83.
Chemicals, Chemicals, Everywhere
Floating Around In An Ocean Of Chemicals
In all of recorded history, humanity has never been engaged in a battle as significant as the one we face today. Never has our future been threatened as severely as it is now. The enemy is not a terrorist organization or a rogue nation seeking global domination; it is the environment we have created, the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we consume. We have taken the gifts of life presented to us and poisoned them.
Over the last two centuries, the human race has radically altered this planet and in so doing has radically reduced its own capacity to deal with toxic exposure.
Over the last two centuries, the human race has radically altered this planet and in so doing has radically reduced its own capacity to deal with toxic exposure.
Very, very large tract of land was lying vacant, nobody is producing any food. They are producing coffee.
How they will be happy? It is not possible. Most sinful activities. You produce your food. The bull will help you. And the cows will supply you milk. They are considered to be father and mother. Just like father earns money for feeding the children, similarly, the bulls help producing, plowing, producing food grains, and the cow gives milk, mother. And what is this civilization, killing father and mother? This is not good civilization. It will not stay. There will be catastrophe, waiting. Many times it has happened, and it will happen because transgressing the law of nature, or laws of God, is most sinful. That is sinful. Just like you become criminal by transgressing the law of state, similarly, when you transgress the law of God, then you are sinful.
~Srila Prabhupada
The human body possesses an incomprehensible wisdom that we have yet to fully grasp, a wisdom that enables us to heal from a multitude of injuries, illnesses, and traumas. However, our bodies were not designed to manage the magnitude of toxicity we expose them to every day. The result is an epidemic of cancer, respiratory and heart disease, diabetes, allergies, and a multitude of other environmental and physical illnesses. Detoxification, on both a global and a personal level, has become a necessity in our modern world.
Toxins are substances that disrupt the normal healthy flow within our bodies. Literally thousands of toxins and harmful synthetic chemicals lurk in our food, air, water, clothes, homes, and workplaces.
The very things that should nourish our bodies or comfort us are often making us ill. They take the form of foods, cleaning products, beauty and hygiene products, cooking oils, food additives, pesticides and herbicides, industrial chemicals in our air, damaging emotions, sugar, and much more.
Toxins are substances that disrupt the normal healthy flow within our bodies. Literally thousands of toxins and harmful synthetic chemicals lurk in our food, air, water, clothes, homes, and workplaces.
The very things that should nourish our bodies or comfort us are often making us ill. They take the form of foods, cleaning products, beauty and hygiene products, cooking oils, food additives, pesticides and herbicides, industrial chemicals in our air, damaging emotions, sugar, and much more.
Chemical Allergies And Modern Foods
An additional source of chemicals, which is still not generally appreciated by the medical profession and others, is the widespread use of pesticides and insecticides. These not only add toxic residues to fruits, vegetables and other food crops, but also contaminate meat and milk. Thus, another burden of toxicity is added to our already overloaded systems, resulting in allergic responses and a hastening of the degenerative disease process.
With thousands of varieties of pesticides in common use, what chance has the human body, when even fresh food is loaded with chemicals before reaching the table!
With thousands of varieties of pesticides in common use, what chance has the human body, when even fresh food is loaded with chemicals before reaching the table!
“But perhaps the most alarming ingredient in a Chicken McNugget is tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to "help preserve freshness." According to A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives, TBHQ is a form of butane (i.e. lighter fluid) the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food: It can comprise no more than 0.02 percent of the oil in a nugget. Which is probably just as well, considering that ingesting a single gram of TBHQ can cause "nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse." Ingesting five grams of TBHQ can kill.”
~ Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
If you think negative, stressful thoughts much of the time, your body will create stress hormones that send messages throughout your body to divert its energy into protecting you from danger even if that danger is really self-imposed. These stress hormones are beneficial in truly stressful life-and-death situations, but when they are released over long periods of time, they damage your body.
You are exposed to many different toxins in an average day. The food and beverages you eat and drink are often full of sugar, synthetic chemicals, and hydrogenated fats. You may be eating excessive amounts of trans fats or animal protein that have a negative impact on your kidneys. The soap, skin-care and hair-care products, and perfumes and colognes you use are typically loaded with toxic chemicals you absorb through your skin or lungs.
