High mycotoxin levels present in corn, even masa harina

freal

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Mycotoxins are toxins produced by mold and are extremely toxic, more so than pesticides. Levels of 1500 ppb or 1,5ppm were found in dog food and was responsible for dog poisoning in a very short time.

Its not just corn, all grains are infested with mold and mycotoxins but in most grain we only eat the inner endsperm and not the outer layer of bran which has the most mold and mycotoxins. Corn is the most notorious and is infested especially with the most toxic mycotoxin-aflatoxins

The traditional proces of nixtamalization does reduce mycotoxins substantially , like 90%-94%, but the modern commercial process is somehow shortened, the corn is not soaked for a longer period and the process is done quickly.

Some analysis of american tortillas I could found show high infestation:
http://www.skinandallergynews.com/filea ... 4_main.pdf

The question about the safety of eating any corn or masa harina remains, I wonder how many liver cirrhosis are not diagnosed properly but are due to mycotoxins??If anybody can find any studies or analysis on mycotoxin levels in commercial corn products I would really be interested.
 

messtafarian

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I did a quick search on this and didnt find anything. The problem with something like this is that people who do this kind of testing are part of the Big Food congloms and they'll be keeping that info to themselves, thanks.

Best you can probably do is make your own masa harina. I've been working with coconut flour a little bit -- I think homemade masa might be my next stop.
 
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freal

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I also found these, analysis of Serbian supermarket cereals and British supermarket maize products

http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0352 ... 17079M.pdf

http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10 ... 946100.pdf


The mycotoxins in the tortillas were fumonisins which are acceptable up to 2ppm and all are safe.Everything is OK in UK and Serbian. Its seem that corn is safe, the only thing that suprised me whas that buckwheat is also high in mycotoxin vomitoxin(DON), but its like 2ppm which is under the limit of 5ppm.
 
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freal

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Hmm. Funny thing,coconut is also extremely infested with mold, half of Srilankan coconut oil from dried copra has aflatoxins levels between 50-250 ppb. The legal limit in US corn is 20ppb.

http://dl.nsf.ac.lk/bitstream/1/6094/1/ ... _2_225.pdf

Well, its seem that there is no perfect food, there is always some kind of poison in it.
This could explain why some people experience problems with coconut oil. Well I wont be looking itno this topic anymore.
 

jyb

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freal said:
Hmm. Funny thing,coconut is also extremely infested with mold, half of Srilankan coconut oil from dried copra has aflatoxins levels between 50-250 ppb. The legal limit in US corn is 20ppb.

http://dl.nsf.ac.lk/bitstream/1/6094/1/ ... _2_225.pdf

Well, its seem that there is no perfect food, there is always some kind of poison in it.
This could explain why some people experience problems with coconut oil. Well I wont be looking itno this topic anymore.

Interesting but that's 1983, would need to see if practices have changed since then.
 

Intention

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I like masa harina, what a shame.
I've found some list of mycotoxins in the food, milk and dairy and sugar( cane and sugar beets ) is also on the list.

http://www.fehd.gov.hk/english/safefood ... ins/3.html

"One food that is not mentioned on the list is coconut oil. I want to point out that, while coconut oil is an incredible food in terms of nutrition and taste, many coconut oils contain mycotoxins.

This is because they are commonly made with copras, or dried coconuts, which are often contaminated with mycotoxins. So in order to fully enjoy the benefits of this coconut oil, you will want to be sure that you find a company that uses only fresh coconuts to make their oil, like the virgin coconut oil on this site. With that, here's the top-10 list of mycotoxic foods that you will want to avoid"

http://www.healingnaturallybybee.com/ar ... oods32.php

I would add that berries also.
 

jyb

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I have never read anything from RP about those toxins in either coffee or coconut oil. Since RP is usually meticulous about supplements, I assumed this mean that it wasn't a concern. It's like the pesticides on coffee if its not organic, he mentioned it shouldn't matter as the roasting process destroys those chemicals. I hope the mycotoxin concern is not founded, but otherwise good luck trying to find out whether the brand you're using has a reasonable amount or not.
 

Intention

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jyb,

Do you think that Ray Peat knows everything?He didn't make study about mycotoxin.
 

4peatssake

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jaa said:
I'm gonna just stop eating everything :D
vegan-cartoon.jpg
 

Intention

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Heh. Not funny really, because maybe this mycotoxins can cause problem for people who are more sensitive.
 
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freal

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Well I dont know, I started this topic to somehow just tell you that this even exist, because I did not know it even exists before that.

