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Deb  1:45 

Welcome to uncovering the truth in your food where we’re going to dive deep into what’s hiding in the foods we eat every day. I’m Dr Deb, a naturopath passionate about uncovering the truth about our food systems and making our system and people healthier. Today, we’re peeling back the layers on additives, pesticides and herbicides commonly found in our food, and exploring why these ingredients are more tightly regulated in places like Europe than they are in the US.

Deb  2:17 

So why is it that so many chemicals banned across the world are still widely used in America’s food supply, and what impact could they be having in our health?

Deb  2:30 

Many everyday food items are filled with substances that don’t just add color or prolong the shelf life. They pose real health risks we have known for decades that artificial food dyes are one of our well known examples that have been linked to behavioral issues in children. But dyes aren’t the only concern. Today. We’re also exploring some of the hidden toxins, like pesticides and herbicides that can affect our health in a subtle but lasting way.

Deb  3:04 

Robert Kennedy Jr has been very vocal about the need for tighter regulations, and he argues that our current food regulatory framework prioritizes corporate interests over public health, allowing chemicals like glyphosate and synthetic dyes to remain in our food despite evidence of harm. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup.

Deb  3:29 

It is one of the most widely used herbicides in the world, and in 2015 the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen.

Deb  3:43 

So let me let that sink in for just a second.

Deb  3:47 

Why are we putting a active carcinogen on our food?

Deb  3:54 

And you may think that this doesn’t really happen, but it does our big farming, industrial farming, which I have no problem with farming. My family were farmers. They’re still farming. We farm, and I think it’s important for us to deliver healthy food, but putting a toxin on our food to grow a larger crop or produce more at the risk of increasing cancer in our people. I’m not willing to trade that. That’s just not worth it when we can do farming in a different way, and we can have different practices that will still yield us a lot of product,

Deb  4:41 

but without the toxins. Now, people might argue and say this isn’t true, but I’m going to tell you to take a look at the ads that run on TV if you granted thereby the legal system attorneys, if you’ve been exposed to paraquat, you.

Deb  5:00 

Call us if you’ve developed Parkinson’s disease. Well, paraquat is an industrial pesticide used by farmers, and people who are exposed to this in quantities that could be mild or moderate, can develop neurological diseases. Don’t believe me.

Deb  5:18 

Go read the back of the label. It will tell you all of the consequences that can happen. Go to the internet and look up the side effects of paraquat. It’s neurological conditions that occur after being exposed to a product like paraquat. Roundup has very similar things. You know, we spray roundup on our weeds, because we don’t want our weeds to grow. Well, when we spray it on our foods and on our land, that’s the same thing that happens. But we not only then disrupted the plant that we’re growing, we’ve also disrupted the soil for a number of years after that, because you cannot get those chemicals out of our soils immediately. Now Have there been ways that people have found to get that out of the soil quicker? Yes, they grow hemp on that land, and if they grow hemp on that land, the toxins grow up in the hemp, and then they can throw away the hemp, and a lot of those toxins can be pulled from the soil.

Deb  6:17 

Still, don’t believe me. What about water supply?

Deb  6:21 

We know that that round off roundup that grows goes on our land, will leach into our water fields, and if our water table is then disrupted with Roundup, and you’re drinking that water that was never an intended use of Roundup, but it’s happening. Test your water supply. There are many rural places that have a well that have roundup that has seeped into their water and into their water table, and unless you’re filtering it, you’re not getting that stuff out. And we don’t even know how well a filtration system will actually take that roundup out. Roundup is also known as a what we call endocrine disruptor, which we’ll talk about in a little bit, because I kind of went off on a tangent here. As you can see this, I’m very passionate about this, because it’s really a problem for us, so I want to try to get back on track. Let’s talk about the impact of glyphosate on health. Studies have linked long term exposure of glyphosate to the increased risks of cancer, including non Hodgkin’s lymphoma. These researchers from the University of Washington have also found that glyphosate exposure increases the cancer risk. Are you ready for this by as much as 41% in what they classify as high exposure groups? Well, high exposure group is going to be the farming community. Now, you may not farm, but you could live in a farming area, and if they’re spraying their crops and we have a windy day, research has shown that that chemical can blow up to 1200 miles on a given day.

Deb  8:09 

So we think we may be clean in some areas, but we’re really not. We’re getting exposed to these things all over the place. This glyphosate residue has been detected in many of our popular foods, from breakfast cereals to breads, and yet, unlike Europe, where glyphosate usage is being restricted, the US continues to allow it in our agricultural practices, this raises a lot of questions about the potential long term effects of Our health and the health of our future generations.

