(This is a guest post from reader Carol Montrose. Enjoy!)
You’ve all heard the saying “kids are like sponges”, and it generally applies to the ways in which their agile minds soak up every bit of information they come across. But unfortunately, they are also physical receptacles that are unable to fight off toxins as well as adults. And while you make them wash their hands frequently and try to provide them with all of the nutrients they need to be strong and healthy, you may not be aware that the foods you’re giving them carry traces of pesticides and hormones that can damage their growing bodies and minds. If you haven’t considered switching your kids to organic produce, now is the time to start doing some research, and here are a few good reasons to get going.
1. No toxins. Organic crops are guaranteed to be free of harmful chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, and fertilizers. And organic meats are raised without hormones or antibiotics and are fed organic grains. So you can be sure when you feed them to your child that they are not ingesting any amount of synthetic toxins that could harm their developing systems.
2. Regulatory problems. Although the U.S. has high standards for food cleanliness and acceptable levels of toxins, other countries that we import from do not necessarily share the same procedures or quality controls. And while we would like to believe that imported foodstuffs are checked thoroughly before they reach our kitchens, you may not want to rely on overworked customs officials to value your child’s health as highly as you do (especially since they only test a sample portion of each shipment).
3. Premature approval. While it is true that chemical pesticides and the like must be approved by the EPA before they can be legally used on crops, many are put into production before proper testing has been done to ensure that birth defects and other disorders will not occur as a result of long-term ingestion. Certainly everyone remembers the DDT debacle that led to the chemical being widely banned (after almost 100 years of usage) due to concerns over the fact that it was found to have collected in the food chain (propagating in water and soil alike to cause damage to nearby ecosystems), as well as the possible harm to humans over extended periods of exposure.
4. Vulnerability. It should come as no surprise that children are more susceptible to the effects of toxins on their fragile systems. Not only are their bodies less capable of fending off toxic chemicals, they are consuming the same levels as adults. You wouldn’t give a child the same amount of aspirin that you would take for a headache or fever. And yet, the foods you’re serving them have the same level of chemicals as the food you eat.
5. Ailments. While studies to prove the adverse effects of pesticides to humans have been infrequent and often inconclusive, certain chemicals found in foods have been charged with causing ailments as diverse as ADHD and certain cancers, not to mention possible effects on the immune, endocrine, and nervous systems. While organic foods may not be any more nutritious than their chemically treated counterparts, at least they will not be introducing potentially harmful toxins into your child’s body.
Carol Montrose is a writer for Online MBA Rankings where you can browse the top online MBA programs.
