Your Daily Additives – L Cysteine

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I have to ask: Do you like to eat taco wraps, bread and pizza shells? How about human hair, animal feathers and petroleum? This is by far the most revolting additive I’ve come across in general principle. It is processed with many strains of infectious bacteria, including some that are found in human intestines and feces. Makes you wonder where would they get the bacteria for processing in the first place.

Believe it or not, this IS what your food is comprised of. It’s not an avocado with good healthy fats, simple to pronounce, it’s not super detoxifying chlorella or cancer killing curcumin. Do you add salmonella to your soups or sauce? Or E. Coli to your oatmeal in the morning? There are many types of bacteria in the world that are naturally good for humans. But, when the industry uses infectious bacteria to make your food, shouldn’t that concern you?

Also, mind the terminology for processing, do they sound like any steps you would take to prepare any of your own natural food?

General research: 

L-Cysteine

 

L-Cysteine is used in the pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetics industries, has been obtained by extracting it from acid hydrolysates of the keratinous proteins in human hair, horns, feathers and petroleum byproducts.

Cysteine is an amino acid, one of the building blocks of proteins, it can be manufactured within the body but can also be found in a variety of foods, including eggs broccoli, cheese, poultry, wheat germ, red meat, brussel sprouts, oats, yogurt, onions, garlic and red peppers. (Not horns, hair and petroleum)

Produced by the body in a metabolic pathway involving the conversion of methionine to S-adenosyl methionine, then to homocysteine

Cysteine’s main functions in the body are linked to glutathione, a compound that cysteine is a major component of and that is a vital part of the proper functioning of the immune system. Glutathione helps the liver detoxify the bloodstream by binding to heavy metals like mercury and lead and allowing them to be eliminated from the body

Rats fed l-cystine at excessive levels excrete large amounts of Sulfate sulfur in the urine and develop liver necrosis and cirrhosis

Some bacteria used in the processing of L Cysteine

Salmonella

Salmonella germs have been known to cause illness for over 100 years. Most persons infected with Salmonella develop diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after infection. Salmonella infection may spread from the intestines to the blood stream, and then to other body sites and can cause death unless the person is treated promptly with antibiotics. The elderly, infants, and those with impaired immune systems are more likely to have a severe illness.

E. Coli

Bacteria normally live in the intestines of healthy people and animals. Most varieties of E. coli are harmless or cause relatively brief diarrhea. Young children and older adults can develop a life-threatening form of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). Some kinds of E. coli can cause diarrhea, while others cause urinary tract infections, respiratory illness and pneumonia, and other illnesses

Enterobacter

Enterobacter infections can include bacteremia, lower respiratory tract infections, skin and soft-tissue infections, urinary tract infections (UTIs), endocarditis, intra-abdominal infections, septic arthritis, osteomyelitis, CNS infections, and ophthalmic infections.

Pantoea

Pantoea species cause infections in humans and are also pathogenic to plants

Klebsiella

Bacteria that can cause different types of healthcare-associated infections, including pneumonia, bloodstream infections, wound or surgical site infections, and meningitis. Increasingly, Klebsiella have developed antimicrobial resistance, most recently to the class of antibiotics known as carbapenems. Klebsiella bacteria are normally found in the human intestines (where they do not cause disease). They are also found in human stool (feces).

Serratia

Serratia marcescens has become an important cause of nosocomial infection. There have been many reports concerning the identification, antibiotic susceptibility, pathogenicity, epidemiological investigations and typing of this organism

Erwinia

Component of a multi-agent chemotherapeutic regimen for the treatment of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia The most serious adverse reactions included allergic reactions (including anaphylaxis), pancreatitis, abnormal transaminases, coagulopathies, hemorrhage, nausea, vomiting and hyperglycemia

Morganella

Found in the environment and in the intestinal tracts of humans, mammals, and reptiles as normal flora. In a 4 year study of 24 people thirteen patients (54%) suffered from skin and soft tissue infections, five from pyelonephritis, three from female genital tract infections, one from pneumonia, one from gangrenous appendicitis, and one from tonsillitis. M. morganii was a constituent of polymicrobial infections in 14 patients

Some terminology in processing L-Cysteine

  • Missense mutation
  • Nonsense mutation
  • Frame shift mutation into the coding region of the gene on a chromosome
  • Deleting a part of, or the entire coding region
  • Copy number of a gene coding for serine acetyltransferase
  • It has been modified to incorporate a mutant gene coding for a mutant 3-phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase
  • Biosynthesis of l-cysteine in wild-type strains of Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium

References

Legal G.R.A.S

http://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/21/184.1

G.R.A.S. List

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/fcn/fcnNavigation.cfm?rpt=eafusListing

Some extra reading material

John Parks
For two years I've thoroughly enjoyed researching the food additives "scientests" produce and put into all processed food. Also how the FDA classifies them as G.R.A.S. (Generally Recognized As Safe) With about 95% of the research I've done over the last two years the actual science, toxicity reports, manufacturing processes and pure technical aspect of it suggests otherwise.

When you see something that is "hazardous by definition", toxic, poisonous or corrosive and it's in the food you're eating, you would surely have to stop, think and ask, "That's going to go in me. Wait... It passes through the placental barrier? It decreases the testicular weight in mice? It's produced with volvano ash? It's processed with asbestos and krypton gas?"

Now, my main argument is this: If you know the food additive is toxic, corrosive or hazardous by definition, if it requires flammable or corrosive DOT stickers while transporting, if it has saftey precautions, spill procedures and you must wear suitable protective clothing while handling... Can you even assume it's safe to eat?

Irregardless of the exposure limits, the actual amount in food itself, how many regulations and standards there are or how low the toxicity may be... It is the general principle that the additives are still put in the foods you eat on a daily basis. I personally don't believe that when a tomato is dropped you have to evacuate the area and seal off the exits. Because that is exactly the procedure for some of the chemcial agents the FDA allowed in food.