If you are frequently stressed out, your body secretes hormones that wreak havoc on your body over time. If you use pharmaceutical or over-the-counter medications, they often contain chemical fillers, heavy metals, and substances that have to be filtered by your body’s detoxification systems. Depending on your lifestyle, you may be adding further toxins to an already overloaded system. These may include household cleaning products, building and furnishing materials in your home, cigarette smoke, recreational drugs, or excessive alcohol consumption.
Our bodies have developed sophisticated detoxification mechanisms over many thousands of years to eliminate most of the naturally produced toxins they encounter on a regular basis. The Industrial Revolution and its resulting synthetic chemicals found in places such as food, water, soil, air, household and workplace materials, and medicine have created a new dilemma for the human body. Our bodies simply cannot handle the onslaught of synthetic chemicals we throw at them. We may be able to handle some of these toxins but over time, the large amount consumed, drunk, inhaled, or absorbed by the average person greatly exceeds his or her body’s capacity.
You are exposed to many different toxins in an average day. The food and beverages you eat and drink are often full of sugar, synthetic chemicals, and hydrogenated fats. You may be eating excessive amounts of trans fats or animal protein that have a negative impact on your kidneys. The soap, skin-care and hair-care products, and perfumes and colognes you use are typically loaded with toxic chemicals you absorb through your skin or lungs.
If you are frequently stressed out, your body secretes hormones that wreak havoc on your body over time. If you use pharmaceutical or over-the-counter medications, they often contain chemical fillers, heavy metals, and substances that have to be filtered by your body’s detoxification systems. Depending on your lifestyle, you may be adding further toxins to an already overloaded system. These may include household cleaning products, building and furnishing materials in your home, cigarette smoke, recreational drugs, or excessive alcohol consumption.
Our bodies have developed sophisticated detoxification mechanisms over many thousands of years to eliminate most of the naturally produced toxins they encounter on a regular basis. The Industrial Revolution and its resulting synthetic chemicals found in places such as food, water, soil, air, household and workplace materials, and medicine have created a new dilemma for the human body. Our bodies simply cannot handle the onslaught of synthetic chemicals we throw at them. We may be able to handle some of these toxins but over time, the large amount consumed, drunk, inhaled, or absorbed by the average person greatly exceeds his or her body’s capacity.
You Are What You Eat And Drink
Lets say that you just bought a beautiful new vehicle. It looks fabulous and you are so proud to own it. What would happen if you used poor-quality gasoline as fuel? It contains residue and useless by-products of the drilling and refining processes. Over time, that gorgeous new vehicle would get poorer and poorer gas mileage, it might start having engine knock and excessive wear, and eventually the engine would likely malfunction. Your body is similar to a vehicle in that it requires high-quality fuel to function properly. By high quality, I am referring to food that Nature provides that is loaded with plentiful amounts of vitamins, minerals, fibre, enzymes, and many other building blocks to great health. These are the things holistic health practitioners are talking about when they refer to nutrition.
North American diet is increasingly replacing traditional diet all over the world. This diet has been rightly referred to as no-trition. The average person eats large amounts of fatty foods; animal protein; sugar; and packaged, prepared, or fast foods.
Imagine if every day you poured bacon fat down the drain of your kitchen sink. The drainage pipes were designed to handle water and small particles of food. If you keep pouring bacon fat into the drain, it will clog and become ineffective at allowing water through the very substance it was designed to handle.
North American diet is increasingly replacing traditional diet all over the world. This diet has been rightly referred to as no-trition. The average person eats large amounts of fatty foods; animal protein; sugar; and packaged, prepared, or fast foods.
Imagine if every day you poured bacon fat down the drain of your kitchen sink. The drainage pipes were designed to handle water and small particles of food. If you keep pouring bacon fat into the drain, it will clog and become ineffective at allowing water through the very substance it was designed to handle.
"Modern agriculture is the use of land to convert petroleum into food. Without Petroleum we will not be able to feed the global population.”
~Professor Albert Bartlett
The same is true of your body. It was never designed to handle the artificial chemicals used by the food-processing industry. You may be surprised to learn that more than three thousand additives and preservatives are found in our food supply today1 before that food reaches your table. It is inundated with artificial colours, flavours, flavour enhancers, bleach, texture agents, conditioners, acid/base balancers, ripening gases, waxes, firming agents, nutrient enrichers, preservatives, heavy metals, and other chemicals that find their way into your food.
