Cottonseeds come from cotton balls.
You know, cotton balls that grow in those cotton fields, way down south…,
"when them cotton balls gets rotten… there’s no picking that cotton…".
That line comes from an old song that refers to the growing of cotton in the southern part of the United States. Today, cotton is grown in 'warm' climate countries around the globe, including India and Egypt.
Do you know anyone who eats cotton balls?
I don’t!
Then WHY do some people call cotton balls, and the seed of the cottonballs a vegetable?
Cottonseed oil was ‘grand fathered’ in as a food product in the United States, by our government, because it was already being used as a ‘fry’ oil in parts of our country by poor folk, back in the mid twentieth century. It was sometime in the nineteen seventies when our food and drug agency (FDA) set up a list of what was considered a food, and what was not considered a food. So since cottonseed oil was already in many foods, mainly bakery products and Crisco, it was 'grand fathered' in as a food product!
Before anyone thought of using unrefined, dark, thick cottonseed oil as cooking oil, its original use was as a lubricant for machinery. Crisco baking and frying oil, which is hydrogenated cottonseed oil, was originally developed as a substitute for tallow that was used for making candles. The developers of Crisco learned to hydrogenated the oil so it would become firm enough to hold candle wicks.
When electric lights became popular, people stopped buying candles, and the original developers of hydrogenated Crisco were left with a lot of Crisco; so they invented a use for it. That use was as a baking and frying substitute to take the place of pork lard and beef tallow. Lard and tallow were what most people used for baking and frying before hydrogenated, cottonseed oil Crisco came on the market as baking and frying oil.
As we all know today, hydrogenated fats are artery cloggiers. Lard and beef tallow aren’t much better. Way back when Crisco was marketed to the public we didn't know that hydrogenation clogged arteries and caused heart attacks.
I’ll say it again…I don’t know anyone who EATS cotton balls! So how can anyone in his or her right mind call cottonseed oil, editable oil?
COTTONSEED OIL IS NATURAL; SO IS RATTLESNAKE POISON
Yes, cottonseed oil is ‘natural’ because it comes from cotton balls and cotton balls are 'natural' but then, rattlesnake poison is ‘natural’ because it comes from ‘natural’ rattlesnakes. In my mind, because of what I know about cottonseed oil, this oil is about as ‘natural’ as rattlesnake poison is ‘natural’, and like rattlesnake poison, cottonseed oil should NOT be in our food supply! .
I, LIKE MANY OTHERS, DEVELOPED AN ALLERGY TO COTTONSEED OIL
Way back when I was a youngster, I was allergy tested by a professional allergist, and learned that some of my allergies were due to my consumption of cottonseed oil, mainly in fast food, and store bought bakery items.
Learning this was a part of why I learned to cook and bake so at least something good came out of something bad, the bad being my allergy to cottonseed oil, which was in just about everything that was pre-made and sold in a grocery store or a fast food restaurant back when I was growing up..
Years went by and I returned to college as an older adult, then one day…
CAMPBELL'S VEGETABLE SOUP; RUINED!
I remember back to when I was in college when I had the most surprising reaction to a bowl of Campbell’s Vegetable Soup. I always liked this particular soup as a quick, hot meal when I didn’t have time to prepare myself a proper meal. On the day in question I was studying for a test, and I didn’t read the ingredients label on the can; after all this soup had been one that I had eaten many times in the past. It turned out that Campbell's had changed the recipe, and added cottonseed oil to the soup’s recipe.
On reflection I realize that Campbell’s Soup Company probably did this because Cottonseed Oil is the cheapest cooking oil available on the market, and using cheaper ingredients increases a companies ‘profit margin’ on a product. And Campbell’s Soup needs all the profit it can squeeze out of its consumers…
On this particular day I realized that I had ingested cottonseed oil when the skin over my eyeballs swelled up to the point where my eyes were closed by the swelling. I couldn’t study with my eyes closed! It took some time for the swelling to subside, and when it did go down, I peeped out from under my golf ball sized eyes…the lids were swollen, not my eyes… I read the soup can label, and realized that the nice people at Campbell’s Soup had added cottonseed oil to their product…and they ruined it!
ALLERGY TESTS BY PROFESSIONAL ALLERGIST
In years past, I have gone through extensive allergy testing, the kind of tests where they make a checkerboard on the patient’s back and backs of the arms. This form of testing involves sterile needles for scratching the skin, one fresh, uncontaminated needle for each allergen being tested. There are over two hundred known allergens tested in this allergy test.
