Don't want toxins in food? Then eating could be tricky
By Sarah Solovitch
Special to The Times

http://www.rawguru.com/toxinsinfood.html

Toxicologists are quick to point out that raw, natural foods €” just
like processed ones €” are themselves complex chemical mixtures.
Start analyzing them and you'll find tens of thousands of chemical
compounds, not all of them good for you.

"What protects us is that these chemicals are present at very, very
low levels, and we have defense mechanisms in place," says Michael
Pariza, a food toxicologist and microbiologist at the University of
Wisconsin.

The best-known research in the field comes out of UC Berkeley, where
Lois Swirsky Gold has been studying naturally occurring pesticides
and synthetic chemicals in foods for the last 25 years.

She points out that hundreds of plant chemicals have been found to
cause cancer in rats or mice when given in extremely high doses.

"A healthy diet contains rodent carcinogens galore," says Gold,
director of the Carcinogenic Potency Project at Berkeley.
"Ninety-nine percent of the chemicals that people take in are
natural."

A partial list of foods with naturally occurring, but toxic chemicals
includes apple, apricots, bananas, basil, beets, broccoli, coffee,
cantaloupes, tomatoes, mustard, cardamom, carrots and lettuce. They
include chemicals such as benzyl acetate, caffeic acid, coumarin,
quercetin, and respertine €” all produced by plants to defend
themselves against fungi, insects and other predators.

In addition, many more chemicals are formed during cooking. For
example, more than 1,000 chemicals have been identified in roasted
coffee, many of which are produced through roasting. Acrylamide is
one of those.

Humans have natural defenses that protect against these chemicals,
both natural and synthetic. The point, says Gold, is that it's
impossible to avoid them; a better focus is spent on the known causes
of human cancer: obesity, excessive alcohol consumption, smoking,
hormones, viruses and infectious agents such as hepatitis B and
hepatitis C.

Gold's research has led her to estimate that Americans consume 1.5
grams (or 1,500 milligrams) of these natural pesticides a day €”
about 10,000 times more than they absorb in synthetic pesticide
residue.

Of the 72 natural pesticides tested in high-dose cancer tests, which
identify the level at which animals get sick, 38 have proven
carcinogenic. Acrylamide is only one of many natural chemicals in the
diet that cause cancer in high doses in rats.

"No diet can be free of rodent carcinogens," Gold says. "You would
think the way we regulate, it would be the opposite. But nature is
not benign."

Source: http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?sec...ity&id=3686429

Beach Runner wrote:
> Don't want toxins in food? Then eating could be tricky
> By Sarah Solovitch
> Special to The Times
>
> http://www.rawguru.com/toxinsinfood.html
>
> Toxicologists are quick to point out that raw, natural foods - just
> like processed ones - are themselves complex chemical mixtures.
> Start analyzing them and you'll find tens of thousands of chemical
> compounds, not all of them good for you.

Many of these are flavonoids. There are thousands of flavonoids.
Flavonoids are good.

> "What protects us is that these chemicals are present at very, very
> low levels, and we have defense mechanisms in place," says Michael
> Pariza, a food toxicologist and microbiologist at the University of
> Wisconsin.
>
> The best-known research in the field comes out of UC Berkeley, where
> Lois Swirsky Gold has been studying naturally occurring pesticides
> and synthetic chemicals in foods for the last 25 years.
>
> She points out that hundreds of plant chemicals have been found to
> cause cancer in rats or mice when given in extremely high doses.

Perhaps some of these chemicals are flavonoids. Flavonoids (or
antioxidants in general) should never be taken in isolation in large
quantity. See Blaylock's book: "Health and Nutrition Secrets".
Antioxidants work together. In isolation they can become oxidants. In
antioxidant math, 2 + 2 = 12 or 20 because of synergistic effect.

> "A healthy diet contains rodent carcinogens galore," says Gold,
> director of the Carcinogenic Potency Project at Berkeley.
> "Ninety-nine percent of the chemicals that people take in are
> natural."
>
> A partial list of foods with naturally occurring, but toxic chemicals
> includes apple, apricots, bananas, basil, beets, broccoli, coffee,
> cantaloupes, tomatoes, mustard, cardamom, carrots and lettuce. They
> include chemicals such as benzyl acetate, caffeic acid, coumarin,
> quercetin, and respertine

What is quercetin doing here on this list? Quercetin is a flavonoid.
It is good. Search quercetin on Google.

> - all produced by plants to defend
> themselves against fungi, insects and other predators.

Maybe, just maybe, those same poisons are needed by humans as part of
their immune system. Just a thought. That would make at least as much
sense as the popular idea that drugs (poisons prescribed by a doctor)
are good for health.

> In addition, many more chemicals are formed during cooking. For
> example, more than 1,000 chemicals have been identified in roasted
> coffee, many of which are produced through roasting. Acrylamide is
> one of those.
>
> Humans have natural defenses that protect against these chemicals,
> both natural and synthetic. The point, says Gold, is that it's
> impossible to avoid them; a better focus is spent on the known causes
> of human cancer: obesity, excessive alcohol consumption, smoking,
> hormones, viruses and infectious agents such as hepatitis B and
> hepatitis C.
>
> Gold's research has led her to estimate that Americans consume 1.5
> grams (or 1,500 milligrams) of these natural pesticides a day -
> about 10,000 times more than they absorb in synthetic pesticide
> residue.

If natural pesticides are 10,000 times as abundant as synthetic
pesticides, then why are synthetic pesticides necessary? Perhaps
because the natural pesticides are not as poisonous as the synthetic
pesticides.

> Of the 72 natural pesticides tested in high-dose cancer tests, which
> identify the level at which animals get sick, 38 have proven
> carcinogenic. Acrylamide is only one of many natural chemicals in the
> diet that cause cancer in high doses in rats.
>
> "No diet can be free of rodent carcinogens," Gold says. "You would
> think the way we regulate, it would be the opposite. But nature is
> not benign."
>
> Source: http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?sec...ity&id=3686429

Some people use the fact that avoiding all poisons is impossible as an
excuse to not avoid any. So for example they try to justify smoking or
MSG or aspatame by saying that we can't avoid all poisons.