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At least 48 out of 53 flavors of Ben & Jerry's "All Natural" ice
cream and frozen yogurt contain alkalized cocoa, corn syrup, partially
hydrogenated soybean oil, or other ingredients that either don't exist
in nature or that have been chemically modified. Calling products with
unnatural ingredients "natural" is a false and misleading use of the
term, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
At least 48 out of 53 flavors of Ben & Jerry's "All Natural" ice
cream and frozen yogurt contain alkalized cocoa, corn syrup, partially
hydrogenated soybean oil, or other ingredients that either don't exist
in nature or that have been chemically modified. Calling products with
unnatural ingredients "natural" is a false and misleading use of the
term, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Today, CSPI urged Ben and Jerry's
to drop the claim or else the nonprofit watchdog group will take its
concerns to the Food and Drug Administration and state attorneys
general.
Founded in 1978 by Vermonters Ben Cohen and Jerry
Greenfield, Ben & Jerry's is now a unit of the Anglo-Dutch consumer
product conglomerate Unilever, which besides owning familiar food brands
such as Hellman's and Lipton, also makes Vaseline, Dove soap, and Axe
deodorant. Thanks to the ice cream company's concerns about the
environment, the company has garnered consumer trust and a reputation
for social responsibility--but that image risks being sullied by the
allegations of misleading labeling.
In 2002, CSPI alerted the FDA
and the company to Ben & Jerry's deceptive use of the "All Natural"
claim, but neither took action, and the problem seems to have only
gotten worse, according to CSPI. The consumer group says that the
deceptive labeling is as unfair to competitors as it is to consumers.
For instance, "All Natural" Chubby Hubby ice cream contains
three non-natural ingredients: alkalized cocoa, partially hydrogenated
soybean oil, and corn syrup. Dublin Mudslide contains alkalized cocoa
and anhydrous dextrose. A list of all the improperly labeled flavors
and their ingredients is included in CSPI's letter.
"These ingredients are safe--only a small amount of partially
hydrogenated oil is used--but it's a stretch to call any of them
'natural,'" said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson. "Ben
& Jerry's sylvan labels notwithstanding, these ingredients come from
the factory, not the farm. And slapping an 'all natural' label on the
products certainly implies that the products are top quality and deserve
to fetch a higher price."
Cocoa processed with alkali is the most frequently used
unnatural ingredient as it used in 36 Ben & Jerry's flavors.
Treating cocoa with an alkalizing agent changes the chemical structure,
taste, and appearance of cocoa and reduces its acidity and flavonol
content. Flavonols are antioxidants with possible health benefits.
Indeed, Unilever itself recently sponsored research to investigate an
association between flavonol intake and the incidence of stroke. In addition, the Hershey Center for Health and Nutrition (part of the candy company) specifically distinguishes
alkalized cocoa powder from natural cocoa powder.
Corn syrup and corn syrup solids are created by chemically or
enzymatically converting cornstarch into sugar and short chains of sugar
molecules. They occur in 28 flavors. Other artificial ingredients in
Ben & Jerry's frozen desserts include dextrose and maltodextrin
(both are chemically or enzymatically converted from cornstarch) and
vanillin (a synthetic vanilla flavor).
Although the FDA does not have a formal definition of the
word natural, the agency's acting director of regulatory guidance
explained in a letter that the agency has "consistently discouraged the
use" of the term "because its meaning is ambiguous and may unjustifiably
imply to consumers that foods labeled as 'natural' are inherently
superior to other foods..." Later, the agency wrote that the term natural
means "that nothing artificial or synthetic ... has been included in, or
has been added to, a food that would not normally be expected in the
food."
In any event, emphasized CSPI, the biggest problem with Ben
& Jerry's ice creams is saturated fat--a major promoter of heart
disease. A one-scoop (half-cup) serving of a typical flavor has about
half-a-day's worth of saturated fat.
Since 1971, the Center for Science in the Public Interest has been a strong advocate for nutrition and health, food safety, alcohol policy, and sound science.
"We must use every ounce of our leverage to demand an immediate ceasefire," said Sanders.
Joining numerous genocide and Holocaust experts, human rights groups in Israel and around the world, and a United Nations commission, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday accused the Israeli government of engaging in a genocide against the Palestinian people.
In an editorial titled "It Is Genocide," the independent Vermont senator leveled his harshest criticism yet of the far-right Israeli government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Picking up on the findings of a report from the United Nations’ (UN) commission of inquiry released on Tuesday, Sanders recounted the massive human suffering that Israel has inflicted on Gaza in the 23 months since Hamas launched a surprise attack that killed 1,200 Israelis.
"Out of a population of 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza, Israel has now killed some 65,000 people and wounded roughly 164,000," he wrote. "The full toll is likely much higher, with many thousands of bodies buried under the rubble. A leaked classified Israeli military database indicates that 83% of those killed have been civilians. More than 18,000 children have been killed, including 12,000 aged 12 or younger."
The raw death toll doesn't capture the extent of Israel's genocidal actions, Sanders continued, and he pointed to the systematic destruction of infrastructure in Gaza that has made the exclave unlivable.
