Healthy Living

[tropico]

I am quite concern about the food that I eat, the air I breath and the water I drink...........I won't live 150 years but if I can live at best the years I have, it would be good.

I know for sure that vegetables we buy in the market are full of pesticides, luckily we also can chose between queen project produce and full organic. The price of course varies but I think it is worth to spend that extra bucks and eat something without poison.

I included here a report from Danida that talks about pesticide residue in thai vegetables................please read it, if you know you are empowered and you can make your choice.

Ciao

Demis

Your_poison_today_(English).pdf

[stoneyboy]

I don't see the report,would be good to have a read.

[tropico]

Hi

I uploaded the pdf file and I can see it in the post. Not sure why you can't see it!

I am just new to Thaivisa, sorry

[stoneyboy]

Hi

I uploaded the pdf file and I can see it in the post. Not sure why you can't see it!

I am just new to Thaivisa, sorry

I am posting from an iPad so that may explain things.

[MrBrad]

The pdf link works for me. Interesting and informative.

[tropico]

Hi to all

From Huai keaw road turning into canal road and driving for about 6 km or so there will be a new organic market on the left hand side. They open everyday from 1 to 7 pm. Products are supposed to be organic but they are not certified therefore I cannot confirm that vegetables and fruits are pesticide free, but worth to go and look around. They also have JJ market near Tesco Kamtian, which host an organic farming market every Saturday morning from 5 or 6 am. I never been at JJ market but it is supposed to be quite big.

I hope this is a useful info

[isanbirder]

Grow your own or grin and bear it.

Yes, there are places which promise pesticide-free, fertiliser-free food.... and you may trust them if you like.

[kennalder]

Thanks for the post Tropico. The pdf link worked fine for me. When I looked at the thread and noticed 6 posts, I thought well, that's more than I thought there would be on a topic of real importance. Then I read on and found 3 of them were yours and two were about technical issues downloading the pdf, and I immediately thought, now there is the Thai visa we all know and love. No-one gives a crap about anything that takes a little effort, even if it might prolong their life.

I am only a third of the way through the report, but will finish it this evening. For the last year I have been doing most of my cooking as I want to make sure all the produce is thoroughly cleaned and there is no sugar or MSG added to make things so "tasty".

A couple of stats already are standing out. Only 2.4% of likely chemical exposures seek treatment. 50,000 cases of cancer caused by food contamination a year. Most causes of death listed as heart failure, when chemical are likely involved. Many banned chemicals in use. It doesn't surprise me and I was aware of much of it already, but it is good to have so much of it in one report.

We can't control everything we ingest, but smart people do what they can, both to ingest as little as possible and to detox what they cannot avoid.

The problem is not only in Thailand:

DDT is still being found in American teenagers even though it was banned in (I think) 1972. Most people do not realize how long some of this stuff lingers. Look up "Arsenic in Rice syrup". You'll find Arsenic was used as a pesticide years ago and just laid in the ground until rice was planted there. Rice has the somewhat unique ability to pull large amounts of arsenic from the soil, and it shows up in many rice syrups. I believe this problem may have been mostly in the US, but variations of the same can be found all over the world. I think we are seeing many "peaks" in our lifetimes. Peak oil. Peak gold (production). Peak standard of (western) living, have all been discussed. My gut is telling me we are also going to witness peak longevity and maybe even peak world population. I base this on what I read about food supply poisons, toxic air and water, poisonous prescription drugs, money trumping science and a population that has been brainwashed into believing they can abuse the environment and themselves but can count on there being a drug they can take to make it "all right". Oh, I could go on, but if anyone reads this I am sure I have provided plenty of ammo for a good round of ridicule.

Thanks again for a worthwhile post.

[PoodMaiDai]

I am very interested in this, thank you. Eating Thai veggies scares me as I know they have zero oversight while growing them. I've been trying to eat organic as of late.

Bummer all the pollution will probably give me cancer though. And if it doesn't BPA will. Seems you can't escape poison in one form or another.

[Ulysses G.]

Grow your own or grin and bear it.

Yes, there are places which promise pesticide-free, fertiliser-free food.... and you may trust them if you like.

I was very skeptical about organic food back home being truly organic, but in Thailand?

[tropico]

Hi to all

To be honest I do not believe that all 100% organic have no residue but I have faith that those products with organic labels are definitely safer than others.

I was living in Singapore before and I could not afford to buy organic because just a salad would cost me about 8 S$. The only option was to buy the non organic and most of it was from China, Malaysia and Thailand..............one time in the news it was reported that some long beans from china had a chemical residue 34,000 times more than the allowed amount. I am not sure how can be so high but I was astonished and worried about ingesting all that poison. I wanted to post something useful and I hope people would buy more and more organic in order to have a bigger demand, production and decrease costs and of course health benefits

[PoodMaiDai]

I was very skeptical about organic food back home being truly organic, but in Thailand?

Me too. Supposedly the farmers at JJ market are organic and will allow you to visit their farm. I buy some veggies there but have not looked at where they grow it yet.

[PoodMaiDai]

Hi to all

To be honest I do not believe that all 100% organic have no residue but I have faith that those products with organic labels are definitely safer than others.

I was living in Singapore before and I could not afford to buy organic because just a salad would cost me about 8 S$. The only option was to buy the non organic and most of it was from China, Malaysia and Thailand..............one time in the news it was reported that some long beans from china had a chemical residue 34,000 times more than the allowed amount. I am not sure how can be so high but I was astonished and worried about ingesting all that poison. I wanted to post something useful and I hope people would buy more and more organic in order to have a bigger demand, production and decrease costs and of course health benefits

I don't believe it's 100% either. But as close to 100% as you can get the better. Just impossible (unless it's grown indoors via hydroponics) to grow it outside in such a polluted country and not expect some contaminates on it.

[BigJohnnyBKK]

A critical indicator for me is the fact that the rural/peasant Thais I know are **fanatical** about not just thoroughly washing their fruits and veggies, but soak them for long periods. These are the ones that really know, as the workers get major side-effects from improper handling.

However IMO the most important reason to push for a low-environmental impact food supply (pesticides are just one relatively minor part of the damage modern agriculture inflicts) is for the health of the larger ecosystem. Humans are a tiny part of that, and our forgetting that is the root of the problem.

I love everyone wearing T-shirts saying "save the planet", "protect Nature". In the long run, nature's just fine, all the damage we're doing is simply eliminating its ability to support **human** life. The rodents, insects, bacteria etc will do just fine for many billions of years long after we're gone, no worries. . .