Even before that food is processed, your food has been sprayed with pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides, most of which are linked to health problems in humans. An apple a day might have kept the doctor away prior to the industrialization of food growing and preparation.
According to research compiled by the United States Drug Administration (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service, Pesticide Data Program, todays apple contains residue of many toxic chemicals used during the growing process. In only one category of chemicals, known as organophosphate insecticides, this federal government agency found residue of many different neurotoxins: azinophos, methyl chloripyrifos, diazinon, dimethoate, ethion, omethioate, parathion, parathion methyl, phosalone, and phosmet.
That doesnt sound too appetizing, does it? Neurotoxins are substances that medical research has proven to be toxic to the brain and nervous system of humans. You may be thinking, Well, in minute amounts maybe pesticides are okay. Think again. The average apple is sprayed with pesticides seventeen times before it is harvested. A study by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identified more than fifty-five pesticides that can leave cancer-causing residues in food2.
According to the Natural Resource Defense Council, the use of pesticides has risen more than tenfold since the 1940s. Currently, over 1.2 billion pounds of pesticides are used in agriculture every year in the United States alone.3
Dr. Patricia Fitzgerald cites a study by the Pesticide Action Network in her book The Detox Solution, showing that more than fifty million pounds of fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, and soil fumigants were applied to farmland in California alone in 1998.4
Every year over 2.5 billion pounds of pesticides are dumped on crop lands, forests, lawns, and fields.5
Pesticides are not water-soluble. That means they are not easily washed off apples or any other food. The same is true once they are in your body, they are hard to eliminate. Fat-soluble pesticides are actually attracted to the fat stores in your body. Don’t have much fat? Your body will start to hold fat to prevent these toxins from running rampant throughout your bloodstream. In your body’s innate wisdom, it recognizes that these substances cause damage if they travel through your blood so it attaches them to fat in your body. That spells weight gain and difficulty losing weight at best. At worst, these dangerous neurotoxins attack your body’s organs, tissues, brain, and nervous system.
Consider one well-known pesticide that was banned in Canada and the United States three decades ago, DDT. It is still being manufactured and exported around the world to appear in our foods.6 According to Dr. Fitzgerald, Each year, the EPA performs a study of the chemicals found in human fat tissue samples. DDT continues to be found in 100% of the tissue examined.7
Dr. Jozef Krop, a leading environmental medicine physician in Canada, asks a poignant question in his book Healing the Planet One Patient at a Time: When the food we eat is grown in nutrient-poor soil, watered with acid rain, sprayed with pesticides, and treated with food additives, and when the water we drink and the air we breathe are also contaminated, is it any wonder that chemicals have been detected in human blood and fat tissue?
Not only is today’s apple not adequate to keep the doctor away, it is more likely to keep the doctor on call. Virtually every food item that is grown using commercial (non-organic) farming techniques contains these or other neurotoxins.
And what if that apple is processed into a frozen apple pie or the fast-food apple pies we consume in droves? There is a good chance that this apple will transform from a nutritious food into a toxic food-like substance we call food. Any of several thousand chemicals will be added to this apple during the many stages of processing.
Have you ever noticed that the incidence of food allergies and sensitivities seems to be higher than ever? I believe that many people are reacting to the potentially thousands of chemicals used in the growing and processing of foods, rather than the foods themselves.
Of course, some people are reacting to the food. But, considering that the average person eats 124 pounds of food additives every year,8 toxic chemicals definitely play a role in our health. Farmed fish, particularly salmon, is one source of an especially nasty group of chemicals: PCBs. You may have read about the high amounts of polychlorinated biphenyls (more commonly known as PCBs) found in salmon.
Salmon isn’t the only culprit. PCBs have shown up in other types of fish and in chicken, beef, pork, eggs, and even milk. This is quite an alarming discovery because research showed that PCBs were (and still are) powerful carcinogens and as a result were banned in the 1970s in both Canada and the United States.
Some government organizations claim that trace amounts of PCBs are fine. But one organization’s trace amounts are another’s poison. Consider that Health Canada and the United States Food and Drug Administration argue that foods with less than two thousand parts per billion (ppb) of PCBs are fine to eat. On the other side of the coin, the United States Environmental Protection Agency states that levels as low as fifty parts per billion are associated with an increased risk of cancer. Yikes!
