All Episodes
Previous Next
March 23, 2018 - Health Ranger - Mike Adams
24:15
The Big Beer Cover-Up Continues; MillerCoors Caught Hiding Ingredients Facts from Consumers
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
Welcome everybody to the Health Ranger Report.
This is Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, your host from naturalnews.com.
Today, joined by the food babe, Vani.
Her website is foodbabe.com.
She has just exceeded expectations of the entire activist community by achieving, with the help of her millions of followers, a huge victory against beer companies asking them to disclose their secret Ingredients.
Joining us by phone now is Vani.
Food babe, hey, congratulations.
Give us the update on what happened and your 24 hour victory.
Thank you so much for having me on, Mike.
It is an honor to be here on the Natural News Community Podcast.
I really appreciate the opportunity to talk about this subject.
You know, when I was looking in my fridge a year and a half ago, and I realized the only thing I didn't know what was in there was the beer that was on the counter.
It was the beer that my husband loves to drink.
It really irritated me.
I was looking at the label.
I saw that there was no ingredients listed.
I started to think, if the food industry is hiding all sorts of ingredients in our food today, what are the beer companies doing?
I started to think about how The majority of our food supply is inundated with corn and soy made from biotechnology.
I thought about it and I said, is beer also made from biotechnology?
Are they using corn and beer?
Are they using different additives that are controversial?
I wanted to know.
What I did was I found this Very old book called Chemical Additives in Beer from the Center of Science and Public Interest.
It was published in 1982, and it's been out of print, actually, but I found it miraculously, and it was this great little booklet about all of the additives that are allowed in beer and how they had been fighting to get the ingredients listed on beer,
and they had not succeeded, and so they were, you know, Yeah, hold on just one second because our audience is going to ask the question, wait a minute, aren't all foods and beverages required to list their ingredients under FDA regulations?
So why does that not apply to alcohol?
So one of the things that I found out was that beer is actually not regulated by the FDA, and it's regulated by the Treasury Department, the same department that taxes us.
It has nothing to do with food and drink.
This type of jurisdiction actually dates back to prohibition with the alcohol, tobacco, and firearms, and then it moved into this entity called the TTB. It continues to remain there, even though beer is one of the most popular drinks in the world.
It's third after water and soda.
It's a $100 billion industry.
It's just sad that the FDA is, again, asleep at the wheel.
Our government is asleep at the wheel.
Our government hasn't required us to know what's in this popular drink.
This is something that I found out through my research.
And when I found this out, I said, you know what?
I'm going to find out what's in this drink, what's in beer, and I'm going to start researching these companies.
And so I went out on a quest, and the first company I researched was my husband's favorite beer, which was Newcastle.
And Newcastle...
I found out it uses caramel coloring and I also found out caramel coloring is considered a carcinogen in California so I was like okay well maybe I should let him know this information and when I did he started to choose different beer and so we started to pick beers that are going the extra mile and disclosing their ingredients either online or on their actual bottles and a lot of those companies are organic or non-GMO because they realize that consumers want to know this information and so As
I was going through my investigation, Mike, I realized that the two biggest beer manufacturers, Anheuser-Busch and Miller Coors, were using different corn derivatives.
That's not surprising, and I want to ask you about corn and GMOs and what they use, but what about other freaky ingredients?
Because some of the articles I read about what you were doing talked about fish float bladders and I think blood or something.
What are some of the freakiest ingredients that have been used in beer?
Or are still being used in beer?
Well, there's an ingredient called Isinglass that's made from a fish swim bladder.
And this has been used to clarify beer for a very long time.
And I'm not saying that it's harmful or that you can get sick by having some of this left in your beer after processing.
What I'm saying is for vegans and vegetarians and people who want to know how their beer is produced and what's in it, they should know if they're using this fish swim bladder ingredient.
Additionally, there's another ingredient that is used to clarify beer, carrageenan.
Carrageenan seems very harmless when you look and see that it comes from seaweed.
However, when it's produced and when it's extracted, It can become degraded.
When it becomes degraded, there's been studies to show that it turns into a carcinogen in your gut, that it leads to intestinal inflammation.
For someone like me, beer is not my favorite drink of choice.
Actually, I don't drink much beer.
I'm really fighting this fight for the people who do drink beer in my own family and my husband.
