Did you know Nestle is the biggest food company in the world? Their bottled water brands alone make up a trillion dollar industry. Other product lines include everything from frozen foods to cereal, baby food, dairy/ice-cream products, coffee, mineral water/beverages, chocolate, pet food, cosmetics… and now medical food.
Nestlé owns over 2,000 brands. Although many of these brands may be perceived as safe and even healthy dietary choices, this is to raise the red flag… warning you to avoid all of Nestlé’s products and brands. These consumables all contain some degree of carcinogens: GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) and other toxic ingredients.
In this installment in the processed food series, I aim to expose Nestlé in depth… their products, the social environmental impact, unethical business practices, and health risks. They tout logos to impress on the consumer that Nestlé is on our side through all the stages of our lifespan, from infancy to old age. But it is a deception and more people are beginning to wake up and make better food choices. Hooray!
The Birth of Nestlé Foods
It all started in 1866 when Henri Nestlé started marketing his recently developed milk-based baby food products in Switzerland. Later on, others partnered with Henri and together they began marketing on a global scale, beginning with Europe and spreading to the United States. In 1877 Henri teamed up with Pierre to create the first milk chocolate.
During WWI, Nestlé’s products started being purchased in mass to meet the demand for “packaged convenience foods” to supply troops. Even through the tough era of WWII, Nestlé’s was revolutionizing the way people ate, fulfilling the need for long shelf life products. This period marked the turning point for the processed food industry.
In the 1950s Nestlé was steadily growing. This was the age where processed foods were seen as hip and modern. Stay home moms could enjoy more free time. Meal in a package… great idea!
In the 1960s, with the advent of color TV and clever advertising, processed foods were an event not to be missed out on. Once you tried them, you couldn’t live without them. Why would you want to? Nobody thought to question the rapid changes taking place in the American diet, or the growing number of health-related diseases that would soon follow.
Now the market is different. People are demanding to know what’s in their food. They want to know what all the ingredients mean. They especially want to know why the general population is (to quote a documentary title on this topic) sick, fat, and nearly dead considering these “foods” are supposed to be so healthy with all their enriched vitamins and synthetic proteins.
Educated consumers want real food. Organic, whole, unprocessed, local food. The way we are supposed to have it − without chemicals, refining, or genetic modifying. I want to emphasize that Nestlé’s products are in no way natural and definitely do NOT support a healthy lifestyle. You could say they were instrumental with making the processed food industry so successful, while simultaneously contributing to a decline in human health.
With a company that owns and is affiliated with over 2,000 brands, where do we begin? Let’s take a closer look at the most popular “food” category that most people believe are healthy − frozen foods.
Cancer-Causing Ingredients Found in Popular Frozen Foods
Wow! Frozen foods. What a topic! DiGiorno Pizza, Tombstone Pizza, Stouffer’s French Bread Pizza, Hot Pockets, Lean Pockets, Lean Cuisine, and Buitoni, mark the most popular brands in the U.S…. but are any of these healthy?
We all like a good convenience food we can just pull out of the refrigerator or freezer and have ready to eat in minutes. Sadly though, our bodies just don’t do well with the mystery ingredients found inside.
These health-damaging ingredients include:
- MSGs (monosodium glutamates) labelled as natural or artificial flavors;
- autolyzed yeast extract and spices;
- trans fats disguised as emulsifiers;
- dangerous hydrogenated fats kept in the dark by healthy-sounding names like corn, soybean, palm, and my all-time favorite… vegetable oil.
Also, the high amounts of sugar, corn syrup, synthetic salts, carcinogenic food dyes, preservatives, and emulsifying and stabilizing ingredients make for a very unsafe meal.
For example, take the favorite DiGiorno frozen pizza with the rising crust feature. It contains trans-fats, soy lecithin, partially hydrogenated GMO soy and cottonseed oils, artificial flavors sugar, and salt. These spell high risk cancer, obesity, and compromised immune and endocrine systems.
Tombstone is even worse with all of the above plus its chemical alphabets (BHT, BHA, and so on). Then there’s the Hot Pockets and Lean Pockets which are another chemical lab disaster wrapped in a microwave gluten-bomb casing holding very little “food” inside.
