This is terrifying me since about 80% of my diet comes from chicken and peanuts. Milk is out, peanuts are out, corn is out, chicken is out...What are we left with... Thai rice, which has a higher GI than pure glucose...

36-184.pdf is the data regarding Thailand. It's a bit dated, but shows terrifying %'s of mycotoxins:

dairy products 95% of 270 samples

peanuts 50% of 877 samples

poultry 48% of 450 samples

Br Med Bull-2000-Pitt-184-92 is a general document regarding the effects of mycotoxins, most disturbing is this

"Doses producing chronic disease are usually far below those responsible for
acute effects, and so long-term effects such as cancer or tumour induction
are undetected at the time of ingestion and, indeed, may remain so until
disease is quite advanced."

If anyone has any data that's more up to date, would love to see it. Somehow I'm not sure Thailand has improved in this regard, if anything things may be worse due to rise of competition and greed.

Br Med Bull-2000-Pitt-184-92.pdf

36-184.pdf

Rates of intestinal cancer and liver cancer are very high in Thailand whilst life expectancy is way down on other East Asian countries. Lots of factors involved but this could be one.

I have lived in Thailand for many years and have accepted the pollution in the food, air and water have taken years off my life. It is the trade-off.

Become vegetarian and you reduce the risk...

Everything can kill us, but the more often you cross the road the higher chance to die faster you have...

This stuff is even in tofu. It can be in vegetables too, though not as likely... I guess eat only vegetables and protein shakes while in Thailand?

I'm not so sure about vegetables. Farmers use insecticides and herbicides that are banned in Western countries. They use them with no training and who knows in what dosages?

I suspect that these poisons run into fish and shrimp ponds when it rains or upon irrigating.

Great argument for going organic. Perhaps befriend a farmer, or grow your own. A diet built on quality brown rice, free range eggs, fish, imported beef, organic fruit and vegetables would be ideal. Easier said than done though.

My daughter's mother says you should always wash veg etc. at least twice before consuming :-( (And she lives 'in the sticks')

My daughter's mother says you should always wash veg etc. at least twice before consuming :-( (And she lives 'in the sticks')

Some of these chemicals are designed to be taken up by the roots and permeate the plant to protect from disease or insects. I think it's called a systemic chemical. There's no washing it off.

Also, if there's runoff into fish and shrimp ponds, it will be ingested.

Low mycotoxin foods are gathering popularity in the US.

http://www.bulletproofexec.com/why-bad-coffee-makes-you-weak/

Mycotoxins grow on carbohydrate substrates.

They are mostly caused by handling and storage issues post harvest.

Any food that sits around in heat and humidity then the organisms can grow by consuming the carbohydrates.

If for example corn is allowed to grow these organisms and then fed to livestock then it compromises their health and food quality.

Its very early in trying to quantify which fungi are good and bad. It could partially explain why so many people are inflamed and prone to gain weight. Also why low grain/carb diets allow people to lose body fat.

Should be interesting as researchers learn more and food producers adapt to consumer preferences.

Conclusion from the OP Med Bull link (PDF)

Food-borne bacteria rightly are a major cause for concern to human health, but it is difficult to escape the conclusion that mycotoxins in foods are responsible for much higher numbers of human deaths than are food-borne bacteria.

That is scary, especially after reading the study, which indicates that food handling and prep methods in SE Asia (among other places) are ideal for the growth of the culprit organisms.

Thai average life expectancy at birth is now approx. 73.6 years. The same figure for Asia as a whole is 72 years.

Seems that the Thais, 66% of whom live in rural areas, are not doing to badly despite the allegedly "poisonous" foodstuffs !