"Satellite imagery shows that the Israeli bombardment has destroyed 70% of all structures in Gaza," he said. "The UN estimates that 92% of housing units have been damaged or destroyed. At this very moment, Israel is demolishing what's left of Gaza City. Most hospitals have been destroyed, and almost 1,600 healthcare workers have been killed. Almost 90% of water and sanitation facilities are now inoperable."
Sanders went on to accuse Israel of "openly pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank" with the full support of the US government. He also noted the consistently dehumanizing rhetoric that high-level Israeli officials have used against Palestinians, including statements labeling them "animals," as well as a desire to erase "all of Gaza from the face of the earth."
In response to this genocide, Sanders said, "we must use every ounce of our leverage to demand an immediate ceasefire, a massive surge of humanitarian aid facilitated by the UN, and initial steps to provide Palestinians with a state of their own."
Pro-Palestinian activists have pushed Sanders for nearly two years to label Israel's actions a genocide. While he has consistently condemned the Israeli military's mass killings of Palestinian civilians, Wednesday marked the first time he described them as a genocide.
Twenty members of Congress have now described Israel's assault as a genocide, according to Prem Thakker of Zeteo. Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) also said Wednesday that she believes "Israel is committing a genocide against the Palestinian people." She and Sanders are the first Jewish members of Congress to say so.
"I feel compelled to speak out," said Balint, "because I know there are so many others like me who are horrified by what they see."
"These repeated attacks are grave violations of international humanitarian law that likely amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide."
An investigation published Wednesday revealed that Israeli forces have killed nearly 3,000 Palestinian aid-seekers and wounded almost 20,000 others over 23 months of Israel's US-backed genocidal annihilation of Gaza.
The New Humanitarian's open-source investigation chronologically documents the killing of 2,957 Palestinian aid-seekers and the wounding of 19,866 others.
These figures include nearly 1,000 Palestinians who United Nations human rights officials say have been killed at or near aid sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Israeli soldiers have admitted to receiving orders to fire live bullets and artillery shells into crowds of civilians at GHF distribution points.
The New Humanitarian noted that these numbers represent approximately 4.6% of the more than 65,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, whose figures are likely a vast undercount.
“These are not isolated incidents. They're not just similar incidents. They are a pattern, and reflect policy and an acceptance on the part of the state that this should continue indefinitely,” Adil Haque, an international law professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, told The New Humanitarian.
Haque and other experts interviewed for the investigation called Israeli attacks on Gaza aid-seekers "grave violations of international humanitarian law that likely amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide."
Israel is the subject of an ongoing genocide case filed by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. The International Criminal Court (ICC), also located in the Dutch city, last year issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including murder and forced starvation.
The New Humanitarian's investigation identified "clearly discernible patterns... showing how Israel has used attacks on people seeking aid as a tool for different purposes at different points in the war: deadly crowd control, forced displacement, and the destruction of the collective ability of Palestinians in Gaza to survive."
Haque said that "if Israeli leaders were simply indifferent to the killing of so many Palestinian aid-seekers, not caring one way or the other, then international condemnation and potential liability for war crimes should be enough to lead them to change their policies to prevent or repress such killings."
"Their willingness to bear such costs is some evidence that they intend for these killings to continue,” he added.
The New Humanitarian's investigation comes as Israeli forces ramp up their assault on Gaza City during Operation Gideon's Chariots 2, a campaign to conquer, occupy, and ethnically cleanse the Palestinian exclave. Israeli leaders have publicly backed a proposal by US President Donald Trump to empty Gaza of Palestinians and transform the coastal strip into the "Riviera of the Middle East."
“I believe the EU will find it extraordinarily difficult to ever be a union in any sense again when some of its strongest members are deciding to stay silent in watching emaciated," said Irish President Michael Higgins.
Irish President Michael Higgins on Tuesday shamed fellow European nations for their inaction in ending the conflict in Gaza.
As reported by Turkish news website AA, Higgins pointed to the finding by the United Nations' (UN) commission of inquiry that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza to argue that the world needed to do more to end the carnage.
Specifically, Higgins argued that Israel and any nations that supply it with arms should be expelled from the UN. He also had harsh words for European Union (EU) nations whom he accused of looking the other way in the face of mass atrocities.
"I believe the EU will find it extraordinarily difficult to ever be a union in any sense again when some of its strongest members are deciding to stay silent in watching emaciated children in what is a human, manmade, really atrocious infliction on people," he said.
Higgins also highlighted some particularly gruesome findings from the commission's report to push for the EU to take action to "stop this carnage" and the "slaughter of civilians."
"That report says 90% of all housing has been destroyed, education facilities have been destroyed, and healthcare facilities and fertility facilities are being destroyed—in other words, you're attacking birth," he said.
The UN commission's report concluded that Israel had committed four distinct kinds of "genocidal acts," as defined by the 1948 Genocide Convention: Killing members of a group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to a group, deliberately inflicting conditions aimed at bringing about a group's destruction, and imposing measures intended to prevent births within a group.
The only genocidal act that Israel has not yet committed, the report said, was forcibly transferring children of a group to a different group.
Navi Pillay, the commission chair and former UN high commissioner for human rights, said that report shows Israel has shown "an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention."