2011 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce – Find Out Which Produce to buy Organic
17 Jun 2011 2 Comments
in Baby & Child Health, food inc., Green Living, organic food Tags: clean 15, dirty dozen, Environmental Working Group, Pesticide, Pesticide residue, safe produce no organic, what fruits to buy organic
Fresh off the press, this updated list was just published this week. Here is the skinny on what produce you need to buy organic due to a very high pesticide count.
This information is especially important for children and expectant mommies and those that are ill. High levels of pesticide consumption have been linked to many complications and nervous defects including disorders like ADHD.
The Dirty Dozen™
Of the 12 most contaminated foods, 6 are fruits: apples, strawberries, peaches, domestic nectarines, imported grapes and domestic blueberries. Notable findings:
- Every sample of imported nectarines tested positive for pesticides, followed by apples (97.8 percent) and imported plums (97.2 percent).
- 92 percent of apples contained 2 or more pesticide residues‚ followed by imported nectarines (90.8 percent) and peaches (85.6 percent).
- Imported grapes had 14 pesticides detected on a single sample. Strawberries, domestic grapes both had 13 different pesticides detected on a single sample.
- As a category. peaches have been treated with more pesticides than any other produce, registering combinations of up to 57 different chemicals. Apples were next, with 56 pesticides and raspberries with 51.
Celery, spinach, sweet bell peppers, potatoes, lettuce and greens (kale and collards) are the vegetables most likely to retain pesticide contamination:
- Some 96 percent all celery samples tested positive for pesticides, followed by cilantro (92.9 percent) and potatoes (91.4 percent).
- Nearly 90 percent of celery samples contained multiple pesticides, followed by cilantro (70.1 percent) and sweet bell peppers (69.4 percent).
- A single celery sample was contaminated with 13 different chemicals, followed by a single sample of sweet bell peppers (11), and greens (10).
- Hot peppers had been treated with as many as 97 pesticides, followed by cucumbers (68) and greens (66).
The Clean Fifteen™
The vegetables least likely to test positive for pesticides are onions, sweet corn, asparagus, sweet peas, eggplant, cabbage, sweet potatoes and mushrooms.
- Asparagus, sweet corn and onions had no detectable pesticide residues on 90 percent or more of samples.
- More than four-fifths of cabbage samples (81.8 percent) had no detectible pesticides, followed by sweet peas (77.1 percent) and eggplant (75.4 percent).
- Multiple pesticide residues are extremely rare on vegetables low in overall contamination. No samples of onions and corn had more than one pesticide. Less than 6 percent of sweet potato samples had multiple pesticides.
- Of the low-pesticide vegetables, no single sample had more than 5 different chemicals.
The fruits least likely to test positive for pesticide residues are pineapples, avocados, mangoes, domestic cantaloupe, kiwi, watermelon and grapefruit.
- Fewer than 10 percent of pineapple, mango, and avocado samples showed detectable pesticides, and fewer than one percent of samples had more than one pesticide residue.
- Nearly 55 percent of grapefruit had detectable pesticides but only 17.5 percent of samples contained more than one residue. Watermelon had residues on 28.1 percent of samples, and 9.6 percent had multiple pesticide residues.
Methodology
The Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides ranks pesticide contamination for 53 popular fruits and vegetables based on an analysis of 51,000 tests for pesticides on these foods, conducted from 2000 to 2009 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the federal Food and Drug Administration. Nearly all the studies on which the guide is based tested produce after it had been rinsed or peeled.
Contamination was measured in 6 different ways:
- Percent of samples tested with detectable pesticides
- Percent of samples with two or more pesticides
- Average number of pesticides found on a single sample
- Average amount (level in parts per million) of all pesticides found
- Maximum number of pesticides found on a single sample
- Total number of pesticides found on the commodity
For each metric, we ranked all of the foods based on their individual USDA test results, then normalized the scores on a 1-100 scale (with 100 being the highest). To get a commodity’s final score, we added up the six normalized scores from each metric. The full Shopper’s Guide list shows the fruits and vegetables in order of these final scores.
