While many of us have heard of Environmental Pollution; as you look into this subject deeper, it becomes all too apparent that Environmental Pollution is being largely ignored, especially in the Western World and especially here in America.... A Big Component of Preventive Holistic Medicine is Environmental Medicine which obviously (or not so obviously) especially includes the commercially grown and processed "food" most Americans eat.
Environmental Medicine is a relatively new, growing branch of Medicine that is developing, replete with Medical Journals, American College Board, and significant Research. I would like to contend, at this point, and challenge us to really think about the current causes of Ill Health in Today's Modern World.... I would like to contend that a Major Root Source of Health Problems is Environmental Pollution (especially for those who regularly consume commercially grown and processed food and tap water) resulting in Free Radical DAMAGE resulting in Chronic Disease, Poor Quality of Life, and Premature Aging.
Therefore, you must understand that Environmental Pollution in our Food and Water (and Air) is a significant factor in our Modern Epidemic of Diseases including: CANCER, HEART ATTACKS, STROKE, EXTREMITY CIRCULATION DYSFUNCTION, ALZHEIMER'S, ARTHRITIS, BREATHING DISORDER, DIGESTIVE DISORDERS, OSTEOPOROSIS, CHRONIC FATIGUE, MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS, ALLERGIES, and many others. Yes, all these diseases most often have a major underlying root cause contributing component featuring the Enormous Environmental Pollution that has invaded all parts of our existence here in the Modern World.
So, what relevance does Environmental Pollution have in our Food and Water consumption???
·Did you know that we currently dump 50 million metric tons of toxic chemicals directly into the environment each year?
·Did you know that the Average American Diet includes at least 5000 artificial additives each year?
·Are we silly enough to believe that the Insecticides, Herbicide, and Fungicides widely over-used and laced throughout our Vegetable and Fruit Food Supplies are not killing us?
·Everyone knows that Laboratory Tests reveal that Saccharin, a widely used synthetic sweetener, causes CANCER in Laboratory Animals.
·There is growing evidence of a link between Aluminum in our Body and the increase in Alzheimer's Disease (aluminum foil, antiperspirants, pot, pans, cooking utensils, pharmaceuticals).
·Heavy Metals that are being constantly dumped into our Environment and end up in our Food and Water such as LEAD, ARSENIC, CADMIUM, and MERCURY are being linked and are a Root-Causative factor in Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer, Chronic Fatigue, Gastro-Intestinal Disorders to name a few.
·Water Purification and the Bottled Water Industry is growing by Leaps and Bounds ---- Why? Because people realize that tap water is not safe to drink.
·What about the High Estrogen Levels and Antibiotics found in MILK, not to mention lactose intolerance?
·Why is it that Japanese recycle 75-80% of their Garbage and we here in America recycle only 25%?
·How many landfills can Mother Earth take?
FOOD ADDITIVES/CONTAMINANTS
Along with the disease-encouraging dietary habits and general environmental pollution we have adopted in America, we have also developed methods of food processing, preserving, and packaging that call for the addition of thousands of chemicals to our foods. When these chemicals were first created, they were considered a great advancement in nutritional technology, making it possible to store and ship foods, allowing people to enjoy staples and delicacies from different climates and countries, and freeing homemakers from the daily trip to the market and countless hours spent canning and drying seasonal foods. The additives made some foods cheaper and seemed to be the answer to food waste through molds, rot, and other natural decay processes. As with other contributions of industry and technology, however, what at first appeared to be a breakthrough welcomed by many has resulted in inquiries over safety issues and bannings. Although many additives have been outlawed, many more are still allowed despite reasonable suspicion of health risks. The "innocent until proven guilty" and "profit protection over health protection" creeds are putting consumers at risk, and we need to safeguard ourselves.
