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So, your pantry is stocked with its packages, cans, oils and spices. Your fridge is full of meat, fruit and vegetables. You may be feeling comfortable with the fact that you*ve supplied your family with a good supply of sustenance. Not so fast! Here are some things we*ve been lead to believe are better than Mother Nature's recipes.

When you eat traditionally grown fruits and vegetables and spices, you may also be consuming insecticides, pesticides and fumigants. On that warm summer day when you are enjoying that sweet peach or juicy apple, your body has to deal with the fact that an onslaught of foreign toxic material has entered its system. In addition to extracting usable nutrients, it has to remove the toxic substances. If you repeatedly, day after day, consume these chemicals, your liver and kidneys can become overwhelmed. If you ate organically all your life, your body should be able to handle this, but this is not the case for the majority of Americans. Most Americans consume pesticides, herbicides and fumigants daily. In fact, it is estimated that we consume 13 to 20 different pesticides, insecticides or fumigants on any given day. Pregnant women and children are especially at risk.

Here are some examples of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides and their side effects;

- Iprodione is a carcinogen in both humans and animals.
- Azinphos can interfere with hormones.
- Phosmet is also a carcinogen, can damage the reproductive system and also interferes with hormones.
- Benomyl and carbaryl are known carcinogens, can cause birth defects, can damage the nervous system and the brain, can cause vomiting and diarrhea.
- Fungicides such as captan, azoxystrobin and mancozeb can irritate the eyes, skin and respirtory tract.
- Herbicides such as mecoprop and 2,4 ?D Barrage can increase bizarre or aggressive behavior, irritate mucous membranes and skin, can cause headaches, confusion, vomiting and diarrhea.
- Paraquat can cause a burning sensation in the mouth, throat and chest, can make one feel giddy or lethargic, feverish and headachy and can cause dry cracked hands.
- Insecticides such as orthene, dursban and thiodan can cause headaches, excessive tearing and salivation, muscle twitching, nausea, diarrhea, possible seizures.
- Hexchlorocyclohexane high exposure can cause blood disorders, dizziness, headaches, seizures and can affect hormones.

There are so many chemicals used in our agriculture that I could write pages of their harmful effects from continual exposure but the above gives you the idea.

There are some ugly truths about the meat we consume as well. There are feed farms where it is necessary to feed cattle, pigs and chicken with antibiotics. Unlike animals that are allowed to graze naturally, feed farms have animals confined in a building for all their lives. This makes them prone to disease and so antibiotics are used liberally. Some microbes in the animal become resistant to the antibiotics. Now we have the problem where people who choose to fight infection with antibiotics, may find themselves resistant. We also have the problem of hormones fed to cattle to fatten them up. What do you think happens to you when you ingest these hormones? If it fattens the cows wouldn't it stand to reason it would also fatten you up? Europe does not allow the hormone rBGH to be used, but the in the US, approximately 90% of livestock farms use hormones.

There is also the debate about early puberty in young girls. According to Samuel Epstein, MD, professor of occupational and environmental medicine at the university of Illinois Medical Center and founder of Cancer Prevention Coalition, worries that because children normally have low sex hormones, even a small increase could have detrimental effects.

Because we are so over exposed to toxins from the air we breath, the water we drink and the food we eat, it stands to reason that going organic is a step in the right direction. You may be surprised at how you will feel by reducing toxicity in your body.

We all want ourselves and our families to be healthy, don't we? It is our responsibility to get educated to make the right decisions, and whenever possible eat organic foods.

(Source: Cornell University Pesticide Management Education Program & ATSDR- Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry/US Dept of Health and Human Services, for informational purposes only)