Why Eat Organic?By choosing organic
foods, you are choosing to bring more health into your life. Eating organic
foods helps to build immunity, increase strength and promotes recovery from
chronic conditions. While organic food is mainstream now and can be found in nearly all grocery and health food stores, visiting Farmer's Markets is one of the best ways to find organic foods and support your local community and you'll get far fresher foods than those that have been shipped from all parts of the country. Organically grown meats and poultries are also becoming more available. What's the difference? Just as with vitamins, there is always "something" that eludes a manufacturer. The makers of chemical fertilizers cannot reproduce in their correct proportions the essential trace elements that go to make up the good earth. Modern large-scale food production methods have made it almost impossible to obtain a really pure and unadulterated product of nature. Chemicals act like a tonic and give plants a sharp uplift, but the effect soon wears off and the soil is left as impoverished as before. Ground without any organic treatment is also devoid of earthworms, which are essential to the health of the soil. Earthworms are the greatest gardeners of all. They eat soil to a vast extent and make about their own weight in the finest fertilizer everyday. Their castings are much richer than the actual soil they take in. Chemicals kill earthworms! After 100 to 300 years of cultivation, our soils are worn out! And, there are still claims that "evidence is lacking" that chemical fertilizers and pesticides are detrimental to our health. The FDA and the US Department of Agriculture regulate about 60% of the food produced in the United States and individual states are responsible for the rest. Of the 70,000 chemicals produced, the EPA lists 60,000 as either potentially or definitely hazardous to our health! The argument that "evidence of toxicity is lacking" is not valid because evidence of safety is even more lacking! The tremendous increase in illnesses, especially cancer, may in part be correlated with the hundreds of millions of pounds of pesticides added annually to the billions of pounds already in the ground, bits of them carried by soil solution into every cell of our foods. Nitrates from commercial fertilizers destroy or decrease the vitamin C content of plants. In our bodies they can be changed to nitrites, which have caused serious illnesses and even fatalities. Government regulations set "parts per million" restrictions which lull us into complacency but a number of insecticides have induced many health problems such as liver and kidney damage. Laboratory research has shown that pesticide residues can be found in the brains of rats but has not been studied in the human brain. Apparently, the body fat of everyone contains poison residues. Single foods exceeding the so-called "level of safety" cannot be marketed, but the cumulative amounts ingested over prolonged periods cannot be controlled. Three hundred million tons of waste is generated annually by industry. The EPA estimates that 90% of this waste is disposed of improperly. Much of this waste finds its way into our air, water, soil and food supplies. We must learn how to be involved and support efforts to heal and purify our earth and its people! Food plants from high acre yields, forced by chemical fertilizers, contain more carbohydrates and are lower in protein and minerals. Potassium in the form of chemical fertilizers, or liming the soil, unless done with a magnesium limestone or dolomite, both cause such a severe lack of magnesium in food plants that magnesium deficiencies in humans have become widespread. Calcium, magnesium, potassium and iron contents of vegetables from mineral-rich organic ground have ranged from four to many hundreds of times higher than those grown on soil long under cultivation. Foods from land rich in natural minerals and humus have a greater protein content than those grown in chemically fertilized soils. Foods grown on healthy soils appear to produce superior human health. Furthermore, plants grown on well mineralized, composted and mulched land have a remarkable ability to remain healthy and are little bothered by pests. Thousands of organic farmers have proven that the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides are not needed. One of the factors detrimental to health is the passing of the home garden! If space permitted, example upon example could be given as to the detrimental effect of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and additives. The destruction of amino acids, vitamins, minerals and proteins in our foods is high. The cumulative amounts and reactions of one chemical with another are magnified through additives. Some foods, such as white bread, are said to contain no fewer than 30 different additives. The soothing "no evidence for alarm" may well continue until irreparable damage has been done, if it hasn't already! There is some evidence, for example, that sorbic acid and its salts, which are common preservatives, can combine with nitrites, popular food additives, to produce a chemical compound that may cause genetic mutations. Any toxic substance can harm the liver. Since all of us consume, with our foods, pesticides, additives, preservatives and nitrates, it's believed that everyone has liver damage to some extent. Any form of liver damage causes increased susceptibility to cancer. Also, susceptibility increases tremendously when diets are deficient in protein or essential amino acids. Eating nutritionally depleted and chemically toxic foods is producing disease in our bodies like scientists do in experimental animals. We are the guinea pigs! Simply selecting foods for their nutritive value and preparing them to be delicious with minimal losses of nutrients would improve health drastically. Physical health, which is the basis for mental, emotional and spiritual development, cannot be maintained without adequate nutrition. Sound nutrition is your fortress against disease. Now, let's learn about the 3,000 + food additives that we consume with our food... |
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