Interesting Organic Study - Response to Comments

This blog is in response to my last blog titled Interesting Organic Study if you'd like to read that first. What I wanted to say was too long and needed too much formatting to be displayed in the little comment window. So here goes...

Yay! Kurt wrote a comment!!! I disagree with what you wrote, but it's great to hear from you! :) Please don't take anything I write below negatively, it's just my opinion. It's all written with a huge grin on my face! :) And try to remember most of my "viewpoint" comes from the NEUROLOGICAL side of it. Todd thinks my new title should be the Neurodevelopmental Nutritionalist.

The organic vs non-organic issue is frustrating because one article says there is a huge nutritional difference (the one I sent you) and another will say there's not much difference. That drives me nuts. Ya just have to pick a side and I'd rather pick the more natural side because the fewer chemicals put in, the less impact on the brain. Chemicals that enter the body tend to go straight to the brain like a magnet. We go out of our way to give Anna probiotics to help keep the establishment of good bacteria in her stomach (her eating issues) and pesticides KILL off a lot of those bacteria in the gut. So does unfiltered tap water. *sigh* For Anna, that's a big deal. For others, maybe not so much... but remember, 50% of all neurotransmitters for the brain are produced in the gut. 90% of serotonin is produced in the gut and norepinephrine is also produced there as well as ALL of the major cells of the immune system.. :) It really is the second brain. Most neurologically disabled children/people have severe gut/digestion problems.

As for the downsides to organic food? Manure washes off food much easier than pesticide residue. Who doesn't wash their fruits and veggies before eating them anyway??? Um, hello! Not only are there nasty chemicals on them, but where do you think the migrant workers pee??? *shiver* Anyway, local farms are much for conscious of the types of organic manure they purchase/use than the large agribusiness companies that do some "organic stuff" on the side.

If you see fruit with MOLD ON IT, don't buy it. LOL Mold is very obvious.

E. coli is such a scare right now but I try not to worry about it. I buy local beef from very small farms if possible. Ditto for the chicken and turkey I purchase. If you ever hear of E. coli breakouts in raw milk, it always comes from some dim-whit who doesn't buy certified raw milk. They do the loop-hole in the law and belong to a cow-share or get it off the black market. This is just plain stupid. We only buy state certified raw products and there haven't been any outbreaks there. Those animals are very well taken care of and the farmers take exceptional care to make sure everything is sterile and well handled. We even visited the farm just to see how clean it was!

There are so many other sources out there that contaminate us - not just food. And honestly, I think all of the problems we're seeing in children, neurological disorders, learning disabilities, etc all the way into old age are caused by ALL OF IT. Not just food. I think when we combine all of the sources you listed below it IS too much for the human body. Do I think just going organic is going to make significant changes??? Nope, probably not. But I think we have to take baby steps. I think so many of the things we're producing and doing are so backwards, it's not even funny. So now you get to see how hippie I really am!!! EEEK!

You've also got to remember that many of these items listed below are environmental and are present in almost everything we come in contact with... It's exposing ourselves to them on purpose, on top of their natural occurrence that causes problems.

Mercury:

• I have mercury fillings in my mouth and I can't WAIT to get them replaced. It creeps me out just knowing they're in there. As soon as I'm done with these retainers, those will come out ASAP. We look for special cans of tuna that contain Tongel tuna - they are much larger fish that swim lower in the water, therefore they do not contain as many contaminants (mercury). We are also picky about the types of fresh fish we buy.
• Pesticides & fungicides are obvious - we don't do all organic, but we buy things that matter the most. Dairy, eggs and meat are absolutely always organic in our house - if possible.
• I switched fabric softeners to a really cool brand called Method, carried by Target, Safeway and Fred Meyer now. This brand is AWESOME! http://www.peopleagainstdirty.com/ They make about 20 products and I'm trying to get my hands on all of them to replace what I currently use. I already have their hardwood floor cleaner, counter cleaner, hand sanitizer, hand soap, laundry detergent and fabric softener.
• Laugh all you want, but I use a preservative-free contact solution for that very reason. ;)

Aluminum:

