by Mila McManus, MD
You may have heard about glyphosate being found in organic foods. Apparently, it is true. Even if you eat 100% organic, instant oats, some cereals, chickpeas, hummus, and some bread have been found to contain the toxic weed-killer glyphosate!
You might wonder how this can happen when the USDA’s organic certification program forbids spraying glyphosate on organic crops. One certain answer involves the complexity and difficulty of preventing cross-contamination. Organic food fields are exposed to glyphosate through wind drift, contaminated water, equipment, and food-contact surfaces. Preventing these cross-contaminations can be prohibitively expensive to food producers and is a bigger problem than most people realize. Unfortunately, other reasons include human error, incompetence, and greed.
Does this mean it’s not worth eating organic? Of course not. Studies show that when we switch to an all-organic diet, we can reduce the amount of glyphosate (and other toxins) in our bodies by a whopping 70% in just one week. Glyphosates are toxic to every cell, tissue, and organ in your body, especially the liver. Not every organic food has glyphosate; by changing to organic foods, the amount of glyphosate consumed profoundly decreases.
Another reason to choose organic is to avoid other toxic aspects of living. Toxins are everywhere– nonstick cookware, heavy metals and chemicals in drinking water, weed killers and other pesticides, industrial air pollution, BPA and other chemicals from plastics, phthalates from personal care products, artificial sweeteners, food colorings, and artificial flavorings, etc.
Watching what we put on and in our bodies is a good first step, but it’s not enough. We must also promote our bodies’ natural detoxification exit pathways to remove these toxins. Otherwise, the build-up presents a heavy burden on our organ systems, leading to disease. Breathing, sweating, urinating, bowel elimination, and mobilizing lymphatics all help to eliminate toxins. Your lungs, skin, kidneys, colon, liver, and mucous membranes work daily to eliminate toxins – another reason to emphasize clean food and water to support your exit pathways!
Sometimes the news can make us want to give up altogether. Truthfully, it makes it more important than ever to supplement, detoxify, avoid sources of toxicity, and sweat for better health!
Be Well. Choose Organic. Detox Daily.
References: GreenMedInfo Daily Newsletter. July 16th, 2024. Organic Food Shocker: Is Toxic Glyphosate Hiding In Your Pantry?