The goal is to include a range of different measures of pesticide contamination to account for uncertainties in the science. All categories were treated equally; for example, a pesticide linked to cancer is counted the same as a pesticide linked to brain and nervous system toxicity, and the likelihood of eating multiple pesticides on a single food is given the same weight as the amounts of the pesticide detected or the percent of the crop on which pesticides were found.
The EWG’s Shopper’s Guide is not built on a complex assessment of pesticide risks but instead reflects the overall pesticide loads of common fruits and vegetables. This approach best captures the uncertainties of the risks of pesticide exposure and gives shoppers confidence that when they follow the guide they are buying foods with consistently lower overall levels of pesticide contamination.
Sources:
Health News: Genetically Engineered Food Alters Our Digestive Systems! – Say No to GMO’s
31 May 2011 1 Comment
in food inc., genetically modified, Health conspiracy theories, Monsanto Tags: Bacillus thuringiensis, Biotechnology, Genetic engineering, genetically modified food, Genetically modified organism, gmo food danger, gmo foods bad for health
GE organisms actually become part of the bacteria in our digestive tracts and reproduce continuously inside us. But the USDA now wants to to remove all controls from GE corn and cotton! A new Action Alert. [1]
There are no human clinical trials of genetically engineered foods. The only published human feeding experiment revealed that genetic material inserted into GE soy transfers into the DNA of bacteria living inside our intestines and continues to function [2]. Even after we stop eating GE foods, we may still have the GE proteins produced continuously inside us.
As the Institute for Responsible Technology has noted, the genetic engineering process creates massive collateral damage, causing mutations in hundreds or thousands of locations throughout the plant’s DNA [3]. Natural genes can be deleted or permanently turned on or off, and hundreds may change their behavior. Even the inserted gene can be damaged or rearranged, and may create proteins that can trigger allergies or promote disease.
The idea of having genetically engineered genes permanently living inside our guts has staggering implications:
- If the antibiotic gene inserted into most GM crops were to transfer, it could create antibiotic-resistant diseases [4].
- Bt toxins (Bacillus thuringiensis) inserted into GM food crops to kill pests are reaching the bloodstreams of 93% of women and 80% of unborn babies [5] because of the consumption of meat, milk, and eggs from livestock fed GE corn. This could turn bacteria in our intestines into pesticide factories.
- Animal studies show that DNA in food can travel into organs throughout the body, even into the fetus.
And we’ve seen cross-species transfer of DNA happen before. A significant percentage of human DNA is actually viral DNA [6] that became part of us over 40 million years ago. There is concern that virally transmitted DNA may cause mutations and psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and mood disorders [7]. GE organisms may exacerbate this phenomenon.
Genetically engineered food genes transferring to our own genes could lead to problems like leaky gut syndrome [8]:
- Our small intestine, which is responsible for about 70% of our immune system, behaves like a selective sieve: it lets only nutrients and well-digested fats, proteins, and starches enter the bloodstream and keeps out large molecules, microbes, and toxins.
- Leaky gut syndrome happens when the intestinal lining becomes inflamed, and the microvilli [9] on the lining become damaged; this prevents the microvilli from absorbing nutrients and producing necessary enzymes and secretions for healthy digestion and absorption.
- In between cells are desmosomes [10], which keep the cells together, forming a strong structure preventing large molecules from passing through. When an area becomes inflamed, the structure is weakened, allowing larger molecules to escape. The makes the immune system produce antibodies and cytokines to fight off molecules because they are perceived as antigens.
Allergies have already skyrocketed in the US, and with the introduction of GE soy in the UK, soy related allergies rose to 50% [11]. Yet federal agencies turn a blind eye to the dangers of genetic engineering.
In 1989 there was a tragic outbreak of eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome (EMS), an incredibly painful disease. The outbreak was traced to consumption of l-tryptophan supplements produced by a Japanese company using genetically engineered bacteria [12]. The bacteria are used to increase yields, but they increase impurities during the fermentation process—possibly leading to a level of contaminants that caused the EMS.
To this day, the government has refused to address the issue of purity standards for GE-manufactured products. Instead, federal agencies and biotech companies claimed that contaminants linked to the EMS tragedy were caused by changes in the company’s manufacturing process—despite the fact that the company was precisely following the purity standards enforced by government rules.
The EMS was rare and had a fast enough onset that the case histories of the patients could be linked to this supplement, and it was also acute enough that doctors took notice. There is a very clear causal link between EMS and these genetically engineered organisms.