Deb  8:42 

Let’s talk more about pesticides, herbicides and what we call hormone disruptors. So beyond dyes and glyphosate, many common pesticides and herbicides disrupt the body in ways that go beyond cancer risk. Several of these chemicals are known endocrine disruptors, meaning that they can interfere with our hormonal balance, affecting everything from the growth and development to our fertility.

Deb  9:11 

Atrazine is a widely used herbicide in the US, but it’s banned in Europe due to its environmental and health impacts. Research from the University of California, Berkeley, has shown that Atrazine exposure can cause changes in reproductive development and in some cases even gender changes in animals due to the hormonal interference. So let’s question that for a second. Are we not seeing one of the highest ever rates of fertility that we have ever seen in this country. Yes, we are. Everybody knows somebody who’s touched by a fertility issue that never used to be the case, that never used to be a problem. You know, if we look back in our family histories, many of.

Deb  10:00 

Our grandparents and great grandparents had eight, 910, children. And I know there’s going to be people that are listening to this that are going to say, Well, that’s because they didn’t have use of birth control. Yes, that’s true, but they were also much more fertile than we are today. So what is going on with our fertility? There are a lot of things. I am not saying that it is just chemicals or just pesticides and herbicides. There’s a whole host of things that are disrupting our fertility right now. But what I am saying is that if we want to preserve our future and our generations to come, we have to start looking at this now. We should have been looking at this 1015, years ago, and we should not have let money and greed get in the way of this. So Dr Tyrone Hayes, who’s a researcher on Atrazine and the effects of Atrazine, has the ability, he believes, has the ability, to disrupt endocrine function at levels as low as 0.1 parts per billion, a concentration found in drinking water across the Midwest. Now I live in the Midwest, so this is rather frightening to me. So this raises significant concerns about its potential effects on our human health and on our hormonal system. So the fact that an herbicide could interfere with hormone function at such low levels is concerning, especially when this chemical is so prevalent in the US Food and water supply. It really brings home the importance of knowing what’s in our food and in our water. Now I’ve been practicing a long time. I’ve been practicing over 20 years. My specialty is women’s health, so I’ve looked at hormones for a very long time. I started out as a nurse working in fertility, and learned a lot about hormones and what they do and how they function on a fertility aspect, and then moved into working primarily more with postmenopausal women and addressing hormones there. However, I will say, in the last five to 10 years, I’m seeing younger women have hormonal disruption. Now, naturally, we lose hormones, starting about age 35 our hormones start to fall, but I’m seeing 20 year olds, 20 year old males, with testosterone levels that are equal to what we see in most of our 70 and 80 year old men. I am seeing testosterone levels that are in the 200 range, sometimes less in these young, 20 something year old men where they should be at their peak, they should be having testosterone levels way well above 500 and into 800 or 900 ranges. Now, not everybody has a testosterone level of 800 or 900 you’re going to have your highs and lows, and you’re going to have your averages.

Deb  13:00 

And granted, I see clients that are having issues, so I may be seeing a little bit of a tainted result, but I’m sharing with you what I’m seeing. I’m not saying this is what’s happening to everybody, but I’m sharing what I’m seeing and the differences that I’ve seen over the course of my practice, which is significant. We are seeing a lot more gender issues. There’s no doubt about that, and we question where that’s coming from, and why is that happening now more than it’s ever happened before. And it’s not just because people feel comfortable coming forward. There is something that is changing, and if we know that these chemicals that are in our food and our water disrupt our hormones and cause these kinds of endocrine disruptions, I believe it’s our responsibility to do something about it and protect our people, protect our young people, and protect our future generations.

Deb  13:56 

So Europe versus the US A Tale of Two food policies, it’s different. Let’s take a step back and look at how Europe and the US approach food safety. In the European Union, they follow a precautionary principle, banning substances that are suspected of being harmful until proven safe. But here in the US, we take the opposite approach, allowing companies to use these chemicals until they’re definitively proven to be harmful, sometimes decades after exposure has begun.

Deb  14:30 

It’s insane that we allow our own food companies to pack our kids food with chemicals that European companies can’t use if it’s safe, why can’t they use it all over here, powerful example is titanium dioxide, a white agent used in foods like candy and gum. Europe banned this due to the studies suggesting it could damage DNA and increase cancer risk. But here in the US.

Deb  15:00 

Still legally used in countless products.

