Irradiated or Conventional..??

[GayleH]

I am new to raw eating - just over a week. I have found that alot of times I am faced with the choice of USD vegatables that have been irradiated or just buying conventional (ie. spinach that is USD vs conventional spinach). What is the right choice in this situation?

[rawstrength]

DON'T do irradiated produce. The phytochemicals and enzymes are destroyed. Trust me, I wrote an 8 page research paper on irradiated food (which I could email to you if you like).

[GayleH]

Would you eat conventional rather than irradiated organic?? The report would be great - please send to gahilton2005@hotmail.com

[shashibala]

I thought that organic produce could not be irradiated. Anybody know if that is incorrect?

[rawstrength]

In the USA, organic produce cannot be irradiated.

[Robison]

Does irradiated food have to be labeled in any way? I live in an area where there is not a lot of selection and on a lot of things I have to use what is there.

[GayleH]

According to Mike Adams (Natural News) and a number of other people in the raw food industry there has been a silent irradiation of USD organic spinach, almonds, lettuce ... and who knows what else - going on without any labelling of any kind. Organic activists actually have a petition going to try and stop the FDA in the USA from completely destroying the food. You can find information on this at naturalnews.com. There are also some very interesting talk shows regarding the problem on Raw Vegan Radio from SanFransisco. This was a hot topic at the Raw Spirit Festival in the US.
My concern is that alot of times I am faced with USD organic irradiated and my only other choice is non organic Canadian.... so which would you eat??

[raweater]

I'd definately go with non organic over irradiated. The presence of cancer causing chemicals is far less dangerous than the absence of life essential nutrients. What a great world we live in!

[Robison]

I would love to just be able to know which is non-organic vs. irradiated :D

[oai]

lol. me too. so is the consensus that conventional is better than irradiated organic? what is the point of even growing them organic, if they're going to be irradiated? that's so odd.

[raweater]

But the conventional is likely also irradiated, it doesn't have to be labelled.

The point of irradiating is to destroy disease preventing nutrients to increase disease rates which in turn increase the sales of drugs which are the biggest scam ever.

[Stina]

DON'T do irradiated produce. The phytochemicals and enzymes are destroyed. Trust me, I wrote an 8 page research paper on irradiated food (which I could email to you if you like).

Better yet, can you present it on the forum for all of us? I know I for one need to learn more about it. What is your major, incidentally?

thanks, Stina

[GayleH]

My understanding is that the US FDA has also made it illegal to not irradiate almonds... therefore the almonds are being irradiated in the same vein as the produce. Apparently almond growers are outraged and they have started a petition against the FDA.... this really chokes me as I just spent over $40 on raw almonds that were grown in California (and now I realize they have been irradiated).... I am doing my best to only shop at local BC grown farms where they do not spray produce .... but with nuts we are rather dependant on other countries.... where do you go from here?

[raweater]

Actually the almonds are not irradiated, they are rather sprayed with an explosive, cancer causing chemical that used to be used as a fuel in race cars but was banned since it was too dangerous, but it's perfectly safe to spray it on our food of course!

[RawHeaven]

In the USA, organic produce cannot be irradiated.

But they do it anyway in certain areas which is disheartening. I found an article about it that I'm trying to locate again...it might have been from another raw site. It was wonderful because it shared how to thoroughly read the label, color coding and numbering system to double check. If I find it, I will post.