Are You Really Eating Healthy?

You're having a salad for lunch, you're steaming your veggies, you're counting calories; carbs and fat, you've even cut processed sugars from your diet...GREAT...but are you really eating healthy? Probably not... most if not all of your vegetables and fruits are treated with pesticides. Unless you are currently eating organic or all natural foods, you ARE ingesting pesticides.

Pesticides (all pesticides) create harmful risks...just by the nature of what a pesticide is and what it's supposed to do, you automatically know it's harmful to humans, animals and our environment. Pesticides are designed to "kill", not that they are intended to kill people or animals, but they are created to affect living organisms...and what are we???

Did you know that pesticides could cause a variety of cancers? According to the Environmental Health Perspectives, leukemia, neuroblastoma, Wilms' tumor, soft-tissue sarcoma, Ewing's sarcoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and cancers of the brain, colorectum, and testes have been linked to pesticide exposure...pesticides can also cause neurological problems and interfere with a child's development? Every time you eat pesticides, you're poisoning your body, the bodies of your family members and even your unborn children...pesticides can cause low birth rates and increase the chance of birth defects. Children are more sensitive to pesticides than adults. You may want to check out what the EPA has to say about pesticides...the facts and statistics are unnerving.

When we shop for our food we settle for ease over education...with so many things to choose from, we often go for convenience and cost without thinking about or realizing what the alternatives and consequences really are.

Our food is being shipped from all over the world...we're not only getting our foods shipped in from across our own Country, we're getting fruits and vegetables shipped to us from other Countries (yes, I said other Countries). So not only do we need to worry about where these foods are grown, but we need to worry about how they are grown, what they were fertilized with and what pesticides are being used and who is regulating the pesticides in these other Countries? Pesticides found on produce don't necessarily mean there were excessive pesticides used, but persistent residues in the soil or wind dispersal of pesticides from nearby fields need to be taken into account as well. This information needs to give all us a lot to think about, but it also needs to make us more aware of our options.

Washing and peeling your vegetables and fruits does NOT ensure you're eating a pesticide free product. Some pesticides can seep into the flesh of the food and some pesticides are made to "stick" to the food to avoid being washed away by rain, so a quick rinse under the faucet cannot and will not remove them. So even if you're taking precautions, there are some vegetables and fruits higher in pesticide residue than others...washed or not...such as fresh peaches, fresh and frozen winter squash, fresh green beans, apples, and pears...so what exactly are you eating???

Eating organic and natural foods may seem overpriced and inconvenient, but you don't always have to go to a health food store to find pesticide free foods that are affordable and still organic or natural. A couple of ways you can do this is to find your local farmers market or food shed where "local" organic and natural foods are grown and where the overhead isn't as high as the health food stores. There are affordable ways to eating pesticide free while supporting your local growers and knowing where your food comes from. Shopping and eating locally grown and raised food not only benefits you, but it helps to preserve your communities, your economy, your environment and most of all your health and the health of your family and friends.

If you grow your own fruits and veggies, you still need to be aware of the risks of using pesticides in your own garden...a pesticide is a poison regardless. Growing a worry free garden may not seem possible, but it is. There are lots of "organic" and "natural" pest control recipes you can mix up in your own kitchen. I found some great organic pest control recipes online.

Keeping sweets, trans fats, preservatives and processed foods out of your diet is a great first step to good health...but the number one thing you need to keep out of your diet is pesticides.
Carmella lives in beautiful Western Colorado with her hubby, 3 grown children, and 6 grand children, while growing a cinder block garden of her own-see how -> http://www.cinderblockgardens.com Carmella also supports the Locavore movement-see why-> http://www.locavoremovie.com and believes that if everyone had a garden, no one would ever go hungry and suggests you build & enjoy your very own cinder block garden.

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