are way too many chemicals in our regular foods.
I think it is ignorant of you to assume that they cause all of the diseases you mentioned. Doctors have been conducting extensive research for years to pinpoint the cause of Crohn’s disease. If you have solved it in a single blog post then why isn’t your opinion breaking medical news publicized on every medium possible? Also, how could an 8 month old infant who has never been exposed to chemicals in their foods develop the disease. I think its entirely possible to exacerbate the condition through the consumption of chemicals however find it impossibly unlikely that it is the root cause.
I couldn’t agree more with Sharne. IBS and IBD are VERY different conditions.
This is a joke right? People get hospitalized, go through what is called a digestive system shut down (where they are only fed through IV) after cleaning out their entire digestive system, and they still continue to bleed. It an auto-immune disorder if anything. If UC was simply caused by allergies there would never be remisson without a diet change; further there is no consistency to the foods that make UC worse from case to case, it is completely random.
There isn’t exponential growth, there definitely is growth however that could be because of better diagnosis.
“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.” There hasn’t been a single definitive research document that links any of these things to causing UC, and they have tried.
Furthermore, if it was an “allergy” why does it emerge in people after a certain age? I wasn’t diagnosed till after I was 25, are you trying to tell me my body decided to develop an allergy after 25 years of never having a reaction?
This kind of teaching will lead to people getting their bowels removed because they will incorrectly assume that they can stop it with diet change. In fact I just had a conversation with my doctor about an older woman who literally that just happened to.
At least you’re selling books.
I do believe this to be true. I have had Crohn’s for over 35 years. I now eat much better and my Crohn’s is much better. But the big question is what to do about our food supply??? Let’s get moving!!!
You failed to mention the link between Crohn’s and Johne’s disease in cattle (and other ruminants). Like 45% of your dairy herds are infected with Johne’s – bacterium (MAP) is shed in milk (think raw milk) and present in meat from culled animals.
Should not Johne’s be a “reportable disease” – meaning the meat from these animals is not allowed into the food chain?
I think the title of this entry says how much you know about IBD, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and IBS.
One Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are IBD’s so you don’t have to say it twice.
Two, IBS is not a disease and has nothing to do with either of the two IBD’s.
This are just two problems wrong with the title alone. After that you should probably do more research. Scientists are finding more and more genes that are the cause of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. If it just has to do with tainted food, then how come genetics are being found to cause it?
I found other statements that are incorrect in your article. But I don’t have that time to correct them ALL.
With that said, I do think diet has a good deal to do with managing these diseases, but they are not the direct cause of them.
Wow…. uc and crohn’s diseases have rissen because people have been made aware of the symptoms… my father suffered in silence til the day he died because he didn’t know!!!! You have offended alot of suffering people by this article. Google uc and crohn’s diseases and you will know it isn’t bcz of chemicals but because it is a disease, unknown cases but a disease none the less. When you write articles like this you need to consider how it will be interpreted by the people with the disease… you have not only offended me but you have hurt my feelings.
I have eaten the same foods as my brother my whole life but I have Crohn’s and he doesn’t. If this is true shouldn’t he have Crohn’s as well?
I do believe that these chemicals in our food and water are not good for us, but I do NOT BELIEVE it causes Crohn’s Disease. 1.4 million Americans suffer from this disease and they all have different lifestyles and diets.
To downplay my disease that has nearly claimed my life to just a food allergy is a bit upsetting.
Since the disease persits even after years of pure organic no chemical diets… I would say you are completely wrong. IBS has no place in any columnn with IBD as well, further making the authors look like they are without a clue.
As a 34 year survivor of ulcerative colitis who eats as healthy as my colon will let me (no raw veggies or anything with seeds), I assure you that UC is a REAL disease & not a chemical reaction! I’m so tired of being told that it’s a just a food allergy or that it’s “all in my head.” I’m sure the chemicals aggravate UC, Crohn’s & IBS, but they’re not the CAUSE. If that was the case, eating totally organic would make it go away, which it doesn’t. I’m tired of people telling me my disease isn’t really a disease – why else am I spending a LOT of time in the bathroom then?
I grew up in the 70’s in a rural area with hippy parents without processed foods, soda, candy, etc and on farm milk and cheese and eggs, yet I have Crohn’s disease. There may be a link between environment and Crohn’s–and food specifically–but I’m not you should be stating it as authoritatively as you do (yet).
