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Deb 1:45

Welcome to uncovering the truth in your food where we’re going to dive deep into what’s hiding in the foods we eat every day. I’m Dr Deb, a naturopath passionate about uncovering the truth about our food systems and making our system and people healthier. Today, we’re peeling back the layers on additives, pesticides and herbicides commonly found in our food, and exploring why these ingredients are more tightly regulated in places like Europe than they are in the US.

Deb 2:17

So why is it that so many chemicals banned across the world are still widely used in America’s food supply, and what impact could they be having in our health?

Deb 2:30

Many everyday food items are filled with substances that don’t just add color or prolong the shelf life. They pose real health risks we have known for decades that artificial food dyes are one of our well known examples that have been linked to behavioral issues in children. But dyes aren’t the only concern. Today. We’re also exploring some of the hidden toxins, like pesticides and herbicides that can affect our health in a subtle but lasting way.

Deb 3:04

Robert Kennedy Jr has been very vocal about the need for tighter regulations, and he argues that our current food regulatory framework prioritizes corporate interests over public health, allowing chemicals like glyphosate and synthetic dyes to remain in our food despite evidence of harm. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup.

Deb 3:29

It is one of the most widely used herbicides in the world, and in 2015 the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen.

Deb 3:43

So let me let that sink in for just a second.

Deb 3:47

Why are we putting a active carcinogen on our food?

Deb 3:54

And you may think that this doesn’t really happen, but it does our big farming, industrial farming, which I have no problem with farming. My family were farmers. They’re still farming. We farm, and I think it’s important for us to deliver healthy food, but putting a toxin on our food to grow a larger crop or produce more at the risk of increasing cancer in our people. I’m not willing to trade that. That’s just not worth it when we can do farming in a different way, and we can have different practices that will still yield us a lot of product,

Deb 4:41

but without the toxins. Now, people might argue and say this isn’t true, but I’m going to tell you to take a look at the ads that run on TV if you granted thereby the legal system attorneys, if you’ve been exposed to paraquat, you.

Deb 5:00

Call us if you’ve developed Parkinson’s disease. Well, paraquat is an industrial pesticide used by farmers, and people who are exposed to this in quantities that could be mild or moderate, can develop neurological diseases. Don’t believe me.

Deb 5:18

Go read the back of the label. It will tell you all of the consequences that can happen. Go to the internet and look up the side effects of paraquat. It’s neurological conditions that occur after being exposed to a product like paraquat. Roundup has very similar things. You know, we spray roundup on our weeds, because we don’t want our weeds to grow. Well, when we spray it on our foods and on our land, that’s the same thing that happens. But we not only then disrupted the plant that we’re growing, we’ve also disrupted the soil for a number of years after that, because you cannot get those chemicals out of our soils immediately. Now Have there been ways that people have found to get that out of the soil quicker? Yes, they grow hemp on that land, and if they grow hemp on that land, the toxins grow up in the hemp, and then they can throw away the hemp, and a lot of those toxins can be pulled from the soil.

Deb 6:17

Still, don’t believe me. What about water supply?

Deb 6:21

We know that that round off roundup that grows goes on our land, will leach into our water fields, and if our water table is then disrupted with Roundup, and you’re drinking that water that was never an intended use of Roundup, but it’s happening. Test your water supply. There are many rural places that have a well that have roundup that has seeped into their water and into their water table, and unless you’re filtering it, you’re not getting that stuff out. And we don’t even know how well a filtration system will actually take that roundup out. Roundup is also known as a what we call endocrine disruptor, which we’ll talk about in a little bit, because I kind of went off on a tangent here. As you can see this, I’m very passionate about this, because it’s really a problem for us, so I want to try to get back on track. Let’s talk about the impact of glyphosate on health. Studies have linked long term exposure of glyphosate to the increased risks of cancer, including non Hodgkin’s lymphoma. These researchers from the University of Washington have also found that glyphosate exposure increases the cancer risk. Are you ready for this by as much as 41% in what they classify as high exposure groups? Well, high exposure group is going to be the farming community. Now, you may not farm, but you could live in a farming area, and if they’re spraying their crops and we have a windy day, research has shown that that chemical can blow up to 1200 miles on a given day.

Deb 8:09

So we think we may be clean in some areas, but we’re really not. We’re getting exposed to these things all over the place. This glyphosate residue has been detected in many of our popular foods, from breakfast cereals to breads, and yet, unlike Europe, where glyphosate usage is being restricted, the US continues to allow it in our agricultural practices, this raises a lot of questions about the potential long term effects of Our health and the health of our future generations.

Deb 8:42

Let’s talk more about pesticides, herbicides and what we call hormone disruptors. So beyond dyes and glyphosate, many common pesticides and herbicides disrupt the body in ways that go beyond cancer risk. Several of these chemicals are known endocrine disruptors, meaning that they can interfere with our hormonal balance, affecting everything from the growth and development to our fertility.

Deb 9:11

Atrazine is a widely used herbicide in the US, but it’s banned in Europe due to its environmental and health impacts. Research from the University of California, Berkeley, has shown that Atrazine exposure can cause changes in reproductive development and in some cases even gender changes in animals due to the hormonal interference. So let’s question that for a second. Are we not seeing one of the highest ever rates of fertility that we have ever seen in this country. Yes, we are. Everybody knows somebody who’s touched by a fertility issue that never used to be the case, that never used to be a problem. You know, if we look back in our family histories, many of.

Deb 10:00

Our grandparents and great grandparents had eight, 910, children. And I know there’s going to be people that are listening to this that are going to say, Well, that’s because they didn’t have use of birth control. Yes, that’s true, but they were also much more fertile than we are today. So what is going on with our fertility? There are a lot of things. I am not saying that it is just chemicals or just pesticides and herbicides. There’s a whole host of things that are disrupting our fertility right now. But what I am saying is that if we want to preserve our future and our generations to come, we have to start looking at this now. We should have been looking at this 1015, years ago, and we should not have let money and greed get in the way of this. So Dr Tyrone Hayes, who’s a researcher on Atrazine and the effects of Atrazine, has the ability, he believes, has the ability, to disrupt endocr...

Episode 228 – Toxic Foods