The effects of other genetically modified products may not be as obvious so quickly, but can be even more devastating; as we have reported previously [13], GMOs are causing terrible genetic changes in mammal offspring. Scientists are seeing birth defects, high infant mortality rates, and sterility in hamsters, rats, and livestock fed GMO soy and corn, and some hamster pups even begin growing hair inside their mouths.
The late George Wald, Nobel Laureate in Medicine or Physiology in 1967 and Higgins Professor of Biology at Harvard University, was one of the first scientists to speak out about the potential dangers of genetic engineering:
Recombinant DNA technology [genetic engineering] faces our society with problems unprecedented, not only in the history of science, but of life on the Earth….Now whole new proteins will be transposed overnight into wholly new associations, with consequences no one can foretell, either for the host organism or their neighbors….For going ahead in this direction may not only be unwise but dangerous. Potentially, it could breed new animal and plant diseases, new sources of cancer, novel epidemics.[1] [14]
The USDA has released two Environmental Assessment reports, one for Monsanto’s corn genetically engineered to be drought-tolerant [15], and the other for Syngenta Biotechnology’s cotton genetically engineered to be pest-resistant [16]. USDA believes the cotton is “unlikely to pose a plant pest risk”; for the corn, the agency is considering either keeping the corn under regulation, or assigning it nonregulated status (banning it altogether is off the table). The comment period for both EAs is open until July 11.
Please take action today! Tell the USDA that the corn and cotton must not be deregulated—that without strict controls, GE crops will encroach on non-GE crops, contaminating them, including organic crops—which will, of course, render them non-organic.
The GE corn is especially dangerous because it is for human consumption. As noted above, GE genes from foods can affect the bacteria from our digestive system, and can lead to allergies, disease and even sterility.
GMOs are causing terrible genetic changes in mammal offspring. Scientists are seeing birth defects, high infant mortality rates, and sterility in hamsters, rats, and livestock fed GMO soy and corn, and some hamster pups even begin growing hair inside their mouths.
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TO SEND YOUR MESSAGE TO USDA Click THIS LINK [17] to go to the Action Alert page for GE corn. Click THIS LINK [18] to go to the Action Alert page for GE cotton. Once there, fill out the form with your name and address, etc., and customize your letter. We have a suggested message for you, but please feel free to add your own comments to the letter. We’d also love to hear your comments about this article—just add your thoughts below—but remember that the messages below are only seen |
Source: Alliance for Natural Health
Can La Chica Organca Help You on your Journey to Renewed Wellness?
12 Mar 2011 Leave a Comment
in Allergies and Asthma, Audio Articles, Audio Posts, Baby & Child Health, Beauty and Skin Care, cancer, catnip, Diet & Weight loss, Flu & Cold, food inc., genetically modified, God's Green Herbs, Green Living, Health News, Heart Health, how to stop a heart attack, Monsanto, Nursing Super Mommy, organic food, Organic Living Video's, Preggo Mama, recipes, Soy, Stress, tea, the beautiful truth, Toxic Food Ingredients/Additives, Vaccinations Tags: Alternative, family, health, Nutrition
La Chica Organica™ is a fun-loving mom of 3 beautiful children that enjoys sharing life building truth as a Health and Wellness Educator. Her passion is also seen in the creation of her own line of organic herbal products for her family.
Quite often, she is asked to share with moms about the value of using herbs for healing everyday ailments. Part of her mission is to teach people all around the world about optimal health through proper nutrition and help parents make wiser food choices for their children. Her own life testimony of her families’ transition from bad health to better health has helped many families on their way to renewed wellness.
Personal Consultation
Do you live in the South Florida area and you’re wondering how you can benefit from a class with La Chica Organica? You can contact her below to arrange a private Health and Wellness session as soon as possible. Her sessions run for 2 hours each and cover areas like: diet, cleansing, proper eating, proper shopping and so much more. She also can work with you on an individualized basis to help you set goals while showing you how to create healthy meals in the kitchen. $150.00 for one two-hour session.
