Healthy Begins Here: Tackling the Toxic Table

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Tackling the Toxic Table

Our guest blogger is David Wallinga, MD, Director of the Food and Health Program at The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

Public confidence in our food system has been shaken. Between recalls due to contamination with melamine, mercury, and salmonella and worries about antibiotics and hormones in meat and dairy products, it's hard to know what's safe to eat. Here are steps we can all take to tackle the growing problems of our global food system.

1. Buy pesticide-free produce.
There is growing scientific consensus that even very small doses of pesticides can adversely affect people, especially during the vulnerable periods of in utero and early childhood development. Exposure to pesticides is linked to chronic diseases including Parkinson's Disease, child and adult cancers and neurodevelopmental harm.

Recent studies suggest switching to an organic diet can eliminate residues of certain pesticides in children's urine in just a few days. Switching to certified organic produce for the "dirty dozen" - the 12 domestic and imported fruits and vegetables most routinely contaminated–will greatly reduce one's exposure, according to analysis by the Environmental Working Group.

2. Be a "locavore."
Buy locally produced foods, when possible, to support the economic health of your local foodshed, and to help reduce "food miles." The U.S. food production system accounts for an estimated 17 percent of the nation's fossil fuel use. Buying from the farmer (directly, on the internet, or via a Community Supported Agriculture program) allows you to know exactly where your food comes from and how it has been grown. Much non-certified, locally grown produce also uses few or no pesticides.

3. Know where your food comes from.
A single hamburger patty can comingle meat from a hundred different head of cattle, from four different countries. Or, looked at from another perspective, a single contaminated carcass shredded for hamburger can pollute eight tons of finished ground beef. Look for labels of origin on products.

4. Shop for safer, more sustainable fish.
Find fish good for you (high in healthful fats, low in environmental toxins), as well as good for the ocean. Fish are an important source of protein and omega-3 fatty acids. But overfishing and unsustainable fish harvesting practices have left many seafood species depleted or on the brink of extinction. The most prudent approach for the health of our environment and the people in it is to eat safer, less polluted fish species from sustainable fisheries. Use the Environmental Defense Fund's Seafood Selector.

5. Eat grass-fed meat and dairy products.
There is some evidence that grass-fed animals produce meat and dairy products higher in omega-3 fatty acids and other beneficial fats. The USDA's 2007 voluntary standard for meat marketed as ‘grass-fed' precludes these animals from getting routine antibiotics. Scientific consensus exists that these unnecessary agriculture antibiotics are helping create an epidemic of hard-to-treat (and sometimes untreatable) multi-drug resistant infections in humans.

6. Avoid chicken raised with arsenic.
Instead of conventional chicken, buy certified organic, which is arsenic-free, or from local producers who can assure arsenic was not used. In addition to routine antibiotics, at least 70 percent of conventionally raised broiler chickens in the U.S. are fed arsenic compounds. The 27 countries of the European Union have never approved this practice as safe. Meat from chickens fed arsenic can carry arsenic residues.

7. Buy dairy products from cows not given synthetic growth hormone (rBGH).
The FDA-required package insert for rBGH lists 17 adverse health impacts for cows treated with the hormone, including mastitis. Cattle treated with rBGH get more mastitis, and therefore receive more antibiotics, which contributes to antibiotic resistance. Animal and human health concerns have led most industrialized nations, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the European Union to ban rBGH use in dairy production.

8. Choose your foods wisely to prevent diseases linked to the toxic chemicals prevalent in our industrialized foods and farming systems.
Preferably eat whole, fresh foods. Minimize consumption of processed, refined and most fast food. And avoid partially hydrogenated oils - a source of trans fats - and high fructose corn syrup, both signs of low quality food.

Follow these steps and we not only improve our health, we send a strong signal to farmers, grocery stores, and policymakers as to the kinds of food we want to eat - at home, in our schools and in our hospitals. How we spend our food dollars can steer the future direction of our global food system in a healthier, more sustainable direction.

(Note: This is an abridged version of the original article found at IATP.)

Related Topics:

Labels: health and wellness, organic, prevention