In recent months, we’ve been reading a lot about the melamine-laced milk products in China and this has caused quite a scare here with people avoiding all China products just to be on the safe side.
Now, looks like even their eggs are contaminated. Luckily most of our eggs and poultry are bred locally BUT don’t forget, they use these contaminated eggs to make cookies, cakes, snacks, etc. So, these products could be contaminated too.
So, we all just stay away from China products. Safe, right? Not really. Because locally, we do not even know how safe our local productions are. We do not have any really strict standards and quality checks here. Remember those contaminated local biscuits that have already being withdrawn from the market?
The moral of the story here is…don’t eat processed food! Simple as that. Go for natural foods like vegetables and fruits and nuts. No, wait. These could be contaminated too. It may contain pesticides and chemicals to keep away pests and keep it fresher.
Also, when you next go tar pau some food from a hawker stall or any food outlet and the food comes in a polystyrene container (commonly called Styrofoam but Styrofoam is a trademarked material WHICH DOES NOT include food container so it has been wrongly used to name those white foam containers).
Polystyrene containers are equally poisonous and is also bad for the environment
Do stop and think. You are putting yourself at risk from poisoning yourself. Slowly. Bit by tiny bit. Why? Read on…
There is concern about the trace presence of polystyrene’s production chemicals in the final plastic product, most of which are toxic if not removed. For instance benzene, which is used to produce ethylbenzene for styrene, is a known carcinogen. As well, unpolymerized styrene may pose health risks.
- Wikipedia
See? We are packing HOT food in a container that is made of toxic material ALL THE TIME. And these toxic chemicals probably leech onto the food due to the heat and then we eat it.
Sure, we don’t die immediately from it. We won’t even notice a thing. But a few years of ingesting this known carcinogen in our foods, we may develop cancer and then we wonder why.
Why else do you think there are so many people dying of cancer in this age and time? This is what happens when you ingest too much styrene after storing hot, oily food in polystyrene containers:
Studies suggest that styrene mimics estrogen in the body and can therefore disrupt normal hormone functions, possibly contributing to thyroid problems, menstrual irregularities, and other hormone-related problems, as well as breast cancer and prostate cancer. The estrogenicity of styrene is thought to be comparable to that of Bisphenol A, another potent estrogen mimic from the world of plastics.
Talk about turning into plastic and I don’t even mean plastic surgery! You want to know more about polystyrene containers, check out this site: Grinning Planet.
It is the same when the food is packed into plastic bags and plastic containers. The heat would have caused some of the chemicals to transfer into the food and then, we eat it.
But I don’t see people avoiding packing food in plastic bags, plastic containers and polystyrene containers the way they avoid China products.
Why?
Maybe we just preferred to die slowly and while we are at it, kill the planet with these environmental hazards.
FYI: plastic and polystyrene are not biodegradable which means it will be here FOREVER to pollute the earth and if burnt, emits noxious, poisonous gases which will further damage the ozone layer.
The folly of men is to burn and destroy the Earth without caring and one day, Armageddon shall be upon us thanks to men’s folly, and not due to the act of any divine being.
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The implosion of ourselves
It may happen than we think
The air we breathe; the water we drink
The food we take; the chemicals we consume
In the mantras of living healthy
Food productions
Genetic alterations
Scientists say it saves lives
In other poorer countries
Who are we to argue?
When saving lives
A grace of living
Drink productions
Chemicals induced make it better
Gulping plenty thinking it is good for health
Else playing with fire daring to take chances
The implosion of ourselves
The daily routines and population grows
Sustaining growth taxing the Earth
What else is new before we go?
The Maya legend says
The Earth will end on 2012
Maybe it is the shifting planet
The old astrologer thinks the end?
The rate we are going
All because of greed of wealth
In the end what will we become?
I say we make our own misery
Companies like McDonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut have now gone back to using paper bags and boxes. McDonalds have not used those polystryene products for years.
However, we are still using thousands of them a month around the office drinking water fountains and the kopi machine. We have some success in getting people to use kopi mugs and not to use the polystryene cups but no such luck around the cold water fountain.
The other BIG polluter is plasticbags. Apparently all the plastic bags that gets washed into the ocean eventually gets washed to a particular part of the pacific ocean and Green Peace reported that this huge big “rubbish” dump is a few hundred kilometers in area and killing off lots of marine life.
The people in Australia are good, they are now starting to bring their own shopping bags and baskets to the supermarket to help reduce the use of plastic bags.
Some supermarkets do not give out plastic bags but sell re-usable shopping bags very cheap ($1), others charge 10 cents a plastic bag to discourage the practise. But unfortunately the two big chains have not yet adopt this practise.
But things are looking up, the Oz government is spending big money to educate the public. Enviromental friendlyness does not come cheap. It is estimated that the carbon trading scheme will cost every Australia household $7 a week.
At my work, the concept of designing “green” buildings is starting to work. Many big companies want to project the image that they are enviromentally friendly and want to occupy buildings that are deemed “green”. They are in huge demand and attract a much better rental return.
Because of the increased demand we are getting lots of work now to refurbish old buildings to make them more enviromentally friendly.
My observations is this trend has not yet catch up in Malaysia. I see buildings that are enviromental disasters. They are poorly lit and requires the all lights to be turned on even during the day. The air conditioning is badly done and requires it to be running at peak demand all day.
I agree that we are killing ourselves and we may not even know it. Everything is so commercialized. We can get anything and everything fast. cook fast, eat fast, grow fast. But that’s the reality we live in. Thus, live in moderation, and eat in moderation and pray that everything will be ok.
My Simple Foods last blog post..Kurau Fish
Yes, I agree eat more natural food, not precessed food. I don’t trust made in China products nowadays, but I also don’t really trust locally made products. There’s so much boric acid in noodles nowadays. Not even safe to eat noodles outside. And most chicken meat are pumped with so much growth hormones and antibiotics it’s scary! No wonder the cancer rate is going up!
foongpcs last blog post..My Very First Laptop
caravanserai: sigh…you are right…we are creating our own misery
engineer: It is only recently that other nations have realised that they need to recycle and be more environmental friendly but even if Malaysia knows it, the people are way too set in their ways to change yet. The mindset is always “let the government do the cleaning up” when they should be the ones who are responsible for their own actions. If the people themselves do not start sorting out their rubbish and stop using polystyrene, what can we expect from the leaders who are also like this?
My simple food: I guess that’s all we could do…
foongpc: ya lor. that’s why nowadays, I try to buy organic as much as possible but I still can’t afford to buy organic chicken and fish or else I’d buy those too. one whole organic chicken could cost up to RM20! However, the vegetables are about the same price as normal vegetables now so might as well buy organic.