Rinse & rePeat
Member
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2021
- Messages
- 21,516
"Pollution of the environment and food supply by estrogenic chemicals is getting increased attention. Early in the study of estrogens, it was noticed that soot, containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, was both estrogenic and carcinogenic. Since then, it has been found that phenolics and chlorinated hydrocarbons are significantly estrogenic, and that many estrogenic herbicides, pesticides, and industrial by-products persist in the environment, causing infertility, deformed reproductive organs, tumors, and other biological defects, including immunodeficiency. In the Columbia River, a recent study found that about 25% of the otters and muskrats were anatomically deformed. Estrogenic pollution kills birds, panthers, alligators, old men, young women, fish, seals, babies, and ecosystems. Some of these chemicals are sprayed on forests by the US Department of Agriculture, where they enter lakes, underwater aquifers, rivers, and oceans. Private businesses spray them on farms and orchards, or put them into the air as smoke or vapors, or dump them directly into rivers. Homeowners put them on their lawns and gardens."- Ray Peat
I hear so often people mocking organics, especially older people. They "never bought them before and have lived this long", so how silly they think it is to spend the extra money now. I understand people not being able to afford the extra grocery bill, but nowadays it is the difference between good health and bad health.
Being health conscience many years ago, I thought I was doing better than most, getting my produce weekly at my local Farmer's Market. Oh man those strawberries were SO sweet and juicy, until one day my girlfriend told me everything wasn't as it seemed.
She was buying test strips to make sure her produce wasn't toxic. She would wash her produce with her food grade soap, and then test the water for toxic chemicals with the strips. When the water is clean then so should be the produce. My friend brought home those town's best strawberries from the Farmer Market and went about washing and testing them. Never would she imagine that they were beyond toxic. She had never had produce test that high! She washed and tested again and the water still tested high. After a couple more washings, that were not making a difference, she threw them all away! The thing about some produce, like strawberries, is that the pesticide doesn't stay on just the outside where you can wash or peel it off, the poisons permiates the entire fruit or vegetable all the way through. All produce is not that bad, but strawberries consistently test as being the worst every year, with some samples having 50 different pesticides on just one strawberry! I have recently read that strawberries have gotten better though with only 20 pesticides on each one this year!
With this information the only way to make sense as to why people don't buy organics is because they don't know or they don't care. The good news is some produce is heavily sprayed and some are not sprayed at all, depending on the pests and the fruit's natural protection. Fruits with thick tough skin, like tropical fruits, don't have many or any insects that bother them so it isn't money needing to be spent buying those organic. Every year there is an updated list made by those who care about our produce and how it is treated, called "The Dirty Dozen". It lists, from the worst on down, the 12 most toxic fruits and vegetables that year. Those 12 on the list should always be bought organic. The other list is called "The Clean 15", and has the least amount of pesticides and can afford to be purchased non-organic. Everything else not on the list is somewhere in between.
Some people will read what I am writing and already know all this. Some will be better moving forward reading this. Then there will be those who will still find the risk worth the reward, of saving some money. The ones who wonder why they continue getting fatter and sicker, and to those I say, "I would rather eat half as much healthy stuff than twice as much bad stuff."
www.producebluebook.com
I hear so often people mocking organics, especially older people. They "never bought them before and have lived this long", so how silly they think it is to spend the extra money now. I understand people not being able to afford the extra grocery bill, but nowadays it is the difference between good health and bad health.
Being health conscience many years ago, I thought I was doing better than most, getting my produce weekly at my local Farmer's Market. Oh man those strawberries were SO sweet and juicy, until one day my girlfriend told me everything wasn't as it seemed.
She was buying test strips to make sure her produce wasn't toxic. She would wash her produce with her food grade soap, and then test the water for toxic chemicals with the strips. When the water is clean then so should be the produce. My friend brought home those town's best strawberries from the Farmer Market and went about washing and testing them. Never would she imagine that they were beyond toxic. She had never had produce test that high! She washed and tested again and the water still tested high. After a couple more washings, that were not making a difference, she threw them all away! The thing about some produce, like strawberries, is that the pesticide doesn't stay on just the outside where you can wash or peel it off, the poisons permiates the entire fruit or vegetable all the way through. All produce is not that bad, but strawberries consistently test as being the worst every year, with some samples having 50 different pesticides on just one strawberry! I have recently read that strawberries have gotten better though with only 20 pesticides on each one this year!
With this information the only way to make sense as to why people don't buy organics is because they don't know or they don't care. The good news is some produce is heavily sprayed and some are not sprayed at all, depending on the pests and the fruit's natural protection. Fruits with thick tough skin, like tropical fruits, don't have many or any insects that bother them so it isn't money needing to be spent buying those organic. Every year there is an updated list made by those who care about our produce and how it is treated, called "The Dirty Dozen". It lists, from the worst on down, the 12 most toxic fruits and vegetables that year. Those 12 on the list should always be bought organic. The other list is called "The Clean 15", and has the least amount of pesticides and can afford to be purchased non-organic. Everything else not on the list is somewhere in between.
Some people will read what I am writing and already know all this. Some will be better moving forward reading this. Then there will be those who will still find the risk worth the reward, of saving some money. The ones who wonder why they continue getting fatter and sicker, and to those I say, "I would rather eat half as much healthy stuff than twice as much bad stuff."
Dirty Dozen, Clean 15 lists released for 2021 - Produce Blue Book
The Environmental Working Group has released its controversial Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 lists of fresh ...
