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New Recall In US - Thank You China


Recent Update:

While China's dairy products are deemed unsafe for import here in the US, there are manufacturers who use China's products in their products. The latest on the list of tainted product recalls is concerning coffees and teas.

U.S. officials are warning Americans not to drink seven Mr. Brown instant coffee and milk tea products that were made in China, because of concerns they may be contaminated with melamine, according to Reuters. The King Car Food Industrial Co Ltd. recalled the products Friday.


Reuters lists the recalled products as: * Mr. Brown Blend Instant Coffee (3-in-1)* Mr. Brown Instant Coffee (3-in-1)* Mr. Brown Blue Mountain Blend Instant Coffee (3-in-1)* Mr. Brown Caramel Instant Coffee (3-in-1)* Mr. Brown French Vanilla Instant Coffee (3-in-1)* Mr. Brown Blend instant Coffee (2-in-1)* Mr. Brown Milk Tea (3-in-1)

Evidently there was a rumor concerning Oreo cookies, but Kraft Foods states there are no milk products in their regular Oreo cookies and in the frosted ones they use milk products from Australia.

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Maybe It's Not China Killing Our Pets After All



Right on the heels of the contaminated milk scandal in China is another pet food recall. The Chief of China's Food And Quality Agency was forced to resign as they arrested 19 people suspected of intentionally spiking the country's milk system with melamine, an industrial chemical made from coal that is normally used in the production of plastics and fertilizer. Melamine is the same contaminate that was found in the pet food recalls of 2007. I'll tell you after the way they executed the head of the State Food and Drug Administration, Zheng Xiaoyu, in July of 2007 for corruption and dereliction of duty, I don't think this job is one I would have applied for. LOL.

As of Sept. 12, Mars Petcare US has voluntarily recalled any food distributed from their plant in Everson, PA and temporarily closed down the facility until they locate the nature and source of Salmonella Schwarzengrund. Salmonella was randomly linked to two people who got quite ill after they handled contaminated food. The brands this included were:



Country Acres, Retriever, Doggy Bag, Members Mark, Natural, Ol' Roy, Special Kitty, Paws & Claws, Pedigree, Wegman's, Pet Pride, PMI Nutrition and Red Flannel

Last year when Menu Foods did their recall of their pet foods, Iams, Eukenuba, and several other trusted pet foods that are too numerous to list here, the contamination was blamed on Melamine coming from products from China. When this recall came about I just assumed it was from China also. As it turns out China may have nothing at all to do with it.

Our scientists were extremely puzzled as to how ill the pets had gotten and the pet deaths that occurred. They felt the melamine was not harmful or at harmful levels to have caused the chaos that it did. According to articles I found on the internet, there appears to be an ongoing battle with Menu Foods because there seems to have been ancetometaphin (like Tylenol) and cyanuric acid found in their foods as well. According to a current lawsuit, it was these ingredients or these ingredients reacting with melamine that caused the deaths of over a quarter of a million pets.

The class action lawsuit against Menu Foods et al has grown to over 6000 cases and they expect that number to grow by quite a few by the time the deadline hits in Nov. of this year.


A fascinating website about what is going on from the person to bring about a major suite against Menu Foods can be found here. Evidently he has also now filed against the FDA for not investigating the claims properly and not protecting our pets from this happening in the future.



I love my little critters (pictured here) as I'm sure you do also. All I've been able to think is that I'm glad I was introduced to Nutripet years ago. A lot of people have taken to cooking their own dog or cat food, but Richard Goldstein, associate professor of medicine at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine warns against doing this as they may not get the all the nutrients they need. NUTRIPET dry dog and cat foods contain antioxidant vitamins A, C, E, and beta carotene to support your pet’s healthy immune system.”Added DHA*, found in mother’s milk, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids* have been found to improve your pet’s well-being. NUTRIPET dry dog and cat foods also contain a unique blend of fruits and vegetables to naturally round out your pet’s diet. If you would like to know how you can get Nutripet natural food for your animals, please feel free to contact me. My email address is in my profile. Nutripet is not found in grocery stores.



* Not recognized as an essential nutrient by the AAFCO dog food or cat food nutrient profiles.