Even the trendy Lean Cuisine, which is low in fat (beware most low fat ingredients means high sugar) but high in starch and sugars. This translates into a fat-generating nightmare. This is the reason you don’t lose weight on the “Lean Cuisine” menu.
It also causes you to have fluctuating high and low blood sugar which triggers mood swings and weight gain, and develops endocrine disruption problems. Maltodextrin is another additive common in lean, fat-free, and fat-reduced foods which has been linked to cancer and diabetes.
For as fresh as the packages claim their foods are, with the attractive cover photo to add to the “eye candy” appeal, the actual “food” doesn’t look anything like the picture on the box. Instead it’s a high risk catalyst for chronic disease and emotional pain.
Just What Is “Mechanically Separated” Meat?
And what’s up with “mechanically separated meat?” The frozen foods that include meat are often labelled with this term. Why does meat have to be mechanically separated? Well, let me tell you what that is all about… are you ready for this?
After factory animals are butchered, their corpses are put into a mechanical device that separates the edible parts from the fat, skin, entrails with feces, feet, and heads. These parts, considered unsuitable for general consumption as packaged meat, are then put into a massive centrifuge for several hours to pulverize them into a micro-sludge.
This product is then flavored, colored, and poured into molds for the particular shape (nuggets, sausage cubes, patties, etc.). They are then microwaved at a high temperature to sanitize and dehydrate the concoction. That is the reason the “meats” are so perfectly shaped and uniformly colored.
In reality you are not getting meat, you are getting everything else that you would never consider eating and should never consume!
But hey, in a world where cows are abused with drugs and aggressive behavior, and fed commercial animal feed containing animal feces, diseased body parts, GMO grains, and other unsanitary elements, this should be no surprise. Why wouldn’t we expect “Big Food” to have no scruples about putting non-food meat by-products in packaged frozen food?
Finally, let me not forget to mention that all these frozen food brands are processed in the microwave, which causes them to contain carcinogenic acrylamides. These alone have been proven to cause cancer, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, neurological disorders, birth defects, infertility, gastrointestinal disorders, and a myriad of other health problems.
Tip: Instead of buying frozen processed meals, make a date once a week to prepare homemade frozen meals from organic ingredients. This will give you the convenience of fast food that is healthy, economical, and delicious. It’s healthier, safer, and you’re worth it.
A Dangerous Duo: Milk and Nestlé Cereal
Popular Nestlé Cereal Brands: Chocapic, Minis, Fitness, Cookie Crisp, Nesquick Cereal
These cereals claim to be healthy and good for your children. However they all have these ingredients in common: sugar, salt, GMO wheat, synthetic vitamins and minerals, and artificial colors and flavors.
The worst is probably the sugar because it leads to obesity and feeds chronic disease − including cancer. The colors and flavors are generally carcinogenic in nature and add to the cocktail of disease-producing inflammation and compromised immunity. This results in sick, tired, children, who lack the ability to focus in school and exert aggressive behaviors. Not a healthy breakfast or snack!
Adding pasteurized milk compounds the problems with bovine growth hormone, heavy metals, and microorganisms that seriously affect our children’s health. These are carcinogenic and toxic as well.
Nestlé Dairy Brands: Carnation (evaporated milk), Coffee Mate, La laitiere (La Lechera) condensed milk, Nido (world’s number one children’s milk brand focused on nutrition-based products for each stage of childhood).
Most people stop producing lactase (milk digestive enzyme) between 2 and 5 years old so they can’t digest dairy. This is the reason it is inflammatory and leads to prostate cancers (50% higher risk factor), and increases insulin-like growth factor which also leads to cancer.
Furthermore, many of the cows have diseased udders that leak pus and blood into the milk and these organisms are not all destroyed by pasteurization. Also pasteurization kills the enzymes contained in the milk, making it indigestible.
The Nido powdered milk products for growing children contain oxidized cholesterol which is very irritating to the blood vessels and leads to plaque build-up and eventually heart disease. They also contains soy lecithin which I will discuss in more detail later, but this leads to breast and prostate cancer due to circulating estrogen mimickers. The maltodextrin, sugar, and genetically-modified cooking oils add to this unhealthy, non-food mix that is sure to get your child off to a future of chronic disease.
