Peking Duck Found To Prevent Heart Disease & Cancer, FDA Banned it in USA , As 80,000 Peking Ducks Die in Tornado!

Strange coincidence or what?

Red yeast rice is rice that has been fermented by the red yeast, Monascus purpureus. It has been used by the Chinese for many centuries as a food preservative, food colorant (it is responsible for the red color of Peking duck. Red yeast rice can cut the risk of dying from heart disease by a third and cancer by two-thirds, scientists say.

Researchers looking at red yeast rice said the benefits of the Chinese food colouring even seemed to outstrip those of statins - the much vaunted cholesterol-lowering drugs.

Describing the effects as ' profound', they said extract of the fermented rice could play an important part in improving heart health.

Peking duck is 'better for your heart than statins'

By Fiona Macrae
Last updated at 12:07 AM on 10th June 2008

w.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1025277/Quack-medicine-Pekin​g-duck-better-heart-statins.html

When the FDA figured out that red yeast rice contained a regulated substance, an effective drug protected under patent law, it banned red yeast rice products, unless manufacturers took extra steps to remove the lovastatin.
Red yeast rice in the past reduced cholesterol levels because it contained (among many other chemicals), one of the statin drugs, namely lovastatin. (The statin drugs are the most effective cholesterol-lowering agents used in medicine today. They were originally derived from yeast products.)

Studies using the "original" form of red yeast rice accordingly confirmed significant reductions in cholesterol levels.

However, the story does not stop there. In fact, the story became pretty confusing right after the clinicals studies confirming the efficacy of red yeast rice were published in 1999. First, because red yeast rice was found to contain lovastatin, the FDA made an administrative decision that this dietary supplement (often sold as Cholestin in earlier times) was a regulable drug, and thus removed it from the unregulated shelves of the health food store.
[link to ]
heartdisease.about.com/cs/cholesterol/a/Nrxcol_rry.htm

Peking Duck under threat as 80,000 birds die in Chinese storm

A small tornado-like wind struck Beijing's suburban Shunyi County on Friday July 4. A poultry farm suffered heavy losses with about eighty thousand of its ducks killed when their pen collapsed. The big image on the front page shows the devastated poultry farm.

The farm is a main supplier to Beijing's well-known Peking duck chain Quanjude. It is not yet clear if this incident will have any effect on the price of Beijing famous roast duck.

According to Liu Chengzhi, manager of the farm, the twister struck on July 4 at around 6:10pm during a rain storm.

"It was a black one, as big as ten village houses. Trees were ripped out from their roots" recalled Liu. According to him, about 100 acres of duck pens collapsed. The estimated losses are about 3 million yuan.


The disaster threatens to cause price hikes and the availability of China's famous dish, Peking Duck, as the farm is a main supplier to Beijing's restaurant chain, Quanjude, famous for its trademark Quanjude Peking Roast Duck.

w.danwei.org/front_page_of_the_day/eighty_thousand_of_peking_​duck.php

As recently as the summer of 2007, the FDA issued "warnings" that certain over-the-counter red yeast rice products from at least two companies still contained lovastatin and announced that it was taking immediate steps to remove these illegal products from the shelves.

ww.fda.gov/medwatch/safety/2007/safety07.htm#redyeast