RISKS OF VEGGIES VS. CHEMICALS

Everything with getting one’s health back and staying healthy boils down to Risk vs. Benefits.  For example, patients will ask…”if I add more veggies/fruits to my diet won’t I be getting more chemicals into me …and that’s bad. Right?”  Well the ‘knee jerk’ response would be- Yes, but there was an interesting finding in “Food and Chemical Toxicology Journal (2012 Dec; 50(12):4421-7) as well as the Journal of Nutrition, (2005; 135 (11):2639-2643). The authors observed by adding 1 extra serving of vegetables and fruits to our diets that 20,000 cancer cases per year could be prevented as opposed to just 10 cases of cancer per year being caused by increased pesticide intake.  Now don’t get me wrong… chemical ingestion is a problem in the American diet.  This is evident by the fact (also verified by one of my patients who works in the chemical food business) that other countries do not allow many of these “chemicals” into their food supplies. This is a “home grown” problem for the U.S… So, look at labels of “processed” foods but have peace of mind that just adding 1 extra serving of plant based foods has a greater Benefit when compared to its Risk!