One of the things that happened to me when I drink beer is I just don't feel that great.
It could be because of one of these ingredients.
And that's really why I want people to know these different additives because, you know, I've heard it time and time again when my friends go overseas to other countries and they say, you know, I have a beer over there and I don't have a hangover the next day, Bonnie.
You know, what's the deal with that?
And I really think it has a lot to do with the way it's produced and what they put in it.
That's really interesting.
I think you're right about that.
But we have entered an era, and you are part of this movement for transparency in foods and beverages.
And the fact that less than 24 hours after you release this, or approximately 24 hours, At least one, if not both, of the major beer companies have essentially agreed to disclose their ingredients online.
So it's another huge victory for transparency, but you and I both know that sometimes companies can be really tricky about these things.
So one of the main questions I have is, How do we know that Anheuser-Busch and Miller Coors are actually going to list all the ingredients they use or even tell us the truth?
It's almost like we should demand an audit or something.
How do we know what they're using, really?
Yeah, and that's the million dollar question right now.
You know, within 24 hours, it was amazing, Mike.
We have 46,000 signatures on a petition, so fast rowing.
People really care about this issue.
They realized what a discrepancy it was that we know more about what's in Coca-Cola and Windex than we do beer.
And that this had to stop and it was amazing to see these companies react this quickly and it really shows you the power of the people and when a group of concerned citizens come together and raise up their voices and make their voices heard through social media and through You know, sharing of the petition, through signing of the petition.
This type of situation really makes these companies act fast.
I mean, Subway, again, you know me from the Subway yoga mat chemical.
They responded within 24 hours as well.
We're a really strong army over here.
I know, Mike, you're part of the army and I'm part of the Natural News Army as well.
It's all of us kind of fighting together to get this information out.
Because we got it out in such a fast and furious way, Even getting mainstream media to cover it, ABC News and USA Today, and it was on all sorts of TV stations across the nation.
Getting this information out made these companies respond, and actually going after two of the major companies, I think, was a really great strategy, in my opinion, because it got one of them to act really quickly, and then the other one followed suit.
Earlier today, I received a tweet, an email, and a phone call from I've got Anheuser-Busch formally inviting me to their headquarters to meet with their head brewmasters and see how their beer is made and what they put in it.
And I'm looking forward to that transparency.
I'm looking forward to that visit because then I can really ask them the tough questions about what they're putting in their beer.
After that, about a couple hours, Miller Coors posted a notice on their Facebook page as well as tweeted to me that they are also going to release the ingredients online.
However, some shady stuff is happening over there.
They put on their Facebook page that their main ingredients for their main beers were water, barley malt, corn, yeast, and hops.
However, I have emails from them just a week ago where I got them to disclose that they're using corn syrup.
So again, they're not telling the full story here.
Okay, wow.
So this is huge news right here.
So just to confirm what you described, you have in an email exchange with them, they told you they're using corn syrup, but in the information they're disclosing publicly, they're only saying corn.
That's correct.
And, you know, they said actually corn syrup is a main ingredient in their beers.
Oh, wow.
So, now, if this were under USA regulations and they were using corn syrup but only put the word corn on the label, that would be a violation of FDA. Justifiably, the FDA could recall all their products based on that kind of deception.
That's correct.
So this almost demands FDA regulation of beer because they're pulling the same tricks that essentially you were calling them out for.
Yes, they are.
And it's really sad that they think they could pull the wool away.
Over our eyes after this huge petition and after all of the attention that this issue has brought, and it makes me really sad.
You know, Anheuser-Busch actually reached out to me personally, emailed, called, and it would be nice to have a contact, number one, that I can get some of these more clarifications on, but they are responding on Facebook to me, and so It's interesting.
They really need to tell the truth here, and it's really sad that this information is still not getting out, even though they're trying to ride Anheuser-Busch's coattails and trying to say that they're going to be transparent, too.
You know what this is like?
This is like if a cocaine smuggler gets stopped by the feds.
The feds say, what do you have here, this white powder in this bag?
And the smuggler says, oh, that's just coca leaf.
That's right.
Because, I mean, cocaine is an extract of coca leaf, just like corn syrup is an extract of corn.
And so when Miller Coors is saying corn, they're talking about the plant, not the actual extracted product that's being used.
So I guess all cocaine smugglers can now just say they're tea leaf dealers.
