Organic Foods Really Healthy?

There is what is called the halo effect where something is perceived as being good for you therefore more gets eaten or overeaten. One good example is where fast food chains label some of their food products as a healthier option, maybe because it contains salad of some kind. Even though the dressing may contain masses of fat or oils and spoonfuls of salt and sugar.

The perception though is because it is called a healthier option then more can be eaten without regard to the true ingredients that are involved.

For years we have always felt this about some organic foodstuffs. An easy example is the Organic White loaf, what a health contradiction! Now as far as we are concerned white flour products as part of the regular diet is crazy. Extracting the fibre particle of wheat along with much of the vitamin and mineral proponents from a food is a crazy thing to do. You are just asking for trouble in future years. We know of so many people who have died from bowel cancer, most of mature years who have spent many years eating low fibre diets.

A refined product be it organic or inorganic leads to the same conclusion, the probability of bowel cancer in the future or degenerative diseases due to vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

Other convenience foods can be found that contain organic components. Still full of salt, sugar and fats or oils. Not exactly a healthy option to be eaten on a regular basis. Yet the Organic halo lead people to the wrong conclusion that it must be healthy therefore they can eat it with impunity.

Beware the Halo.

Here is a plant that definitely should wear a Halo. Erysimum cheirii 'Harpur Crewe' .

The double flowered form of the natural Wallflower. Cheery bright yellow flowers and what a lovely scent to it. Delicious old Wallflower scent that really raises the spirits.

It loves growing in really well drained places where the soil is not too rich. Poorer soil leads to a longer life of the plant. This plant is growing right on the edge of a tarmac drive where the edge is set on concrete, so the roots are in a very thin amount of soil, which it really thrives on.

Close up of the gorgeously scented double flowers.

Radioactive Poisoning

Here in Britain we have already felt the effects of the radioactive poison spewing out of the reactor in Fukushima, Japan. The Health Protection Agency confirmed that tests in Oxford and Glasgow picked up Radioactive particles of Iodine from the stricken reactor. Although they hasten to add that it is in miniscule levels that are unlikely to harm anyone over here.

Then again this is not the first time that we have had another countries radioactive poisoning reach this far. The accident at Chernobyl spewed out so much that the plume drifted across Europe and onto Britain. We are still feeling the legacy here in Wales where the radioactive particles fell onto some of the North Wales hillside farms. Farmers there still have to have their lambs tested by the Ministry before they can send them to market.

People though are worried about the poisoning affecting them, and rightly so. In the US sales of Iodine supplements have outstripped supply and many are not to be had anywhere.

Here in the UK when Chernobyl went off, Iodine supplies where readied but never really made available. We though continued on with our own supplementation.

We have always eaten seaweed supplements as part of our diet, buying Wakame and Kombu, some of the stronger more richer seaweed foods along with others including of course the traditional Laver bread available here in Wales produced by Penclawdd Shellfish Processors.

Kombu, a relative of Kelp is available in dried strips.

Seaweed is the ideal solution to the cloud of Radioactive Iodine particles. It naturally supplements the thyroid with Iodine and stops the intake of the radioactive particles into the Thyroid where they would lodge there and create much harm in later years by causing cancer. Not only that but the seaweed enhances all body systems with fantastic doses of every trace element that are needed for healthy living.

There is only one problem now, Kombu and Wakame are grown around Japan, so future stocks could well be contaminated by the radioactive fall out running into the sea. Others believe this as stocks of the seaweed are running out in the shops, where people are stock piling for the future. So we have to find another source of seaweed.

We have found one, a company in the Shetland Isles who sell edible seaweeds and garden supplements.

   Tub of edible seaweed.

I shall be placing an order in with them to try their product along with one for their granular seaweed plant food. What many people do not realise is that adding an Iodine rich supplement to the soil for vegetables to grow in means that the vegetables will uptake Iodine and supply it through that channel as well.

As many people are Iodine deficient even though they take Iodised cooking salt, it merely stops them from succumbing to Iodine deficiencies that would show up otherwise. To have sufficient Iodine in the diet purely through salt supplementation you would kill yourself with Sodium excess. With todays emphasis on salt free diets, and rightly so, this is not a supplement that should be relied upon.

Everyone therefore should aim to eat more sea vegetables for an all round improved diet.