I agree with sharne86, this is a HUGE generalization and the writing makes it sound like propaganda. There are a number of factors for both IBD and IBS, and these diseases have been around longer than the past 20 years. While the factors mentioned in the article might have some effect, simply eating organic food isn’t going to cure anyone! You are just as in cahoots as you claim the food and drug companies are, your agenda is just organics and not whatever their business may be!
I find all of the criticism humorous. I lumped these terms together because the insurance companies and government programs do now for many reasons, especially billing issues. Doctors would rather say you have IBS than Crohn’s to get paid.
Since I have suffered from Crohn’s disease since 12 years old, underwent a radical colon surgery against my wishes, been given two years to live after discovering malignant tumors in my colon, been in a wheelchair for more than two years and bedridden for two more, I think I know a little about my disease. I have also spent the last seven years counseling Crohn’s patients with great success changing their diets. All for free.
Sadly, doctors only resolve health issues with drugs or a scalpel. So far no drug on the market helps a patient with any of these diseases and/or illnesses. Now doctors lump the illnesses together for purposes of collecting from insurance carriers and government entitlement programs.
Having spent nearly 40 years representing doctors, clinics and hospitals, I understand the behind the scenes manner in which drug companies pay doctors and hospitals to treat these patients in a way that benefits the doctors, hospitals and drug companies.
This is the same group that said Crohn’s was not hereditary when every patient knew it was. I have three brothers who do not have Crohn’s, although one has IBS. In some families, some children have blue eyes while others have brown eyes. In other families, some children have Crohn’s and others don’t regardless of eating the same food.
After a particularly virulent attack in the mid-1980s, doctors told me that I had leukemia and I was treated for leukemia for months before I realized they were wrong. This says it all about modern medicine and diagnosis. Most doctors know less about these diseases and illnesses than many of the patients they are treating.
Many of us suffered symptoms from early ages that were never diagnosed. Before colonoscopies, Crohn’s was generally diagnosed during an autopsy. So why has the number of Crohn’s patients gone from less than one million to almost five million since 1990? Would one of you rocket scientists please offer an explanation?
There is no question that genetically modified foods and chemicals in food exacerbate all digestive diseases. As to the other illnesses, the statistics are growing in support of my comments. All of you should read the more than 4,000 studies cited in our books before you criticize us. Most of you don’t know what you don’t know.
Total bullshit article designed to scaremonger. Learn about IBD before you spew crap on the Internet. I have UC because of my genes and my susceptibility to auto immune diseases, not because sometimes I eat mcds
I have had Crohn’s disease for twenty years and have gone the route of “all natural or nothing” many times, trying herbs, probiotics, radical diets, a liquid diet–you name it! Finally, when in a flare brought on, at least in large part, by me not taking my medication, a naturopath who has UC told me how her aunt, who had the disease, “bled out” and died: she too refused medical intervention. So this naturopath told me: “I can help you maybe 20 or 30 percent though supplements and diet but you must take your medication.” That really hit home for me and I have not missed a dose of meds since. I’ve also been in remission now for two years. All that being said, I do not eat any processed foods and there are certain other natural, organic foods that cause me great GI distress–onions (anything in the allium family) and raw bananas are on the list for me, whereas I do fine with dairy and gluten. I eat almost entirely organic. I know these things help, and I also know that given the state of things right now, I have to take my meds if I want to live a good life and reduce my risk of colon cancer. Please, IBDers out there, if you mistrust your doctor or other care providers, find one you do trust. In my opinion it also helps to do one’s own research to stay informed. Finally, mental health therapy has been very helpful to me and those around me. The Crohn’s and Colitis Association can provide some great resources for support. There are breakthroughs happening right now that should lead to better treatments down the road. Have hope, and take good care of yourself.
Correlation does not equal causation. You are not helping any of us with these diseases by claiming this stuff. We want answers that truly work, not speculation. Have some respect.
I can only repeat what has worked for me and many others. If you eat GMO or conventional food, it will aggravate your genetic predisposition toward Crohn’s, IBD and IBS. The doctors’ approach of drugs, drugs and more drugs just doesn’t work. Please remember that natural foods and organic foods are different. If you are a vegetarian eating conventional fruits and vegetables, you have the same chances of getting cancer as people who eat red meat.
