First Day of my First Cleanse

My experience working at Nourish NYC has been absolutely amazing! I can't believe I've been working there for three weeks already. I have learned sooooo much about food, health, and the way our body works, I feel like I'm still in school - only way more fun and I'm getting paid for it. I can't believe how much junk we eat. No really, it's absolutely horrifying. Dangerous chemicals, antibiotics, processed foods, weird added coloring. I can't believe no one is telling us about all of this! Don't believe me? Here are just a few of the stats:

Pesticides

With today's chemical farming, even the old adage that "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" must be questioned. For the caterpillar, one brief journey across the average apple is enough to kill it. But what about us? According to the World Health Organization, there were three million cases of severe pesticide poisoning and 20,000 deaths globally in 1996. A survey by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries found that 89% to 99% of all fresh fruit, cereals, and vegetables are sprayed with pesticides! That means that pesticides used in animal feed also contaminate most meat and milk.

Although few proper surveys have been carried out to find the extent of the problem, the Association for Public Analysts randomly tested 305 fruits: 31 of the samples contained pesticide residues above the safety levels, and another 72 samples showed lower pesticide residues. Some fruits-particularly strawberries, raspberries, grapes, and tomatoes had measurable levels of at least six different pesticides! More recent concerns deal with the level of chemicals in carrots and lettuce. In 1994, a survey of carrots found some to have levels 25 times higher than the safety limit. In 1995, 10% of lettuces tested had levels in excess of the safety limit.

What can you do to protect yourself?

1. Select organic fruit and vegetables whenever possible. Wash or peel non-organic produce.

2. Choose fruits and vegetables in season. This means that your exposure to the chemicals used to delay ripening, prolong shelf-life, preserve color and so on, will be limited.

3. Supplement your diet with antioxidant nutrients-vitamins A, C, and E, and the minerals zinc and selenium-since the detoxification of many pesticides involves these nutrients.

Food Additives

Chemicals are purposely added to food to change its color, preserve it, prevent rancidity, keep fats emulsified, and foods stable. Most of the chemicals are synthetic compounds, some with known negative health effects. But more importantly, we don't really know what the long-term consequences of consuming such large amounts of additives are. It is therefore best to avoid all additives, with a few notable exceptions.

Yeah, and this article is old...imagine what it's like now.

What most people don't realize is we eat what our food eats. So if we eat a chicken that ate genetically modified corn meal, we eat that too. I realize that organic food is more expensive, but let me ask you this: is it better to spend more now and spare you health later? Or save more now and end up spending thousands of dollars on medical treatments later? It's a decision we all must make for ourselves.