Beware of the Barbecue!

Ahhh, it's almost summertime! Now I have no excuse to get out and walk my dog...every day. As we (my dog, my daughter, my mom and I) walk around our neighborhood, I am accosted by the stench of various burnt animal flesh wafting from several backyards. So on this Memorial Day, I would like to bring a few health facts to the forefront of our minds as we enjoy this day off from work. This excerpt is from a "Not Milk" post.

"Purchase produce grown outside of America and it
has been sprayed with DDT. What is illegal here is
legal virtually everywhere else.

Unfortunately, government standards for USA farm animals
allow for 60 or more times the amount of pesticides
in animal feed than in food sold for human consumption.

After cows eat pesticide-rich food, humans drink their
chemical-rich body fluids and eat their polluted flesh.

The United States Department of Environmental Protection
(EPA) has established so-called safe levels for pesticides
in foods, but their tolerance levels make absolutely no
sense.

EPA's math is one level below dyslexic,
hovering between unethical and criminal.

If humans and animals eat the same plants,
and humans then eat the flesh of these same
animals, or drink their milk, the pesticides
become concentrated in the bodies and body
fluids of those food-animals. Humans sit
atop the food chain.

In addition to drinking milk containing
thousands of doses of pesticides from thousands
of meals of grass and hay, we concentrate
poisoned milk into cheese and ice cream, thereby
increasing the exposure.

Let me cite you one example.

If soy crops are sprayed with one of the most
toxic substances used in agriculture, malathion,
EPA will allow no more than 8 parts per million
on those soybeans.

Soybeans are harvested, roasted and served to
dairy cows and beef cattle. If soy forage is used
for animal feed, the permitted level of malathion
is nearly seventeen times greater (135 parts per
million).

Humans may eat a few ounces per day of malathion-treated
soy products. Dairy cows might eat ten pounds per day or
more of that same product with higher permissible residues.
Day after day. Week after week. Thousands of doses.

The actual human dose of malathion for milk drinkers
or meat eaters may very well be thousands of times
greater than the maximum standard for human tolerance
as set by EPA.

Mal means bad, and malathion (Dimethoxy Phosphino
Thioyl Thio Butanedioic Acid Diethyl Ester) is the
baddest of pesticides. Exposure to malathion can
result in a vast array of human conditions, including
birth defects, cancer, chromosomal damage, brain, and
kidney damage, leukemia, and, often times, death.

Many hundreds of different pesticides are used on
America's farms. In most cases, the allowable
levels of pesticides in feed for farm animals is
significantly higher than it is for human food.

Other pesticide ranges include acetochlor (7 times
higher for animal feed), alachlor (3.5 times greater),
bentazon (60 times greater), carbaryl (20 times greater),
chloroneb (20 times greater), diflubensuron (10 times
greater), diphenamid (5 times greater), fenvalerate (20
times greater), methomyl (50 times greater), methyl
parathion (10 times greter), metolachlor (40 times greater),
and norflurazon (10 times greater). Many more pesticides
are used. You get the idea.

Eat soy or any fruit and vegetable, and you get one
dose. Eat organic soy, or organic fruits and
vegetables, and you receive zero doses of pesticides.

Eat animals who are permitted many more times
than the levels of pesticides than are humans,
and who eat many hundreds or thousands of doses,
and you introduce poisons into your own flesh.

Is there any living creature higher on the
food chain than human adults who eat poisoned
flesh and dairy products?

Sadly, the answer is yes. The highest creature
on the food chain is the growing fetus whose
mother is exposed to these concentrated toxins.
After birth, the mother delivers these concentrated
pesticides to the child through her own breast milk."

Again I say, beware of the barbecue because you ARE what you eat. So you do the math...and throw some corn on the cob on that grill if you still want to fire it up.

Peace in life,
Sharifah