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Are you being poisoned?
27th January 2006
This is going to raise a few hackles.
Indeed, I might find a few major supermarket chains on my case for this.
So if you see a man being chased through the streets of Bristol by lawyers brandishing huge comedy hammers... that'll probably be me.
But while this country still has freedom of speech, I think it's only right for me to speak about these topics.
I want to tell you about how supermarkets are ruining our food...
And how you can choose a healthier alternative.
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The problem with supermarkets
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Mass production is the name of the game these days. Supermarkets are obsessed with uniformity, colour and presentation... at the expense of taste!
Their economic power forces farmers to produce food according to their dictates, or risk going bust.
Go to a supermarket in France and you'll see produce that looks far more natural, with many different shapes, sizes and colours.
That's because the French are trained to buy produce for taste and freshness not uniformity.
But the UK supermarkets have big centralised distribution centres, where fresh produce has to be trucked in, reloaded and trucked out again.
So instead of asking growers to produce tasty tomatoes, our supermarkets demand varieties that can put up with all this bouncing around in trucks...
The result is that you get a bouncy tomato, as opposed to a TASTY one.
What a scam!
Farmers are also forced to use more and more chemicals, too.
According to the soil association, 31,000 tonnes of pesticides are chucked onto our farmland each year.
Now, I understand that modern farming has many complexities, and I've no wish to scaremonger unnecessarily.
But I am also a concerned parent, and obsessed by the food I put in my mouth and what it can do, both good and bad...
So I thought it would only be right to look at the problem...
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5 chemicals you may be swallowing every day
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All of the below chemicals are legal and regularly used. What's more, the Government think the levels of them are 'safe'.
Carbendazim:
This is used to protect cereals, fruit and vegetables from disease. It can penetrate the surface of plants so you can never guarantee it'll be washed off.
Germans classify this substance as a 'hormone disrupting chemical'. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, it's also a possible cause of cancer.
Yet a UK Government test in 2003 found that 12% of a sample of 252 pears had detectable amounts of carbendazim on them.
Trifluralin:
Used to kill weeds, this is also classified by the US environmental protection agency as a possible cause of cancer.
Aldicarb:
This nerve poison kills worms... by preventing nerve cells from communicating with each other. The World Health Organisation considers it 'extremely hazardous'. On the label of the product it says, 'toxic if swallowed'.
Good job it's used on potatoes, then.
In 2004, the Government tested 144 potatoes and found that 2% contained levels of aldicarb.
Chlorothalonil:
This is used to kill fungal diseases in crops, but is another potential cancer causer according to those worried experts at the US Environmental Protection Agency.
In 2003 the Government took a sample of raspberries and found that 5% has residues of chlorothalonil.
Chlorpyrifos:
This chemical kills insects by disrupting their nervous system.
Despite it being used heavily in orchards, the World Health Organisation classes it as 'moderately hazardous'.
In 2003, the Government found that 20% of their apple samples had traces of this chemical on them.
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So what can you do?
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Usually, the Good Life Letter suggests safe alternatives to the many drugs and food additives of modern times.
But in this case, the growth of British mega- supermarkets makes bad food hard to avoid.
Organic food producers claim to use none of these chemicals...
But their food comes at a price.
What's more, doubters claim there are also problems with organic food:
-- Organic farmers apply cow or pig manure when available. This CAN be infected with the dangerous bacterium E coli 0157 disease.
-- Organic farmers use sulphur as a pesticide. This contains lead, but they still don't know how much is transferred to the food we eat.
-- Organic farmers are allowed to spray crops with bacterial spores as an insecticide. One study found that these spores cause serious lung infections in mice. The jury's still out on whether this technique is safe or not.
That said, even the doubters agree that organically grown food contains more vitamins, minerals, enzymes and taste than intensively-farmed foods.
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So where do I stand?
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I not only have young children but a passionate belief that modern food production is causing all sorts of health problems, from cancer to heart disease.
I am siding with organic food for now, just because it seems the lesser of two evils.
However, I reckon the arguments not about organic or non-organic... but about supermarket or NON-supermarket.
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The healthy choice - organic or not!
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Recently, I've been getting a huge box of fruit and vegetables delivered from a nearby farm.
Getting locally produced and seasonal food is a great idea.
It'll be a lot fresher so will naturally taste better, whether it's organic or not.
The farmers will use varieties that give you tasty food as opposed to ones that give you uniformity or colour.
Go to a search engine and type 'vegetable box' and see what comes up. Perhaps add your area of the country to narrow the search.
There are dozens of these services in every area of the country and you should be able to shop for a cheap price.
Or you could try this organic food search engine: organic
If you can't take deliveries, then you should give the supermarket a miss and get down to your local farmer's market!
Finally, on a lighter note...
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How are your brain exercises coming on?
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Lara has given me a telling off for extolling the virtues of Su Doku in my recent Good Life Letter.
'You want to hook the entire country, Ray?' she said. 'Nothing will get done. You'll all be playing with your little machines.'
She's referring to the Su Doku handheld computers I recommended the other week.
Having one of these little babies means you can exercise your brainpower anywhere you like without ever needing a pen or buying a puzzle book.
I think my wife is wrong, however.
Concentrating on a puzzle like this for 20 minutes a day could boost your memory and increase your powers of concentration.
So who cares how many people get hooked?
And they're better than those shoot-em-up computer games the kids play these days.
If you'd like to read more about these little handheld Su Doku machines, go to this website:
Su Doku
Yours as ever
Ray Collins
The Good Life Letter
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