What's in Your Chemical Cocktail?

The majority of people in America begin their morning with a cup of tea or coffee and a dose of DDT, malathion, paraquat, diazinon, and a bit of Round Up (sprayed on the coffee plant). Milk or cream comes with acceptable amounts of bovine growth hormone, a shot of antibiotics, and a few steroid molecules for good measure. One or two teaspoons of sugar filtered through slaughtered bone ash prevents it from caking, and a bowl of genetically modified cornflakes carries up to 50 different pesticides just to bring it to the table on this lovely morning. To top it off a sip of orange juice requires 253 gallons of water and half a gallon of tractor fuel before landing on the breakfast table. Good morning, America, your daily chemical intake has only just begun.

A pesticide is a poisonous chemical sprayed on your food in order to eradicate any insect, creature, bacteria, mold, microbe, weed, bird, fish, mollusk, you get the picture. The problem is, many of those pesticides are deadly for humans as well. Sure, they are designed to kill pests, but they will eventually kill other animals, including the person applying the chemicals to the plants.

Herbicides are right up there with pesticides in the deadly poison category. They are designed to kill other plants, weeds in particular. What some people consider a weed, such as the magnificent dandelion, others honor for their high nutrient content and healing properties. Herbicides target a plants specific hormones in order to destroy them without harming the protected crop. It is interesting to note that herbicides have been found to disrupt the endocrine (hormone) systems of animals with the suspicion that they are endocrine disruptors for humans as well.

Your endocrine glands make chemicals called hormones and pass them straight into the bloodstream. Hormones communicate with the body and bring about changes in your physical growth, metabolism, cellular repair, sexual reproduction, digestion, and internal balance. Environmental chemicals disrupt the intricate network that regulates your body’s reproductive system, your ovaries and testes, as well as your pituitary, thyroid, adrenal, and thymus glands. They are sprayed on your food and served with a nice dose of artificial flavorings and colorings to hide the fact that the food is of inferior quality.

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Sheri P.

6:23PM PDT on Oct 12, 2011

UGH! Well for starters, I'm glad I get my coffee from the farmers' market. They buy free trade beans and roast them in small batches. I trust my farmers not to use beans that have been treated with chemicals. Also, I drink my coffee black. And, I don't eat conventional cereals because they all contain HFCS.

October 12
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Chinmayee J.

6:11AM PDT on Jul 17, 2010

Thank goodness I buy organic when I can - and for all vegetarians out there, organic sugar is not filtered through slaughtered bone ash!

July 17
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6:03AM PDT on Jul 17, 2010

Thanks for the article, this is all pretty disgusting. I had no idea sugar was passed through slaughtered bone ash, and this doesn't go down well with me at all as I'm a vegetarian. I'm so glad I try to buy as organic as I can!!

Gavan A.

5:28AM PDT on Jun 9, 2010

Very interesting, thanks.

June 9
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JosÃ¯Â¿Â½ M.

12:00PM PDT on Jun 6, 2010

Thanks for the article

June 6
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Inez Deborah A.

4:37PM PDT on May 24, 2010

That´s the source of cancer when will these preservatives be cut and organic food become the norm?

May 24
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Past Member .

11:57AM PDT on May 23, 2010

Enlightening. Scary.

May 23
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Michael T.

8:19AM PDT on May 22, 2010

My biggest issues with chemical pesticides is the lack of testing that happens. We didn't know that DDT was terrible for humans until after it was on the market.

One of the reasons it is so tough to test pesticides for health risks is that there isn't a control group. The average adult has over 150 chemicals in their body. Testing is also funded by the pesticide manufacturers. So overall, testing pesticides is a joke but there are still some preventative measures that can be taken before we douse our food in chemicals. Ultimately we need to hold accountable the government agencies that we fund.