Is Food Irradiation Safe?

Food irradiation is a process that uses radiation to destroy microorganisms, viruses, bacteria, and insects that might be found in food.  It can also cause ripening to be delayed, reduce sprouting, increase juiciness, and other uses.  Not only can it kill certain contaminants, but it extends the food’s shelf-life by stopping the ripening process.

The process is currently legal in over 40 countries, and it is in wide use currently.  Over 500,000 metric tons of food are currently irradiated each year around the world.

The USDA has approved the process as an alternative to pesticides, and the FDA has given it approval for processing ground beef in order to eliminate E. coli.  Other agencies around the world have agreed that they believe the technique is safe.

Others are skeptical.  They believe there could be far-reaching consequences that haven’t yet been discovered.  The technique hasn’t been in wide use long enough yet for any long-term effects to be apparent, and there haven’t been enough studies conducted into these long-term effects.

There is also concern over the safety of the workers who work at irradiation facilities.  The Nuclear Regulatory Commissions investigate issues regarding the safety of these techniques.  Most facilities are safe, but the technique has not been performed completely without incident.

For example, in Decatur, Georgia the water soluble caesium-137 was accidentally leaked into a storage pool and NRC had to intervene.  Because of this incident, caesium-137 has been replaced by the non-water soluble cobalt-60, even though cobalt-60 is more costly.

Overall it is believed that the technique is safe, because the radiation used isn’t in sufficient quantities to harm a human being.  But there is no way to tell whether this radiation might build up in the body over the years, or if there are effects that haven’t yet been discovered.

How to Detoxify Your Body

Detox diets are all the rage these days, but do they really work?  If so, which type of detox diet is the best one?

Detox diets are actually great for a number of different things:

• Weight loss
• Clearing up skin issues
• Bloating
• Bowel cleansing
• Constipation
• Immune boosting

The most common use for detox diets is weight loss.  Detoxification can indeed help you lose pounds, but a lot of that weight is from the cleansing of build-up inside the colon and eliminating the toxins that build up under the skin.

Skin issues can be cleared up through detoxification.  When toxins build up under the skin, they can erupt into breakouts and rashes.  Detox diets can help clear up these skin issues by getting rid of those toxins.

If your immune system is low, it may be due to a build-up of toxic substances in your body.  Your immune system is constantly trying to eliminate all of these, which means it isn’t as strong when it needs to attack something like a virus or bacterial infection.

You don’t need to follow any specific detox diet unless there is one that has been recommended to you that you’d like to follow.  I’ve found that the best type of detox diet is to simply eliminate cooked foods for a few days.

Whenever I need to detoxify my body, I fall back to raw fruits and vegetables for 7-10 days, drinking only water and lemonade made with fresh lemons and grade-B maple syrup with a dash of cayenne pepper.  This works very well and very fast!

Just so you know, you may experience some symptoms when your body starts to detox.  Headaches and rashes are the most common, but they aren’t serious.  If you feel a little ill, don’t worry, it usually only lasts a day or two, and it’s a sign that the process is working as it should be.

Organic Food Health Benefits

Organic food is quite a bit more expensive than standard produce, so a lot of people wonder if it’s even worth it to spend the extra money to get organic.  The truth is, it’s very important to buy organic produce whenever you can.

Just 100 years ago deaths from cancer were very rare.  One major factor in this may be the use of more chemicals, from pesticides to food additives.  When you buy organic, you know you’re getting food that is free of those potentially carcinogenic chemicals.

Pesticides were made to kill insects that harm crops, but they also have far-reaching environmental impacts outside of this use.  These chemicals can kill other insects that are beneficial to us.  They can also seep into the groundwater, travel into lakes and harm aquatic animals, and harm other animals that may eat the animals that have been poisoned by them.

Pesticides have been shown to cause all kinds of effects, including:

• Cancer
• Infertility
• Birth defects
• Endocrine system failure
• Mutagenic effects (causing mutations)
• Miscarriage

These are just a few of the devastating effects that can be caused by pesticides.   Unfortunately many of the pesticides in current use haven’t yet been tested enough to determine just how safe they are.  And when you think about it, can any chemical designed to kill insects really be safe for human consumption?

It wasn’t so many years ago when DDT was thought to be safe.  It has now been banned because it was discovered that it potentially cased liver and biliary cancer, and potentially pancreatic cancer.  The ban on DDT is thought to be integral in bringing back the population of the American Bald Eagle.

Always buy organic if you can possibly afford to do so.  Even those pesticides that are currently considered “safe” may be shown to be dangerous in the future, and it’s just not worth taking a chance like that.

The Raw Food System
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