Deb  15:05 

Why? Why are we using a whitening agent that is a toxin, that is something people are trying to get rid of, not something that somebody is saying is healthy? It just doesn’t make any sense to me at all. Did you know that titanium dioxide is the white pigment that they put in paint and sunscreen and some dairy products?

Deb  15:35 

Do I want to eat something that has a product that goes in paint.

Deb  15:42 

I don’t think so. I don’t want that exposure. There’s just no way. Europe banned certain artificial dyes in foods marketed to children in 2010

Deb  15:55 

2010

Deb  15:56 

Ladies and gentlemen, it is 2024 going on, 2025 here when I’m recording this and companies voluntarily removed them in the US, these dies are still prevalent, despite the risks. So again, I ask the question, why greed, money, laziness? I don’t know the true answer to it, but I would suspect it’s all of the above.

Deb  16:23 

Children are particularly vulnerable. So let’s talk about the impact on our child’s health.

Deb  16:32 

They are particularly vulnerable to these chemicals, from artificial dyes to the endocrine disruptors like Atrazine, and research shows that these additives and pesticides can contribute to everything from ADHD to allergies and hormonal imbalances.

Deb  16:49 

I learned a long time ago from Dr Doris Rapp about the toxicity of these artificial dyes and what they can actually do to our children. And I want to share a quote with you, and then I’m going to share something that was so impactful for me when I learned about this from her, that still today, that memory is burned into my mind. So I want to quote Doris wrap where she talks about this, and she says, For many children, just a small amount of food coloring can make the difference between a good day and a bad day. These additives can act like a poison in the body, disrupting normal brain function and triggering extreme reactions.

Deb  17:32 

Now the health impact of red dye number 40 and yellow dye number five are very clean, clearly seen. Studies have linked red number 40 and yellow number five to increase hyperactivity in children, especially those with attention deficit disorder. ADHD and the American Academy of Pediatrics has called for additional research into food dyes and their effects on children’s health. Parents have reported that eliminating these dyes from their children’s diets can make a profound difference, behavioral changes, emotional outbursts, mood swings. They’re just a few of these symptoms that can improve. Now, when I learned about this from Dr Doris rap, I was at a conference.

Deb  18:18 

Gosh, this has to have been 20 ish, 22 years ago, and she was an amazing doc, because she video recorded every one of her kids that she allergy tested in her office, so they could see very distinctly the symptoms that they presented with, the behavior and symptoms they had when they were testing them, and then what was done, how they reacted when they were done testing them, when they gave them what we call a neutralizing dose. And there was one kid that stands out to me that I still remember today. I can see that memory clear as day in my head. He was probably 1415, years old, ish, you know, early teens, and he was in testing orange, and they gave him an orange and allergy. Tested him beforehand, normal kids, sitting hanging out, you know, doing his thing. They gave him the orange, and within five minutes, maybe 10 Max, I would say, probably closer to five, this big kid went from being completely normal, doing his thing, to curled up in a ball, talking about committing suicide, very anxious, very emotional.

Deb  19:48 

It was traumatic for those of us in the audience watching this kid have this kind of reaction.

Deb  19:56 

She gave him a neutralizing dose and within five to 10 minutes, he was totally back to normal again, and he had absolutely no recollection of what had transpired and that he was talking about committing suicide, no recollection at all.

Deb  20:15 

When you see things like that, it makes a huge impact on you. It’s one thing to hear it. It’s a completely different thing to see it. And I was lucky enough to join a practice that did this therapy very early on in my career, and got to witness some of this myself. And we don’t do as much of it today as we used to, and it’s a sad thing. And I think in part, because people don’t know about it, they don’t know that these options are available to them, and that by simply treating their allergies, they may not need to use these expensive drugs that affect the brain and affect the moods and our neurotransmitters and everything about ourselves, of who we are as a person, because if your child is suffering from this because of a food sensitivity or a dye sensitivity, it’s easily reversible. It’s easily fixed by eliminating the dyes, eliminating the food and if we need to, we can treat with allergy drops. And I think there could be a lot of people treated differently in the system today if we utilize those tools. However, it’s harder and harder for those of us that do this type of medicine right now to practice this way, because there’s always somebody coming after us, fact checking us, telling us we’re, you know, not telling the truth. We’re taking advantage of people. The medical boards are coming after us on a regular basis, so it’s harder and harder for us to get this information out to people so that they can learn about it. Now, I’m very hopeful, with RFK being appointed to DHHS, that a lot of this will change, but it’s not something that’s going to change overnight. It’s certainly going to take some time for that to happen.

