Friday, April 25, 2008

The Benefits of Washing Your Produce before Eating It



We’re only now beginning to grasp the concept of what years of ingesting pesticides has done to our health and the health of our children. Because of this, there are now more organic food options than ever before. On top of this widespread education about the harmful effects of pesticides, we’ve had to face serious food recalls. In the past 12 months we’ve seen the recall of spinach, cantaloupes, soy beans and more than 200 other food products. This contamination can be deadly.



Fortunately, it is a problem that we can help to resolve. There are a number of companies dedicated to ensuring food safety. It’s a simple solution actually. Wash your produce.



Washing your produce not only protects you and your family against harmful side effects it could you’re your life and the lives of your loved ones. Pesticides have been linked to learning disabilities in children, autism, infertility, cancer, gallstones, neurological issues like dementia, and organ failure. Pesticides aren’t generally what get our attention because the results of pesticide consumption doesn’t show up on the evening news. Rather it is the extreme cases of E. coli or salmonella contamination that scare people into action. Remember the spinach recall in 2007?



If every one of those people who had eaten that spinach contaminated with E. coli last year, had taken the time to properly wash their spinach, many lives could have been saved and many people would have been able to avoid serious illness. The trouble with many produce products, including spinach, is that it isn’t easy to wash. The leaves stack together, they stick when wet and it’s difficult to ensure that every leaf is getting clean. Additionally, if it isn’t thoroughly rinsed, food can end up tasting soapy. Who wants that?



One way to solve that problem is to take advantage of the produce cleaners available on the market. These cleaners work by enabling you to spray your produce in a contaminate free bowl. They’re also soap free and instead work by utilizing Ozone to cleanse your produce. No rinsing necessary. The spray cleaner works to ensure that the entire surface area of your produce is clean and toxin free. Additionally, the bowl ensures your produce is clean and safe and it also helps to disperse the cleaner over the entire surface of your fruits or veggies.



Keeping you and your family safe from the harmful effects of pesticides and bacteria is really as simple as taking a few minutes to wash your produce with a soap free product designed specifically to ensure the health and safety of your produce. My Secret Pantry offers the safe and easy systme to keep your family healthy.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

The Link Between Toxic Chemicals and Human Health



There is growing evidence that we’re slowly poisoning ourselves, our loved ones and maybe worst of all our children.We’re not talking about simple medical issues either. Herbicides and pesticides, for example, have been linked to fertility problems, birth defects, learning disabilities and an increase in various forms of cancer. Mass production and the desire to keep production costs down when growing produce is costing us our lives.



Here are just some of the toxins we ingest on a daily basis and how they affect our health. Organophosphates are absorbed by a plant's tissue where they kill bacteria, fungi or parasites. Exposure to this chemical has been shown to increase the risk of childhood Leukemia and Parkinson's. It has been shown to have an effect on the developing brain and nervous systems of the unborn and young children. Carbamates are classified as non-persistent but are still highly toxic to humans. They are suspected to cause cancer and they have been linked to organ damage including the lung, kidney, and liver. They have been shown to damage both the neurological system and the immune system. Organochlorines are fat soluble, which means they tend to build in your fatty tissues. While many of this class of pesticides have been banned from use in the US, it is still used in many other countries. Organochlorines interfere with fertility and development of embryos. They also affect your endocrine, immune and nervous systems. They have also been linked to cancer. Children are the most likely to suffer the consequences. In fact reports from the FDA and reports published by the Environmental Working Group have found that: more than a 250,000 children in the United States between the ages of one and five ingest a combination of 20 different pesticides every day. That’s a shocking statistic when we know that childhood cancer, autism, and neurological issues are on the rise in this age group. What can we do about it?




  • Don’t use pesticides or herbicides on your home garden.

  • Buy organic when possible.

  • Filter your water.

  • Get involved in government policy to ban harmful pesticides and herbicides from your community, state, and federal government.

  • Wash your produce.

  • Possibly one of the simplest solutions is to wash your fruits and vegetables with an ozone solution designed specifically to eliminate pesticide and herbicide residue from your fruits and vegetables. Washing all produce, even organic produce, will also eliminate harmful bacteria including E. coli and salmonella.

MySecretPantry.com offers an incredible new product called the Lotus Sanitizing System that eliminates all pesticides and herbicides from your food with ease.