Phone and Email Support
Some people have asked La Chica Organica™ for phone and email support because they simply cannot make all the changes on their own and they need encouragement and guidance on their journey to renewed wellness. A simple phone call and supporting emails can be all you need to get going and take charge of your health. This is also a favorite with LCO fans and friends all over the US and internationally.
Preliminary phone consultation (1 hour) $60
For those that require more assistance she can also set up 6 days of health & wellness 30 minute phone calls and supporting emails for $300 
To schedule a personal health and wellness at home visit or to invite her to speak at your church or office please fill in the contact information below.
Please be sure to check out the Testimonials Section.
Spanish consultations are available, just mention it in your request.
For a free 15 minute phone consult please mention it in your comment below.
What am I Eating – Is it Poison? Part 2
17 Nov 2010 Leave a Comment
in Baby & Child Health, cancer, Diet & Weight loss, food inc., God's Green Herbs, Green Living, organic food, Organic Living Video's, Toxic Food Ingredients/Additives Tags: Alfalfa, Big Mac, cancer, cat's claw, chia seeds, Chlorella, Cinnamon, Circadian rhythm, cloves, Eating, flax seeds, food to heal, garlic, ginger, health, high fructose corn syrup, Hippocrates, how to stay healthy, kale, Nutrition, pomegranates and all raw fruits and vegetables, quinoa, raw almonds and other raw nuts and seeds, raw cacao, raw food for healing, raw goat kefir, raw oatmeal, raw spinach, reverse diabetes in 30 days, rosemary, sage, spirulina, sprouted grains like spealt, thyme, tumeric, unrefined coconut oil, what is circadian rhythm, wheatgrass
Keeping little children healthy can become a frustrating task. The same goes for the elderly like my 87-year-old grandma. But let’s face it; staying healthy is an issue for everyone regardless of age. There are many books, articles, classes and reports available on how to be healthy and have a strong immune system but most of them seem to leave out one very important area, and that area is called FOOD.
Food believe it or not plays a VERY important part of our overall health and this goes for babies, teens, adults and grandparents. Unfortunately, most of us have been trained erroneously to think that we must eat and eat and eat some more to satisfy a craving or because food tastes good. Often times those things that taste good are undoubtedly not good for us.
Food, unlike popular belief, should be consumed for the body’s health and overall well-being not just for pleasure, but in America we have this backwards. We consume food mainly for pleasure and rarely for our heath or because we are hungry. And so the vicious cycle begins. We eat because we are happy, we eat because we are sad, we don’t eat because we think we are fat and what we do eat is loaded with trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, msg, artificial food coloring, processed sugar and the list goes on and on…
We treat our cars better than we do our bodies. Then when sickness strikes we run to fill a prescription for the magic pill that will eliminate all of our ailments. Yet, regardless of all the pills and drugs available, developed nations like the US aren’t experiencing better health. Every year the rates of cancer and other diseases increases in the US and I don’t hear anyone talking about FOOD or about Oxidative stress and cellular death.
Every year Americans spend millions and millions of dollars on laxatives because they aren’t getting enough living food in their diets so they have to resort to unnatural means to promote a bodily function that should be automatic. Meanwhile no one is telling people to change their diets. I have on more than one occasion heard about doctor friends of mine telling their patients to take the orange fiber packets for constipation. This type of advice if doing a huge disservice to the person. If I was the doctor and someone came to me sick and suffering with constipation, the first question I would ask is: “Are you getting enough water?” Followed by, “How many fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are you eating each day?”
Like Hippocrates said: we should let food be our medicine and medicine be our food. If we lived by that principle we would experience better health. I am a firm believer that food, the right food can and will do away with most sicknesses and diseases. When I say food I don’t mean white rice, French fries, chicken parmesan and twinkies. I mean living food. Food that is loaded with life building properties.
All we have to do is look at the statistics regarding cancer, obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure. More and more people are suffering from these things; yet in spite of the statistics, people continue on their nutritionally deficient diets which break the body down instead of building it up. Deficient diets are lacking the necessary phytochemicals, nutrients, enzymes, probiotics and minerals the body needs for proper function.
