Friday, August 22, 2008

My Beef With The FDA

The FDA just oked the irradiation of lettuce and spinach. Click here for details.

I don't have time to rant too much, but really FDA, what's wrong with you? Should we clean up the animal feces contaminating our irrigation channels, or should we just say...that's too much work for the corporations that control us. Let's take the easy way out and nuke our fresh food, essentially turning it into dead food.

I love in the article how they cite extended shelf life as an asset!

Here's why is sucks if you're a human being.

1)Food irradiation can result in loss of nutrients, for example vitamin E levels can be reduced by 25% after irradiation and vitamin C by 5-10%. This is compounded by the longer storage times of irradiated foods, and by loss of nutrients during cooking, which can result in the food finally eaten by the consumer to contain little more than 'empty calories'. This is potentially damaging to the long and short-term health of consumers, particularly for sections of society already failing to obtain adequate nutrition.

2) When food is exposed to high doses of ionising radiation, the chemical composition and nutritional content of food can change. Radiolytic by-products are often formed in irradiated food. Very few of these chemicals have been adequately studied for toxicity. One such chemical - 2-DCB - can cause DNA damage in rat colon cells at high doses.

3) Food irradiation does not inactivate dangerous toxins which have already been produced by bacteria prior to irradiation. In some cases, such as C. botulinum, it is the toxin produced by the bacteria, rather than the bacteria itself, which poses the health hazard.

4) Irradiation can cause mutations in bacteria and viruses leading to potentially resistant strains.


Honestly, what's wrong with you FDA. Stop messing with my food!

And while you're at it could you ban Bayer from producing the pesticide that's causing Colony Collapse Disorder? The Bees will love you.

Training


Today was a cross training day for biking. 17 miles or so.

1 comment:

Sarah said...

I'm sooooooooooooooooo ticked about this.

I guess that it at least gives me some impetus to work on planting my own lettuce. I have a good 811 friend who keeps nagging at me to grow lettuce, she says it's the easiest thing to grow and that it tastes NOTHING like the store bought stuff. So thsi may not be the worst thing in the world... unless it leads to bigger and badder things.

First mangoes, then almonds, now greens. What next?