In reaction to elevated concerns about environmental pollution, the EPA was established on December 2, 1970. In the following 45 years government and industry worked hand in hand to produce much safer foods. As a result, the reasons for consumers to be concerned about insecticides and herbicides in the food supply have dropped precipitously.
Unfortunately, consumers have not generally recognized the significant advancements in food safety and many are more concerned today than ever before. The reasons they are more concerned is that incidences of chronic disease keep climbing year after year. Healthcare costs keep soaring and now consume 18% of the nation’s GNP. As consumers seek a cause, rather than blame the inherent chemistry of the foods they eat, they focus more intently on contaminates from agricultural chemicals (both organic and conventional) heading their list.
For several decades now nutritional scientists have been flagging traditional American foods as the reason behind rising rates of chronic diseases. Nutritionally deficient foods high in Omega-6 fatty acids and sugar top the list as the most damaging. For instance, Oatmeal is about 2.2% omega-6 fatty acids, 23% carbohydrate with a high glycemic load, and it contains only about 70% of the nutrients required to support optimal health. Many traditional foods are worse!
The following is an example of relative contamination between an allowed pesticide and Omega-6 fatty acids in oatmeal. In oatmeal the maximum EPA accepted safe levels for Fluroxypyr 1 - methylheptyl esterare is 50 parts per billion. Compare that with the Omega-6 load in oatmeal which is 2.2%. That 2.2% is 22,000,000 parts per billion. Therefore the inflammatory Omega-6 fatty acids in oatmeal are 440,000 times higher in dosage than what the EPA would allow as the maximum for Fluroxypyr 1 - methylheptyl esterare.
For the extensive EPA list of various raw food stuffs and allowed levels of pesticide contamination click HERE. You will note that the example provided above is very representative of the stringency of the EPA standards.
Nothing is totally contaminate free. Although Slanker grass-fed, Omega-3, and wild-caught meats are as close to they can be in that regard. The reason that no one can claim their meats are totally contaminant free is that food is raised in the open environment of winds and rain, etc. Meats are not raised in a bubble. A car driving by the ranch puts out pollutants. Our ranch is 125 miles downwind from Dallas, Texas. Plants and animals breathe in the air. They drink from ponds and puddles. They eat grasses where the rain has come down from the sky. But the contaminate levels in their tissues are so minuscule they don’t amount to dangerous levels that can negatively impact human health.
If one is concerned about their immune system and health generally, they must recognize that the inherent chemistry of the foods they eat can be far more dangerous than any EPA allowed pesticides that are on any of the commercial foods in the grocery stores. This is the purpose of The Real Diet of Man. This book outlines the best foods for strengthening the immune system and improving one’s health. The book also lists many traditional food favorites that are far more destructive to one’s health than any contaminants that may be on any of the foods themselves. That may be hard to believe, but this short blurb and its link to an NPR article underscore this point.
Foods such as whole grains, grain-based foods, many fruits, nuts, vegetable oils, processed foods and such are far and away more destructive to human health and the immune system than the most highly contaminated foods available in the grocery stores. In that respect Slanker offerings are amongst the healthiest foods one can consume.
Ted Slanker
July 7, 2015