Dietary Toxins and Eating Well

While I normally focus on toxins in personal care products and the environment, I've decided to take a look at toxins and harmful chemicals in the food we eat. This is a collaborative post with a wonderful blogger, Jessica David of Conveying Awareness with Jessica David.

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwind3/2343142046/">Bradley Wind</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a>

To begin with, let's short list of some chemicals that we need to avoid in the food we eat.

• Mercury in fish: The dangers of mercury exposure include fatigue, memory problems, mercury poisoning, and dangers to the developing fetus.
• Artificial dyes: These are a color followed by a number, for example, Red 3. These dyes have been linked to behavioral problems in children and cancer.
• Sodium nitrate: Found in processed foods like hot dogs, bacon and sausage, sodium nitrate gives these foods their red tint. Sodium nitrates leads to an increase of nitrosamines in your body, which can lead to cancer. 
• Bisphenol A ( BPA): Often found in the lining of canned foods and beverages. It is estrogenic and can also leach from plastic. BPA has been linked to diabetes and heart disease. 
• Polychlorinated biphenols (PCBs): These are industrial coolants that can be found in farm-raised fish and are known endocrine disruptors and carcinogens. 
• Dioxins: Dioxins are contaminants formed during combustion and industrial processes. For example, trash burning, forest fires, incineration, herbicide manufacturing, and paper pulp bleaching. Dioxins can also be found in farm-raised fish and in the fatty tissues of animals that have been exposed to dioxins. The risks of dioxin exposure include, reproductive & developmental problems, an increased risk of diabetes and heart disease, and cancer. 
• Hydrogenated oils: Oils are long, often branched chains of carbon and hydrogen that are liquid are room temperature. The branches are caused when there are carbon to carbon double bonds. Scientists can go into the lab and add hydrogen atoms to these double bonds to break them and make the molecule more stable. This is a hydrogenated oil. They are used to increase the shelf life of food products, but have been linked to diabetes and heart disease.
• Artificial sweeteners: Aspartame is probably the most famous artificial sweetener. It has been linked to headaches, dizziness and neuronal damage. Recently, another artificial sweetener, Splenda (sucralose) was linked to the release of cancer-causing chemicals when cooked & baked.
• GMOs: GMOs are genetically modified organisms. They are created when scientists take the genes from organism/species A and put them into unrelated organism/species B. We were told that GMOs would help alleviate the problem of world hunger, but instead, GMOs have largely been used to increase the consumption of pesticides (The Link Between GMOs and Pesticides). Studies on the safety of GMOs have largely come from the companies that produce GMOs, who have a vested interest in the outcome of those studies. While more independent scientific studies are needed on the safety of GMOs on humans, experiments from farmers show that animals prefer non-GMO food. One scientific study on rats, showed lifetime exposure to Roundup Ready GM corn lead to tumors, multiple organ damage and death. 
• Pesticides: Conventional farming relies heavily on pesticides. Pesticides have been linked to endocrine disruption, infertility, neurological damage and cancer. The most widely used pesticide, atrazine, has been extensively studied by Dr. Tyrone Hayes of UC Berkeley. He used to work for the company that made the pesticide, Syngenta, but when he tried to publish a paper on the negative effects of the product, they stopped him. Syngenta has been trying to stop him ever since. His website can be found here. Unfortunately, even organic foods are exposed to some pesticides through rain, runoff and the water table, though to a lesser extent than conventional produce.

Sources
Alternet
Care2
NIEHS

Now let's transition into how you can improve your diet to become your best you.

One of my passions is to share the benefits of eating the [real] rainbow daily and it's found in fruits and vegetables. I wasn't always like this though. It only occurred to me about 5 years ago the importance of eating more of nature's best so that I could heal some conditions that had plagued me for years. Though I have always been thin, I wasn't always healthy and I didn't know any better and guess what? I didn't care much about longevity in my 20s. It wasn't until I became a mom at age 31 that I decided to make some changes! It took another new mom to pull me aside and share with me how I could eat more fruits and vegetables and that it could be the first step in the right direction for reversing some damage done through nutrient poor food choices that I had made for many years. 