Or, you know, hemp seeds, you know, right?
Like, you know, if you're putting TLC in your, or I'm sorry, TH, THC in your food or in your brownies and you're putting HEP on the label, that would be a total big violation as well.
Exactly!
Exactly.
Wow.
So, yeah.
So are you going to now continue your petition for full disclosure?
What are your plans at this point, knowing that they're not quite disclosing the full story here?
Well, I definitely want to talk to them, so I'm going to try to reach out to them again and try to talk to them and find out some information, get them to disclose the full set of information.
And if they don't, I'm going to continue the petition, because until they release it and do it honestly, I don't think that I can just sit by.
There's 46,000 people that want this right now, and I need to continue to carry their voices.
Now, after they come clean and they start to release their ingredients online, and if things start to change, you'll be hearing from me, I'm sure, because I'll be keeping record of everything that's going on, and I'll make sure to report it at foodbabe.com.
And tell you, of course, as well.
But it's, you know, one thing that I've really wanted to do and what I really admire you, Mike, about in Natural News and the new Natural News Laboratory is just the testing that you guys are doing and The transparency you're bringing to the environment and to everyone in the United States and around the world about what's really in their food.
The work that you did with protein powders was amazing and outstanding.
And I hope that somebody tries to do that for beer.
I would love to see beer being tested.
And let's find out what's really in it.
Well, you know, I can tell you, as the lab director here, With very high certainty that you're not likely to find heavy metals in the beer.
And what you'd really need would be, I think, an HPLC instrument to look at the different chemical compounds in it.
That would be very interesting, but we're not equipped to run those tests.
So, although I know a few people who might be interested in doing that, so I mean, I agree with you.
I just wanted to let you know, I don't think we're going to find lead in it, for example.
Probably not any levels of lead or cadmium or mercury at all.
They'd probably be near zero, frankly.
But there's a lot of other crazy stuff that we want to watch out for, as you're pointing out.
And I'm concerned about the possibility of some of these ingredients being genetically modified in origin.
Are you confident at this point that these companies are using genetically modified ingredients?
Yeah, no, I am confident.
I got an email confirmation from Miller Coors after several exchanges that says that they are using biotech corn.
Although they say they test for any remnants and it doesn't remain and some other things, but they do start with biotech corn.
And when I think about what I support and what I buy and what I bring into my house, A biotech corn is not one of the things that I want to support.
You won't see me buying any Miller Coors products.
I will not buy any of those and I encourage other people not to as well because the same way I boycott Kraft and General Mills and All of these companies out there that are in bed with Monsanto and are spending loads of money against our right to know and against our human right to understand what's in our food,
I think that we really need to put our money where our mouth is because that's the only way we're going to change the world when it comes to what's being served to us.
I think petitions and making your voice heard and Everything has its power, but I think the greatest power is what we buy every single day.
You just mentioned that this is a human right to know what we're eating.
I, of course, completely agree with you.
So do all of your Food Babe fans and my natural news readers.
Millions and millions of people agree with that statement.
But the power is now shifting away from corporations.
That used to be able to control all this information.
They could control the press.
They could control the science journals.
They control the advertising.
And they control the entire narrative.
But now that's shifting.
Now, here you are achieving this victory in 24 hours or less.
We're doing our own activism work.
Many, many others out there doing a lot of similar activism at Organic Consumers Association.
You mentioned the CSPI earlier.
They've done a lot of great work there.
Consumer Lab is doing great work as well.
And This power shift seems to be accelerating in the direction of activists.
I'd like your comments on that, about the power that we now have to demand honesty and transparency on foods and beverages.
I mean, the fact that we got a multi-billion dollar company to change their policies overnight...
Yeah, literally, overnight.
...when they wouldn't even disclose it to the ABC News reporter yesterday, is...
A huge testament to the power we have when we come together.
Absolutely.
Why do you think they made this decision so quickly?
Because they realized that we're on the side of truth.
We're on the side of truth and they knew that they couldn't hide any longer.
Do you think that I mean, they must have played this out in their minds about what happens if they say no, and then you, I think, would just continue to get more and more and more press, and this story would quickly become a story of a cover-up, wouldn't it?
Oh, absolutely.
The fact that, you know, if they're so proud of their ingredients, what are they hiding?
It would be a major story.
