What a mouthful — literally! Pesticides and herbicides are among the world's most deadly chemical compounds. If a pesticide or herbicide kills one thing, it will probably kill, mutate, or seriously damage a whole host of other things. The problem with these compounds is that they tend to stay on the fruit, vegetable, or plant they were applied to. Toxins from our water, air, food, and buildings only make things worse.
Most pesticides are known carcinogens, and some of them pose as counterfeit versions of the female hormone estrogen. These xenoestrogens may promote cancer by stimulating estrogen receptors in the body.
Animal growth hormones are another cause for concern. They don't disappear after an animal is butchered, prepared for market, or cooked. They go right into our stomachs. Nor do they disappear from the milk of a cow treated with antibiotics. It is estimated that one glass of commercial, non-organic milk purchased from a grocery story may contain the residue of up to 100 different antibiotics!
Beyond the hormones that are injected directly into the animal, many of the meats we eat come from animals fed with antibiotic-laden feeds. Growth hormones in our food supply are even blamed for causing the abnormally early menses of young girls and for the overabundance of female hormones in young men. (Female hormones are given to milk cows to increase production.)
Hybridized foods are also unhealthy and could cause dangerous symptoms. God says to eat every seed-bearing plant after its own kind. Hybridized, seedless watermelons or grapes cannot reproduce, and they may not be the healthy food sources we think they are.
Source: Don Colbert, M.D., Toxic Relief (Lake Mary, FL: Siloam, 2001) | 