The Link Between Cancer & Pesticides

By Cliff Walsh

Despite the fact that farmers, factory workers in pesticide plants, and those employees that apply these chemicals suffer from cancer at rates significantly more than other Americans, the U.S. government continues sit idly by while the agricultural industry dumps hundreds of millions of pounds of dangerous chemicals on our food each year, roughly three pounds per American. The government funds very little research and provides little oversight to the use of pesticides. It's even in our drinking water.

Pesticides are used to kill or deter insects, weeds, fungus, bacteria, and animals. It is not a stretch to believe that the same chemicals used to kill insects and plants on our food could kill our cells once we ingest those chemicals. Carcinogenic chemicals are known to damage and even alter our DNA, due to the creation of free radicals that can accelerate the spread of cancerous cells.

Unfortunately, our bodies are capable of storing these dangerous chemicals in our fat cells, and they often do. We can carry around pesticides in our bodies for years, because they are fat soluble. When I first began eating a cleaner diet of mainly organic fruits and vegetables, I experienced at least ten days of detoxification symptoms, mainly headaches.

Although the government doesn't appear to be making any effort to understand this causation, much research has been done privately. The evidence clearly shows a distinct link between cancer and insecticides and herbicides. A research project done in the U.S., which tested over 55,000 farm workers for skin cancer, showed that those who applied the most pesticides over their careers had the highest rates of cancer. Those is the top group were more than 2.5x as likely to get skin cancer than the bottom group.

The Ministry of Health in Argentina also recently released a report highlighting a massive dichotomy of cancer rates across its provinces, linking the higher rates to increased usage of chemical pesticides. In some areas, cancer rates were more than double that of the areas with lowest chemical usage. Argentina is a useful comparison for the U.S. because together both countries produce roughly 70% of all genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), which require heavy pesticide use.

Spend a few minutes looking over research on the internet and you can find well-respected doctors and university researchers connecting pesticides to a variety of different cancers.

I put little faith in the claims made by these chemical companies when they say their products don't harm us and that they are doing a public service by boosting food output. Without these pesticides, according to pesticide industry execs, we would all be starving right now. I find that hard to believe, particularly when remembering that a variety of previous industry products have been removed from the shelves because they were deemed carcinogenic, like DDT and PCBs.

I recommend that people avoid pesticides by eating organic produce. If that is a problem because of cost or availability, it is okay to buy non-organic fruits and vegetables that have thick skin or protective shells. Berries and thin-skinned fruits are the most at risk for pesticide contamination. A filter for your water intake is also recommended.

About the Author:

Please see my website for more information at dangers of pesticides food additives preservatives or my blog at natural claims on food label

The Paleo Diet: A Clean Approach To Eating

By Cliff Walsh

The Paleo Diet is the newest diet craze out there. It consists of eating whole foods like organic fruit, vegetables, and meat while avoiding grains, beans, and dairy. Is it just a flash in the pan? I don't think so. Once I learned more about the Paleo Diet, I realized I had been eating it for quite some time. It is the healthiest, most rational diet I have ever come across.

The Paleo Diet intends to return its followers to the diet of the hunter/gatherer. This means avoiding grains, legumes, chemical food additives, trans fats, sugar, pesticides, and GMOs. The avoidance of chemicals is self-explanatory, but grains and legumes are not. Most people, whether they feel it or not, have difficulty digesting gluten and it is believed our bodies do not fully absorb the nutrients.

The Paleo Diet eliminates all refined and processed foods due to the chemical additives and often poor nutritional content. It is a whole foods diet. The significant rise in use of processed foods, which are loaded with fat, salt, and sugar, are a huge reason behind the rise in obesity and disease in this country. Eliminating processed foods will have a huge impact on your diet. However, there are other areas to consider as well.

This diet also eliminates grains and beans/legumes. This may be surprising to some people. The reason is that both have what's called phytic acid, which keeps your body from digesting and utilizing all of the nutrients in the food. They, along with dairy, also contain dangerous lectins, which are often responsible for additional digestion issues. While convenient, the human digestive system is not designed for grains and legumes, and is not efficient in using nutrients from these sources.

Dairy is to be avoided, although not all Paleo followers adhere to this. I don't eat dairy, because it is not natural for a human being to drink the milk of another animal, particularly into adulthood. No animal species on earth drinks milk past infancy. If you are going to drink milk, I suggest raw milk or low-pasteurized and non-homogonized varieties, if you can find them.

The main staples in the Paleo diet are organic fruits and vegetables, including sweet potatoes along with wild-caught fish, pasture-raised eggs, and organic meats and poultry. Vegetables are extremely low in calories, so to avoid low energy, I suggest getting a significant amount of your carbohydrate needs from fruit.

Paleo follows can sometimes get into trouble if they restrict carbohydrates. Some people don't like to eat too much fruit because they think it will make them fat (not true) and vegetables are inherently low in calories, so the combination creates a diet filled with protein and fat. This is why some people wrong compare the Paleo Diet to Atkins. If followed properly, these two diets are very different. I suggest eating fruit as your main carbohydrate source and shoot for carbs to make up about 40% of your calories. Protein should be at a similar level if you are looking to lose weight, but you could eat a larger amount of carbs if you aren't. Fats should come from healthy sources and top out at about 20%.

The Paleo Diet is clean and healthy. Many have experienced improvements in health, energy, and weight loss as a result of adopting the Paleo Diet. It is energizing and given the considerable amount of chemicals and dangerous food additives in our food supply, it is worth trying.

About the Author:

Please check out my website to learn more at Food Labels or my blog at dangerous food additives