Do you Know What Dioxins Are? You Should!

You’ve heard of a Toxin, what the heck is a Dioxin? Dioxin is a general term that describes a group of hundreds of chemicals that are highly persistent in the environment which share certain chemical structures and biological characteristics. It is the nastiest, most toxic man-made organic chemical; its toxicity is second only to radioactive waste. Dioxins have no uses. They are formed unintentionally and released as byproducts of human activities such as waste incineration, fuels combustion, chlorine bleaching of pulp and paper, or pesticide manufacturing. You can run, but you can’t hide. Dioxins are everywhere! Unfortunately, there are no safe and effective treatments to rid dioxins now in humans. Dioxins metabolize slowly (over years), but reduction of exposure reduces dioxin levels over time.

It is now known that dioxins exhibit serious health effects when it reaches as little as a few parts per trillion in your body fat (another good reason to lower body fat!). Dioxins are carcinogens and highly toxic to the cells of our bodies. Dioxins are well-known for it’s ability to damage the immune system and interfere with hormonal systems. Dioxin exposure has been linked to birth defects, inability to maintain pregnancy, decreased fertility, reduced sperm counts, endometriosis, diabetes, learning disabilities, immune system suppression, lung problems, skin disorders, lowered testosterone levels, chronic fatigue syndrome, and other nerve and blood disorders. Dioxins literally change the functioning of your cells causing the effects to be obvious or very subtle. It can interfere with child development because it changes gene functions as well. There is no “threshold” dose – the tiniest amount can cause damage, and our bodies have no defense against it.

How does Dioxins corrupt our food? In the U.S. alone over the last 20 years or so, household, industrial trash and medical waste have been burned in mass-burn incinerators. This had resulted in having disposable vinyl plastic all around us, causing a dramatic increase in dioxin contamination everywhere. Dioxin is formed during burning and is carried for hundreds of miles on tiny specks of fly-ash from the incinerators. It settles on crops which become eaten by cows, steers, pigs, and chickens. It even contaminates lakes, streams, and the ocean. Like the pesticides such as DDT, dioxin accumulates in the fat cells of the animals, and re-appears in meat and milk. If your family drinks milk, drink only skim milk, since dioxin is carried in the butterfat. Avoid all full-fat dairy products, such as butter, cheese and ice cream. Microwaving with plastic containers increases dioxin danger.

Most of the population has low-level exposure to dioxins because of all the manufactured plastic products, but although dioxin is an environmental contaminant, most dioxin exposure occurs through the diet, with over 95% coming through dietary intake of animal fats. At (119 pg/day), beef ingestion was at 38.0, dairy 24.1, milk 17.6, chicken 12.9, pork 12.2., fish 7.8, egg 4.1 (info from EPA Dioxin Reassessment Summary 4/94 – Vol. 1, p. 37).

Alarmingly at the highest rate beating out beef consumption is breast milk. Dioxins are passed from a woman’s body to the infant through the placenta and in breast milk as it contains more dioxins than any other food (in relation to an infant’s body weight) for women who consume meat and milk. Mothers – NEVER heat up your baby’s formula or milk (especially if its in plastic) in the microwave! Also, if you do have children to be sure to not purchase toys made of or packaged in polyvinyl chloride – PVC – labeled V or #3 plastic. (For example, Beanie Babies are filled with PVC beads, which often produce cancer-causing vinyl chloride fumes and are often contaminated with dioxin.)

The best way to reduce your personal dioxins level (and your risk from dioxins) is to reduce exposure and intake of dioxins by choosing lean meats which are naturally lower in fat, and trimming all visible fat. For fish and poultry you can reduce fat by removing the skin. Chicken has the lowest dioxin content of all meats. Limit your intake of ocean fish; do not eat any freshwater fish. Vegetarian meat substitutes such as tofu, beans, and rice have essentially no contamination. Reducing the amount of butter or lard used in the preparation of foods and cooking methods that reduce fat (such as oven broiling) will also lower the risk of exposure to dioxin. These strategies help lower the intake of saturated fats as well as reduce the risk of exposure to dioxin. Wash all fruits and vegetables carefully to remove chlorophenol pesticide residue. Avoid grapes and raisins unless they are clearly labeled as organic (grown without pesticides). Avoid all products which have cottonseed oil as an ingredient (such as potato chips), since cotton is often sprayed with chlorophenol insecticides.

In addition, avoid all organic chemicals that have “chloro” as part of their names (such as the wood preservative pentachlorophenol, which is probably the most dioxin-contaminated household chemical). Avoid chlorine bleach (sodium hypochlorite) and products containing it. (Use oxygen bleach instead). Use unbleached paper products. Do not use soaps containing tallow (most soaps), as it is made from animal fat. Avoid “deodorant” soaps and deodorants containing “triclosan,” a chlorophenol. Do not use weed killers or insecticides that contain chlorine. Especially avoid the chlorophenol weed killers, such as 2,4-D, found in most fertilizer/weed killers and used by commercial lawn services. Avoid “Permethrin” flea sprays for pets.

Consequently, it is extremely important not to heat food in the microwave using plastic containers, especially food containing fat. Some of you may recall when fast food restaurants steered away from form containers to paper wrap – dioxins was the reason why! In a microwave, the combination of fat, high heat and plastics releases even more dioxins into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body upon consumption. It is recommended never to use a microwave. If you absolutely HAVE TO, use glass, Corning Ware, or ceramic containers for heating food. TV dinners, instant soups, etc. should be all be removed from the container and heated in something else. Never use plastic as it primarily contains polyvinyl chloride (PVC). When these chemicals and plastics are manufactured or burned, dioxin is produced as an unwanted (but inevitable) by-product. So much for all that advertising for those handy little microwavable plastic containers ‘from the freezer to the microwave, to your dinner table (aka quickly to the demise of your health)’. Even avoid using Saran Wrap and similar “cling-type” plastic wraps (unless they are clearly identified as non-chlorinated plastic). Instead, cover with a paper towel to avoid splattering. If you do use bottled water, avoid purchasing the one-gallon cloudy plastic (PVC) containers from your grocery store as they transfer far too many chemicals into the water. The five-gallon containers and the ones in the clear bottles (polyethylene) are a much better plastic and will not give the water that awful plastic taste.

Even female hygiene products suchs as tampons contain two things that are potentially harmful: Rayon (for absorbency), and dioxin (a chemical used in bleaching).

SUMMARY:

* DO NOT MICROWAVE to heat or cook meat in or on plastic containers. DO NOT USE MICROWAVE FOR ANY COOKING WHATSOEVER.
* Choose organic, or natural lean meat if you are to consume meat products.
* If you can find a bubble to live in, be sure that it isn’t made out of plastic

Please note that this information does not intend to diagnose or prescribe medical advice. QFAC.com. does not directly nor indirectly dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of diet, fasting, homeopathy, hydrotherapy, nutritional supplementations, or anything else as a form of treatment for sickness without medical approval. If you are pregnant or nursing, under the age of 18, have a medical condition or are taking a prescription drug, consult your physician. In the event that you use any of the information presented within this article which is presented as research and opinion only – that you prescribe for yourself, remains your constitutional right. QFAC.com assumes no responsibility.