What Are We REALLY Eating?

As much as I prefer to operate from a space of optimism at all times, as a health practitioner, I also have the less enviable task, of being the bearer of information that not everyone wants to hear.

With so much gloom & doom currently permeating the news, it can sometimes seem as if there is nothing we can do as individuals, but in this case I believe the voice of the consumer needs to be heard. This is an issue I have felt strongly about for many years, and believe has been largely ignored by government agencies around the world.

With so much focus on the need for cleaning up and protecting our fragile global environment, I was disturbed to read an article this morning, with the headline :

Range of Pharmaceuticals & Chemicals Found in Fish

about the fact that residues of pharmaceutical medicines, and chemicals used in personal health care products, are being found in fish. Whilst the story focused on areas within the US, I have no doubt the problem exists both globally, and right here on our own doorstep.

It highlighted the problem of what happens when people flush unused medication down the toilet, or dump it in the rubbish bin, as well as the issue of un-metabolised residues of pharmaceuticals that people take and then excrete. Out of sight, out of mind! Waste water treatment plants are not managing to prevent a wide array of substances from entering our ground water,and ultimately, our food chain. Just think of how many people are on the Pill for starters!

On the list of suspected contributors to the escalating epidemic of breast cancer, is environmental contamination of food and water, so this situation has the potential to affect us all in some way !

One can only wonder what is REALLY happening within our food chain worldwide, when you start to consider the scope of the problem.

The challenge for each one of us lies in becoming more informed about where our food is sourced from; more responsible about the way we dispose of medicines; more aware of the connectedness of our society to our environment and most of all, be willing to stand up and ask the hard questions of our governing bodies. By our silence we condone nothing changing.

Click here to read the article http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/03/25-10

Send me your thoughts and ideas about how we might raise awareness of this very real problem at totalhealthoptions@bigpond.com.au

In Good Health
Patricia