By This is going to upset the anti-American leftists in Korea since they can’t link this back to US beef:
A South Korean woman died of brain-wasting Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in July this year, becoming the first confirmed victim of the terminal disorder in the country, health authorities said Tuesday.
The 54-year-old was diagnosed with iatrogenic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (iCJD) after her death and is believed to have been infected during a subdural transplant surgery some 23 years ago, according to the Center for Disease Control (KCDC) and Prof. Kim Yun-joon, a professor at Hallym University’s collage of medicine.
Kim determined that brain tissue from a cow used in the surgery to treat tumor growth infected her with the degenerative neurological disorder.
Some 400 iCJD cases have so far been reported in 20 countries. This form of the ailment is usually transmitted by humans through operations and leaves the brain with holes that resemble a sponge. [Yonhap via Monster Island]
She hasn’t seen...
6:45 pm on November 30th, 2011 1
“This form of the ailment is usually transmitted by humans through operations…”
In other words, we’ve been misled by the media. The disease that is directly associated with eating beef that we must be most concerned about is arteriosclerosis, not Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
6:48 pm on November 30th, 2011 2
Don’t think leftists can link this back to American beef? Just watch them try.
6:59 pm on November 30th, 2011 3
#2 – yep, I’m with you. They’ll find a way to say it was ‘tainted US-origin tissue’…
7:13 pm on November 30th, 2011 4
#2,3,
Yes, they probably will.
I wonder. Since Korean beef is really fatty, how does its cholesterol/saturated fat content compare to that of the leaner Australian beef?
Either way, I no longer eat beef. It’s too unhealthy.
7:29 pm on November 30th, 2011 5
#4, thank you. More for me.
7:37 pm on November 30th, 2011 6
#5,
I hope you recover quickly from your triple-bypass surgery.
8:18 pm on November 30th, 2011 7
#2, sad but very likely to be proven true.
9:37 pm on November 30th, 2011 8
Beef is completely safe in moderation.
The problem is what happens when it is factory farmed and mass produced for mass consumption. Feeding cows to cows is what got Mad Cow started. Then there’s the last-line-of-defense antibiotics being used routinely for bovine health problems that shouldn’t happen in cows feeding on grass. Then there’s the whole deforestation issue.
I hope Sonagi chimes in with what’s right and wrong with the beef industry in America. It’s always an interesting read.
Lately I’ve been interested in the effect of bovine growth hormone (BGH), especially since noticing on yogurt containers made with milk that did NOT come from BGH-treated cattle that were nonetheless forced by the the government to have a label that states that milk from BGH-treated is safe. To not do so, the Feds say, has “false and misleading” complications, from what I’ve read.
That’s moneyed corporations at work, putting our elected representatives in their pocket.
11:44 pm on November 30th, 2011 9
“Beef is completely safe in moderation.”
And how does one define moderation? 3.5 ounces of lean cut beef no more than twice a week, if I’m not mistaken. Clearly, most people don’t eat beef in moderation. It’s not just the cholesterol, there is also the problem of saturated fats, not only because they raise total cholesterol levels, but also because they will cause you to gain weight, which also leads to higher cholesterol levels. Returning to my previous question about Korean beef vs. Australian beef, always chose grass fed beef, which Australian beef is and Korean beef isn’t. Grass fed beef is lower in cholesterol and saturated fats and higher in omega 3 fatty acids. It’s a healthier and, frankly, tastier kind of beef.
11:51 pm on November 30th, 2011 10
Oh, and BGH is banned in Canada, Australia, the European Union and South Korea. One of the reported health concerns with BGH and is that it causes the udders of cows to produce puss. There’s nothing appetizing about milk with chunks of puss in suspension.
1:18 am on December 1st, 2011 11
Teadrinker wrote:
Really? I saw Australian beef specifically advertised as “grain-fed” at the Costco in Yangjae-dong.
I think Australia may have been behind the Mad Cow hysteria. Think about it (the link explains).
2:57 am on December 1st, 2011 12
Why let a little things like facts get in the way of a good protest?
4:05 am on December 1st, 2011 13
“There’s nothing appetizing about milk with chunks of puss in suspension.”
Teadrinker, I’m not sure there is a future for you on Madison Avenue.
Perhaps your copy should read…
“Now, with EXTRA protein! Noted by three out of four doctors as a sign of an active immune system!”
4:18 am on December 1st, 2011 14
Teadrinker wrote:
Well, that’s their problem (actually, it’s all our problem when they do that).
I eat less than the amount you just described. I’m 5’7″, about 150 pounds, resting heart rate of 46 or 47 bpm last time I checked, and I run three miles a day six or seven times a week. My unhealthy habits are that I eat too many sweets (cookies) if they’re right there in front of me, I probably should eat more vegetables, and I don’t do yoga.
I hate running, and if I didn’t have an iPod, I might not do it. See, there are lots of things people should do but don’t, or shouldn’t do but do. It’s easy to choose not to eat some damned much beef or pork. People just don’t have the will. They’re gluttons with no self-control. It will be the downfall of America.
