Everyday radiation in food and water: Where it is and what you can do about it

Everyday radiation in food and water: Where it is and what you can do about it

Posted by: Dr. Veronique Desaulniers in Radiation News April 5, 2016 4 Comments

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(NaturalHealth365) The radioactive sludge that continues to spew from the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster five years after the fact may or may not be effecting the fish that will eventually wind up on your dinner plate.

Still, the situation begs the question: How else are we being exposed to the dangers of radiation in our food and drinking water and what can we do to protect ourselves and our families?

Fukushima’s radiated fish are just the latest in the ongoing contamination of marine life

Higher-than-normal levels of radionuclides (suspected to be from Fukushima) and strange cancerous tumors have been found in Bluefin tuna, salmon and other fish off the Pacific coast from California through British Columbia, leading to concerns over Stronium-90, Cesium-137 and Cesium-134 contamination in commercial seafood caught in those waters.

Other reports, such as those published recently from the organization OurRadioactiveOcean.org, state that “despite the presence of these radioactive isotopes, the levels of contamination remain well below government-established safety limits for human health or to marine life.”

While the debate about Fukushima continues, the sad fact is that radiation exposure in what we consume comes in many other forms besides those that make headlines.

There are virtually no regulations when it comes to safe levels of irradiation in food

Hundreds of the products we regularly buy from the grocery store are intentionally radiated. According to the U.S. FDA: “Food irradiation (the application of ionizing radiation to food) is a technology that improves the safety and extends the shelf life of foods by reducing or eliminating microorganisms and insects.”

Foods that must be treated with ionizing radiation before it can be sold to U.S. consumers include beef, pork, poultry, shell eggs, crustaceous seafood (e.g., lobster, shrimp, and crab), molluscan shellfish (e.g., oysters, clams, mussels, and scallops), fresh fruits and vegetables, lettuce and spinach, seeds for sprouting (e.g., for alfalfa sprouts), and spices and seasonings.

These foods are treated with either gamma rays, x-rays, electron beams or cesium-137, a highly radioactive and dangerously unstable waste material left over from nuclear weapons and power production. Cesium-137 is also one of the main sources of on-going radioactive contamination from Fukushima.

Physician and epidemiologist Prof. Edward P. Radford said it plainly: “There is no safe dose of radiation.” The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on the other hand, claims that irradiated foods are safe to eat even though to date the FDA has not determined exactly what a “safe” level would be.

The Obama administration has significantly raised permissible levels of radiation in drinking water and soil over the last three years

Perhaps in response to the inevitability of eventual U.S. soil and water contamination from Fukushima, between 2013-2015 the Obama Administration put into place revised EPA guidelines for radiation levels in U.S. drinking water and soil.

These new guidelines are what the nuclear industry is now calling the “new normal.” According to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), “the U.S. government’s PAGs (Protective Action Guides) allow long-term public exposure to radiation in amounts as high as 2,000 millirems. This would, in effect, increase a longstanding 1 in 10,000 person cancer rate to a rate of 1 in 23 persons exposed over a 30-year period. Many experts are expecting elevated cancer rates due to these ‘allowable’ levels of radiation exposure.”

The guidelines for drinking water have not been clearly defined as yet. The EPA “continues to seek input on this” so only time will tell what loosened allowable levels will do to drinking water safety in the long run.

You CAN take action to protect yourself from food and water-borne radiation

As these gloomy statistics make clear, there is really no way to avoid radiation in some form in our food and water supply. There ARE clear-cut and scientifically-proven actions you can take, however, to lessen the effects of radiation on your body:

1. Take iodine supplements. Iodine protects the thyroid, the place in the body where radiation most likes to “lodge.” With plenty of iodine in you system, hormone receptors remain full and radioactive iodine will have no room to land. Make sure to get your levels checked first and that your supplement contains both potassium iodide and iodine.

2. Up your levels of Vitamin C. Vitamin C is a free-radical scavenger and a strong antioxidant. Likewise, you can’t really “overdo it” when it comes to how much you take (if you have taken too much, your body will let you know it’s had enough by the presence of loose stool). Taking at much as 5,000 mgs or more of vitamin C – every day – will not hurt you.  In contrast, it will boost your immune system and help detox radiation contaminants.

3. Consider chlorella. Chlorella is unique in that it can bind with toxins as well as heavy metals. Studies out of New Delhi in the mid-1990’s reported that chlorella had a radio-protective effect.

4. Investigate other toxic chelators. Selenium, zinc, curcumin and resveratrol are just a sampling of other natural substances that help to remove radiated iodine from the body system.

5. Know where your food and water come from whenever possible. Instead of shopping at the grocery store, consider buying some of your staples for the week at a local farmers market or from a local rancher or fish market. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Also, consider the source of your water carefully and don’t skimp on water filtration devices; make sure it’s a quality reverse osmosis unit or a unit such as the Berkley Gravitation filtration system that will take out as many toxins as possible.

About the author: Dr. Veronique Desaulniers (“Dr. V”) is a best-selling author and specialist in Chiropractic, Bio-Energetics, Meridian Stress Analysis, Homeopathy and Digital Thermography. After 30 years in active practice, she decided to “retire” and devote her time to sharing her personal, non-toxic Breast Cancer healing journey with others. Her years of experience and research have culminated in “The 7 Essentials™ “, a step-by-step coaching program that unravels the mystery of healing the body. Her website and personal healing journey have touched the lives of thousands of women around the globe. To get your F.R.E.E. 7-day mini e-course and to receive her weekly inspiring articles on the power of natural medicine – visit: BreastCancerConqueror.com

References:

http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20478712,00.html/view-all

http://news.yahoo.com/fukushimas-radiation-got-californias-tuna-070000655.html

http://www.mercola.com/article/irradiated/irradiation_dangers.htm

https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/granule/CFR-2011-title21-vol3/CFR-2011-title21-vol3-sec170-22

HTTP://ourradioactiveocean.org/RESULTS.HTML

http://www.globalresearch.ca/obama-increases-allowable-levels-of-radiation-in-drinking-water-dramatically/5420787

http://www.globalresearch.ca/obama-approves-raising-permissible-levels-of-nuclear-radiation-in-drinking-water-civilian-cancer-deaths-expected-to-skyrocket/5331224

http://ecowatch.com/2015/10/15/thyroid-cancer-fukushima-study

http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/8543329