I was fortunate enough to share coffee this morning with my dearest friend before I ran off to take the GRE exam. As we caught up on several of the many items of news we hadn’t shared in such a long time, the topic of gardening came up. I ended up telling her about an accidental science experiment that happened in our house about a month ago.

My son wanted bananas on his oatmeal one morning. So I opened the top of the peel of the organic banana, sliced and diced about 1/3 of it into his cereal. I was in a rush so I left the banana on the counter expecting to eat it myself later in my own bowl of cereal. However, that wasn’t to be. I got sidetracked and didn’t get back to the kitchen much that day. My husband then came home and found the banana on the counter. He proceeded to place it in a plastic container without a cover.

Food doesn't rot like it used to

When I was growing up and even up until probably a year ago . . . that banana should’ve turned all shades of brown within several hours and the skin should’ve been turning black within about 24 hours. However, that is not what happened. The next morning that banana still looked the same — other than just the very edges of the skin that were separated from the inside fruit had a slight shade of tan on them. Hmmmm…

Knowing that I was seriously thinking about having a garden this Spring, I decided to put that banana and any other leftovers and vegetable or fruit pieces into a container to start a compost pile in my yard. So for the next several days I added things like strawberries that had been in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks that were starting to shrivel, edges from celery, and even an onion that the core had started to turn colors on. The plastic container was completely full and then sat on the kitchen counter (not in a refrigerated area or cold area) for at least a week.

I decided it was time to carry that plastic container out to the yard to put on my new compost pile. In the past I’ve done this and within a  week or less, what was in a plastic container would be turning rancid and starting to ferment with a strong enough odor to just about make your eyes water. I was anticipating exactly this when I grabbed my spatula from the drawer and headed out the door.

Mind you, I had noticed that the food in this plastic container for a week really didn’t look terribly deteriorated. However, I was still expecting a very strong smell of decay when I opened the cover. Boy was I surprised at what I did find. First, there wasn’t hardly any smell at all. Second, that banana that had been in that container for a week STILL WASN’T BROWN. Third, NONE of the food in that container reeked of deterioration, nor was anything beginning to ferment in any way.

WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE?

Well, I knew what was going on. That food had to have been irradiated. If you don’t know what that means, it’s when companies use by-products from nuclear energy to put radiation (thus irradiate) on food so that it kills the naturally occurring enzymes in it. What this does is slow down or completely eliminate the natural rotting process. That’s great for everyone in that it means that your vegetables and fruits aren’t going to rot in your refrigerator in a week or less from when you buy them. It also means that your grocer can now offer you foods that used to be unavailable because they were out-of-season and travel times from Chile or Mexico or Guatemala to his store were too long.

WHY IS THIS TERRIBLE FOR YOU?

We really need our enzymes back! Not only is it always bad to be exposed to yet more radiation in our lives, BUT we really need those enzymes in our fresh and raw foods that we purchase so that our bodies can adequately digest them and absorb the important nutrients that are in them. Without the enzymes, our bodies must find enzyme replacements from somewhere else inside to use to breakdown those foods we eat to digest them. Your food isn’t digested by hydrochloric acid alone.

If your body needs enzymes to digest, the first place it typically looks is to the pancreas. By doing this it puts more strain on that critical organ and drains it faster of the necessary capability to create adequate amounts of insulin for our bodies. So let’s look at what that might logically mean to us.

• Pancreas works too hard >>>
• uses up its ability to create insulin adequately over an extended period of time >>>
• results in an inadequate amount of insulin when needed >>>
• RESULT = DIABETES!

Walla! Our food providers have now indirectly caused us to contract a degenerative disease that can be deadly to us.

WHAT IN THE WORLD CAN WE DO TO PREVENT THIS?

1. Grow your own food in your own garden.
2. Buy food from your local farmer’s market.
3. Get involved with a local co-op.
4. Increase mastication which increases enzyme production. [This means chew your food at least 40 times like you were told as a child because chewing until your food is liquid causes your salivary glands to produce digestive enzymes.]
5. Buy and take digestive enzymes with all of your meals.

If you can’t grow your own food because you don’t know how, I recommend you check out the five minute gardening blog of a neighbor of mine as well as other “how-to” gardening information that is available here on the Internet.

If you don’t think you have space to grow a garden or you aren’t interested in growing your own food, then find a local farmer or co-op that has food which comes straight from the grower and doesn’t go through the normal retail grocery process. Remember to buy organic as often as possible so that you get more nutritional value from your food, but understand that organic does not have anything to do with if the enzymes in the food have been killed.

If you aren’t able to raise your own food or get it from someone local, then your last option is to purchase digestive enzymes to take with your meals. I recommend the digestive enzymes from SimpleXity Health which I’ve used for over 15 years now. You won’t find better ones in a store. Just contact me if you have any questions.

You can find more information and resources on my website at www.karendredske.com.