By Susan Lutz
We think we know what’s in our body. The tissue, the bones, the blood, but what else hides beneath the epidermal? Most likely, if you exist on this planet, your body holds more than a few toxins. Even if we eat organically and live mindfully in a place where the water is good and the air is fresh, toxic chemicals sneak into our systems somewhere along the way.
There are a number of interesting videos that quickly explain the extent of these toxins in our blood. In longer format, Bill Moyers reports on the subject in a two-hour documentary called Trade Secrets, which investigates the impact of toxic chemicals on the public’s health. In the documentary, Mr. Moyers subjects himself to a blood test. The results show that out of 150 industrial chemicals, Moyers tests positive for 84. Included in that list are PCBs, dioxins, and pesticides such as malathion and DDT. Most of these chemicals didn’t exist 50 or 60 years ago. And their presence in the human body is difficult even for researchers to explain. A short excerpt of this segment talks about the results and what they mean to the human body.
Over a decade later, a Swedish family undergoes testing. They decide to participate in an experiment to see how eating a conventional diet has affected their chemical make-up. The testing revealed that their urine samples contained substantial amounts of insecticides, fungicides, and plant growth regulators in their systems. Then the family cleaned out their shelves and replaced their food with only organic. They were tested again after two weeks. The results were stunning−almost all the pesticides disappeared. The study was conducted by The Swedish Environmental Research Institute.
Both groups and researchers brought up an important point: What is the effect of all of these chemicals acting together? No one really knows. We’re guinea pigs in a corporate experiment of making things for a profit, quickly and with very little accountability to what it’s doing to our bodies, our society, and the environment. I’ve got a mouth full of mercury. Though I’ve had most of it removed, there’s still metal bored into my jawbones from old root canals. What it’s doing to me, I have no idea.
We don’t have to walk through the puffs of toxic smoke to get the chemicals into our system. They linger. Bite into a bright, shiny apple, and it seems perfect. But the chemicals are there, lurking at the cellular level, waiting to change yours. Awareness also changes us at a deep level if we let the information in. With care, we can begin to inform others and teach our children that there’s another way, the right way, to feed ourselves and care for our planet.