Have you heard about food irradiation dangers?
If not, there's something that you need to know about your food and your health. The FDA & USDA would have you believe it is a wonderful technology used to help prevent illness. It is actually just one more food processing method that benefits huge corporations – when the foods are zapped with radiation, it lengthens their shelf life. (Reminds me of when milk is ultra-pasteurized – it is processed at such a high heat that it can sit on a shelf, unrefrigerated, for two months — the conventional milk peeps must love this!)
You're probably well aware that certain foods, like milk and juices, at your grocery store are pasteurized — a process that uses heat to kill off bacteria from your food, and in the process destroys nutrients and denatures the food.
But you may not know that foods may also be irradiated — a process that exposes your food to radiant energy, including gamma rays, electron beams and X-rays.
Irradiation was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1963, and today is used on more than 40 food products dispersed throughout 37 countries. If this sounds a bit alarming to you, you are not alone.
After nuclear disasters like the Fukushima meltdown in Japan, radiation poisoning to food is one of the primary health concerns. So how is it that food processors can expose your food to radiation on purpose, in the name of food safety? (Source)
Even if you don't believe what you read here about the many food irradiation dangers, just think common sense: how natural does irradiating food sound? Thankfully, you can avoid it by eating organic, since it's not allowed under the organic label.
What about those people who died after eating spinach? (Or tomatoes or… ?)
A valid question for sure. Could that happen if we eat locally grown, organic spinach from a farmer we know, who grows food sustainably? If we eat a healthy diet and have a strong immune system? I highly doubt it, but it's possible – there are risks with everything. But I'm going to choose whatever is most natural and leaves all the nutrients intact, which common sense says is always the least risky bet.
Look at this stupid comment:
“Try asking people what they are more scared of, exposing food to nuclear radiation or eating food contaminated by E. coli, Listeria or Salmonella bacteria. It’s a safe bet that many would rather take their chances with bacterial food poisoning than with food irradiation.” Source
So they just want to ZAP every single bit of food before it ever goes into our mouths?!!!
How about instead we get to know the people who grow or raise our food, or we grow or raise it ourselves? And we cultivate nutrient-dense soil so our food is loaded with beneficial bacteria and vitamins and minerals that nourish us. And we learn to do all of that safely and sustainably, organically, humanely, and ethically? Doesn't that sound safer?
—Click here to learn more about specific food irradiation dangers
—A good source for everything else you wanted to know about food irradiation
From the Organic Consumers Association:
“That a society's health regulators would want all foods to be dead should be downright shocking to anyone who knows anything about health and nutrition. Live foods keep people alive, but dead foods make people dead.”
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Kelly the Kitchen Kop says
Nicole, anytime you want the heebie jeebies, I’m here to help!
Nicole says
I was extra disturbed when I read this info in Real Food. Now that it has been a good while since reading it I have been able to eat fruit and veggies from the grocer without cringing thinking about it. Thanks for bringing it up again! 😛