Coffee Mate Is NOT Cream
Let me not forget to mention the famous Coffee Mate − the addictive creamer that gives your coffee a fake melt in your mouth, “I gotta have it,” taste sensation. Especially the flavored kinds of which there are more than 25 varieties.
What’s in Coffee mate? How do they get that “dairy-free” creamy flavor? Corn syrup solids, partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil, sodium caseinate (a milk derivative), mono- and diglycerides, sodium aluminosilicate, dipotassium phosphate, carrageenan, annatto, and artificial flavors.
These are mostly chemicals or lab produced fillers that deceive your taste buds into thinking you are consuming real cream. Needless to say these products are mostly sugar and bad fats that will lead to obesity, cancer, and diabetes.
Nestlé Ice-cream Isn’t a Perfect Part of a Balanced Enjoyable Diet
Nestlé Ice-cream Brands: Nestlé Drumstick, Haagen-Dazs, Edy’s, and many more. While Nestlé may claim in their advertising that “ice-cream a perfect part of a balanced enjoyable diet”… the reality is it’s anything but.
This family of products is almost as large as the candy section. In general, most of Nestlé’s ice-cream products contain the carcinogenic line-up of soy lecithin, artificial colors and flavors, trans-fats, corn syrup, and emulsifiers and thickeners including carrageenan gum and gel. These additives make the ice-cream taste creamy and real. Sadly they are not; and the ingredients cause inflammation which leads to cancer.
According to Dr. Mark Hyman, founder of the Ultra Wellness Center, corn syrup is high fructose corn syrup and is in every processed food. It contains mercury from its processing and that accumulates in your body. This leads to heavy metal toxicity which also leads to dementia, brain fog, and the inability to focus. It also triggers lipogenesis in the liver so the liver produces excessive amounts of fat − which of course leads to obesity and cancer.
Is Nestlé Chocolate a Good Choice?
Chocolate is good for you, right? While quality dark chocolate can be…. an ingredient to be aware of in Nestlé’s chocolate bars is “alkalized cocoa” or “Dutch processed.” The processing keeps the chocolate from changing color, and there are health hazards involved.
Potassium carbonate used to alkalize the chocolate can cause serious health problems if it contacts the skin, is breathed into the lungs, or gets in the bloodstream. It is considered a toxic poison according to OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) when ingesting as little as 150 grams.
So why are they soaking cacao beans in potassium carbonate? To make the chocolate neutral, less bitter and darker, richer looking. However, the cocoa beans absorb the dangerous chemical. The body is alerted to initiate the detox process immediately using the kidneys and bladder (or vomiting if directly ingested) to eliminate the chemical from the body as quickly as possible. So maybe Nestlé’s doesn’t make the very best chocolate after all.
Furthermore, Dutch or alkalized cocoa has only half the phytonutrients as a result of processing. Flavonols are the special antioxidants found in raw unprocessed cacao and are destroyed in the alkalizing process to reduce the bitterness of raw cacao.
Moreover, dairy, milk solids, or nonfat milks all block the beneficial effects of dark chocolate and should be avoided.
Chocolate Candy
Nestlé Chocolate Candy Brands: Butterfinger, Nestlé’s Crunch, Kit Kat, Cadbury, Nestlé Toll House, and Wonka
One of the worst ingredients in these products, besides sugar, is soy lecithin. It is used as an emulsifier in foods, infant formulas, non-stick cooking sprays, soap, protein powders, and as a health supplement. It comes from the dehydrated sludge left over from refining GM soybean oil. Yuck! That sounds disgustingly filthy!
Side-effects include inflammation, bloating, diarrhea, skin rashes, nausea, stomach pain, behavioral and neurological abnormalities, breast cancer due to an increase of estrogen mimickers, and more. This explains why babies on conventional formulas are aggressive and have behavior problems. And it doesn’t get better as they get older.
A study published by “Food and Chemical Toxicology” found soy lecithin to be highly estrogenic. “These estrogenic compounds found in soy have been shown to disrupt thyroid and endocrine hormone production.” This explains the increased number of individuals with “chronic fatigue” which directly affects the thyroid gland’s production of hormones. Hormones are vital for proper digestion, energy production, and metabolism. So, the key here is to avoid all products containing soy lecithin.
Nesquick: Instant Powdered Chocolate Milk, Chocolate Milk, and Chocolate Syrup
Nesquik has changed its labeling recently and supposedly no longer uses high fructose corn syrup. So how do they obtain the creamy, chocolaty, sugary goodness that children seem to adore? Nesquik milk uses three types of thickeners, including:
- Cellulose Gum and Gel: Even though these are non-toxic, natural products, research has shown that small amounts have caused obesity/metabolic syndrome and inflammation in rats. Since the gum and gel are used in combination it magnifies the quantity and the results point to increased risk of inflammation, metabolic disorders, and eventually cancer.
- Carrageenan: a processed derivative of red seaweed that can cause indigestion and intestinal problems. One study conducted on animals revealed cancerous tumors in their intestines. Carrageenan also causes inflammation (a root cause of cancer), leaky gut, gastrointestinal disorders, and a myriad of other diseases.
Other Ingredients in Nesquick:
- Low-fat milk with vitamin A palmitate and vitamin D3, sugar, less than 2% of cocoa processed with alkali, calcium carbonate, natural and artificial flavors, and salt. Calcium carbonate leads to arthritis and calcification of the arteries (possibly breast cancer and osteoporosis).
So is Nestea kid friendly chocolate milk? Intestinal cancer doesn’t sound like much fun to me!
Nesquick Chocolate Syrup:
Here’s something to think about… why would any healthy, natural, disease preventing chocolate syrup contain the harmful petroleum-based artificial colorants red 40, blue 1, and yellow 6? All of these are deemed carcinogenic by the CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest). They also increase the risk of allergenic reactions and hyperactivity in children.
What coloring does chocolate need? Nestlé’s customer service representative claims that it’s to supply consumer’s demand for a dark colored chocolate. Chocolate is already naturally dark brown and doesn’t require coloring unless… there is a predominant presence of artificial ingredients and flavorings and only a small percentage of real chocolate.
Thus, the reason for adding artificial colorants then is to mimic the noble chocolate’s true color.
Start Your Baby Off Right… by Avoiding Nestlé Baby Foods
Nestlé Baby Food Brands: Gerber’s, Cerelac Instant Cereal, Naturnes Baby Food, and Nestlé Good Start Infant Formula
Nestlé created a product line that is supposed to grow along with your child into adulthood. Sadly, following such a practice is more likely to build a foundation for sickness all their life.
Take Gerber’s “Turkey Puree” for instance, which is supposed to be a nutritious baby food. The label even flaunts an ingredient list with minimal concerns. However, the consistency of the product suggests that the percentage of actual meat is quite low.
To get that texture, food companies use meat gelatins, fillers, chemical emulsifiers, genetically modified (GM) cornstarch, thickening agents, and stabilizers. The flavor is due to various spices, preservatives, and natural and artificial flavors which is a red flag pointing to MSGs and Maltodextrin − both of which are carcinogenic.
Baby formulas have a scary long list of ingredients including a massive number of chemicals. The label pictured below is from Gerber’s Gentle Start Infant Formula. With so many chemicals listed on the label, the reason these formulas are manufactured in laboratories becomes abundantly clear.
Why would anyone want to give their newborn baby so many chemicals in place of breast milk which is the perfect food created for infants? The Food Industry has really destroyed humanity’s faith in “nutrient rich” foods. But we are making a comeback due to the exposure from concerned individuals demanding real food. However, there is more to this scary story…
The Food that’s Caused Millions of Infant Deaths?
Disguising contemptible profiteering practices under the cloak of “Poor Family Outreach,” this group prevents the poor in developing countries from taking care of their newborns by forcefully feeding infants in the hospital with Nestlé’s formula. This in turn causes the babies to be unable to nurse, causing their mother’s natural milk supply to dry up.
As a result the parents have to purchase the powdered supplement filled formula (it was free in the hospital) at exorbitant prices because their babies are dependent on it. It is often diluted with unsanitary water from the villages. Thus, at a young age the infant is exposed to more toxins than its tiny body can handle and it dies or ends up anemic. This leads to malnutrition and further reliance on medications which lead to chronic illnesses and in many cases childhood cancer.
