Irradiation is not safe.
Irradiated food has been nuked with evil ionising radiation! The sky will apparently fall if we import some juicy tomatoes from tropical Queensland.
But there's some sense from the font of knowledge that is Wikipedia.
Food undergoing irradiation does not become any more radioactive than luggage passing through an airport X-ray scanner or teeth that have been X-rayed.
Some of the more fervid no doubt might posit there's a conspiracy afoot in the report Wikipedia references.
I'd suggest that the Chicken Little in residence over at FrogBlog needs to dispense tinfoil hats post haste. After all, the ionising radiation pouring from cosmic rays, x-rays, cellphones and the like must also be stopped. Whilst on the subject, I do wonder how much cumulative radiation has amassed in the green MP 'Ronald' Hughes from rushing around the country's airport scanners.
Posts
7 comments:
"Food undergoing irradiation does not become any more radioactive than luggage passing through an airport X-ray scanner or teeth that have been X-rayed."
Funny. I don't eat my luggage.
Do you?
X-rays from the dentist - have you noticed they don't stay in the room when the x-ray's are taken? Ever wondered why..?
RobertG
You are confusing the effects of irradiation and what the material is like after it has been irradiated. I am sure you do know the difference, and are only stirring, but for anyone else reading this I will try and explain.
Radiation can hurt you, if it is you who are being irradiated. Dentists do not stay in the room because they take quite a lot of X-rays and do not want to recieve large cumulative doses of radiation from them.
the object being irradiated does not generally become radioactive. You have noticed, haven't you, that the dentist is quite happy to work on your teeth even though you have just had an X-ray?
In exactly the same way irradiated food is NOT radioactive and is harmless, as many studies have shown. Any insects that were in the food during the irradiation treatment will probably have been killed but once the irradiation is finished there is nothing to worry about. Indeed, unless it was labelled, I don't believe it would be possible for you to tell that any irradiation had in fact been done.
I don't for a moment think that irradiated food becomes radioactive.
It does however, become somewhat de-natured.
I prefer my food 'natured', thanks!
For example, I like to eat seeds that are viable, rather than those which are neutered. Irradiation renders seeds unable to sprout. That's not natural, something has been lost. I don't think denatured foods are as valuable, nutrition-wise, to the consumer, as those that have all of their enzymes etc, intact.
Do you agree?
You'll have to do better than twisting the meaning of 'denatured' and skewing the thread RG.
"Food is deliberately denatured when a substance, known as a denaturant, is added to render the food unpleasant to consume or poisonous"
Irradiation does not add a denaturant.
But eating all that bug infested food might explain the unreasoning perverse machinations of greenie thought processes.
Ah, PM, but I didn't use the word, "denatured", I wrote de-natured. There's a subtle difference.
I'm of the belief that fresh fruit and vegetables have a vigour that is beneficial for the person who eats it and that is lost, to a degree, by irradiating it. It's not 'greenie thinking', more gardener's commonsense, at least, that's how it seems to me.
Umm - RG is this not your comment? "I don't think denatured foods are as valuable, nutrition-wise, to the consumer, as those that have all of their enzymes etc, intact."
bold mine
True. I also wrote,
"It does however, become somewhat de-natured."
I chose this version.
Going over my comments with a fine-toothed comb, eh PM!
You must be bored.
Post a Comment