We use well over 3000 chemical substances foreign to our biological systems in the agricultural and food industries. Many of the substances are known toxins, known allergy and asthma causing, and behavior-changing chemicals. These are preservatives, coloring and flavoring agents, emulsifiers, buffers, binders, bleaches, anti-caking agents, flowing agents, and others. Many of these have not been adequately tested for safety. Did you know that some European countries allow only twenty additives, some allow only seven, and some allow none at all? Yet, the United States allows thousands of food chemicals - some may be safe and useful, some outright dangerous, and many more yet to be tested.
Just one example of the dangers of food additives can be seen in restaurant salad bars, where sulfite, a preservative and anti-browning agent, has come into common use. It has become evident that acute asthmatic attacks can be brought on by this additive. In fact, in many states, legislation has compelled restaurants to post a sign informing their clientele of the use of sulfite. Despite the known hazards of this preservative, food and restaurant industries adamantly lobby to maintain their right to its use.
BHA and BHT, extensively used preservatives, have known toxic effects. Adverse allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, urticaria, and asthma, have been noted from ingestion of tartrazine, sunset yellow, ponceau red, benzoates, and other additives. You may already know that it is processed, prepared, convenience, and junk foods that generally contain harmful additives.
Problem Food Additives include: artificial colors, aspartame, BVO, BHA, BHT, caffeine, casein, saccharin, salt, sodium nitrite/nitrate, sugar, sulfur dioxide, etc.
EXAMPLES OF WHY WE MUST CONSIDER EATING ORGANIC:
1.Fruit and Vegetable Contaminants
·Fruit orchards are sprayed with pesticides ten to fifteen times a season from the blossom stage to just a few weeks before harvest. Apples, cherries, and peaches are apparently the more contaminated fruits.
·Cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower are sprayed regularly, making them some of the most contaminated items among vegetables.
·Dates and dried fruit are treated with methyl bromide.
·Corn is soaked in sulfur dioxide, which prevents its fermentation. This chemical residue finds its way into virtually hundreds of corn-based foods, including corn syrup, corn sweetener (dextrose), cornstarch, cornmeal and flour, and corn oil.
·In restaurants, french fries, potato chips, even fresh-cut apple and peach slices are soaked in sulfur dioxide to prevent browning.
·Fruit is commonly dusted with sulfur. Ethylene gas is used to ripen bananas. Fungicides are used on crates of citrus and other fruits and produce shipped in railway cars.
·Phenol, or carbolic acid, is used to line tin cans in order to prevent the metal from bleaching the food contents. This contaminant can cause headaches, depression, asthma, and other ailments.
·Paraffin, a petrochemical, is used to polish green peppers, apples, and cucumbers.
2.Animal Food Contaminants
The way animals are fed and raised and the methods used to process and butcher meat are equally hazardous. Most commercial meat and poultry contain residues of several toxic substances. Animals are often fed antibiotics to increase their weight for sale, one consequence of which has been the transference to humans of bacterial infections (salmonella) resistant to antibiotics. (Because of such infections, even deaths, there has been a movement to restrict the use of growth antibiotics in slaughter animals.)
Commercial meat and poultry products also contain significant quantities of hormones and growth promoters such as resorcylic acid lactones and other metabolites with estrogen-like activity derived from zearalenone, a known carcinogen, and teratogen, which is derived from a mold. The content of this toxin in commercial animal products may partly explain the observed association between the consumption of these animal products and the incidence of colorectal and breast cancers. Cattle feed is often sprayed directly with pesticides and fungicides (cell and enzyme poisons), which we inevitably end up ingesting. Of course, nitrates are used as preservatives, flavoring, and coloring agents in cured beef and pork products like bacon, hot dogs, salami, sausage, bologna, corned beef, pastrami, pepperoni, and practically all luncheon meats. You may know that, once in our bodies, nitrates can be converted to nitrosamines, a class of potent carcinogens.
As is all this weren't horrifying enough, a number of industrial and agricultural toxins (PCB and dioxin, to name just two) manage to find their way into domestic beef cattle, pork, lamb, and chickens and are concentrated in the meat and milk up to four hundred times the levels found in the plant foods and water that the animals eat and drink. The higher up on the food chain we eat, the more concentrated the toxins are - an additional reason for choosing vegetarianism.