I witnessed a few cases personally when I lived in Costa Rica. The world looks on thinking Nestlé is such a good humanitarian company, while the native peoples are outraged and boycotting Nestlé with great enthusiasm.
Instant Isn’t Better When it Comes to Coffee
Nestlé Coffee Brands: Nescafe, Coffee Mate, Nespresso
Nescafe is instant coffee − you already know that − but are you aware that even Nescafe contains cancer causing acrylamides? These are formed during the dehydrating process that takes place at exceptionally high temperatures in a microwave. This translates to another no nutrient food. Side effects from ingesting acrylamides include dehydration, adrenal fatigue, demineralization, and free radical damage in the body.
Even though many instant coffee lovers claim that it is lower in cholesterol and caffeine, I suggest that if you must have your cup of coffee to please stick to the kind that comes from freshly ground coffee beans. Better yet, go green and try green coffee.
Consumers Boycott Nestlé Bottled Water
Nestlé Bottled Water Brands: Pure Life, Perrier, Poland Springs, San Pellegrino
Nestlé says that water is not a public right. They were caught stealing water from California’s springs and no one charged them with the crime. Californian’s were outraged and have joined boycotting efforts against Nestlé. A Nestlé boycott is also taking place in Canada over shady water bottling practices in both Ontario and British Columbia.
When it comes to conventional foods on the market it really pays off to do your own research. The unacceptable number of toxins that have been found in bottled water will amaze you. These include aluminum, chloride, fluoride, Tylenol, lithium, bacteria, disinfectant by-products, and many more.
The Natural Resources Defense Council said that some samples of bottled water contained unsafe levels of chemicals (phthalates, BPA) and bacteria that could cause breast and prostate cancer as well as interfere with fertility.
Some of these problems are due to the plastic containers. So, if you have your own purifier, don’t store the water in plastic because it leaches into the water and contaminates the water. This information is so important because people who are health conscious are led to believe that bottled water is safe and pure. Now we discover that we are being lied to again by Big Food and Nestlé is at the head of the pack with its trillion dollar water industry.
Take the Plunge Off the Health Cliff With Nestea?
Nestea Ingredients: Water, Sugar, Fructose, Black Tea Extract (0.1%), Lemon Juice (0.1%) from Concentrate, Natural Tea and Lemon Flavorings with other Natural Flavorings, Acidity Regulator (Sodium Citrate), Citric Acid, Antioxidant (Ascorbic Acid), Sweetener: Steviol Glycosides (an extract of stevia − a natural plant based sweetener that has questionable extraction processes like using chloroform or hexane and aluminum sulfate.)
Nestea, “go ahead take the plunge with this refreshing naturally flavored drink.” Right, go ahead and take a plunge straight to your oncologist’s office is what it should say. I notice many athletes carrying this beverage, believing the lying label that it’s healthy. This drink is seriously hazardous to your health.
It’s loaded with 28 grams of sugar in just one 20 ounce bottle. The natural tea and lemon flavors are another cause for concern − a cover-up statement instead of telling us what’s really in it. It could be anything! Acidity regulators, sodium citrate, citric acid, and ascorbic acid are not plant based, but lab-based (manmade).
They have side effects if you are at risk of heart disease, toxemia, or if mixed with lithium or aluminum products. So don’t drink Nestea with any chocolate products that have been alkalized. This combination creates byproducts that can cause vertigo, dizziness, and worse when combined with lithium salts. Health Tip: Don’t eat Oreos with Nestea (and check out why you should stay away from oreos and milk)!
Maggi: Bouillons, Soups, Seasonings, and Instant Noodles
In India (year 2007), there was a massive recall of Maggi’s instant noodles due to findings of outrageously high amounts of lead in their noodle products. Families that fed their children these tasty, affordable, and quick noodles were indeed shocked to find they contained lead. As a result of Nestlé’s carelessness many people ended up in the hospital with lead poisoning.
Lead contamination can occur in many ways − cans soldered with lead, lead water pipes, old ceramic painted pottery, art supplies, food packaging, and contaminated soil. It affects children more than adults because their brains are still developing and the lead targets neurological tissue.
Problems include neurological disorders, brain damage, severe abdominal pain, nausea, learning disabilities, irritability, and aggressive behavior. The effects of lead contamination are cumulative which means it adds up if you are not detoxifying your body. It can also lead to death. The diagnosis is determined by a blood test.
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences states that even 5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood is too much. The good news is, activated charcoal can be used to remove the lead in the gastrointestinal tract and eliminate it via the colon.
Apart from the lead poisoning incident above, Maggi’s packaged goods contain high levels of acrylamides (from the processing of the noodles). Acrylamides are a carcinogen, causing free radical damage in your body which is a known precursor to cancer. They also contain MSGs and are made with pesticide and insecticide laden GMOs which add to the increased risk of cancer.
Needless to say, the Maggi product line is not safe for human consumption.
Are These Nestlé Food Products Really “Fair Trade”?
Fair trade is another marketing scheme to get conscientious consumers to buy their products. When we see a pretty fair trade label it makes us feel like what we are buying is quality, wholesome, and extra nutritious. It makes us feel good that we are helping to support a good cause or project.
In reality, workers’ occupational conditions in developing countries still need a huge improvement in order for healthy ethics in the Big Food Industry to take place. Not to mention that the nutritive quality of mass produced foods is still the same no matter what kind of label they put on their low to no nutrient products.
As a matter of fact, one of the many unethical practices that Nestlé comes under fire for frequently involves the human trafficking, child slave labor, and constant exploitation that these workers − dignified on paper by “fair trade” − go through in the Ivory Coast (West Africa) alone. All that just to produce some degenerative, health compromising, chocolate bars.
Nestlé and the Medical Industry: “Nestlé Develops Foods that Treat Diseases”
A recently published article in The Wall Street Journal stated: “Prescription-based powders and drinks become a new focus as traditional packaged foods face tougher times.”
The organic industry is booming and “Big Food” is losing profits worldwide. People are getting informed and are boycotting brands. Now Nestlé is selling brands that are supposed to “cure” diseases to try to compensate for their losses since people’s demand for real, chemical free food has caught on.
They have invested hundreds of millions into their “Nestle Institute of Health Sciences” medical lab based in Switzerland. Their motto, Health Science: Where nutrition becomes therapy, sounds so right… but what are they really up to?
Nestlé’s science lab is actually admitting that the foods we consume daily have a direct effect on our health and that diseases can be cured or prevented through nutrition. Claiming to use the best in scientific research and diagnostics, clearly the processed food giant is positioning itself to become a global authority in the “nutrition for health” movement. But what kind of nutrition are they offering? Big Uh-Oh! Fasten your seatbelts for this new thrill ride of deception.
Nestlé now calls itself “The leading Nutrition, Health and Wellness Company”! Research at the Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences is crucial to strengthening the Company’s position as a world leader in the nutrition, health, and wellness industry.
With the research they are developing they aspire to tap into a $15 billion dollar prescription industry that will target the world’s growing population of the chronically ill. Mind you, these products are not expected to be like the “nutritional” synthetic vitamin and mineral enriched cereals and weight loss plans. These will be specifically prescribed foods that will combat the diagnosed disease through Nestlé’s ‘Franken’ nutrition.
How Will You Spend Your Grocery Dollars?
There are growing concerns over Nestlé becoming a company that also sells medicine in the form of food. It is audacious to me that a Big Food company can make false claims that their foods contain any benefit for anyone’s health while the ingredient list itself clearly proves the contrary.
Companies like Nestlé rely on the consumer’s ignorance and addiction to their products to keep them blindfolded and the profits rolling in. But how did we get to be so blind?
On the other hand, the real health advocates who are demonstrating that organic fruits and vegetables are in fact very high in natural, whole nutrition and can solve many (if not all) health related illnesses are often ridiculed and called frauds.
Who’s the real scam artist? How many of us have to suffer painful premature deaths before the world will open its eyes and stop supporting unnatural packaged products and start buying from their local farmer?
This Nestlé con artist is concerned for his profits. So he wants to cash in on the health movement by selling “medical foods”? It’s up to us all to stay informed on each new maneuver and tactic that these Big Guys will try to use to get us to knowingly, or unknowingly, buy their brands.
Is it ethical for a “Big Food” Company like Nestlé Foods to sell medical foods…? I’ll leave that for you to decide.
Source: TheTruthAboutCancer
