Have any of you heard about Dr. Mercola? I've been following his posts for about a year now and he always has great information on nutrition, medicine, holistic natural alternatives, supplements, organics, what unnatural and unhealthy chemicals are being put in our food, water and cosmetics, and how companies get away with it (payoffs, omitted information from studies, biased studies). I thought today's post was especially interesting because I've experienced this coating on romaine and didn't know what it was; I wasn't sure if it was natural because I've never grown romaine. Just another good reason to grow your own vegetables and buy from local growers! Please let me know if you've seen this plastic on vegetables other than romaine. Oh, and if you want to learn about something really weird, read his article on meat glue -- it caused my son to become a vegetation a couple of months ago! http://articles.mercola.com/sites/a...to-know-and-avoid-this-dangerous-process.aspx A quote from the article: "This may help explain why fresh produce has managed to be the source of several outbreaks of food poisoning in the past several years." http://articles.mercola.com/sites/a...r-organic-apple.aspx?e_cid=20120208_DNL_art_1 moderator's note: removed double posting see point 3.6 of usage rules
I guess most people would have to quit eating everything, what a shame this is happening....just look at what they are putting in your dogs food . Dead and diseased animals ....I guess growing your own vegetables is the way to go and going natural ...no pesticides. I have only used natural things in my yard for years . I have seen more little frogs, etc. in my yard since I am going without chemicals...to me that is quite an accomplishment when all the neighbors are spraying everything around me.... We have a coating that I can really notice on cucumbers...I find it hard to get off so I peel them. Our world will never be chemical free but we can try and do our part.
This does look disgustingly repulsive for our food. I am so glad to have a high tunnel to grow in....the lettuce tastes sooooo much better, even my children who don't eat much lettuce say it is so tasty compared to the "stuff" from the store. I'll have to check the lettuce the next time I am at the store to see if it is there.
I heard something about produce companies coating their products with wax to help retain moisture and make them last longer. I think that's what the substance on the lettuce might be. That's also why I wash my produce thoroughly before eating. Sometimes I grow my own produce, but never ever use any sort of chemicals on them or my regular flowers.
Wax: they do use wax on a lot of fruit and vegs to keep them from drying out during transport, per the Mercola article, "Wax was first applied to the skins of fruits and vegetables for longer shelf life hundreds of years ago." But this rubbery stuff is different: "Fruits and vegetables—apparently even organically-grown varieties—may have cow, pig, and chicken collagen coatings on them rather than wax, as well as a number of other unsavory ingredients." It's called Modified Atmospheric Packaging. Details about what else is contained in this substance (and why it can be a problem) can be found in this article: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/artic ... _DNL_art_1
great info farmerdeb! i knew about the wax, but not the plastic/collagen coating. and if that's from animals, that's not good for the just veggie eaters..."Fruits and vegetables—apparently even organically-grown varieties—may have cow-, pig-, and chicken collagen coatings on them rather than wax..." like sherry8 said, we must grow our own...and also eat local and know your farmer.
Yikes Farmer Deb that just way to sad to think that Organic in the stores is often not fully so. I just checked my Organic Romain lettuce from Cascadian Farms and I did find just a small amount of stuff I could peel off. But nothing at all like the video I watched from your link. I will definitely check out the video on meat glue. Just a funny side note. We all have misspelled words with funny results. You had said your son had become a vegetation several weeks ago. I was wondering how often you have to water him? And what type did he become. Made me chuckle. Thanks for all the great info. I to grow my own veggies and some fruits. Goat poo from our two boys is all our garden see's plus organic minerals.
Ha ha ha ha, that IS funny, I had no idea that I wrote my son had become a vegetation -- I wonder if that's Freudian? He's 16 and suddenly decided that meat, fish, etc. are unhealthy. He is not being "smart" IMHO about his diet. And I wonder how vegetarian's would react if they know some of their veggies were covered with animal by products? A bigger concern to me is that the glue could lock in bacteria, botulism spores, etc. I'll take a closer look at veggies labeled organic, especially romaine. If I find anything suspicious I'll let you know.
Or buy canned what you can't grow yourself or find locally. Nothing put on veg and fruit taken to a processing plant, cooked enough to destroy bacteria and vitamins and the shelf life of a can of veggies expires only when the can swells. Said with tongue lightly planted in cheek To find local growers you might want to work with go to http://www.localharvest.org/ and sign up to receive notifications for your a area.
Farmer Deb; that could be Freudian? When I told my hubby about your son becoming a Vegetation he said. I wonder if it hurt? More LOL from the both of us. About your son not being so wise about his abrupt eating change. I do hope he does some reading up on what he is suppose to eat for the protein he will be lacking in his diet. My brother had become a micaro-diet fanatic back in the 1990's. He now still try's to eat more organic. But he eats meat quit often. Plus chicken and fish. He even will eat a hot dog once in a while. If he really want's to try and eat more healthy that is great. Like you said; the stuff is even being put on the organics. Also any Certified Organic farmer can us a certain amount of synthetic fertilizers on his crops and still be considered Organic. I watch what we eat and pray over every meal.
My concern is that he didn't do his research: his idea of healthy eating is a lot of ramen noodles, bagels, cereal. I heard someone call that a Junk Food Vegetarian. At least at dinner time I can tailor my cooking to suit all of us and get some protein in him via tempeh and tofu. I also bought him a protein drink mix which he likes. He's young and healthy and seems interested in eating healthy so I hope some day he will realize he needs a variety of vitamins and minerals in his diet. I'm totally into eating a lot of greens, raw veggies and of course gardening so I'm hoping that will rub off on him!
