It’s October and PINK is starting to show up everywhere! In fact, coming home from the seminar this weekend I saw a “PinkAd” in the airport claiming that by purchasing Minute Maid Pink Lemonade, I could join Delta Airlines in finding a cure for breast cancer! Here’s a funny little bit of info…
Minute Maid Pink Lemonade Ingredients:
Filtered water, sweetener (HFCS, Sugar), Lemon Juice, Natural Flavors, Citric Acid, Modified Corn Starch, Glycerol Ester of Wood Resin, Sodium hexametaphosphate, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, EDTA & Red 40.
The bold ingredients are known carcinogens. Let that sink in. Interestingly enough, EDTA is a heavy metal chelator, which makes me wonder if it’s in there because without it, you would die instantly from all the toxic chemicals found within this pink lemonade. Anyway, why aren’t they making pink lemonade from real pink lemons? Variegated lemons/Eureka lemons naturally have a unique pink flesh and are green skinned! You could avoid all the coloring.
This is yet another example of the common practice of “PinkWashing,” the practice of latching onto the emotional reaction to breast cancer (or any cancer for that matter) to increase your likely decision to buy a given product. And it doesn’t matter at all that many of these chosen “pink items” themselves are actually causing the very condition they are raising money to cure.
Beyond that, the majority of funds raised do not actually go toward new research for techniques or therapies for the prevention and/or cure of cancer. Sadly, according to a recent study, the majority of monies raised from “pink items’ and pink races/donations simply go to either administrative costs of the organizations and companies hosting the fundraiser, or for funding the treatment of current cancer patients–which they probably see as a godsend, but they don’t realize that at an overall 2% success rate, they are getting money to receive ineffective cancer therapies.
Here are some of the more absurd examples.
KFC Buckets For The Cure
This one, in my opinion, is the most outrageous of all campaigns. The
National Cancer Institute has published numerous studies associating
colorectal, pancreatic and breast cancer with “high intakes of well-done, fried and/or barbecued meats.” KFC states “for every bucket sold we will donate…” yet in 2016 the fine print stated that only a $1 Million donation would be made regardless of the purchase amounts.
Avon Breast Cancer Crusaders
Avon, the majority sponsor of many breast cancer walks, continues the use of this cancer platform to sell millions of dollars in beauty products. The Environmental Working Group currently classifies more than 140 of Avon’s products as “High Hazard” due to the presence of carcinogenic chemicals, neurotoxins and hormone disruptors (which are the leading cause of breast/ovarian and uterine cancers).
Campbell’s Pink Can Tomato Soup
Campbell’s partners with various supermarket chains to push a limited-edition pink label on its tomato soups in October. A recent study published by the Breast Cancer Fund found alarmingly high levels of Bisphenol-A (BPA) in the cans’ inner lining. This estrogenic (estrogen like) chemical has known carcinogenic properties.
Yoplait Yogart Lids Campaigns
Find yourself opening a pink yogurt lid? Yoplait claims to donate 10 cents for every lid up to $2.0 million annually once you mail the lids to them. The challenge here is you would need to eat gallons of their product to make a simple $10 donation and the majority of Yoplait is sourced via non-organic, corn fed dairy cows that are treated with rbGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone) and various antibiotics – each of which is known to have carcinogenic effects in humans.
Pink M&Ms
M&M partnered with Susan G Komen to form a new color option (Pink & White) again to support breast cancer awareness and donate money to a cure. 50 cents is donated for each bag purchased yet they are loaded with almost every carcinogenic artificial food color known: Blue 1 & 2, Red 40, Yellow 5 & 6 along with highly toxic sweetness (sugar, corn syrup and dextrin).
I am all for awareness. I am all for EXPOSING the cures (yes, various cures for cancer have been discovered and exiled from public knowledge – some dating back as early as the 1800s).
This October I encourage you to reprogram your thinking when it comes to CANCER. Its mostly an INDUSTRY designed to trick you into thinking we’re close to a cure and sell you products that actually cause cancer!
