We enjoy Chinese food from time to time and the Chinese traditional diet can
be very healthy, but here we consider dogs and other foods that horrify Westerners.
If it lives, it seems the answer is no and if it's not food, it's medicine! The Chinese have been condemned around the world for their love of shark fin soup - a practice where sharks are caught, their fins are cut off and the sharks dumped back in the water while still alive. But it's not just the cruelty, the practise has seen shark numbers plummet around the world upsetting the ocean life balance.
Image: A dog contemplates his dead companions.
Tourists and travellers may relish the option to see living fish before it becomes their dinner, but like sharks, there are environmental consequences. But it's not just fish, Cats, dogs and almost every living thing is used as a food or medicine.
We're not going to show any images, but if you do a search for "Yulin cat and dog meat trade", you'll get 1000s of horror stories. It's not just that they eat all life, they seem to delight in inflicting the greatest cruelty by skinning animals alive, a process that fills the meat with adrenalin and other toxic chemicals.
China now consumes 28% of the world's meat, including half of its pork. However, China still lags behind more than a dozen other countries in per capita meat consumption, with the average American or Australian consuming twice as much meat per person compared to China.
The Chinese government is trying to move the population to eat less meat in response to the increasing lifestyle diseases now spreading in China. Another factor as that livestock take up more space and produce more toxic waste than crops, so by reducing meat consumption, China would also reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
While the traditional low meat diet is healthier and has played a role in moving many people around the world towards a vegetarian diet, today the Chinese are clamouring for meat of any kind and one must ask, is there anything they won't eat and when there is nothing left, what then?
Over the past few years there have been an increasing number of reports of people who are essentially Chinese profiteers using industrial waste products to produce what looks like food and not only selling them in China, but exporting across Asia with sometimes fatal consequences.
"1. Imitation Eggs
Some Chinese websites have come out with instructional videos on how to make $70 a day by producing and selling fake eggs. The chemicals that are required are
"Alginic Acid, Potassium Alum, Gelatin, Calcium Chloride, water and artificial color." The eggshells are made from Calcium Carbonate. Eating these eggs may cause memory-loss and dementia. Source: InventorSpot.com
In 2012 a man purchased shelled walnuts in Zhengzhou city, China only to find broken concrete pieces inside. The concrete was wrapped in paper to prevent it from making a suspicious noise when the nut was shaken. The vendor who sold the walnuts was trying to gain more profit by selling these fake nuts that were much heavier than the real thing. More photos are shown at this Chinese news site. Source: news.163.com
Because pork is less expensive in China, some restaurants have sold it instead of beef
- but not before they performed some chemistry on it. What they use are a beef extract and a glazing agent to
"marinate" the meat in for 90 minutes. Doctors have advised people to stay away from this fake product as its long-term use may cause
"slow poisoning, deformity, and even cancer." Source: ChinaSmack.com
4. Fake green peas
In 2005, fake peas were found in Hunan province, China. According to a local newspaper, the peas were still hard after boiling, yet turned the water unnatural green color. The fake peas were reported to be very profitable, and one of the illegal workshop was producing them for three years before it was investigated.The fake peas were created with snow peas and soy beans, added with green dye and sodium metabisulfite (used as bleach and preservative). This dye is forbidden to use on produce because it may cause cancer, as well as obstruct the body's ability to absorb calcium.
"Such toxic artificial green peas have been found in Hunan and Guangdong before, but it looks like the news didn't catch enough attention from the officials," said Sang Liwei, a Beijing-based food safety expert.
In China, officials only label a case a "food safety incident" when at least one person dies as the result of it, according to the source.
"In cases like this, where the danger only lies in possible long-term diseases caused by the misuse of additives, it's not surprising to see lagged handlings," said Sang Liwei. Source: China.org.cn
5. Baby formula
In 2004, 47 people were accused of producing fake instant baby formula that led to dozens of children dying in Fuyang, China, reported CBS News. The formula contained very few nutrients, was likely made of chalk, and made the children develop a
"big head disease," which made their heads swell and the rest of their bodies slowly deteriorate.
6. Industrial salt sold as table salt
Industrial salt is labeled "unfit for human consumption." Yet it is much cheaper, which is why 788 tons of it was sold by at least 12 people over the course of 13 years as table salt. The industrial salt can cause mental and physical issues, such as hypothyroid problems and reproductive system disorders.
7. Mud sold as black pepper
A market vendor in China's Guangdong Province collected local mud and sold it as black pepper, while their white pepper was mainly made out of flour. His excuse for justifying selling these fake items was that they
"would not kill people."
Considering that fake foods in China do not get investigated until someone dies, how many more items are sold made of fake items and chemicals because they
"would not kill people." At least, not immediately.
8. Fake Sweet Potato Noodles
A facility in Zhongshan city, China made at least 5.5 tons of fake noodles. In 2011, people started complaining that what were supposed to be sweet potato noodles tasted strange. Further investigation led to a revelation that the noodles were composed of corn with an industrial ink used to give them a purple color, and paraffin wax.
9. Fake Ginseng
Ginseng root is a popular medicinal plant, used as a tonic in China for over 3,000 years. According to BON TV, prices for ginseng have increased rapidly, pushing many ginseng retailers to figure out a way to keep making profit. Their solution was to boil the roots in sugar, which makes them much heavier and therefore more profitable.
Chinese medicine expert from the National Institute for Food and Drug Control Wei Feng said this is problematic, not only because the retailers are ripping-off the customers, but also because boiling ginseng in sugar might strip it from most of its medicinal values. The test showed that while natural ginseng has 20% content of sugar, this fake one is up to 70% sugar.
"It can do little to improve people's health," Wei Feng said.
10. Plastic Rice
Huge amounts of fake rice has been seized in China, and it is believed that much of it is produced from potatoes combined with a synthetic resin. Just like the peas, the rice stayed hard after boiling. Also like the peas, its long-term consumption could cause cancer.
The goal? To make money, of course, as scam artists have been imitating a
popular type of Chinese rice called "Wuchang." The full report on plastic rice from China can be read here.." All Health Works
