Dr. Ken Gee's Manual For the Human Body
From Our Advertisers
Unless you have been living in a closet, you have no doubt heard and seen a lot about foods that claim to be organic and people who have switched to organic eating to better their health.
There are several reasons to eat organic, which I will try to cover. But the main two topics will be about what we eat daily - meat and vegetables.
Meat is our main source of protein to sustain muscle mass and promote healthy nerve function. Just about all supermarket meat is fed synthetic hormones to make the animals grow and boost profit margins. So just think, the cow is on steroids and you are eating steroid-injected meat. As many of you know, some of the side effects of steroids in humans can include hair loss, impotence, erratic behavior and even death. Why is it illegal to give the human body steroids, but not the food we ingest?
Farmers give their livestock antibiotics because of illnesses that arise from their horrific living conditions. So next time you are eating a fast food chicken sandwich, just remember it is pumped full of antibiotics. I could go into detail about what happens with commercially raised chickens, but it would make you sick to your stomach.
So the smart choice is to eat organic meat, which means that the animals were fed organically and contain no synthetic hormones or antibiotics. "Natural" is another option you may run across. Natural is the second best thing to organic. Natural means the animal was not pumped full of hormones and antibiotics, but the feed source cannot be guaranteed organic, so the animals may be eating grains or grass treated with herbicides.
You may think that just because you are eating fruit and vegetables, you are getting all of your nutrients. To tell you the truth, the way produce is handled and raised these days, the vitamin content and health benefits are lower than ever. The produce crops that make up the majority of our supermarket food are raised on soil that is used and abused several times a year, depleting the natural mineral content.
Produce should be purchased as fresh as possible, frozen second and don't even bother buying canned. Canned foods are meant to last in the cupboard for years. Imagine what that food does inside of us. The closer the produce is grown to us the fresher. If you are getting apples from South America, they can't be that fresh and they may be using pesticides that are banned in the U.S.
The produce may also be genetically modified to produce a certain result. For example: Isn't it amazing how they can get every apple to look exactly the same and perfectly round. Real apples have defects. They are misshapen, discolored and look natural. That's how you can usually tell it's organic. Commercial farmers have figured out a way to clone fruit, and who knows what kind of diseases and harmful toxins they could be introducing through that process.
Farmers markets are the best place to start buying organic. Everything is much fresher and it lasts twice as long in your fridge compared to store-bought products. My vegetables usually last up to 10 days from farmers markets, and four to five when store bought.
Here are some websites you may find helpful:
- To find local farmers markets visit
ams.suda.gov/farmersmarkets/map.htm.
- For information on the organic community visit
- To find food resources and help protect the environment visit organicconsumers.org.
- For local family farms and farmers markets visit
Dr. Ken Gee Ehrlich is a chiropractor at The Good Chiropractor. For information or to schedule and appointment call (310) 479-1166 or visit TheGoodChiropractor.com.
page 18, 9/24/2007
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.