In my last post I talked about the need for a positive mind frame to create a sense of well-being. While mindset is one of the factors for a healthy life, there are many others. As I have been travelling recently I was surprised at how difficult it is in the U.S. to actually eat healthily while away from home. While camping in a wilderness all my food was organic and non-GMO because I bought it at my local organic store and prepared it myself. However, when I was travelling on the road the only thing I could do was to search out organic stores when they occurred and to be aware of my food and suppliers of food. I had to decide what brands were not acceptable, what foods were more likely to be contaminated with pesticides, and which foods were highly processed. It got me thinking how much effort I had to take to ensure my foot was unadulterated. The average person is probably unaware of much of the knowledge I had to make good food choices, so getting the message out becomes much more of an imperative. This is a dilemma I always have when trying to focus positively on change yet have to bring out the problems inherent in our food systems.
Some 25 years ago, a landmark study by the National Academy of Sciences came out outlining the problems of toxic pesticides to children especially. While there has been some regulation on many of the worst pesticides, the onslaught on all our health by the pesticide industry remains as bad today (in some cases even worse) than when that study came out just focused on childrens’ health. The usual suspects for modern pesticide residues that remain in food are Glyphosate (Round-up), Organophosphates like Chlorpyrifos, the re-emergence of wonderful Vietnam era defoliant agent Orange (under its active chemical names, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T), which also contain traces of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), which is a byproduct of this herbicides production.
Where you live also makes a difference. Live in wonderful rural settings among fields of modern agrichemical business and you are more likely to suffer more from pesticides drift and groundwater contamination along with the pesticide residues in the food itself. I was in California this week travelling through fields of active crop growing. I could not help but notice many laborers bent over in the fields picking the produce for market, but also in adjacent fields of other crops, men in ‘moon suits’ with full respirators spraying the crops with pesticides. You may, or may not, have any sympathy for the poor laborers and their back-breaking poorly paid work to bring your produce to market, but I had to wonder if they had been told about the toxic chemicals being sprayed in the fields so close to them. (The social justice of worker exploitation is a whole other blog post sometime.) A point I am making here is that often the crop is sprayed before it is harvested so pesticide residues are a given whether you live rurally por in an urban environment. I commented in an earlier blog post about the problems of letting our food be grown by chemical corporations (Monsanto and Bayer – Pesticides and Chemicals as the Basis of Our Society).
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) keeps track of foods that are more hazardous that we think ought to be healthy. If you do eat conventionally grown foods then I recommend you look up things like the ‘Dirty Dozen foods’ and how to minimize your exposure to toxins you shouldn’t be exposed to at any time, let alone be allowed to eat everyday. AS I have said many times, look for certified organically grown crops and non-GMOs options. At this time they will cost a bit more, but not necessarily. Look for local farmers stands and farmers markets (see earlier posts about this). I was quite surprised how many local farmers had organic produce on stands along the roads. Most had great information from the farmers about their philosophies for going organic and evidence to show they are organic. Besides all that I also noted how many were growing ‘heirloom’ species that taste great – much better then many of the new hybrids built to withstand mechanical harvesting – and were as healthy as you could get them i.e. no toxic chemicals involved.
I have to admit that when it comes to food, California is an unusual place. There are miles and miles of conventional crop fields (didn’t see much number 2 corn or soybean as I would throughout the mid-west farming areas) using lots of chemicals, but also lots of organic farming also being done. The more people that support organic the cheaper that food will become. It really comes down to all us making sounds choices for our health and the health of those around us. The sustainable farming guru, Joel Salatin, a few years ago said, “If you think the price of organic food is expensive, have you priced cancer lately.” Remember, unless you are actually sprayed with these toxins directly (acute exposure), the symptoms of toxins can take years to build up in your body (chronic low exposure) – see post (Health – Sickcare 1). While the hierarchy may control much of our society, we as individuals do have the power to make our own decisions. If you choose health, then become informed, inform others, and create that consumer sovereignty!
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