Is Our Food Making Us Sick? The Toxicity of American Food

However, how often do you consider how many times the natural state of your food has been altered or affected? We are hearing more about the effects of heavy processing, genetic altering, factory-farming, adding or injecting hormones, and antibiotics and antimicrobials given to animals with every meal. Most of the practices are done to create more food with less effort, often times giving us better quality for a cheaper price.

But what is the true price of these technological advances in food production? In the wake of many increased health concerns there have been numerous studies connecting newer health-related problems to these practices, and although we all skim through them, and scarcely a soul debates the truthfulness or likeliness of the information, there is no real call for action or change. What price are we paying for this convenience? What price will our children or our children’s children pay?

Many of these practices are simply not allowed in most countries around the world such as Canada, England, Australia, Japan, and all across Europe. The feeling is simply that there is not enough research on the effects of such practices. In the United States, however, we allow all of the practices until they are proven unsafe, but will we notice the side-effects if they are not obviously connected to the cause? Will we be able to undo all of the practices so heavily embedded into our society if they are deemed unhealthy? Can you say they haven’t been deemed unhealthy already?

We are upsetting the ecological balance and chances are we have only begun to pay the price. Some interesting statistics are as follows…

1. From 1997-2002 peanut allergies doubled.
2. 1/17 children under the age of three today has a food-related allergy.
3. Hospitalizations are up 265% for food-related reactions.
4. 1/3 children today has allergies, asthma, autism, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which have all been linked to altered food.
5. Diabesity is referred to as an American epidemic.
6. 76 million cases of food-born illnesses occur in the U.S. every year (population of 312 million).
7. America has the highest rate of cancer.
8. 1/8 women will get breast cancer. Only 1/10 of those cases is genetic, which means that 9/10 are environmental.
9. Elevated hormones have been linked to breast, colon, and prostate cancer.

There are numerous studies and reports explaining theories and facts about the effects of our food altering practices. Are you listening? Do you want to be informed? What changes will you make? How will you make your voice be heard?