Out of the Mouth.....

You know that saying "out of the mouth of babes.............?" Yea, that one. Came to mind the other day helping a student with an assignment. He was convinced that with all our food safety controls nowadays - HACCP, BRC etc. that the incidence of food poisoning must be way down. Felt almost bad telling him the exact opposite was the case. The incidence has risen exponentially and this is without most people bothering to report.

Then I read an article published in the Daily Mail (yes they do sometimes have good, well-researched articles on food and health, even if they are atrocious at almost everything else) about why scientists think raw milk is one of the world's most dangerous foods. I always remember my grandmother saying "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing." I think in our modern world this really applies so much more. The fact is even with all our science, technology and knowledge we are still appallingly ignorant about so much to do with nutrition. It is only recently that scientists and medics are beginning to acknowledge that we were sold a pig in a poke about saturated fat being responsible for all coronary heart disease.

The fact is that raw milk produced from a well looked after and well fed dairy herd and refrigerated immediately after milking is good for you. Our ancestors drank it with far less technology than is available now and it did them no harm and probably did them a world of good. Do you know that the incidence of transmission of TB from raw milk is less than 1%? Now I'm not disputing that this may be due to increased surveillance and testing in our national herd but I really remain convinced that TB is a disease of poverty, malnutrition and bad hygiene and has little to do with milk.

The fact is that our food production has become highly mechanised and intensive. I rear free range pigs, who have acres to roam and I have never smelled pig. But, when a lorry drives down my road transporting intensively reared factory pigs the stench lingers for ages. I often wonder how meat from these poor animals can be healthy when they smell so bad.

I was told that potato (our food staple) is sprayed 7-9 times for blight and then finally with Roundup (a probable carcinogen according to the WHO) to kill the foliage before harvest. Wheat seed is soaked in Roundup before sowing to "eliminate" weeds.

And then people are laughed at when they say they are intolerant to gluten because when they remove it from their diet they feel better. The chances are that it is Roundup they are intolerant to. And removing gluten and let's face it - crap bread - makes them feel better. Replace this crap bread with real bread or sourdough and the chances are they will feel great. Sadly, the availability of real bread is abysmal in this country, especially in non-urban areas.

And then to cap it all, that old chesnut, we are living longer. Go back, look at the records or read this.
I don't ever remember hearing about Alzheimer's, autism, ADHD, or so much cancer in the very young when I was growing up or even as an adult, as now.

So what has changed? Why is there more food poisoning? Why are people saying they are intolerant to wheat and gluten? Why are there so many children with autism? Why is there so much cancer? Why are so many old and not so old being diagnosed with Alzheimer's/dementia?

Why are food and pharma companies now so massively profitable?

Why indeed.

As the Americans say "do the math"........