And not to mention, if they didn't respond favorably or if they didn't act quickly, I think we would have ensued a boycott, a boycott of their products.
And they're already losing a lot of money to the craft breweries out there, so I don't think they wanted to see that.
Okay, now a funny question for you.
How many people you have signed the petition so far?
Over 46,000 people.
How many of the 46,000 people were sober when they signed the petition?
I don't know.
Actually, it's over 47 now.
But there's still people signing.
It's great.
You know, the funny thing is I launched this yesterday morning, so I hope they were sober signing it.
State drinkers?
Well, that's another legitimate question is, We know that people who are into natural health and organics and everything, they're very, very sensitive to what they drink or eat.
And I even had this question in my mind when you launched this.
I was asking myself, I wonder How sensitive are beer consumers to beer ingredients?
And I guess the answer is now obvious.
They're very sensitive to it.
Yeah, and I think, you know, everybody just wants to know what they're buying and what they're drinking.
And, you know, when you find out corn syrups in your beer, you might pick a different brand.
You'll be like, why are they adding corn syrup?
One of the cheapest or most refined ingredients come from biotech corn in my beer, you know?
Yeah.
I think they want to know this information.
Transparency is really the key to changing the world.
If all these secrets start to become unveiled, these other companies can't continue to succeed.
They can't continue to succeed selling us these ingredients because once we find out, we will boycott them.
Also, I think that your effort here is going to support a lot of local breweries, microbreweries, home brewing even, or maybe some of these other companies that have more organic ingredients.
Is there such a thing as a non-GMO project verified beer?
There are certified organic beers, and I believe that they are starting to do non-GMO projects, or people have applied for that.
I don't know beers offhand who are doing that, but there are some certified organic beers, and of course they have to adhere to those standards so they can't put genetically engineered ingredients in there.
Sure.
Well, that's good to know.
I wasn't aware of that, but I'm glad.
I'm really glad to hear that.
I was aware that there are creepy, freaky ingredients in other forms of alcohol, like blood, I mentioned.
I think it's used in...
Some hard liquors or even wine.
Are you going to look at other forms of alcohol, possibly?
I am.
Actually, there's a whole chapter of that dedicated in my book coming up next year, and I haven't announced it officially yet, but I will soon.
But I've been doing lots of research on that.
Well, great.
We look forward to hearing more from you on that front.
I say congratulations.
A very strong victory, and I think you have attained a position from which you can continue to demand more transparency from these beer producers.
And, of course, other companies.
I'm sure you have other industries, other products in mind.
You probably don't want to release them or announce them ahead of time, but you're not retiring anytime soon, are you?
I mean, you're going to keep doing this and demanding transparency across the industry, right?
Oh, absolutely.
You know, I quit my job, my 13-year management consulting job last year, to do this full-time, and I've only been doing it for a year and a half, and it's...
It is so incredibly rewarding to be able to change the world with so many like-minded individuals like yourself, Mike, and so many other activists and concerned citizens.
And I can't imagine ever going back to doing what I used to do.
And I know this is my calling now, and I know I'll be working until the day I die because there's so much to be done.
Absolutely, but if you ever did want to go back to consulting, I think Anheuser-Busch would offer you a job if you would.
I'm just guessing.
In any case, everybody, if you want to check out the work of the Food Babe, go to foodbabe.com and you'll find petitions there, articles, updates, real-time news updates.
Your Facebook page, is it just slash foodbabe?
Slash the foodbabe.
The foodbabe, okay.
Okay, great.
Anything else you'd like to add?
No, I just want to thank you again for having me on and sharing this story and sharing this news.
We have a lot more work to do.
We can celebrate a little bit, but it's back to work to make sure these companies do what they say they're going to do.
Well, yeah, well said.
And, you know, frankly, if these companies had been behaving in an ethical and honest way in the first place, we shouldn't have to ask them to tell us what they're using, right?
Yeah, I mean, it's a sad thing that you have to actually petition multi-billion dollar companies to release ingredients.
Yeah, that is so true.
Well, good job, though, Food Babe, Bonnie, and...
I look forward to hearing your next victory and covering that as well.
Thank you everybody for listening.
Share this interview.
Get the word out.
Check out more work from the Food Babe at FoodBabe.com and of course our news at NaturalNews.com.
▲
Export Selection