• I don't drink many soft drinks or pop (I try to avoid them for a variety of reasons). Todd's the only one who buys them and the girls only get a sip every once in a while. Aspartame, sugar, artificial colors & preservatives, empty calories etc... Like I said, lots of reasons I try not to drink too much pop.
• I just got rid of all of my old cookware and replaced it with a complete stainless steel set for a billion reasons, this being one of them.
• There's aluminum in cheese??? LOL Good thing we don't buy much cheese unless it's made from raw dairy. Huh! I didn't know this one.
• I don't use baking powder, white flour, stomach antacids or laxatives because I think they're all unhealthy. I tried switching to an aluminum-free, natural deodorant about six months ago and that was just a joke! LOL So I'll stick with my aluminum-loaded deodorant that actually WORKS. LOL
• I'm considering switching to Tom's toothpaste (a natural one) but I'm not quite hippy enough to do it yet... Still on the fence with that one.
• I would give anything to have a whole house water filter, but I'll settle for a kitchen sink reverse osmosis water filter - when I actually make the time to buy one and install it! We have a water filter on our shower head upstairs to help with Lindsey's constant rash on her legs.

Cadmium:

• Hard to avoid that one although I don't smoke or drink much coffee. If they're referring to stainless steel cooking pans, I think cadmium is the lesser of the two evils when compared to mercury. Children with severe neurological disorders have very high amounts of mercury and aluminum in their bodies, mostly concentrated around the brain blood barrier / myelin sheath.
• I do have to mention that on his own, Todd buys organic, shade-grown coffee. I don't know how that affects the cadmium levels, but I'm guessing since your email listed fertilizers as a source of cadmium, maybe that's where it comes from in the coffee crops?

Arsenic:

• Yet another reason for the water filter that I'm begging to get. :)
• Arsenic is only found in extremely low levels in sea salt. The brand we buy has 0.0001 of arsenic in it.

Lead:

• I avoid every food possible that has added dyes and unnecessary additives. About the only drink we own that I pathetically allow is crystal light... LOL It's hard to break the habit. I know it's sad, but I actually think about this topic every time I drink it! LOL LOL LOL
• Can you even buy lead-based paint anymore? The only exposure the girls get to that is the paint in our mother's house. I'm sure there is lead-based paint here... And yes, I think about that too when I'm at my her house, but there isn't anything I can do about it so I live with it. ;) Not everything's worth a battle! :)

Formaldehyde:

• This one actually drives me nuts because it's in EVERYTHING! Notice that article didn't mention it's also used in vaccines??? We're actually INJECTING formaldehyde into our bodies!?!? I think that's absolutely insane.
• As for the carpeting, wood products and foam... Believe it or not, I've already given this one a lot of thought. If we were building a house from the ground up, I'd honestly take a lot of this stuff into consideration. PCC and Whole Foods go to great lengths to incorporate stuff like this into their buildings/structures so I know it can be done. Obviously price comes into play here, but it doesn't hurt to try. I would absolutely love to have a house with all wood floors - bamboo is my fav!
• Grocery bags! LOL Not that I give that much thought, but I do know the grocery bags at PCC and Whole Foods are formaldehyde free as well as completely biodegradable. :) Woo hoo! LOL ;)

DDT:

• It will take a very long time for DDT to every be fully gone. :-( Absolutely nothing we can do to speed it up either.

Benzene & Chloroform:

• Once again, why I switched to mostly Method cleaning products and why I try to buy foods without artificial dyes and preservatives.
• If they're referring to dyes in clothes... well, I'm not that green yet. :) I have looked at organic cotton, but can't justify the cost. Cotton is THE most heavily pesticide-sprayed crop on the planet. I do buy "naturally organic" 100% BEECH or BAMBOO sheets though. Sooooo soft and naturally don't need any pesticides or chemicals to grow. BB&B has some wonderful Beech sheets that I'm hooked on.
• Artificial silk??? What on earth is that?

The rest on the list, no clue. :)

The ones listed above are just ones I happened to be able to answer while sitting here.

As for the nitrogen gassed tomatoes? That kinda follows along with how they add some sort of component to meat just before it is wrapped to make it red. Raw meat naturally turns brown very quickly so they add some sort of chemical to make it retain it's red color so it looks appetizing to buyers. I would so much rather see what the FRUIT, VEGETABLE or RAW MEET really looks like before I buy it. I don't want to buy products with make-up on. Why would I want to buy a beautiful, bright red tomato to then go home, cut it and find out it's not ripe yet? Whether the gas has a negative affect on health of not, the red color is nature's way of telling us it's ready to eat. WHY MESS WITH THAT?????????

Jennifer

PS: The girls don't eat or drink products that contain growth hormones (like meat, eggs or rBGH milk) because I refuse to turn them into the newest statistic of 6-year-olds growing breasts or going through puberty that early. :-( Sick sick sick!