Nourished Magazine :: Wisdom to thrive by

A favorite mantra is “everything in moderation.” On the surface it sounds quite reasonable, avoiding fanatical or extreme activities by the very definition of moderation. Reasonable people are moderate. Good parents and teachers are moderate, aren’t they? So what could be the problem with it?

Actually, consuming everything in moderation is not very healthy at all. This is primarily because most foods available today are of such poor quality that their net effect is as much harm as good, as much toxicity as nutrition. Supermarkets are mostly stocked with foods laced with chemicals that are biologically disruptive as well as refined carbohydrates and the many products that contain them. Whole natural foods are relatively marginalized in supermarkets, either off in the produce aisle or all the way in the back with the meats.

Even then there are few or no organic foods, and the meats are full of hormones, pesticides, antibiotics and other substances that disrupt the immune system, the neurological system, the endocrine system, and that generally do not belong in the human body.

What Happens When You Eat a Little Bit of Everything?

The result is that a moderate sampling of everything in the store leaves a shopper with:

• Almost all pesticide-laden foods.
• Most foods containing refined carbohydrates.
• Most foods containing MSG (monosodium glutamate) or one of its many aliases, such as hydrolyzed whey protein, or other equally unhealthy neurotoxic additives such as disodium inosinate, maltodextrin, autolyzed yeast extract, etc.
• A range of foods containing a neurotoxin so powerful that it has been listed by the Pentagon as an agent of chemical warfare (aspartame).

Pesticides are not something you want in your body. Organic farmers eating organic food were found to have normal sperm, while their conventional counterparts eating non-organic food did not. Many pesticides were correlated with dead or defective sperm.1 Pesticide consumption is also linked with stillbirth 2 as well as development of Parkinson’s disease,3 aggressive behavior and irritability.4 Of the 25 most commonly used agricultural pesticides:

• 18 can damage the skin, eyes and lungs
• 17 cause genetic damage or birth defects
• 12 cause cancer
• 10 cause reproductive problems
• 6 disrupt normal hormone function
• 5 are neurotoxins,5 which is the most common harm shown clinically in those whose only contact with pesticides is through food consumption

Pesticides are Not Limited to Fruits and Vegetables

It is not only fruits and vegetables that are contaminated with pesticides. In fact, meat and dairy concentrate pesticides much more, especially in the fat tissue of farm animals. The EPA concluded in 1992 that Americans were exposed to 300 to 600 times the “acceptable” level of the toxic chemical dioxin every day in food and water. Chicken, eggs, red meat, fish and dairy products were the most frequently contaminated foods.6

Another pesticide, Dursban, was found in the urine of over 90 percent of Minnesota school children. Dursban has been a known cause of birth defects and cancer for many years–yet it is still found in at least 22 foods tested by the USDA.7

And everything discussed here so far is within the scope of a “moderate” diet, not one that includes extreme binging or food faddism. But there’s more:

Every day nine of 10 children aged 6 months to 5 years are exposed to combinations of 13 different nerve-damaging insecticides in the food they eat, even after washing and processing of the food.8

If you’d like to know more, an excellent, thoroughly researched work on this topic is Dr. Doris Rapp’s book Our Toxic World: A Wake Up Call.

It is imperative for your health that you begin to eat organic produce right away, but it is even more urgent that your meat and dairy be organic. If supermarkets near you don’t have it, demand it. If they still won’t get it, become a local weekend distributor yourself.

A few signs put up in your neighborhood will bring out all kinds of like-minded people you never new existed. Start small, out of your garage or front porch on Saturday mornings, and carry just a few in-season fruits and vegetables. Later when you get a lot of regular subscribing members, and some favorable articles written about you in your local newspaper, you can rent out warehouse space and expand–and maybe even make that your day job.

The Scoop on Refined Carbohydrates

As for refined carbohydrates, even small amounts of these reinforce your addiction to them, refresh your Candida, cause you to feel fatigued, stress your adrenals, pancreas and brain, and give you nothing in return. They are the emptiest of empty calories, as Dr. Atkins called them. He had a rule for determining how many refined carbs you could have in moderation: “Take a piece of paper. Take a pencil. Draw a large circle on the paper. Read the answer. That’s a zero.”9

What’s Wrong With Aspartame?

Adverse effects of aspartame include brain tumors, grand mal seizures, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and Alzheimer’s disease, among many other neurological disorders and illnesses. Ninety different documented symptoms have been reported in humans. The way that aspartame works is that it allows a very large influx of calcium into neurons, which produce over-excitement to the point of killing the neuron. For this reason, aspartame and similar chemicals are called excitotoxins.

You may have loved ones with a diet soda habit (or you may have one yourself). As you approach them about making healthier substitutions, they will put up a little defensive wall, which has written on it “everything in moderation.” Then they will argue that only one (or two) diet sodas a day is a moderate amount. However, toxic effects of aspartame have been produced at amounts much less than in one can of soda.

But regular soda is not a good choice either. Soda contains phosphoric acid, which has a pH of 2.8. Cola is so acidic that if you leave a nail in it, the nail will be dissolved in four days. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of cola, and it will be gone in two days. Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium out of bones, and is a major factor in the rising incidence of osteoporosis. Give your body a break: drink water instead.

This Article was first posted on Mercola.com June 2005.

References:
1. Juhler R, et al. Human semen quality in relation to dietary pesticide exposure and organic diet. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 1999; 37:415-423.
2.Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 1997. 54; 511-518.
3.Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in San Diego. May 9, 2000.
4.Rachel’s Environment and Health Weekly, #648, April 29,1999. (See article in Mercola.com.)
5.Rapp, Doris. Our Toxic World: A Wake Up Call. Environmental Medical Research Foundation. 2004.
6.Ibid.
7.ibid.
8.Wiles R. et al. Overexposed: organophosphate insecticides in children’s food. Environmental Working Group. Washington. January, 1998.
9.Atkins, Robert, MD. Dr. Atkins’ Age-Defying Diet. St. Martins Press. New York. 2001.

About the Author...

Dr. Colleen Huber is a Naturopathic Medical Doctor and Primary Care Physician, in Tempe, Arizona. Dr. Huber graduated from Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in Tempe. Many of her health articles have appeared on Mercola.com, the most visited natural health site. Her own website, NaturopathyWorks.com, contains more than 80 of her articles in a free newsletter on the topics of health, nutrition and natural lifestyles. Dr. Huber’s book, Choose Your Foods Like Your Life Depends on Them, has been seen and discussed on three TV appearances, and is available on amazon.com. Her academic writing has appeared in The Lancet and other medical journals. NaturopathyWorks.com