Hi Randy,
>>I recently was sent the following link. As a long-term organic gardener, I
now question whether I've been pulling the wool over my own eyes!
To question anything and everything is the right approach as hardly anything is static and exact. :) This piece does not shatter any ceilings. Before anyone panics, consider if the plants' natural pesticide defenses are harmful to humans.
>>Waldemar is gonna hate this; Paul's gonna love it! No telling where Bob is
going to weigh in : )
Waldemar is a simple-minded person who is actually also quite open-minded. :))
>>Organically grown plants may each produce a minimum of 50 such natural
pesticides. Prof Bruce Ames is quoted as saying that the average person
consumes 1500mg of pesticides a day, of which 1499.91mg are endogenous
toxins, the remaining 0.09mg being synthetic pesticides applied to the
produce by the farmer.
While the above ratio is staggering, I'd like to see a comparison in toxicity to humans for both groups. What is toxic to a caterpillar, may be neutral or beneficial to a human. Especially, if it's soaked, fermented, or heated prior to eating. Some plant toxins are actually desirable since they help calibrate the body's immune response.
>>Anticarcinogenic phytochemicals in the diet protect humans equally well
against synthetic and natural carcinogens.
My take on this statement is different. I would like to know if, unlike synthetic pesticides, plants' natural pesticides are carcinogenic in humans. I don't believe so:
http://www.nature.com/nrc/journal/v10/n10/abs/nrc2914.html
Now the ancients consumed 20-25 types of [organic] plants, meat, and very few grains. Their lifestyle required physical activity outdoors which ensured, among other things, an ample amount of vitamin D. Note how the Institute of Medicine (IOM) last week finally TRIPPLED the recommended minimum daily requirement for vitamin D after studies from mainstream science for years indicated Americans were defficient in vitamin D. A boatload of mainstream studies also point to vitamin D's anti-cancer properties:
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20101118/New-anti-cancer-drug-targeting-vitamin-D-receptor-reduces-PSA-level-in-HRPC.aspx
http://www.uku.fi/nucsys/nucsysproject.pdf
>>Multiple hazard chemical synergisms occur from both natural and synthetic sources.
I don't like synthetic pesticides for a good reason:
http://www.bt.ucsd.edu/synthetic_pesticide.html
''Although DDT is banned in the US and many other countries, DDT continues to be manufactured and applied in underdeveloped nations where some of the US food supply is grown."
This causes some people to run for the organic aisle!
>>The human diet has changed drastically in the last few thousand years, and
most humans are eating many recently introduced plants that their ancestors
did not. Natural selection works far too slowly for humans to have evolved
specific resistance to the food toxins in these newly introduced plants.
I don't agree with this. Increasing the variety of edible foods in the diet is beneficial. Eg. everyone benefits from the enzymes in pineapples.
The bigger and worse change in the modern [US] diet has been the move to processed, industrial food that has led to obesity and disease. Just consider how free-range hen eggs compare to industrially produced hen eggs:
� 1/3 less cholesterol
� 1/4 less saturated fat
� 2/3 more vitamin A
� 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
� 3 times more vitamin E
� 7 times more beta carotene
By golly! This is a no-brainer. I think I'll put 3-5 free-range hens next to my beehives in 2011. :) You can also google nutrient content bet. organic and conventional food. The difference is awesome.
No wonder modern humans need supplements. They are fed cheap, unhealthy industrial stuff. A lot of it shouldn't even be called food.
Waldemar
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