Deb  22:08 

So let’s talk about some practical tips for cleaner eating. While we may not be able to change the US Food Policy overnight, we can make choices today to protect our health and the health of our families. And here are some practical tips for being a savvy shopper and reducing exposure to these chemicals. Choose organic whenever you can, organic foods are grown without synthetic pesticides and herbicides, making them a safer choice when you’re choosing organic because it is expensive. If you can’t do everything organic, at least do the Dirty Dozen and the Clean 13. You can find this online. I think it’s euw.org, (actually it is https://www.ewg.org/ see other links at the end of this podcast)

Deb  22:50 

We’ll have this. And these are the foods that you want to make sure you’re always choosing organic, because they are latent with the highest amount of pesticides if you don’t, and herbicides and toxins. So try to do that as much as possible. Read labels. Carefully avoid products with artificial dyes, titanium dioxide, high fructose corn syrup. Look for labels that say no artist artificial colors or preservatives, no added sugars. This is really important. And the easiest way for me to say this to you is, if there’s a word on the label that you can’t pronounce, you shouldn’t be putting it in your body, just plain and simple, it’s a chemical. It’s some kind of chemical. You don’t need chemicals in your body. Our food was grown the way it is, for a reason, to fuel our bodies, not to make our bodies toxic. Look for the non GMO certification. This can be a good indication that fewer synthetic pesticides were used in the growing process. And consider what we call an elimination diet. If you suspect sensitivities, try removing foods with artificial dyes and additives for a few weeks to observe any changes. So one of the things that we do in our office when we’re talking about elimination diet is we say two weeks on, two weeks off, and do one food at a time. Because if you do a bunch of foods at one time, you’re not going to know what is causing what now you can certainly eliminate everything at one time for two weeks and then bring one food in at a time for two weeks. That’s a that’s a very acceptable way of doing a food elimination diet. And you want to make sure you keep a diary of how you’re feeling and look for things like, am I tired? Do I have headaches? You know, what’s my mood like? What’s my behavior like? How’s my thinking?

Deb  24:41 

What’s going on with my skin? How am I sleeping? All of these things are things that you want to look at. It’s not whether or not you have a stomach ache or a headache right away. And the reason we say two weeks is there’s this sense of what we call food delay. So you can eat something today and continue to have.

Deb  25:00 

Reactions to that food up to two weeks after you’ve consumed it. So that’s a delayed sensitivity or delayed reaction. It’s not an immediate reaction, and oftentimes those are the reactions that cause more of the nuisance type symptoms. Your immediate reactions are headaches, nausea, vomiting, you know, total hives, allergic reaction type thing, but the delays are a little more challenging to find, so do it slowly and take your time. So I want to share another quote with you from Dr Rapp. If you suspect your child’s behavior might be linked to something in their diet, try removing one food at a time like I just explained, especially foods with artificial colors and preservatives. You might be surprised at the transformation that can occur in just a few days. So I want to share a personal story with you. My oldest grandson was diagnosed with high functioning autism, and his behavior was not horrible by any means, but there were some challenges, and we had this conversation. He saw one of the docs that works for me that treats autism, and he made the recommendation that they take red dyes out of his diet. And simply by taking the red dye out of his diet, completely changed his personality and behavior. It was like night and day, and he knows at eight years old why he can’t have red dye they taught him, why they taught him what it does for him, how it makes him feel empowered him. And he will look at something and say, I’m sorry I can’t have that. It has red dye in it, and he knows it. Kids can learn this. We can’t shelter them from this. We have to educate them.

Deb  26:41 

So I want to leave you with this moving forward with our awareness knowledge is power, and as consumers, every dollar we spend is a vote for the kind of food system that we want to support. We may not have the same protections as Europe, but we can still make better choices, and we can protect our health and send a message to food companies that we want safer, cleaner food.

Deb  27:10 

If this episode has made you think twice about what’s on your plate, share it with someone that you care about and remember change starts with us until next time, stay informed and stay healthy, because true wellness starts with what you eat. Thank you for joining uncovering the truth in your food. Stay empowered, stay healthy and see you next time you.

Food News Sign Up………….. https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/
Dirty Dozen List…………………. https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/dirty-dozen.php
The Clean Fifteen………………. https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/clean-fifteen.php
Guide to Healthy Eating…… https://www.ewg.org/cleaners/
EWG’s Healthy Living App.. https://www.ewg.org/apps/

Dr. Deb