Fast forward a few years, I became a certified health coach. The seed to link arms with others in their wellness journeys was planted months after that talk with my friend. Learn more about my story here. So here I am encouraging you to strive for 5. Eat five different fruits and 5 different vegetables daily. Here are some tools to help you meet that goal. 
  
1) Download my free eGuide.  
2) Learn more about Traffic Light Eating from a L.E.A.N. perspective. 
3) Follow me on Pinterest. These boards are helpful: + Eating the Real Rainbow + Recipes Using Veggies + My recipes  
4) Join a CSA (farm-share co-op). For a listing in your area, visit Local Harvest. 
5) If it's right for you, take one of my L.E.A.N. Start online classes. 

In session three, we talk about ways to eat more of nature's best - fruits and vegetables! Info. 

In tip 2, it mentions the L.E.A.N. perspective. This is the 4 pillars of health: Lifestyle, Exercise, Attitude, and Nutrition and no matter the way you slice it (different words to describe the same concepts), we need all 4 components for our journey to wellness. World-renown pediatrician and author of nearly 40 books, Dr. Bill Sears (of the Sears Wellness Institute) teaches us that the most basic foundation of understanding nutrition is through the colors of a stoplight. Today's lesson is on the green light. The other two colors are summarized in tip two.

Green light foods are fruits and vegetables found closest to nature. If you're concerned about pesticides, other contaminants, and GMOs, purchase them organic or know your supplier. I teach that eating a variety of fruits and vegetables is key to wellness and the benefits outweigh the risks. Over time, as your pockets adjust, you will find that eating produce without *most contamination may serve you better and it will support small local farmers and their families. Knowing your supplier is key because you can support local farmers and their families that cannot afford the organic label. This also applies to getting whole food nutrients in a capsule. If the product doesn't carry the USDA Organic seal, you may also look for NSF International's seal - this means that what the product claims to have or not have in their product is the truth via NSFs third-party non-affiliated testing and certification. * Even USDA Organic foods have some contaminants. See this link for more info. 

I live in a food desert. The options for fresh, sustainable produce free of contaminants are low. There are no farmers' markets in my area so it is difficult for me to find a good variety of produce locally. I shop about twice a week to two or three stores to find the best quality of produce. It's important for me to eat a variety of produce and for specific crops, I almost always buy organic when I can (see EWG Dirty Dozen for more info, link is below). I'm thankful that there is a farm-share co-op drop off in my city. I am a subscriber to Abundant Harvest Organics and eventually, I hope to grow my own soon with a Tower Garden. 

If you want more information on which fruits and vegetables have the highest levels of contaminants, visit EWGs: The Dirty Dozen. If you'd like to know how many and what kinds of contaminants are on your produce, check out What's On My Food.  Choose, eat, and live well! =)

 

Jessica David is a Certified L.E.A.N. Health Coach and the owner and founder of Conveying Awareness providing nutrition tips via a plethora of resources. Jessica feels that through encouragement we can impart education with lasting results. She advocates for families to eat more fruits and vegetables. She lives in Ridgecrest, California with her husband and their son. Find her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and her blog.

The Link Between GMOs and Pesticides

One of the reasons I am in favor of GMO labeling is that GMO technology is often used to increase a food product's hardiness to increased pesticide application. In other words, a GM crop can doused in greater amounts of pesticide. Below are some GMO crops that can take increased applications of the pesticide Roundup. Roundup is a particularly worrisome pesticide.

Roundup is the world's most popular herbicide and is sprayed over millions of acres of crops each year.  The active ingredient in Roundup is glysophate. Glysophate residues have been found in food. Recent research has linked the chemical to infertility, cancers, and Parkinson's Disease.

Those residues enhance the damaging effects of other food-borne chemical residues and toxins in the environment to disrupt normal body functions and induce disease, according to the report, authored by Stephanie Seneff, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Anthony Samsel, a retired science consultant from Arthur D. Little, Inc. Samsel is a former private environmental government contractor as well as a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

"Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body," the study says.

