LOADED QUESTION - What's hiding in your fruit and veg?
Published: June 17, 2014 Last Updated: January 21, 2024
Where did your fresh produce come from? (Yes, even your organic produce...) What's happened to it during picking, handling, packaging, transport, storage and supply before you, the consumer, get it?
What's hiding in your fruit and vegetables?
As a natural healthcare practitioner for over 38 years, I have observed many good and not so good changes in our modern world. Many of these changes, most notably in our farming, dietary and lifestyle practices, are having detrimental consequences when it comes to our health and well-being.
Consider this - billions of chemical pollutants are being released into our environment, and more than seventy-five thousand toxic classified chemicals are being manufactured, which are potentially or definitely hazardous to the human body.
Over a lifetime, we will have been exposed to thousands of these foreign compounds. Dioxin, a lethal substance is still being sprayed onto many coffee fields, mercury is being found in seafood's and leaking from many patients teeth containing amalgam fillings.
Cosmetics, paints, heavy metals, food additives, plastics, auto-exhaust fumes, smog, cigarette smoke, pesticides, fungicides and insecticides, to name but a few, a finding their way into our waterways, air, foods, and of course our bodies, which are having trouble with toxic load and their ability to detoxify and get rid of them.
Many of the toxins that are retained by the body can cause such health concerns as chronic fatigue, inflammation, digestive disorders, musculoskeletal dysfunction, degenerative diseases, cancer, arthritis, allergies, acne, eczema, auto-immune disease and many more.
Some of us believe that eating organic is best and are also fortunate to be able to afford organic fresh foods, and yet you might be surprised to find that there are many of our fruit and vegetable stores and supermarkets that spray both fresh and organic produce (that you are paying more money for!) with insecticides most nights to stop bugs attacking them.
It shocks me what is happening, and I ask myself "what can I do?" By sharing this knowledge with you of what might be happening to many of our food sources and encouraging simple things you can do to help your body decrease some of its toxic load.
A simple, cheap and effective tool is the Enviro Clean fruit and vegetable wash, which removes soils, dirt, dust, manures, gases, waxes, pesticides, fertilisers and herbicides. It is non-toxic, biodegradable, septic and sewerage safe and contains no petrochemicals, no caustic lyes, propyl or glycol, no sodium lauryl sulphate or sodium lauryl ether sulphate, and is not tested on animals.
Also, another easy tip would be to count up how many plastic bags you bring home from the supermarket and fruit shop when buying fresh produce each year. Say no to plastic bags at the fruit and veg, or the supermarkets, which can easily be replaced with reusable canvas and mesh bags.
Take action and make a difference for you, your family, friends, and our planet, as well as all life that lives here...
Written by Tina White, Naturopath and Acupuncturist at the Health & Healing Wellness Centre.