Chef Barry
editor@classactmedia.co.th
100 years ago everything living and growing on earth was organic. Just 30 years ago Phuket, the largest island in the Kingdom, was 100 per cent organic in agriculture.
Why is it so difficult to find organic safe clean foods anywhere today? Over recent years, a lot of foods have started to heavily include Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) in their ingredients.
So what does this mean to to live in challenging times where we are unsure about what we are putting into our body and what effects these types of food are having on us long term?
As of yet, no longterm human tests or controlled studies have been conducted. But animal testing results are dismal and very alarming, especially in independent studies. Mice for example were found to have developed large tumours all over their bodies from GMO contaminated produce. This information can be found all over Facebook.
The biotech industry understands that labelling is their marketing death nail, so they oppose any new law amendments to be passed, despite the fact that the biotech executives and staff refuse to eat their own products in their own cafeteria meals.
It is said that the Standard American Diet (SAD) includes around 80 per cent unlabelled GMOs.
What would this 80 per cent look like?
You will find it in convenience and grocery stores worldwide. GMO is disguised in our foods and the following groups of products will help you to decide what is safe and right for your health.
1- Processed foods from cans, plastic containers and boxed goods are loaded with GMOs and most likely unlabelled. The key ingredients to look out for (yes, I know this may be shocking to many of you) are:
A- Sugar (from GMO sugar beets).
B- Hydrogenated oils or partially hydrogenated canola oil, corn and soybean oils.
C- Conventional meats that are grain fed. The feed is from GMO crops that goes into the live stock.
D- Conventional dairy products. Again, the animal is fed with a GMO feed and routinely fed antibiotic therapy, far more than on the human population. Antibiotic therapy is used to keep these suffering animals alive long enough, otherwise their artificial closed confinement would have drastic effects on them. The animals grow three times faster than free range grass fed animals, in order to get them into slaughter houses quicker for increased profits for the livestock industry.
Phuket does not have any organic pastured free range grass fed beef anywhere at retail level, as far as I’m aware.
Do you really know what is in your food?
What most people don’t understand is the red colour in the meat sold over the counter is not red at all, but in fact a chemical dye which is injected into the meat for fetching higher sales prices from the consumer.
The real colour of dead meat after the animal has been slaughtered is brown grey. Put some red meat out for a couple of hours and the meat will turn back into its original colour. The seafood industry often does the same thing to farm raised salmon to also fetch higher prices.
You wont see this problem in wild salmon and free range organic meats, as their true colour will show.
We understand that checking the produce ingredients is a pain as well as time consuming, and not convenient to your life style, but if you are eating certain dairy and meat, then it is in your best health interest to try and ensure you are eating safe produce. Perhaps check online and contact the food companies, or even send out an email inquiry.
A little tip:
If you drink fresh watermelon juice, which has been juiced using the seeds and rind, it will have great benefits for your kidneys and digestive system. When it comes to food supply, ignorance is not bliss. You literally are what you eat and the proof is in the pudding, particularly when obesity and other related diseases are increasing all over the world today.
The only safe way to be GMO free is to buy local organic produce and to grow it in your own garden using open pollinated organic heirloom seeds, preferably from the country that you live in.
So what is at stake here for our health and existence on planet earth?
Top soil is supposed to give us three dozen plus minerals and trace minerals are now missing because of the decision to support and implement chemically and genetically intensive factory farming methods.
These methods have detrimental ramifications on our intestinal health that in fact represent about 80 per cent of our immune system. The lost carbon in our once fertile top soil, is now turning into a waste land of desertification overtime. Using synthetic chemicals to artificially induce faster growth of plants three times faster than organic, is purely for short term economic gains and a quick profit for the industrialised chemical fertiliser industry, and other related industries. We are losing the carbon element from our top soil that sustains all life. We can bring this lost element back to Phuket with particular organised ways and bare in mind, we are only talking about four inches of layered top soil to claim organic status on this island. Tune in again in a couple weeks to find out more about what Chef Barry has to say about organic and genetically modified foods. I also recommend you read “Fuel for the Body”, an international best seller written by Lynnette.
Holistic Chef Barry is the team captain for Thailand in the upcoming Phuket cyclefest tour on July 5, 2015, named “Fuel for the Body Tours”, to raise more awareness for the Thai organic farming community.