Eat Drink And Try Not To Get Sick (Water, Pesticides, and Genetics)

Food is at the heart of pleasure, community and even love!  That said, it is also a major point of worry and concern for most people.  On top of our concern about whether or not we are eating the right foods, we are also worried about contamination to our food.  

Food contamination happens at different stages.  It can start with the growing or raising of food adding pesticides to protect vegetables and fruit, adding fertilizer and or hormones to make things bigger, air and water contamination, packaging, processing and storing contamination.  

The list is long and scary.  Many of these exposures can lead to cancer and hormone disruption.  There is a need to be aware of what you should be thinking about. Each of these topics could be a literal gazillion pages long.   As a Naturopathic Doctor, I would like to make you aware of some of the things you might expose too.

Each of these categories has subcategories and other associated chemicals and risk factors.  Here is a great quick guide to chemicals in food groups you may not be thinking about:

• Fats and Oils
  • Any and all fat-soluble chemicals will stay in fat.  
  • Hormones
  • Pesticides
  • Plastics
• Meat, Poultry, and Diary
  • Hormones
  • Smoking agents and preservatives
  • Plastics during packaging
  • Bacterial, viral,  yeast or fungal exposure in handling and storage
• Fish
  • Any crap thrown in the ocean – use your imagination on this one!
  • Mercury
  • Dioxin
• Fruits, Vegetable and Grains
  • Mycotoxins or toxins from mold
  • Metals – more specifically arsenic cadmium and lead
  • Pesticides – glyphosate
  • Processing chemicals for fermenting, smoking or preserving like acrylamide
  • Environmental pollutants such as dioxin and PCBs

We are exposed to so many chemicals in our food and the product we use every day.  Be smart, ask questions and try to figure out what things your food may have been exposed too.  

Empower yourself with knowledge.

If you think your food is the source of what ails you inquire with a health care practitioner to find out if exposure is currently affecting your health.  

Get tested to make sure all of your organ function is working well to detoxify you!