The latest issue of Organic Bytes came with the usual doom and gloom headlines – Scary Chocolate, Climate Chaos, Bird Flu & more….
But amidst it all there were some highlights, signs of that utopian healthier world in the making I’m hoping to bequeath to my great great (great?) grandchildren.
India has halted all field trials, after reaching the unsurprising conclusion that many of the independent experts pushing GM expansion had conflicts of interests, and could not be seen as independent.
New York has voted to ban trans fatty acids from all of its 24 000 restaurants. New York has been a progressive trendsetter before, being the first US city to ban lead paint (1960), and smoking in restaurants (2 years ago), so others are bound to follow their lead here too. Trans fatty acids, present in many processed foods, have no nutritional benefits at all, and are pretty harmful when consumed in large quantities. They’re implicated in heart disease, and are suspected to be involved in other ailments as well. It was Denmark that led the way with a ban in 2003, and now New York, and hopefully soon many others, will be following.
A US senator has called for aspartame to be banned. Now a call to action is a long way from an actual ban, but it’s a start at getting people aware of the toxic effects of this chemical. Unfortunately it’s extremely common in South Africa too. I have a tub of yoghurt loaded with aspartame sitting in my fridge, and those wonderfully healthy waters are frequently flavoured with the chemical too. And it’s found in those sugar-free sweeteners in most coffee shops. Some have found a good use for these though – as an ant poison.
It’s implicated in a litany of health issues, but as always there’s lots of money at stake, and all sorts of funded studies casting doubt.
Finally, something a little more local. A Port Elizabeth principal has banned junk food from his school. I’ve heard lots of reports of this happening elsewhere in the world, but this is a first time I’ve heard of a local example. Hopefully the school my son goes to will be as lucky (although I may do a bit of prodding come the time!)
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