Poison in Food!

People are busy. They are buying food instead of cooking from scratch. It's tongue-tasty, and convenient. Expensive for pocket. Even more costly for the body. It's not made to handle additive-laden food.

Dose makes the poison.

If I eat processed food, I feel crawling sensations on my face, itching in my neck, back, legs, ear lobes. There is throat tightening, and overall anxiety.

What was going on? It was the sulfites, nitrites, carrageenan, urea, dye additives, and preservatives in those store-bought rotis.

I’m one of those people who are chemically sensitive. I have hypothyroidism too. My chemical tolerance is low.

Years ago, my tolerance had dropped further, due to a cockroach allergy. After eating such store-bought food, my windpipe was constricting, apart from skin hives. I was scared for my life.

Since then, I eat cautiously. I cook all meals from scratch.

If I don’t follow this discipline, I get lip swelling, puffiness around my eyes, nostril tingling. It’s not fun at all.

I feel angry at myself if I eat that allergenic food and get sick.

My little son has eczema. He scratches his legs until he bleeds. Preservatives make it worse.

Yoghurt is fermented food, and probiotic rich. But store-bought yogurt has given me anaphylaxis twice.

Tree nuts are healthy. But sulfite-laced nuts almost killed me. The other day I saw, sulfite as an ingredient in jaggery. One day, while pouring fenugreek (methi) herbs, gave me asthma attack, due to the sulfite inhalation.

Carrageenan give me issues too. My oral cavity feels sore. I have seen this additive in rotisserie chicken and pecan pie. I am sure it's present in many other food items.

There are antibiotics in many food products, including cheese.

Often, I fondly look three decades back. In rural India, my mother served everything homemade. Food allergies were unheard of.

Now, our fridges are full of food, but much of it is processed and preserved. It’s unfortunate. I am hungry, yet, I fear to reach for the cans and jars, for I know, what I am going to put in my body.

My spouse needs to understand this. But he works in IT and doesn’t really get it.

I feel helpless. My health is my responsibility. So, I try to take charge and cook all the meals. Apart from it, I maintain health diary, to find pattern. So, I will not repeat a mistake.

I wonder how other people are handling the chemicals. I am sure it's the cae of 'ignorance is bliss'. Allergy is not a laughing matter. It’s the immune system saying: “I don’t like what you put in the body. You better avoid or I will be agitated”

The immune system is our security guard, and we dare not provoke it. We must respect its signals, for our own well-being. All the diseases these days are due to assaults on the immune system.

It makes me sad to see that awareness is still not enough.

Simply saying organic, vegan, or gluten-free is not enough.

Manufacturers must be honest and try not to add harmful chemicals to food.

The public must also stay alert and informed. A sense of urgency is needed. How can we expect a healthy generation with chemical-tainted food?

We cannot ignore how certain foods aggravate infertility, asthma, eczema, cancer, or diabetes. I am sure, if our food scene was clean, pharmaceutical industry would not thrive like it does.

As food is so vital to life, it must be handled with the highest care and responsibility. Food processing system is inflammatory and needs revamping.

'Let thy food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food' ~ Hippocrates. When the above quote came in 400BC, they did not even know down the line, chemicals will taint the food chain.

Note: Broken system need fixing, not enduring.