If you ask me now I dont think that mycotoxins are the biggest problem in corn and other grains, but dessicetant herbicides, mostly glyphosate, EU allows 1ppm in corn, 10ppm in wheat and 20ppm in sunflowers. Ppm is mg/kg and thats huge. Donmt forget that most GMO are actually genetically modified to be glyphosate tolerant.
 

jyb

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RP from private email:

Since animal studies show good health effects of both of them [coconut oil and coffee], and bad effects of other foods such as peanuts, wheat, and corn, the contamination is probably low. Hexane extraction seems to eliminate it, and it apparently declines in stored oil with time.

I think the oils marketed as more pure avoid hexane. If so, then its a bit like for orange juice and a few other things, the pricier products are not necessarily better.
 

BaconBits

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jyb said:
RP from private email:

Since animal studies show good health effects of both of them [coconut oil and coffee], and bad effects of other foods such as peanuts, wheat, and corn, the contamination is probably low. Hexane extraction seems to eliminate it, and it apparently declines in stored oil with time.

I think the oils marketed as more pure avoid hexane. If so, then its a bit like for orange juice and a few other things, the pricier products are not necessarily better.

But there is also a different kind of "refined" coconut oil, like a second press from the leftover coconut meat from virgin oil centrifuging or light pressing that was then steam deodorized. But there is little information on internet.

I could not get Tropical traditions to tell me how they make theirs expeller pressed coconut oil.
 

jyb

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freal said:
Well I dont know, I started this topic to somehow just tell you that this even exist, because I did not know it even exists before that.

If you ask me now I dont think that mycotoxins are the biggest problem in corn and other grains, but dessicetant herbicides, mostly glyphosate, EU allows 1ppm in corn, 10ppm in wheat and 20ppm in sunflowers. Ppm is mg/kg and thats huge. Donmt forget that most GMO are actually genetically modified to be glyphosate tolerant.

Just a detail but want to clarify... you say that the herbicides are in ppm, while the mycotoxin are in ppb. But its not because they are in smaller concentration that they are less harmful.
 
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freal

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jyb said:
freal said:
Well I dont know, I started this topic to somehow just tell you that this even exist, because I did not know it even exists before that.

If you ask me now I dont think that mycotoxins are the biggest problem in corn and other grains, but dessicetant herbicides, mostly glyphosate, EU allows 1ppm in corn, 10ppm in wheat and 20ppm in sunflowers. Ppm is mg/kg and thats huge. Donmt forget that most GMO are actually genetically modified to be glyphosate tolerant.

Just a detail but want to clarify... you say that the herbicides are in ppm, while the mycotoxin are in ppb. But its not because they are in smaller concentration that they are less harmful.

Well mycotoxins and glyphosate are quite different. Its like comparing apples and oranges. Mycotoxins mostly only affect the digestive system and the liver. The only really toxic mycotoxins aflatoxin is regularly monitered, while the others like fumonisins are quite harmless. Some mycotoxins like DON are in toxic in ppm, some like aflatoxin are toxic in ppb. There are many mycotoxins.

While glyphosate is an endocrine disrupter, antibiotic at 0.1 ppm, mineral chelator, toxic to the digestive tract, carcinogenic. You just dont see this high levels of pesticides, only if the crop was dessicated or there is a GMO glyphosate tollerant variety. Dessication should be banned like in Switzerland and GMOs labeled. But not all crops are dessicated, 70% of sunflowers for example. Mostly legumes and things like barley. Wheat is still quite low.

If you go dose by dose aflatoxin is by far more toxic (but its not found because its quite controlled), glyphosate is not directly toxic to animals, since is a herbicide, which means a plant biocide.
 

jyb

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freal said:
If you go dose by dose aflatoxin is by far more toxic (but its not found because its quite controlled), glyphosate is not directly toxic to animals, since is a herbicide, which means a plant biocide.

Note that the control isn't rigorous. The brand I use now for example has no check, even though the seller says its ok for both topical and oral consumption, because the product is entirely "natural": the EU controls, which would include a mycotxin check, don't apply to this coconut oil.
 
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freal

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jyb said:
freal said:
If you go dose by dose aflatoxin is by far more toxic (but its not found because its quite controlled), glyphosate is not directly toxic to animals, since is a herbicide, which means a plant biocide.

Note that the control isn't rigorous. The brand I use now for example has no check, even though the seller says its ok for both topical and oral consumption, because the product is entirely "natural": the EU controls, which would include a mycotxin check, don't apply to this coconut oil.

Well, you just cant be sure. Did you know that nobody,not even US government test if the food is in accordance to its legal limits. I was wondering if glyphosate remains in the refined soybean oil and even asked Dr. Don Huber since he was an expert in GMO, even he did not know the answer, nobody ever tested it. US EPA allows 40ppm in soybean oilseed products.

The manufacturer just says everything is in the legal limits and if not they ask the EPA to up the limits, like they did this june 2013, from 20ppm to 40 ppm in oilseeds.
 
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