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About Vitamin "K"

I was having a conversation the other nite with my "almost sister-in-law" and she was telling me about her "almost husband" (we have a lot of "almost relatives") and vitamin K. The reason I found this interesting was because he has liver disease and Hepatitis C just like a friend of mine, but wasn't able to go thru the complete treatments because his doctors said his body couldn't take it. She said she did some research and put him on a special diet along with vitamin k and some other supplements, and he's now in remission plus the liver is repairing itself, to a certain extent. Vitamin K, like Vitamin D is one you really don't hear too much about even tho it is one of the more essential vitamins the body needs. After talking to her I decided to do some research myself. The following is part of what I found. There's more on drug interactions and interactions with other vitamins, but you'd be here for a week trying to read it all! This will give you the basics.

Vitamin K is a fat soluble vitamin. The K vitamin is essential for the
functioning of several proteins which cause the blood to clot, or coagulate, to repair injuries. Whenever a person has a bleeding wound, it is the K vitamin that is present in the blood that stops the bleeding and enables most minor cuts to heal quickly.

3 Forms of Vitamin K
There are three different forms of the K vitamin. The first variant of the K vitamin is vitamin K1, also known as phylloquinone. This is the form of the K vitamin that is found in types of plant foods. The second form of the K vitamin is the vitamin K2, or menaquinone-n. This type of
the K vitamin is formed by friendly bacteria in the intestines and is produced by our own bodies. These are both natural forms of vitamin K. Thirdly, there is vitamin K3 which is also known as menadione and is actually an artificial form of the K vitamin. Vitamin K1 and K2 end up
in the liver where it is used to create the blood clotting substances. While they have decided Vitamin K3 is found in other organs besides the liver and has a unique biological function, they don't seem to know what that function is. Isn't that typical? LOL.

Vitamin K In Your Diet
The best natural sources of the K vitamin are green leafy vegetables, such as spinach, broccoli, and swiss chard. All of these provide more than the recommended daily requirement. Since the friendly bacteria in the intestine makes one of the forms of the K vitamin and it's so readily available in some of the food we eat, it is rare for a person to have a deficiency. Vitamin K supplements are not needed by the majority of people.

Too Little or Too Much Vitamin K?
Something like severe liver disease (like in the case mentioned above), may cause a substantial lowering of blood levels of vitamin K which could increase the risk of uncontrolled bleeding, or hemorrhaging. This is definitely a vitamin that falls in the "damned if you do and damned if you don't" catagory. Just as too little vitamin K can cause hemmorrhaging, too much can cause blood clots, which could block the flow of blood in arteries of the heart, brain, or lungs resulting in heart attack, stroke, or pulmonary embolism. Many people have to be put on "anticoagulants", or blood thinners, to help the blood flow. While people who have to take things like Warafin or
Cumadin have been cautioned in the past not to consume very large quantities of vitamin k in their diets as it could override their bloodthinners ability to "anticoagulate", doctors now advise getting the daily recommendations (90-120 mcg/daily) thru dietary
intake. An extended course of antibiotics may also lead to a vitamin K deficiency due to the fact that the antibiotics kill the good intestinal bacteria as well as the bad ones they are being taken to cure. In this case also, a K vitamin supplement may be given if the course of antibiotics has to continue for a long period of time.

Vitamin K and Our Bones
Apart from the main function of helping blood to clot by binding proteins and vitamin K to calcium in what they call a "coagulation cascade, Vitamin K1 has an important part to play in the bone building process. This K vitamin is required to retain the calcium in the bones
and redistribute it to where it is needed. Lack of control of the proccessess neccessary for forming vitamin k could lead to cartilage calcification and severe malformation of developing bone, or deposition of insoluble calcium salts in the walls of the arteries. This is quite
common in people suffering from atherosclerosis, which suggests Vitamin
K deficiency is more common than they thought.

Vitamin K and Newborns
Newborn babies may not have enough of the K vitamin as they have insufficient bacteria in their
intestines to produce it. Vitamin K also does not easily transfer through the placental wall, and it is not fully functional in infants, especially those born premature. Vitamin K deficiency in newborns can cause what is called "vitamin K dificiency bleeding (VKDB)" and is life threatening. The majority of newborn babies in developed countries are therefore given a vitamin k1 injection to tide them over until the natural process takes over. That is the only time that a K vitamin
supplement will be taken by most people throughout their lives.

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