I think we can safely say that apart from eating our own
heirloom, non GM chemical free, organic home grown vegetables we are risking a
load of health problems. Well according the World Health Organization anyway.
The WHO recently did a survey testing over 940 different
substances and found only one of them to NOT be a cancer concern. If you are
wondering which chemical is safe, it’s called “Caprolactam” and is found mainly
in yoga pants. I’m still not sure if this is meaning wearing the pants or
eating them is the safe way and probably never will. The WHO has also been busy
with presentations, some of them more successful than others; the bacon scare
comes to mind… Here’s a recent report from unaustralian.net that puts an
interesting point across humorously.
Two pigs
Last week the World Health Organisation retracted a study
that revealed a connection between bowel cancer and bacon after an alert staff
member discovered that the doctor presenting the results was actually two pigs
dressed up in a long white lab coat.
“The presentation he gave was certainly impressive with lots
of graphs and pie charts,” said Dr Hermione Trotter, head of ontological
research at WHO. “No-one questioned his credentials because he had a
stethoscope around his neck. We were on the verge of recommending a worldwide
ban on bacon and sausages when one of our secretaries noticed something out of
the ordinary.”
“I happened to see a little curly tail poking out from the
back of his lab coat”, said UN stenographer Penny Stencil. The bogus bacon
study follows on from a similar attempt to discredit chicken nuggets carried
out by seven chickens dressed up as an expert on heart disease.
“We’ve stepped up our screening procedures and any doctor
wearing anything longer than a poncho will be x-rayed on the way into the
building,” said WHO security chief Warren Truncheon. “You’ll have to excuse me;
I’ve got to go to a lecture on the dangers of horse meat that’s currently being
delivered by a doctor with a really long face.”
Alternatives
It just goes to show that we can’t believe everything we
hear about food and diet. There have been a long list of “Superfoods” over the
years and as one comes on the market to convince us to eat more healthily to
counteract the ‘harmful’ foods.
Foods that have been elevated to superfood status in recent
years include those rich in antioxidants (such as beta-carotene, vitamins A, C,
E, flavanoids and selenium) and omega-3 fatty acids. They come and go with
marketing, well except chocolate (yes that is a superfood some of you will be
pleased to know) then there are blueberries, goji berries, oily fish, wheatgrass,
pomegranate juice, green tea, broccoli, garlic and beetroot. The next big thing
will be products from the fast growing Moringa tree native to South Asia and
now found throughout the tropics. Its leaves have been used as part of
traditional medicine for centuries. You will soon see products with the tree
leaves as an ingredient promising good health. You heard it here first.
Superfood
There is no official definition of a "superfood"
and the EU has banned health claims on packaging unless supported by scientific
evidence. But that hasn't stopped many food brands from funding academics to
research the health benefits of their product.
The superfood trend exploits the fact that healthy lifestyle
choices, including diet, can reduce our risk of chronic diseases like heart
disease, stroke and cancer. The food industry wants to persuade us that eating
some foods can slow down the ageing process, lift depression, boost our
physical ability, and even our intelligence. Many of us want to believe that
eating a single fruit or vegetable containing a certain antioxidant will zap a
diseased cell.
The problem is that most research on superfoods tests
chemicals and extracts in concentrations not found in the food in its natural
state. Garlic, for example, contains a nutrient alleged to help reduce
cholesterol and blood pressure. But you'd have to eat up to 28 cloves a day to match
the doses used in the lab. A friend of mine says she had two cloves a day for a
week and it made her really aggressive so you’d need to avoid her if she ate 28
of them.
Fantasy
While the concept of a "miracle food" remains a
fantasy, it's pretty well-established that obesity and alcohol are the two most
common causes of major long-term illness. Diet plays an important role in our health,
but there is concern that too much focus on individual foods may encourage
unhealthy eating.
"No food, including those labelled 'superfoods', can
compensate for unhealthy eating," explains Alison Hornby, a dietician and
spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association (BDA). "All unprocessed
food from the major food groups could be considered 'super'. All these foods
are useful as part of a balanced diet.”
"If people mistakenly believe they can 'undo' the
damage caused by unhealthy foods by eating a superfood, they may continue
making routine choices that are unhealthy and increase their risk of long-term
illness."
Dieticians avoid the term "superfood" and prefer
to talk of "super diets", where the emphasis is on a healthy,
balanced diet, rich in fruit and vegetables and wholegrain foods.
So again, it’s conclusive evidence that growing and eating
our own veggies is a healthy pursuit.
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