Harmful Effects Of Industrial Food

Our great grandparents ate traditional foods. Farm animals were grass fed and allowed to roam free. Farmers learned of good agriculture practices such as crop rotation and natural deterrents for pests. Somehow, fruits and vegetables grew well in gardens without the use of pesticides and germicides. When our great grandmothers cooked meals they were from these natural wholesome ingredients. In many ways, it was a simpler time. There were no diseases with strange sounding names and cancer was relatively on heard of. In our great grandparents age there was no such thing as genetically altered foods or mad cow disease.
Today our foods are processed and inundated with additives and preservatives. Livestock and poultry are confined to living quarters smaller than a closet, where they are expected to live out their lives, until they are slaughtered. These vegetarian animals are routinely fed byproducts of other animals in their feed. When diseases from these practices are forthcoming, they are shot up with antibiotics.

Ours meal are likely to come out of a box or a can or out of the frozen food isle, ready to be popped into the microwave. Snacks that are loaded with sugars and corn syrup can be purchased at the 7/11 and are designed with their extended shelf life in mind. Food labels perplex us with their mysterious long strange sounding names.

Everywhere we look, we hear horror stories about the contamination of foods and toxins within the containers that store them. Just the other day there was a news story about the connection between BPA, (the ingredient used in the lining of metal cans and plastic bottles) and many diseases. Now they say BPA is linked with heart disease, type II diabetes, cancer, and liver enzyme abnormalities. Too bad we didn’t know that sooner or we might not have had that can or ravioli for lunch or fed our baby that canned baby formula.

We have learned that we should not leave our plastic water bottles in the car and that there might be something dangerous with the lining of our microwave popcorn bag. Now they tell us not to microwave in plastic containers and that film on our TV dinners could make us sick. Think of all the people in the world walking around with plastic in their bodies. Of course, no one ever told us any of these things could happen. It’s no wonder we have some new diseases today. With the FDA, who need enemies? It’s enough to make our great grandparents roll over in their graves.



By Renee Rotto