***HOW TO GUARD AGAINST THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF***
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
1.Eat organic Food, that is relatively pollution-free, available at your Local Health Food Stores, Farmers Markets, and now, Grocery Stores.
2.Basically eat a low-fat, high fiber, vegetarian/fruit diet consisting of Whole Grains, Legumes, Nuts, Seeds, and smaller amounts of meat, and not dairy.
3.Drinking Freshly Made Organic Vegetables and Fruit Juices.
4.Avoid Red Meat, Processed Food in a can, box, or bag. Avoid FAST FOOD, JUNK FOOD, and FRIED FOOD so often heavily laden with Environmental Chemicals, not to mention containing very little real nutrition.
5.Consider a Rotation Diet and Eating a Wide Variety of Foods to avoid allergies and exposure to the repeated negative effects of any one food (and its particular form of pollutant). Rotating Foods and eating a wide variety will also better insure more vitamins and minerals in the diet because each food nourishes our body with different nutrients.
6.Drink Plenty of "Pure" Water Daily.
7.LIVER and BOWEL DETOXIFICATION: In Medical School, we all learned that the liver is the most important organ in removing and eliminating toxic chemicals from the blood and ultimately, our bodies. However, the liver was not designed to deal with the barrage of pollutants that have become such a part of modern life in the last 100 years. Now, more than ever, we must take an Active role in Detoxifying ourselves. Also, let's not forget that 80% of Americans are chronically constipated. So consider:
Periodic Cleansing and Detoxification
Milk Thistle and Glutathione are well-known supplements included in Liver Detoxification Formulations
Colonics
Coffee Enemas
Enemas in general
8.Become more aware and educated as to the Sources and Health Risks associated with this Modern Problem of Environmental Contamination.
9.Identify and "Avoid" all Chemicals that can cause Ill-Health. Clean up our Environment. Clean up Your Environment.
10.Each American should recycle At Home and At Work as much as possible. It is truly embarrassing that Japan recycles 75-80% of their Garbage and America only 25%.... Especially when you realize that this neglect and abuse of our planet comes right back to you and me in the form of all sorts of Chronic Degenerative Illness because we are intimately connected, part of, and dependent on our environment for our very survival.
11.Regular Physical Activity ---- as our ancestors did. Exercise greatly assists the detoxification process and aids in better digestion and proper utilization of nutrients.
12.Take a High-Potency, Hypo-Allergenic, Full-spectrum, multiple Vitamin/Mineral Supplement.... understanding that if our nutrition is deficient, then we are more susceptible, to the effects of Environmental Pollution.
13.Judicious supervised Water Fasting.
14.HOT SAUNAS are very effective in Detoxing Chemical Pollutants from our bodies.
15.Voice your concerns about Environmental Pollution to Companies, Corporations, and Manufacturers. Express these same concerns to store owners selling unsafe, untested products and food stuffs. Your Purchasing Power can send a clear message.
16.Write Appropriate Federal Agencies:
EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)
FDA (Food and Drug Administration)
17.Write letters and make phone calls to your elected Officials. Urge them to support bills and pass laws to improve, emphasize, and ensure Public Health and the Health of the Environment. Elected Officials know that for every phone call and letter received, there are thousands of other Americans who feel the same way. Write the President, Congressperson, and Your Senator.
18.Finally, join consumer groups and organizations that focus on environmental public-interest issues. These independent, non-profit organizations will keep you abreast of ongoing efforts and will give you a voice through their educational, legislative, and direct action programs. Your financial support, time, and expertise can help play a critical role in the success of these organizations.
19.There are also Preventive Medical Tests to measure:
·Heavy Metal Poisoning to your Body
Urine Chelation Therapy Challenge
24 Hour Urine Test
·Liver Detoxification Profile
·Food Allergy Testing
·Blood and Hair Tests are also Helpful in determining Acute Recent, and Long-Term Exposure, respectively
·Also, Immune System Testing indicated
Immune Deficiency can spell Environmental Exposure Problems.
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