Page 32 - Spring2013

which are slowly turning the tide. These include farmers markets, buying searcher will speak at Wise Traditions 2013 on
local, farm shares, home gardens, and a return to natural products such as "Traditional Foodways of Slovenia." She is an
raw milk, pastured eggs and meat. Cooking and eating real food at home active contributor to the journal, Wise Traditions
for our families cannot be emphasized enough in resolving these major and hartkeisonline.com. She holds a BS in Home
issues. Economics, Foods and Nutrition Education, an
Meanwhile, none of us is safe. Society as a whole must pay the price MS in the field of Health Administration and
for the wholesale poison of our land, our air and our food supply. Policy, and a PhD in Public Health Education.
She completed the certified nutrition specialist
Heartfelt thanks for a generous contribution that enabled us to do this credential in December 2012. Sylvia is a member
research. A long time WAPF member, who prefers to remain anonymous, of the American College of Nutrition. While a
was compelled to take action after the most recent school shootings. Her Fulbright Scholar in the Republic of Slovenia in
thoughts immediately went to WAPF, as she believes we must look to our the field of public health, she completed research
food and drugs as a source for that senseless violence. at the National Institute of Public Health, and
later was employed at the Ministry of Health for
Sylvia Onusic, PhD, CNS, LDN, a licensed nutritionist, writer and re-

ARSENIC AND THE BRAIN

As early as 1930, studies published in the Archives of Pediatrics found high levels of arsenic in babies and their mothers’
breast milk. High levels of arsenic were a factor in about 30 percent of diagnosed eczema cases. The authors state that
the chief source of the arsenic was the food industry. Any food product made from the hydrolysis of starch with com-
mercial sulphuric acids contains arsenic, especially the glucose used in the manufacture of cheap candies. The potassium
carbonate used in the preparation of cocoa is another source. Fruits and vegetables are contaminated by insecticides
such as lead arsenate. Arsenic has been found not only on the skin of certain fruits, but even in the fruit itself. 1
Arsenic was a common pesticide in the 1800s and 1900s. Lead arsenate was used first used in the 1890s extensively
in fruit orchards until the late 1950s when the pests became immune. Then the growers switched to DDT. Pesticide
2
residues bind tightly in the surface soil layer, where they remain for decades. Contamination of thousands of acres across
the United States has occurred. Because arsenic and lead are quite stable and do not break down in the environment,
they accumulate with each use in orchard soils.
Common washing practices did not adequately remove arsenic residues. Residues became a tough problem and
apples were put into heated hydrochloric acids baths which removed about 80 percent of lead and 85 percent of arsenic.
Arsenic is extremely toxic: a minimal lethal dose for humans is 50 - 300 milligrams (mg)/kg of body weight.
3
Although phased out as a pesticide, arsenic is still with us. Arsenical pesticides were used heavily with cotton crops in
the South. Recently Consumer Reports reported on the high levels of arsenic in rice grown in the southern United States.
3
“The rice grown in Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Texas, about 76 percent of domestic rice, generally had higher
levels of total arsenic and inorganic arsenic in our tests than rice samples from elsewhere.” But rice grown in California at
Lundberg Family farms is also contaminated, and they are growing organic rice. The New York Time’s story about Lundberg
did not mention the cause of the contamination. Rice flour is used almost exclusively in gluten free foods. Rice cereal is
4
one of the first foods given to an infant. Rice noodles are used in Asian cuisine. Rice syrup is used as a sweetener. Any
product made of rice grown in the Southern States and California has the potential for arsenic contamination. Consum-
ers are turning to rice from Italy and Asia. High levels of arsenic have been reported in drinking water in areas around
Tuscany. 5
Consumer Reports also found that about 10 percent of apple and grape juice, also a popular drink for babies and
children, that they tested, from five brands, had inorganic arsenic, a carcinogen. They concluded that apple and grape
juice “constitute a significant source of dietary exposure to arsenic.” 6

1. Van Dyck, LS, Throne B, and Myers, CN. Arsenic findings in eczema and allied conditions in infants and young children. Arch Pediat. 1930; 47:
218-229.
2. Schooley T et al. The History of Lead Arsenate Use in Apple Production: Comparison of its Impact in Virginia with Other States. Journal of
Pesticide Safety Education, 2008. 10: 22-3.
3. Consumer Reports.org. Arsenic in your food. Our findings show a real need for federal standards for this toxin. November 2012. http://bit.ly/S7suEy
4. Zimmerman, E. A Family Farm’s Crisis: Its Rice Contains Arsenic. New York Times. November 1, 2012. http://nyti.ms/10kTy5E.
5. Minichilli F. State of health of populations residing in geothermal areas of Tuscany (article in Italian). Epidemiol Prev. 2012; Sep-Oct;36(5 Suppl
1):1-104. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23139155.
6. Consumer reports.org. Arsenic in your juice. How much is too much? Federal limits don’t exist. January 2012. http://bit.ly/uFiqaK.
32 Wise Traditions SPRING 2013 SPRING 2013 Wise Traditions