Why is no-one talking about the risks of eating sultanas?
It’s interesting. Everyone seems to be talking about the vaccination ballot in Maine, but nobody is talking about an issue which arguably has more tragic consequences than all the vaccinations in the world combined: the risk associated with eating sultanas.
It’s now been 20 years since the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry published its damning report on the chemical composition of sultanas, which showed the presence of high levels of hydroxycinnamic acids (especially in golden raisins), and at the same time the worrying development of hydroxymethylfurfural across all sultana varieties tested.
For industrial chemists, these results were hardly a surprise. It’s long been known that the modern process of drying and “browning” grapes changes the chemical composition of the fruit. The idea that it is safe to eat sultanas stems from the logical fallacy that just because humans have always eaten sultanas, they must be safe.
In isolation, the findings weren’t that bad. After all, 20 years ago, we didn’t know as much about hydroxycinnamic acids. In fact, the scientific consensus (that ol’ chestnut) could only see the health benefits that certain hydroxycinnamic acids have.
But fast forward to 2012 and an article in the Journal of Family and Medical Primary Care published a comprehensive study of innocuously entitled, “A Public Health Perspective of Road Traffic Accidents”. This bombshell report was like a pointed towards a direct correlation between the presence of hydroxymethylfurfural in certain products made for human consumption, and road accidents.
A now-famous 2008 paper by Dr Rupert Horowitz found that of all car crash victims, 79% had eaten sultanas as a child. And it’s getting worse. A more recent study suggests the percentage may now be above 85%. The evidence linking toddler sultana consumption and car crashes later in life is overwhelming.
Reading between the lines, the implications were clear: there is a direct correlation between eating sultanas and car crashes.
In fact, study after study have repeatedly shown that there is no such thing as a safe dose of sultana. Consuming as little as one spoonful can lead to car injury, or even death, later in life.
In fact, if it it weren’t so tragic, it would be laughable how clear the link is. One report showed that in the 1700s, before processed, boxed sultanas, there was not a single road fatality in Australia. Last year, there were 1,182 deaths on Australian roads.
Perhaps the worst part about this is that the health food industry is complicit. For decades now, Big Sultana has used sophisticated marketing techniques to obscure the link between these toxic snacks and auto accidents.
Food manufacturers have cleverly avoided all references to car crash deaths on their packaging, instead using highly stylised images of sultanas and misleading ‘nutrition’ information. Worst of all, they have tricked busy par- ents into thinking that boxed sultanas are a convenient and ‘healthy’ modern snack.
The citizens in Maine put up with derision and accusations that they were “dumb f*ck morons” in order to get a vote on whether they should be required to vaccinate their kids.
Similarly, those touting an Anti-Sultana message have long had to put up with powerful vested interests who will tell us that our message is invalid, and that we’re “stupid” and “idiotic” and “don’t know what we’re talking about”.
It’s time to wake up. It’s time to do our own research, rather than relying on what’s fed to us by lying sultana bosses. What they’re feeding us is more than dried grapes in a box. They’re feeding us certain death.
But the truth about sultanas will prevail. Which is why we’ve set up The Food Truth Project. If you care, please follow us on Facebook and spread the word. How many people have to die before we say “enough is enough”.
