If You Are What You Eat
I grew up in the seventies and I can count on one hand the number of kids that had a severe food allergy, with fingers to spare.
Now, when I take a job as a substitute teacher I see the pictures of all the students at the school who have allergies and what those allergies are.
I have been to many schools and can see that this is clearly a growing problem.
The National Institute of Health (NIH) in the United States has stated that food allergies have tripled since 1971.
Not only that, but the number of foods that a person is allergic to has gone up from one or two back in the seventies, to as many as four or five today.
Another study by the NIH on Autism rates in Minnesota shows a 1400% increase between 1992 and 2002.
Over the past decade there has been a 42% jump in children diagnosed with ADHD, according to Psychology Today.
Do all of these problems share a common link? It will probably take science decades more to determine with any degree of certainty what the causes of these problems are, but it is not that difficult to make a sound, logical decision as to the probable cause(s).
The way we treat our environment like a cesspool is, no doubt, a large part of the problem, though certainly not the only one.
Nor is it one that a regular person has any control over.
I think one common link between the three identified problems, which have grown frightfully quickly, is our food source.
Our food system has become corrupted.
Some of the items that appear on grocery shelves only pose as food.
In reality they fail to meet even the most lax definition.
Processing food implies a tacit acceptance of a certain amount of non-food ending up in your food, such as rodent feces or maggots.
These things happen in a factory.
So long as the amount of rodent feces stays at an acceptable level, they can be sold for consumption.
How does an informed consumer respond; by avoiding processed foods and using fresh ingredients.
Yet what is a consumer to do when the very building blocks of food have been corrupted with genetic tinkering? When researchers wanted a way to prevent Strawberries from freezing on the plant they looked to the peanut, which naturally has this ability, and thought to transplant some peanut genes to a strawberry.
Is there a correlation between the increase in severe nut allergies and scientists adding peanut genes to fruit? This is just one example of many, and it is difficult to say how many people are victims of the unintended consequences of genetic manipulation with our food.
This is why it is vital to know where your food is coming from, and that it is not the product of some genetic tinkering.
We do not know the long-term consequences that come with eating such foods, though I believe we are seeing some of them manifest now.
It is time for people to take back control of their food.
After all, you are what you eat.
Now, when I take a job as a substitute teacher I see the pictures of all the students at the school who have allergies and what those allergies are.
I have been to many schools and can see that this is clearly a growing problem.
The National Institute of Health (NIH) in the United States has stated that food allergies have tripled since 1971.
Not only that, but the number of foods that a person is allergic to has gone up from one or two back in the seventies, to as many as four or five today.
Another study by the NIH on Autism rates in Minnesota shows a 1400% increase between 1992 and 2002.
Over the past decade there has been a 42% jump in children diagnosed with ADHD, according to Psychology Today.
Do all of these problems share a common link? It will probably take science decades more to determine with any degree of certainty what the causes of these problems are, but it is not that difficult to make a sound, logical decision as to the probable cause(s).
The way we treat our environment like a cesspool is, no doubt, a large part of the problem, though certainly not the only one.
Nor is it one that a regular person has any control over.
I think one common link between the three identified problems, which have grown frightfully quickly, is our food source.
Our food system has become corrupted.
Some of the items that appear on grocery shelves only pose as food.
In reality they fail to meet even the most lax definition.
Processing food implies a tacit acceptance of a certain amount of non-food ending up in your food, such as rodent feces or maggots.
These things happen in a factory.
So long as the amount of rodent feces stays at an acceptable level, they can be sold for consumption.
How does an informed consumer respond; by avoiding processed foods and using fresh ingredients.
Yet what is a consumer to do when the very building blocks of food have been corrupted with genetic tinkering? When researchers wanted a way to prevent Strawberries from freezing on the plant they looked to the peanut, which naturally has this ability, and thought to transplant some peanut genes to a strawberry.
Is there a correlation between the increase in severe nut allergies and scientists adding peanut genes to fruit? This is just one example of many, and it is difficult to say how many people are victims of the unintended consequences of genetic manipulation with our food.
This is why it is vital to know where your food is coming from, and that it is not the product of some genetic tinkering.
We do not know the long-term consequences that come with eating such foods, though I believe we are seeing some of them manifest now.
It is time for people to take back control of their food.
After all, you are what you eat.