The following lists some organic foods & herbs that help build our bodies instead of promoting cellular death:
Quinoa, alfalfa, spirulina, wheatgrass, kale, raw spinach, raw oatmeal, flax seeds, raw almonds and other raw nuts and seeds, sprouted grains like spealt, unrefined coconut oil, chia seeds, raw cacao, Chlorella, pomegranates and all raw fruits and vegetables, raw goat kefir, cloves, thyme, rosemary, cinnamon, sage, tumeric, garlic, ginger, cat’s claw and many other antioxidant rich foods.
I have seen cases of cancer, diabetes, asthma and other sicknesses completely being reversed because of a radical change in diet and the use of medicinal herbs. But in most cases you won’t hear this from your doctor unless they are into nutrition and alternative medicine.
A great majority of medical professionals, nutritionists and health advocates have failed miserably at educating the public about the medicinal properties that some herbs and foods contain, perhaps because they aren’t aware of the benefits themselves. One reason may be, that if we became food and herbal experts we would spend hundred of dollars a year for curing diseases and sicknesses instead of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Instead we have grown up on a diet of fast food burgers, processed meats, sodas, cookies and energy drinks and this has resulted in the rates for obesity in children to increase at an alarming rate with children as early as 2 yrs old are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
It always bothers me when I see toddlers sitting at the Big Mac place with a burger, a soda and a mountain of fries in front of them. It makes me want to stop my car get out and have a word with the parents. But I have come to the realization that having a word with people is not enough. In order to promote change we must care enough to educate others about what nutrition lies we have believed for long, one of them being that we must eat a large breakfast in the morning to have a good day. Don’t you remember your mom saying this to you? “Now honey, eat up all your sausage, potatoes, grits, pancakes, french toast or muffins so you can be big and strong and have a good day at school!’
Why is that? Well for decades people have thought that eating a large breakfast full of refined carbs and sugars was a good thing. But it’s not 100% correct for a few reasons. The most important reason is that when you get up in the morning your body should begin the purging process to get rid of all the food you ate the day before. Your digestive system wants to evacuate but you just shove more processed food into it which is like putting your finger over the end of a hose that is turned on. The only thing you’re accomplishing is a lethal buildup of toxins that will be reabsorbed internally and begin to make you sick. By doing this you are disrupting your body’s Circadian Rhythm.
And why should you care about this? Well for starters, all of our bodies follow predesigned daily cycles known as circadian rhythms. Circadian refers to the regular recurrence of cycles of activity that occur every twenty-four hours. It has been proven that if you eat in line with these rhythms you will enjoy better health and work with your body instead of against it.
This is just one of the misconceptions regarding food that has permeated our brains but as with all things, education is power. The more people learn about their health the more equipped they will be to make wiser choices and stop the vicious cycle of disease.
To watch a great clip from a documentary on people who reversed their diabetes in 30 days click here.
Help me make a difference and share this article with someone you love!
Remember to live life as a gift and give that gift away every day!
Related articles:
What am I Eating – Is it Poison? Part 1
Are You Dead or Alive
Food Inc – A Must See Film – Watch It Now
How to eat when you’re on the road?
Food: The silent killer or healer- What you need to know about healing
Blessings,
LCO
Health News: What Dangerous Food Ingredient is Changing Names?
01 Oct 2010 2 Comments
in food inc., genetically modified, Health News, organic food, Toxic Food Ingredients/Additives Tags: corn, Diabetes mellitus, Food and Drug Administration, GM crops, GMO, health, high fructose corn syrup, obesity, sugar, The Corn Refiners Association, toxic
The Corn Refiners Association (CRA) has petitioned the U.S. FDA to allow manufacturers the option of using the term “corn sugar” instead of “high fructose corn syrup”. In their press release on the subject, they claim that “independent research demonstrates that the current labeling is confusing to American consumers.” They blame “inexact scientific reports and inaccurate media accounts” for the current stigma associated with high fructose corn syrup.
In reality, as opposed to the CRA’s dream world, if you need to lose weight, or if you want to avoid diabetes and heart disease, high-fructose corn syrup is one type of sugar you’ll want to avoid.Part of what makes HFCS such an unhealthy product is that it is metabolized to fat in your body far more rapidly than any other sugar not to mention that its made using GM (Genetically Modified) crops.
Stay away from it regardless of what they call it.
You can read The Corn Refiners Association cramppy, untrue, unfounded press release here.
Sources: PR Newswire September 14, 2010
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