Since my first article appeared in this newspaper on hydrogen peroxide, I have received a deluge of email, phone calls and photocopies of info stuffed into my mail box. All of which I appreciate and try to handle the best way in which I know how. But much of it comes from misguided fanatics and ends up in what I respectfully regard as file thirteen. File thirteen, in my house, is a paper shredder that fits over a garbage container at the end of my desk. I shred it so that I can recycle the paper with the confidence of having no third party reading what is personally expressed to me.
That being said, let me say this; not all of it is proverbial nonsense; not all of it is some fad diet that will supposedly do wonders to your health; and not all of it is some biblical quote from the so-called good book, which has been many times misinterpreted and swallowed hook line and sinker by multiple denominations of the brain washed religious masses throughout the world. Which leads me in the direction of thinking that there is none other so gullible than that of the human species. No other creature is so easily led down the proverbial Garden of Eden path.
I am not a dead horse and donkey dealer, nor am I a sheep dip and snake oil healer; and I am certainly not a fiction writer. Fiction to me is nothing more, and little less, than literary quackery. What I write is not that of a dreamer. What I write is intended to stir thought; most of it is from personal experience, if it were not so, why therefore then should I bother to write?
On the other hand, some of the information that was foisted in my direction this past few weeks gives reason to be concerned. Allow me to pass on to you a couple of snippets that caught my attention. One such was the heading; “Your food supply has changed; you’re eating fruit with no vitamins, vegetables with no minerals …” this was backed by some recent statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Take a look at the loss of vitamins and minerals since 1975.
– apples, vitamin A is down 41%;
– sweet peppers, vitamin C is down 31%;
– watercress, iron is down 50%;
– broccoli, calcium and vitamin A, down 50%;
– cauliflower, vitamin C down 45%; vitamin B1 down 48%; and vitamin B2 down 47%; and
– collards greens, vitamin A down 45%; potassium down 60%; and magnesium down 85%.
Notice minerals like iron and magnesium have dropped by more than 80 per cent. That’s from commercial farming technology and powerful fertilizers that practically sterilize the soil, leaving it with little to no mineral content. In addition, a report from the University of Texas, in Austin, also tracked the decline of nutrients in produce. If the soil doesn’t have minerals there’s no way for vegetables to absorb them, and that is bad news for you and your health.
Though I have no way of knowing to what degree this trend has bypassed the terrorist guards at the 49th parallel; it is going to have the same effect on many lives here in Canada. Would it not be of certain interest to learn from our local universities what is being done to avoid duplication? I have no doubt that too many of our research dollars are being spent producing “hybrid” forms of our fruits and vegetables, not for their ability to store nutrients, but for their colour, weight, and shelf life. For no other reason than to look nice under specifically created fluorescent lighting at your supermarkets. At my age, I could easily imagine my shelf life being considerably shorter than that of the fruits that I am supposedly eating for health. I wonder, if I eat up my vegies, could their inbred shelf life be passed on to me? Failing that, perhaps I would look more alive if one of those lights were to be placed over my coffin?
I feel multiply blessed, being able to live in one of the older subdivisions, with a rambling back yard, where I can grow most of my own vegies, in soils that are not so nutrient depleted.
Take care, ‘cause we care.
barrie@barriehopkins.ca
519-843-4544