Recent research shows that food colourings cross the blood-brain barrier.9 There is a lock-and-key type of mechanism in your brain that allows some substances (such as nutrients) to go into the brain while preventing damaging substances from attacking the brain. This is referred to as the blood-brain barrier.
The term barrier creates a false sense of security, because chemicals such as food dyes trick the brain into allowing their entry, putting them in a position to do harm to perhaps the most delicate organ in your body. Consider one very common and well-known food additive: monosodium glutamate, better known as MSG.
This pervasive chemical is added to food to enhance its flavour. It is frequently found in Chinese food, as well as in the following food ingredients, so don’t be surprised if you don’t see it labelled as MSG on ingredient lists:
Autolyzed yeast
Calcium caseinate
Gelatin
Glutamate
Glutamic acid
Hydrolyzed protein
Hydrolyzed soy protein
Monopotassium glutamate
Sodium caseinate
Yeast extract
Yeast food
Yeast nutrient
Many people react within forty-eight hours of ingesting even a small amount of MSG, making it sometimes difficult to trace back to the originating food item. Symptoms commonly suffered include headaches, dizziness, nausea, diarrhea, burning sensation of the skin, changes in heart rate, and difficulty breathing. According to Dr. Patricia Fitzgerald, ingesting MSG over the years has also been linked with Parkinsons and Alzheimers.10
Source: Michelle Schoffro Cook
References
1. Patricia Fitzgerald, The Detox Solution (Santa Monica, CA: Illumination Press, 2001), p. 70.
2. Fitzgerald, The Detox Solution, p. 28.
3. Fitzgerald, The Detox Solution, p. 29.
4. Fitzgerald, The Detox Solution, p. 28.
5. “Th e Importance of Detoxifi cation.” Informational Brochure. Advanced Nutrition Publications, Inc., 2002.
6. Fitzgerald, The Detox Solution, p. 28.
7. Fitzgerald, The Detox Solution, p. 28.
8. “The Importance of Detoxifi cation.”
9. Jacqueline Krohn Frances Taylor, Natural Detoxifi cation:
A Practical Encyclopedia. (Port Roberts, WA: Hartley & Marks Publishers, Inc., 2000), p. 115.
10. Fitzgerald, The Detox Solution, p. 73.
Even before that food is processed, your food has been sprayed with pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides, most of which are linked to health problems in humans. An apple a day might have kept the doctor away prior to the industrialization of food growing and preparation.
According to research compiled by the United States Drug Administration (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service, Pesticide Data Program, todays apple contains residue of many toxic chemicals used during the growing process. In only one category of chemicals, known as organophosphate insecticides, this federal government agency found residue of many different neurotoxins: azinophos, methyl chloripyrifos, diazinon, dimethoate, ethion, omethioate, parathion, parathion methyl, phosalone, and phosmet.
That doesnt sound too appetizing, does it? Neurotoxins are substances that medical research has proven to be toxic to the brain and nervous system of humans. You may be thinking, Well, in minute amounts maybe pesticides are okay. Think again. The average apple is sprayed with pesticides seventeen times before it is harvested. A study by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identified more than fifty-five pesticides that can leave cancer-causing residues in food2.
According to the Natural Resource Defense Council, the use of pesticides has risen more than tenfold since the 1940s. Currently, over 1.2 billion pounds of pesticides are used in agriculture every year in the United States alone.3
Dr. Patricia Fitzgerald cites a study by the Pesticide Action Network in her book The Detox Solution, showing that more than fifty million pounds of fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, and soil fumigants were applied to farmland in California alone in 1998.4
Every year over 2.5 billion pounds of pesticides are dumped on crop lands, forests, lawns, and fields.5
Pesticides are not water-soluble. That means they are not easily washed off apples or any other food. The same is true once they are in your body, they are hard to eliminate. Fat-soluble pesticides are actually attracted to the fat stores in your body. Don’t have much fat? Your body will start to hold fat to prevent these toxins from running rampant throughout your bloodstream. In your body’s innate wisdom, it recognizes that these substances cause damage if they travel through your blood so it attaches them to fat in your body. That spells weight gain and difficulty losing weight at best. At worst, these dangerous neurotoxins attack your body’s organs, tissues, brain, and nervous system.