Where am I going with this? Seriously, I almost forgot. Oh, yeah.
And we go overboard to feed all of them. They need their daily Big Mac or Whopper, and that means cows must be raised quickly and cheaply, so we feed them other cows, as well as cement dust, animal dung, etc. We clearcut rain forest to grow unnatural feed for them (soybeans and corn) so they’ll grow faster. We pump them full of BGH. Their bodies can’t handle the diet of soybeans and corn that we feed them, so bacteria invade their bodies, and we feed them mass amounts of quinolone to stave that off.
Craziness.
Yet the moneyed industries (Monsanto, Big Beef, etc.) use their influence with politicos to get the Bush43 administration to allow things like the antibiotic feed, which is wholly against the public’s best interest. Craziness. And the Obama administration, as far as I’m aware, hasn’t stood up to them either.
We don’t fear things that kill us slowly, but we fear things far less dangerous that could kill us more immediately. Most people have no clue why putting quinolone antibiotics in cattle feed is a bad idea, if they know it’s happening at all.
12:54 pm on December 1st, 2011 15
Korea is under some stress
with mad cow disease in the press.
But it all is just lies,
no one ever dies.
In the States, it’s just called PMS.
1:07 pm on December 1st, 2011 16
I don’t know if the Alzheimer’s-Mad Cow prion theory has gone anywhere, but some have suspected that some Alzheimer’s may in fact be a form of Mad Cow Disease.
2:10 pm on December 1st, 2011 17
Yeah, yeah, yeah…
Don’t fall for that Alzheimer’s/Mad Cow prion theory crap. It is all a bunch of lies they tell starry-eyed public health graduate students.
It’s actually all Kuru.
The truth is that old people secretly just eat a lot of…
Brraaaaaaiiinnnsss!
2:16 pm on December 1st, 2011 18
I know you’re being glib, CH, but I thought I’d add that no one has ever discussed the aforementioned prion theory in my PH studies.
PH comes with its own orthodoxy, which is that people need to have access to and knowledge of affordable, healthy food choices. Our factory-farmed beef is affordable (if one doesn’t count the externalities associated with its negative health outcomes) but it is often not healthy.
There’s no reason why cows should ever have been turned into cannibals, which is what brought on Mad Cow in the first place. If it really ever did turn out that some cases of Alzheimer’s were a result of that, it would simply be the economic chickens coming home to biologically roost, in the form of externalities.
10:33 am on December 2nd, 2011 19
#11,
Well, then…That’s odd because Australian beef is often placed as an example of grass fed beef. Makes you wonder if the local voracious appetite for red meat has led to corners being cut. At least they aren’t being fed ground sheep pellets.
#18,
Beef in the US is more expensive than you think. There are two ways to look at this. When you take into consideration the resources involved in producing it (I’ve heard 10kg of feed (and the costs involved) and 100L of water to produce 1 kg of beef), it is nothing but cheap. Also, it’s price at retail in the US does not reflect the real costs. One of the main reasons for this is that US corn growers receive considerable government subsidies (it’s the top crop for subsidy payments).
10:43 am on December 2nd, 2011 20
Oh, and my resting heart rate has gone as low as 51 in the last few weeks, but it’s gone up to 59 or so because I’ve been uninspired by the cold weather of late. I guess I’ll have to bundle up if I want to remain fit.
11:51 am on December 2nd, 2011 21
My dad is proud to have been an avid runner into his 70s, and he has always had a very low heart rate, so maybe I shouldn’t be concerned, but I wonder if 46 or 47 is in any way bad.
After yesterday’s three-mile run, I checked my heart rate about two minutes after finishing (no clock or stopwatch to measure with until I get to my dorm room, via elevator), and it was 92 bpm.
7:37 pm on December 2nd, 2011 22
If you leave a cow alone in nature, it will graze on grass. It is a rumenant, just like the buffalo. The problem US beef producers have with grass grazing is it takes too long. Grass fed cattle take 5 years from birth weight of 70 lbs to slaughter weight of 1200 lbs. You feed that same steer corn grain, growth hormones, antibiotics, and animal protein (which is a whole other story) and you go from birth weight to slaughter weight in just 15 months which industrialists call efficiency. Health or quality doesn’t have anything to do with it; it’s all about volume. US beef IS the worst in the world. For that reason, I was disappointed to see Nat’l Assembly pass the FTA. I think they sold out the health of their citizens.
7:45 pm on December 2nd, 2011 23
The prime suspect has to be a
Military Spouse who stormed out of the Commissary.
What you call “Battle Cattle”.
Maybe she gave blood at a Red Cross donation?
Technically, American grown beef.
7:57 pm on December 2nd, 2011 24
there’s so many angry expats in Korea, This mad cow disease explains every thing
It takes 20 to 30 years of Incubation before the disease shows up. We will see once hordes of people dying of mad cow from 20 years from now.
8:57 pm on December 2nd, 2011 25
24. Well let’s hope you aren’t a victim.