In 2015, the EPA will determine if the use of glysophate should be limited, after a standard registration review. All pesticides are registered with the EPA.

Eat Locally

I've been trying to do a better job of eating more locally grown food. I was saddened the other day when I saw a bag of apples at the grocery store labeled "local" but also saying that they were from Michigan.  I live in Kentucky.  That said, I am fortunate to live in a state with plenty of proud local farms and farmers' markets. There is even a state-wide movement to promote local farms and their products. It's called Kentucky Proud. All over the state, you can find local products with the seal and know that you are supporting local farmers. There are even specialty stores that sell nothing but KY products.

According to Locavores.com, there are twelve reasons for all of us to eat locally.

Top Twelve Reasons to Eat Locally

1. Freshness. Locally-grown organic fruits and vegetables are usually harvested within 24 hours of being purchased by the consumer. Produce from California can't be that fresh.
2. Taste. Produce picked and eaten at the height of freshness tastes better.
3. Nutrition. Nutritional value declines, often dramatically, as time passes after harvest. Because locally-grown produce is freshest, it is more nutritionally complete.
4. Purity. Eighty percent of American adults say they are concerned about the safety of the food they eat. They worry about residues of pesticides and fungicides. These materials are not permitted in an organic production system either before or after harvest.
5. Regional Economic Health. Buying locally grown food keeps money within the community. This contributes to the health of all sectors of the local economy, increasing the local quality of life.
6. Variety. Organic farmers selling locally are not limited to the few varieties that are bred for long distance shipping, high yields, and shelf life. Often they raise and sell wonderful unusual varieties you will never find on supermarket shelves.
7. Soil Stewardship. Soil health is essential for the survival of our species. Conventional farming practices are rapidly depleting topsoil fertility. Creating and sustaining soil fertility is the major objective for organic growers.
8. Energy Conservation. Buying locally grown organic foods decreases dependence on petroleum, a non- renewable energy source. One fifth of all petroleum now used in the United States is used in Agriculture. Organic production systems do not rely upon the input of petroleum derived fertilizers and pesticides and thus save energy at the farm. Buying from local producers conserves additional energy at the distribution level.
9. Environmental Protection. Soil erosion; pesticide contamination of soil, air, and water; nitrate loading of waterways and wells; and elimination of planetary biodiversity are some of the problems associated with today's predominate farming methods. Organic growers use practices that protect soil, air, and water resources; and that promote biodiversity.
10. Cost. Conventional food processes don't reflect the hidden costs of the environmental, health and social consequences of predominate production practices- of, for instance, correcting a water supply polluted by agricultural runoff, or obtaining medical treatment for pesticide induced illness suffered by farmers or consumers. When these and other hidden costs are taken into account, as they should be, locally grown organic foods are seen clearly for the value they are, even if they cost a few pennies more.
11. A Step Toward Regional Food Self Reliance. Dependency on far away food sources leaves a region vulnerable to supply disruptions, and removes any real accountability of producer to consumer. It also tends to promote larger, less diversified farms that hurt both the environment and local economies/communities. Regional food production systems, on the other hand, keep the food supply in the hands of many, providing interesting job and self-employment opportunities, and enabling people to influence how their food is grown.
12. Passing on the Stewardship Ethic. When you buy locally produced organic food you cannot help but raise the consciousness of your friends and family about how food buying decisions can make a difference in your life and the life of your community; and about how this basic act is connected to planetary issues.

While I do buy Kentucky Proud  and other local products when I can, and I try to choose restaurants that base their menus on local farms; I can do better.  As you can see from above. There are so many reasons to eat locally. It's better for your health and for the planet. I know New Year's is over, but I'm going to make this one of my post-New Year's Resolutions. I'm going to look for more products that support the local economy, the planet and my health. Will you join me? The next time you see your favorite recipe, try substituting some local food products. Just take one step at a time.