Before you start reading the article about antibiotics in meat, we recommend reading our previous post about the use of antibiotics in the food industry in general.
Antibiotics in meat
Cattle, pigs and poultry are treated, as well as people, also with antibiotics. Moreover, animals are injected during a period of rapid growth and then given medications with feed and vitamin complexes as a preventive measure against diseases.
It is known that the conditions of keeping animals on large farms are such that it is impossible to do without adding antibiotics to the feed. However, this is due not only to the fact that large manufacturers are trying to reduce the incidence of animals, but also to the “side” effects of the use of feed antibiotics. The fact is that due to the addition of antibiotics to the feed, young animals develop better and grow faster.
The problem is that the antibiotics contained in meat in residual amounts enter our body, cause allergies, the habituation of pathogenic microflora to them, the formation of dormant infection. The body becomes immune to many drugs based on them. This in turn leads to the fact that it becomes much easier for pathogenic microorganisms to undermine our health.
According to doctors, the most dangerous remains of antibiotics in meat for young children. This is due to the fact that antibiotics lead to the death of not only pathogenic, but also beneficial bacteria for the body. According to studies conducted in the USA, this is one of the reasons for frequent recurrence of ear infections in children.
In order to remove antibiotics from meat, there is a simple way – before slaughter, the animal must be kept for 7-10 days without drugs. Antibiotics are not heavy metals, they do not accumulate in the body.
However, there is no guarantee that large farms adhere to this rule.
Antibiotics in fish and seafood
Another category of products that are exposed to antibiotics is seafood. They even arrange bathing in levomycetin. Therefore, in order to avoid indirect antibiotic therapy, it is necessary, if possible, to choose fish and shrimp caught in an open pond, and not grown in nurseries.
It is important to know that if this drug remains in the animal’s body, then most of it is in the liver and kidneys.
Dairy industry and antibiotics
In general, the dairy industry is better than, for example, meat, because additives in the form of soy and substitutes are simply unacceptable. The composition of milk is only natural elements, there is no doubt about it. Milk comes directly from farms for production.
The mechanism of getting antibiotics into the milk. Cows are treated, therefore, planned prevention of animals is carried out and antibiotics are present in cow meat. And what is used on cows naturally gets into the milk. According to the established norms, milk, which is obtained within 5-10 days after vaccination, should simply merge. It is harmful to people, the composition of milk after such measures can be harmful, because when they enter the human body, they cause the immunity of microflora to this type of antibiotics, at best, and at worst – kill the entire microflora. After that, allergies, dysbiosis and the like may appear. But, due to the fact that there is a shortage of milk, producers buy up any milk, even diluted with antibiotic. The concentration is lower, but the fact of the content of antibiotics in the milk is.
Antibiotics in meat and their destruction during heat treatment
You can often hear that antibiotics in meat, milk and eggs are destroyed during heat treatment and, thus, cannot have any effect on the health of those who consume these products. And really, no one eats meat raw, milk is pasteurized, and eggs are not recommended to eat raw. So there’s no reason to worry about antibiotics in these products?
The expert tried to understand this issue and came to the conclusion that by heat treatment it is only possible to partially get rid of antibiotics. For example, there is data on how the antibiotic tetracycline is digested from a chicken carcass. After thirty minutes of cooking, it remains in the muscles of the broiler in the form of traces, and after another 30 minutes it completely turns into broth. What about milk and eggs? No one boils milk for 30 minutes and does not boil eggs for so long. Not to mention that no similar data has been found about other antibiotics. And what about grilled meat or barbecue? Thus, antibiotics are partially destroyed during heat treatment. But some of the antibiotics remain and enter the human body.