I have gone through this test two times in my life separated by ten years between the tests, and done by two different allergy doctors. Cottonseed oil is one of the allergens that is tested on patients taking this test. Each time I went through this allergen test I tested positive for cottonseed, and the reaction each time was a violent reaction with a very large, red wheal on my skin where the skin had been scratched with the sterile needle, and the cottonseed product was scratched into the top layer of my skin.
EVEN TODAY COTTONSEED OIL CAN BE IN BREAD PRODUCTS
I know that I developed my allergy to cottonseed oil when I was a youngster, when this oil was a common ingredient in sliced bread, store bought cookies and snack crackers. My mother used Crisco (hydrogenated cottonseed oil) for cooking. I ate cottonseed oil in food products for years before I developed my allergy to it.
When I was a youngster I especially noticed that I had an itch on my skin every time I ate store bought bakery products. It wasn’t until I developed a more severe skin problem as a young adult, and was allergy skin tested by my first allergy doctor that I realized that what was causing my skin to itch from store bought bakery products was the cottonseed oil in the products. I also learned that eating cottonseed oil in store purchased, and fast food products caused the severe skin problem I developed as a young adult.
Even today cottonseed oil is still present in many store bought breads, cookies, crackers, chips and other snacks. This oil should be avoided by everyone because of the potential of developing an allergy to the consumption of it in food products. And to top this all off, I recently learned that cottonseed oil is rich in omega 6 fatty acids that we know destroy the good omega 3 fatty acids. Omega 3 fatty acids are essential to have good heart health, and healthy skin. Omega 6 acids in cottonseed oil are not good for us.
Because our skin is our largest organ, and we eliminate toxins through our skin within our sweat, it makes sense to realize that when we ingest cottonseed oil our bodies start eliminating the toxins in this oil immediately because our bodies recognize and want to get rid of the toxins. The toxins in cottonseed oil are what cause the itch some of us experience on the surface of the skin after eating at fast food places, and the toxins in this oil cause skin rashes, acne, and can cause anaphylactic shock for those of us who have developed a severe allergy to this oil.
COTTON IS COMBED TO REMOVE SEED BEFORE IT IS SPUN INTO THREAD; THEN SPUN INTO CLOTH
When cotton is picked the cottonseed is extracted from the cotton balls. People who are allergic to cottonseed oil are NOT allergic to cotton fabric because cotton ball fiber is ‘combed’ and washed thoroughly before it is spun into cotton fabric.
Nobody eats cotton balls because cotton balls are not a vegetable!
When cottonseeds are extracted from the cotton balls the seeds are placed into storage where they are sprayed with fungicide to prevent fungal infection of the seeds.
MERCURY BASED FUNGICIDE AND COPPER BASED FUNGICIDE
For many years the two most common sprays used to spray stored cottonseeds were Mercury based spray and or a Copper based spray. I have read that Mercury based fungicide has been banned by the F.D.A. but back when I was a youngster it was still used on the stored cottonseeds. Today, Copper based fungicides are among the toxic fungicides that are still used to spray on stored cottonseeds. When the seeds are pressed, some of the fungicide remains in the oil. It is impossible to remove all of the fungicide from oil. Many people are concerned about Mercury in childhood vaccinations; until Mercury fungicides were banned they were in cottonseed oil.
Often the fungus, which a fungicide spray is intended to kill, is already present on the stored cottonseeds or soon comes in contact with the stored cottonseeds. This fungus dies after being sprayed, or dies after coming in contact with the toxic spray that is on the cottonseeds, and the dead fungus that is left on the cottonseeds is called Aflatoxin, and Aflatoxin is one of the most toxic substances that can be present in any food product.
Aflatoxin’ is a fungal secondary metabolite.
Even though Aflatoxin is dead fungus, it is still dangerous because it is a protein contaminated with a toxic fungicide product, and allergy responses are set up by an allergic response to toxic protein, dead or alive toxic protein. What I know for sure is that today I am very allergic to cottonseed oil in any food, and I know that Aflatoxin protein present within cottonseed oil had to be responsible for my severe allergy to this oil.
