50% Of Fruits And Vegetables Have Hormonal Pesticides

If you still do not consume organic products, you are playing Russian roulette with half the drum full of bullets. In Spain, one out of every two fresh vegetables contains at least one pesticide and many pieces of fruit or vegetables have a cocktail of 3 to 7 pesticides. And many of these pesticides are endocrine disruptors with the ability to alter your body in many ways.

They are the latest and alarming official data available, corresponding to the year 2015, but the reality is worse, according to the Ecologistas en Acción organization in its report “Directly to your hormones: guide to disruptive foods.”

The foods sold in Spain are loaded with pesticides, many of them with hormonal effect

In the analyzes carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture, half of the samples are contaminated, but the tests did not look for all the pesticides that are being used (for example, glyphosate, a very common and controversial one) and they were only considered as contaminated samples when the pesticide was above a certain minimum dose.

Therefore, according to official analyzes, 98% of the samples comply with the regulations, since the concentrations of each of the different pesticides are below the legal maximum limits.

However, current law does not take into account that there is no safe dose for endocrine disruptors . The smallest amount already produces an undesirable action.

Nor do they appreciate that pregnant women, infants, children and adolescents are especially vulnerable to its effects.

38 pesticides behave like hormones in the body

The Ecologistas en Acción report has focused especially on pesticides that are endocrine disruptors.

Of the 761 pesticides analyzed by the Spanish Agency for Consumption, Food Safety and Nutrition (Aecosán), at least 38 possess still legal substances with the capacity to alter the hormonal system.

To these must be added pesticides whose use is prohibited but which are still found in food, such as DDT or endosulfan.

In fruits and vegetables

The most contaminated foods are, unfortunately, those that we should consume in greater quantity and of which we expect a more positive effect on health.

118 different pesticides have been found in fruits and vegetables , 38 of them with hormonal effects.

Tomatoes and peppers are the most contaminated foods, with 37 different pesticides, 16 hormonal ones. They are closely followed by pears with 35 pesticides.

One of the most frequently found pesticides was chlorpyrifos. It was found in 117 samples of 20 different foods, and in samples of honey, carrots, potatoes and pineapple it was at levels above those allowed.

This insecticide affects the human hormonal system, is associated with serious damage to the infant brain, and can alter DNA.

Among the 1,273 samples analyzed, 28 were from organic products and only in one of them was a pesticide discovered, specifically, a Murcian melon, probably due to accidental contamination from a neighboring field.

The analyzes therefore confirm that consuming organic fruits and vegetables is the only way to get rid of pesticides.

In products of animal origin

Pesticides and other toxic compounds tend to accumulate in the fatty tissues of animals. And when these become food for people, they accumulate in our fats, if we follow an omnivorous diet.

In the analyzes carried out by AECOSAN, even banned pesticides such as endosulfan and DDT were found in fillets and dairy products such as butter and whole milk .

Eggs are not spared: one sample, for example, contained chlorpyrifos, the neurotoxic and hormonal insecticide most commonly found in food.

In cereals

Residues of three hormonal pesticides have been found in white rice samples from Spain and Pakistan. Another pesticide, deltamethrin, was found in German oat flakes and Argentine corn.

Three pesticides have been found in wheat: cypermethrin, deltamethrin, and chlorpyrifos-methyl.

Baby foods are saved

The law requires that baby formula – baby food, baby food, etc. – be completely free of pesticides and the analyzes carried out prove that the manufacturers comply.

On other products

All food products without organic certification may contain pesticides, but a higher degree of contamination is more likely in products imported from less demanding countries than the European Union.

In the Aecosán analyzes, a sample of Chinese tea that contained 13 different pesticides, 4 of them hormonal disruptors, stands out in this regard .

What do hormonal pesticides do to your body?

Since the beginning of the 20th century, it has been known that some chemical substances act in the human body and in many animals as if they were hormones.

They are called endocrine disruptors because they alter the delicate balance that must reign in the production of hormones, on which many physiological processes and, therefore, health depend.

The effects can be more or less immediate. If the alteration occurs during fetal development, it can lead to malformations and irreversible diseases.

One of the most common disorders is cryptorchidism (non-descent of the testicles) in boys, which may require surgical intervention.

Some disruptors produce epigenetic changes, that is, modifications in the expression of genes that can be passed on to offspring, leading to adverse effects on children and grandchildren.

A threat to the fertility of couples

Disruptors are primarily a threat to the fertility of couples. They decrease the quality of semen and promote male infertility, as well as polycystic ovaries, endometriosis, uterine fibroids and abortions.

They are also related to hormone-dependent tumors of the breast, ovaries, prostate, testis and thyroid.

Some of the typical diseases of the current times are favored by endocrine disruptors, which are rarely singled out as culprits.

We refer to diseases such as metabolic syndrome, obesity, and diabetes. Or neurological and behavioral disorders such as poor concentration, memory loss, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and multiple sclerosis.

There is no safe dose

Studies such as those of Dr. Miquel Porta, a scientist at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, attached to the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), show that the average population already has a cocktail of endocrine disruptors in their body in sufficient quantities to produce estrogenic effects.

For this reason, both environmental organizations and scientists who study endocrine disruptors assure that there is no safe minimum dose that can be accepted as a residue in food and demand its prohibition.

However, the laws still talk about safe dosages. Although a 2009 regulation prohibited the commercialization of endocrine disruptors, the order was never carried out because scientific and legal criteria were not established to classify a substance as an endocrine disruptor.

A judgment of the Superior Court of Justice of the European Union forced the Commission to present this regulation and finally, last April, a new Regulation (2018/605) was approved that distorted the one of 2009, based on the precautionary principle , and established such demanding criteria for classification as an endocrine disruptor that very few will be banned in the next few years.

Economy or health?

In the opinion of Ecologists in Action, the European Union and specifically the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which establishes the maximum limits allowed, are being pressured by the enormous interests behind agricultural and food production.

The journalist Stéphane Horel has denounced in her report “A Toxic Affair” and in her book Intoxication (Ed. La Decouverte) how in Europe public health has less consideration than economic benefits, but this is something that can change when awareness of the problem grows in the population. This is the objective of the report “Straight to your hormones” of Ecologists in Action.

What can you do

The foods we choose are the main route of entry for endocrine disruptors into our body. The experts at Ecologistas en Acción offer the following tips to reduce risks:

• Eat fruits and vegetables daily. Health authorities recommend a minimum of 5 a day.
• Choose pesticide-free, seasonal, and local foods. Consume certified organic foods, produced without synthetic pesticides, whenever possible.
• Select foods with less pesticides. If you buy food without endorsement, make sure it is among the least contaminated. Some of the least contaminated are avocados, onions, corn, prunes and raisins, pineapple, papaya, asparagus, cabbage …
• Wash and peel the fruit and vegetables. If they are not organic, it is the most effective way to reduce the intake of pesticides, but it also decreases the intake of nutrients. When you want to use the skin it is better to resort to organic products.
• Take care of baby food. Avoid products without a specific warranty. If you want to prepare the dishes yourself, use organic products. If they are not organic, processed baby foods are safe.