I’ve long heard that organic vs. inorganic foods don’t really matter due to the non-toxic doses of pesticides…similar to “the dose makes the poison” saying. I then recently read something that was talking about bioaccumulation and how that makes foods like fish with mercury in it and pesticide treated foods, harmful in the long-term. My curiosity is, is this true? Does bioaccumulation actually happen with pesticides and other “harmful” substances. So like overtime, does the total pesticide build up?
Yes it does. And regarding those “non toxic” doses of pesticides, yes Paracelsus applies, but it turns out that the standards were based on inadequate research which did not look to long term problems. You hear misleading statements about acute toxicity when the problems actually result from chronic toxicity. The testing intentionally doesn’t look at chronic toxicity as its way more expensive (with every involved resource) than your standard clinical trial path to market (which are enormously expensive as is).
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4334623/
We don’t really know and might not ever. It’s pretty scary though. They are finding more and more mercury and other heavy metals in wild caught fish. Most honey has trace amounts of glyposate which is picked up by the bees when they gather pollen. They are finding micro plastics in sea salt, because our oceans have become so contaminated.
I would say things like metals are not metabolised and therefore could deposit and accumulate in your body over time. As opposed to a chemical that can react with one of the detoxifying P450 etc enzyme complexes in your liver - what someone above referred to as “filtering”. The products of those reactions will eventually result in molecules that are either expelled (urine/poop) or recycled into other building blocks that your body may actually use.
Now, if you have a chemical that is used as a pesticide that doesn’t get metabolised by your body, but accumulates and harms you - you may be screwed. But this is why drug companies have to demonstrate ADME for their drugs: Absorption, Distribution, Metabolisation, Excretion.
Source: vague memories from my PhD in Immunology
Yes, bio-acvummalation is real and can be a major issue depending on what you eat, what qty you eat, and your overall health. There are some great first hand stories on the internet of people who moved to more environmentally food sound countries and the major health improvements they saw. ESP with stomach and intestinal issues and food allergies or sensitivities. That’s speaks volumes to me beyond Monsanto or the fda having a paid study done.
Depends on the pesticides mechanism of action, but I’ve not heard of any. I don’t think the risk cup would work if we stored pesticide. They just get filtered through the body and expelled. Accumulation with microplastics is an issue and heavy metals but not pesticides. Plus, sufferers of pesticide exposure long term show symptoms, they don’t get autopsied for the amount of pesticides in the body, but for the amount damage associated with a pesticides mechanism of action in the human body.
Youtube has a great “after skool” about this. The way that i understood it was that pesticides are actually antibiotics. The antibiotics kill the food for a particular system within the plant and that system is what produces our essential amino acids. That is how pesticides are causing rises in autism for children age 6 and up; Parkinsons is coming for most men and we have Dementia for the women… Monsanto are monsters. Mercury gets into fish because of gold miners (so I’ve heard)
While on this topic, does anyone know if washing non-organic foods (with an actual veggie wash) does anything to help mitigate pesticides? Might be a dumb question but like.. can you wash them off? Genuinely curious.