Consider one well-known pesticide that was banned in Canada and the United States three decades ago, DDT. It is still being manufactured and exported around the world to appear in our foods.6 According to Dr. Fitzgerald, Each year, the EPA performs a study of the chemicals found in human fat tissue samples. DDT continues to be found in 100% of the tissue examined.7
Dr. Jozef Krop, a leading environmental medicine physician in Canada, asks a poignant question in his book Healing the Planet One Patient at a Time: When the food we eat is grown in nutrient-poor soil, watered with acid rain, sprayed with pesticides, and treated with food additives, and when the water we drink and the air we breathe are also contaminated, is it any wonder that chemicals have been detected in human blood and fat tissue?
Not only is today’s apple not adequate to keep the doctor away, it is more likely to keep the doctor on call. Virtually every food item that is grown using commercial (non-organic) farming techniques contains these or other neurotoxins.
And what if that apple is processed into a frozen apple pie or the fast-food apple pies we consume in droves? There is a good chance that this apple will transform from a nutritious food into a toxic food-like substance we call food. Any of several thousand chemicals will be added to this apple during the many stages of processing.
Have you ever noticed that the incidence of food allergies and sensitivities seems to be higher than ever? I believe that many people are reacting to the potentially thousands of chemicals used in the growing and processing of foods, rather than the foods themselves.
Of course, some people are reacting to the food. But, considering that the average person eats 124 pounds of food additives every year,8 toxic chemicals definitely play a role in our health. Farmed fish, particularly salmon, is one source of an especially nasty group of chemicals: PCBs. You may have read about the high amounts of polychlorinated biphenyls (more commonly known as PCBs) found in salmon.
Salmon isn’t the only culprit. PCBs have shown up in other types of fish and in chicken, beef, pork, eggs, and even milk. This is quite an alarming discovery because research showed that PCBs were (and still are) powerful carcinogens and as a result were banned in the 1970s in both Canada and the United States.
Some government organizations claim that trace amounts of PCBs are fine. But one organization’s trace amounts are another’s poison. Consider that Health Canada and the United States Food and Drug Administration argue that foods with less than two thousand parts per billion (ppb) of PCBs are fine to eat. On the other side of the coin, the United States Environmental Protection Agency states that levels as low as fifty parts per billion are associated with an increased risk of cancer. Yikes!
Recent research shows that food colourings cross the blood-brain barrier.9 There is a lock-and-key type of mechanism in your brain that allows some substances (such as nutrients) to go into the brain while preventing damaging substances from attacking the brain. This is referred to as the blood-brain barrier.
The term barrier creates a false sense of security, because chemicals such as food dyes trick the brain into allowing their entry, putting them in a position to do harm to perhaps the most delicate organ in your body. Consider one very common and well-known food additive: monosodium glutamate, better known as MSG.
This pervasive chemical is added to food to enhance its flavour. It is frequently found in Chinese food, as well as in the following food ingredients, so don’t be surprised if you don’t see it labelled as MSG on ingredient lists:
Autolyzed yeast
Calcium caseinate
Gelatin
Glutamate
Glutamic acid
Hydrolyzed protein
Hydrolyzed soy protein
Monopotassium glutamate
Sodium caseinate
Yeast extract
Yeast food
Yeast nutrient
Many people react within forty-eight hours of ingesting even a small amount of MSG, making it sometimes difficult to trace back to the originating food item. Symptoms commonly suffered include headaches, dizziness, nausea, diarrhea, burning sensation of the skin, changes in heart rate, and difficulty breathing. According to Dr. Patricia Fitzgerald, ingesting MSG over the years has also been linked with Parkinsons and Alzheimers.10
Source: Michelle Schoffro Cook
References
1. Patricia Fitzgerald, The Detox Solution (Santa Monica, CA: Illumination Press, 2001), p. 70.
2. Fitzgerald, The Detox Solution, p. 28.
3. Fitzgerald, The Detox Solution, p. 29.
4. Fitzgerald, The Detox Solution, p. 28.
5. “Th e Importance of Detoxifi cation.” Informational Brochure. Advanced Nutrition Publications, Inc., 2002.
6. Fitzgerald, The Detox Solution, p. 28.
7. Fitzgerald, The Detox Solution, p. 28.
8. “The Importance of Detoxifi cation.”
9. Jacqueline Krohn Frances Taylor, Natural Detoxifi cation:
A Practical Encyclopedia. (Port Roberts, WA: Hartley & Marks Publishers, Inc., 2000), p. 115.
10. Fitzgerald, The Detox Solution, p. 73.