Geoffrey CowleyÆs article ôCertified Organicö raises important issues about the quality and safety of food in todayÆs supermarkets (Cowley, 2002). Livestockùcattle grown to be consumed for foodùthat are given hormones, antibiotics, and foods grown with pesticides cannot by any stretch of the imagination be considered healthful. Nor can fruits and vegetables sprayed with insecticides (bug-killing chemicals), herbicides (plant-killing chemicals), and fungicides (fungus-killing chemicals), as well as chemical fertilizers. As if living in homes full of toxic chemicals like floor cleaners, disinfectants, and bug sprays werenÆt enough, most people consume toxic food cavalierly, without giving any thought to what it contains. The toxic overload that our livers need to process is overwhelming, and this probably explains the dramatic rise in degenerative diseases in our country. Although doctors seem mystified by the increase, it is certainly linked in some way to the multitude of foods and chemical compounds we ingest in one way or another every day of our lives.
Actress Kelly Preston discovered this the hard way when her son Jett, then two years old, was hospitalized with a serious illness that was later linked to a carpet cleaner she used in her home. That experience turned her into a crusader for protecting children from toxic chemicals and championing the non-toxic home, as well as pesticide-free food. "If you use chemical cleansers, your house can be 300 times more toxic than if you were standing on the freeway surrounded by exhaustùand that's pretty toxic," she statdd. Since toxic chemicals are in virtually everything we eat, Preston pays attention to detail when it comes to food choices. ôIt's like raisins,ö she explains. ô If you eat nonorganic raisins, each one was a grape that was coated with chemicals. Raisins are pesticide pellets.ö (Preston, 2003).
I prefer organic food to inorganic food. Th
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