It is interesting to note that peanuts are often stored after they are picked, and peanuts were also sprayed with Mercury fungicide before it was banned, to prevent fungal infections on the nuts while they are in storage. Today peanuts still in the shell are sprayed with Copper based fungicide or some other toxic fungicide.Peanuts are cooked (roasted) before being made into peanut butter unless the label on the product states differently. Roasting will kill any 'live' fungus that may remain on the shelled nuts but roasting will not remove dead fungus that is contaminated with toxic fungicide.
After peanuts are shelled, and the peanuts are roasted and pressed to make peanut butter it is known and acknowledged that some Aflatoxin does somehow get into the finished peanut butter product.
Once again because this information bears repeating; Aflatoxin is a fancy word to describe a fungus that has been killed by a toxic fungicide, and while living this fungus is a complete protein unto itself. Even in death, Aflatoxin is still a 'protein'.
Protein has to be present as the mechanism that triggers allergy in both children and adults.
As the years go by, more chemicals are introduced into our food chain, and we see more illness including Cancers, Autism in our children, and even Diabetes is on the rise in all civilized cultures in our World.
GOSSYPOL A NATURAL TOXIN
Gossypol is an interesting toxin that is ‘naturally’ present within cottonseeds.
I have to call Gossypol a ‘toxin’ because it is a ‘natural’ POISON, and all natural poisons are defined as toxins or toxic!
When cottonseeds are squeezed for their oil, Gossypol toxin is also extracted from the seeds.
Today we are being told by the cotton seed oil industry, that much of the Gossypol present in cottonseeds is removed from the final oil product by a ‘bleaching’ process, which by the way introduces still more chemicals into the final oil mix.
When I was a youngster the amount of Gossypol present in cottonseed oil was NOT regulated because back then, no one was aware of how toxic Gossypol was. If the oil was bleached then I believe it may have been bleached for aesthetic reasons. Cottonseed oil freshly extracted from cottonseeds is dark brown or dark amber in color. Any color remaining in the oil indicates Gossypol is present.
Today, one in five adults are allergic to cottonseed oil; that’s twenty percent of the adult population, and it is all adults of all colors, all races. This was the number my last allergist gave me. My doctor also told me that my allergy to cottonseed oil is so severe now, that I have to completely avoid eating anything that may contain cottonseed oil.
GOOGLE SCHOLAR SEARCH ENGINE
Google the words 'Google Scholar', and when the link for Google Scholar comes up in your 'search' results then click this link. You will find yourself in a completely different SEARCH engine, called 'Google Scholar'. While you are in 'Google Scholar' query the search engine for ‘Gossypol’. You can read for yourself information on the 'natural toxin' Gossypol that is in unrefined cottonseed oil. As I already stated, the cottonseed industry claims that Gossypol is removed by a bleaching process from the cottonseed oil that is available today. But this doesn’t stop allergies to this oil mostly because of the high toxic chemical content of the oil from repeated insecticide and fungicide use on the crop, and on the stored seeds..
I know that any amount of cottonseed oil, in any food product, causes a nasty allergic response within my body, so what the cottonseed oil industry is doing, just isn’t enough.
What should be done, what I would like to see, is cottonseed oil completely removed from our food chain because cottonseed oil is often a hidden allergen that takes extensive investigation and testing to uncover. Not that many people are aware of cottonseed oil as an allergen, and I believe that many cases of various skin rashes, acne and cystic acne are caused by ingesting cottonseed oil.
I recently read on the label that my favorite chocolate fudge sauce that I put on ice cream has recently added cottonseed oil to the recipe. Many people will use the sauce now, have a reaction afterwards, and wonder what changed the sauce or the ice cream to make their skin itch or make them breakout? This is because allergy to cottonseed oil is not that well known despite the fact that cottonseed is one of the allergens in tests that doctors use to determine what people are allergic to.
When confronted with the fact that cottonseed oil is an allergen the cottonseed oil industry will counter back with an argument that you have to have a protein present in any substance in order to cause an allergic reaction.
They will say that oil is oil, and they will believe that the average citizen will not be informed enough to know that within cottonseed oil there is protein, and that protein is called Aflatoxin.
Please remember that along with Aflatoxin in cottonseed oil you will find multiple insecticide and fungal contaminants including toxic Copper fungicide. In the past it used to be toxic Mercury fungicide before the E.P.A. outlawed all Mercury fungicides.
There is no way to remove all of the Aflatoxin or the Copper fungicide from the oil.
Just remember that Aflatoxin IS protein!