If what I wrote does not work, then will one of you explain why I am back to work full time living a normal life with rare instances of my Crohn’s acting up which I am able to control within a few days? Do any of you have the same success rate with any of your drugs or other treatments? What has your doctor done for any of you lately except prescribe drugs?
If you want to make your health improve maybe you should think outside the box and learn from another Crohn’s sufferer who spent 15 years studying his disease and found a way to make it better. Oh ye of little faith!
Wow… Really? An allergy? Then benadryl should put me into remission.
But…. why does Remicade work then? It’s just another chemical right?
In my family, my Dad and I both have Crohn’s but everyone else is fine. So clearly there is a genetic link and not a dietary link, since growing up we all ate the same foods.
Would I eat corn when my CD is flaring? No… that would be dumb. But then so is listening to advice on internet blogs.
You misstate my point and the point of our four books. People have a genetic predisposition toward Crohn’s that the chemicals in food aggravate, exacerbate and bring to the surface. Our books also advocate taking natural enzymes which is not mentioned in the article.
I have Crohn’s, as did my father. But, you can attack my advice, but you can’t attack the fact that by following my advice, I have returned to work and a normal life with my family. If you read our books and follow our advice particularly taking enzymes, you could possibly return to a normal life as I have. The problem is that most Crohn’s patients are so angry that they listen to no one. As to Remicade, have you spoken to any patients who have taken this drug on a long term basis?
In answer to the title of this article:
No. It is absolutely, one hundred percent a DISEASE.
As for your attempts to defend the indefensible, coupled with your attitude which shows a lack of basic knowledge and verges on the ‘Alex Jones’ syndrome (or should that be disease?), I am loathe to even try to convince you of the facts.
You ought to be ashamed. YOUR article is more harmful than the big gm foods, big pharma, etc you condemn.
Might I suggest a career in satire?
I just cannot take you seriously.
Wow, that was possibly the worst IBD article I have ever read and I’ve read plenty. You babble on about how our diseases are caused by the simple problem of changing our diet to fresh foods. You were being condesending and assuming we have never tried to just change our diet. I think all of us have tried you twit,it doesn’t change a thing for our diseases. Thank you for wasting your time and ours on that non-professional and extremely condesending article. Please quit writing articles about things you know nothing about.(DO RESEARCH FIRST)
Many cattle have a bacterium called MAP (Mycobacterium avium ss. paratuberculosis)- when they develop Johne’s Disease from it they develop severe wasting and diarrhea. It is not the diet of the cattle that causes this terrible disease, it’s the bacterium. This bacterium can affect any primate and is passed on through our food chain through milk, beef and our water systems. The appearance of the disease in the intestines of cattle with Johne’s Disease and humans with Crohn’s Disease is remarkable.
It appears that genetically suseptible people are not able to keep this bacteria in check and it seems to be a likely cause of crohn’s disease in a high proportion of those who have it. Other bacteria have been implicated too such as yersinia for example. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22858515
Incidently, certain antibiotics are being used to treat crohn’s disease (MAP infection) with very good results.
Whilst a chemical-free and gmo-free diet would certainly be better for us all, and be less stressful to our digestive systems and the rest of us than the alternative, it is by no means the cause of diseases such as crohn’s.
I have Crohns and active fistulas. I switched to an all natural diet a week ago. My fistula has had dramatic improvement, and I do believe it will heal completely if I stick to this diet.
The are plenty of diseases proven to be caused by hyper sensitivity to food elements. Particularly wheat and diary. Why is it such a stretch of the imagination to say the horrid chemicals in our food cannot cause a similar reaction?
It makes logical sense. Crohns has been proven to worsen in smokers. Do you know why? Smokers in inhaling tons of chemicals that go down their throat and into their digestive track.
Crohns has been shown to have a low incidence in under-developed nations. They postulate because people in those places have higher parasite loads. Well, they might be in the right forest but barking up the wrong tree. People in under-developed nations eat healthy non-processed foods sourced locally.
Connect the dots folks. No one is saying Crohns isn’t a disease. Diseases have causes, and it is entirely plausible and probable it is a hyper sensitivity to chemicals.
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