MONSANTO CHEMICAL
When I refer to the cottonseed oil industry as a whole, I am referring to
Monsanto Chemical.
Monsanto Chemical is the largest producer of both Gossypol used in medical research, and cottonseed oil that is sold for human consumption.
Monsanto Chemical is also the company that leads the world in GMO crops including genetically modified corn.
Once you read the truth, for yourself, about cottonseed oil I hope you avoid eating foods that contain this oil. I also hope that your research brings you into the subject of GMO modified crops and what Monsanto Chemical is doing to our food supply.
That is one very big subject to cover.
Please read how Monsanto Chemical is destroying the 'small farmer' in many countries around the globe. Read how Monsanto Chemical sells 'seed' that will bear crops but the seed that is produced by the crop will NOT germinate so small farmers have to re-buy seed every single year instead of 'saving seed' from their crop, and reseeding. This makes more money for Monsanto Chemical when they sell seed every single year, but is too expensive for many 'small family farmers' especially in struggling countries like India. Please read this information for yourselves, and learn what is happening to our food supply, and WHO is behind all of it!
BUSINESS ON DECLINE
The first thing I ask whenever I enter a bakery or pizza parlor is what oils do you have in your products? You can separate the 'good' from the 'bad' bakeries and pizza parlors by what oil products they put into their products. I always saw in the past that when a business was on a 'decline' they started using oils that contained 'cheap' cottonseed oil to save money and increase their 'profit' margin.
GOSSYPOL SO TOXIC IT KILLS PROSTRATE CANCER CELLS
Gossypol is so toxic that it is being tested to kill off cancer cells in Prostrate Cancers. Not all of the Gossypol in cottonseed oil is removed when the ‘bleaching’ process refines the oil. Some Gossypol remains.
Raw, unrefined cottonseed oil with all of the Gossypol intact has been used as a contraceptive in China for both males and females. Information on this use should come up when you do your ‘Google Scholar’ search.
In China, human females, who were fed unrefined Cottonseed Oil without removing the toxic Gossypol, were unable to carry a fetus to term. The end result of this experiment was that very few children were born to the adults in the village where this experiment was carried out by the Chinese government. You should be able to read about the Chinese ‘birth control’ experiment in both the Google Search Engine and in the Google Scholar Search Engine.
It’s always better to know the truth than to fear the truth.
Carol Garnier Dutra
Copyright © 2010/2011 by Carol Garnier Dutra
The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Volume 82, Issue 2, August 1988, Pages 261-264 Forty-fifth Annual Meeting reports on what cottonseed flour does to people.
This information is what the people who push cottonseed products on the American public want to suppress.
It has been my experience in life that not everyone experiences outward reactions to cottonseed flour or cottonseed oil but internal inflammation is experienced by everyone who ingests these substances. Be kind to your bodies and avoid all products containing both cottonseed flour and cottonseed oil, for this reason.
The following link will not be 'live' so copy it and plug it into your browsers search. Google Scholar is an excellent search engine to use for this purpose. You can read for yourself the negative effect cottonseed flour and cottonseed oil has on human beings.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WH4-4FY515Y-J8&_user=10&_coverDate=08%2F31%2F1988&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1562348583&_rerunOrigin=scholar.google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=e6c0763a0ef56df6b8bfb74b126b95e1&searchtype=a
Angioedema and urticaria caused by cottonseed protein in whole-grain bread
G. Malanin MD and K. Kalimo MD
From the Department of Dermatology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
Received 1 January 1987;
accepted 17 April 1988.
Available online 14 April 2005.
Abstract
A 29-year-old patient developed a severe allergic reaction after eating whole-grain bread. The bread appeared to contain cotton seed-protein flour. The skin prick tests with the bread and cottonseed were strongly positive. High level of circulating antibodies of IgE class against cottonseed protein could be detected in her blood samples. It is evident that cottonseed flour is used in diverse products and can cause unexpected severe hypersensitivity reactions.
Article Outline
• References
Corresponding author. Reprint requests: K Kalimo, MD, Department of Dermatology, University of Turku, SF-20520 , Turku, , Finland.
Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Volume 82, Issue 2, August 1988, Pages 261-264 Forty-fifth Annual Meeting
The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Volume 82, Issue 2, August 1988, Pages 261-264 Forty-fifth Annual Meeting reports on what cottonseed flour does to people.
Carol Garnier Dutra
Copyright © 2010/2011/2012 by Carol Garnier Dutra
