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What are pesticides, nitrates and nitrites and why are they harmful?!

 

It is not easy to grow a good crop:pests attack,  vegetables suffer from drought and heat, and it is a great problem to store fruits. Today producers widely use pesticides for their purposes, as well as generously "feed up" soil with nitrate fertilizers. Whether these substances are dangerous to humans, and how to determine their existence in fruits and vegetables?

What are pesticides?
Pesticides are known as chemicals poisonous to pests as well as to weeds and being protection against various diseases of crop plants. They are divided into a group of insecticides to protect from pests, fungicides - to protect against fungal infections of crops and herbicides - to control weeds.  They are divided into several groups:  insecticides protecting from harmful insects, fungicides for protection against fungoid defeats of cultural plants, and herbicides  for fight against weeds.

Vegetable substances as nicotine were the first pesticides, but today chemical compounds of various groups are being applied. The best-known pesticides today are DDT, organophosphates, pyrethroids and carbamates.

They can get into a human body at the use of fruits straight from the garden, and through the use of plants that have accumulated pesticides currently in the process of growth if taken excessively. Such products can break the body's natural defenses against cancer by causing cell mutations and tumors.

In addition, pesticides can cause poisoning with nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, damage to nervous system and liver. Accumulation them in an organism slowly but surely undermines health, reducing life expectancy and causing endocrine disease, low immunity, heart and lung problems.

What are nitrates and nitrites? 

In order to increase productivity, to feed the crop and to stimulate growth and fertility in agriculture chemical fertilizers delivering potash salts to plants are often used.

Cheap and effective mean for their delivery is nitric acid - nitrate in combination with potassium, calcium or ammonium. However, when using them regulary and in large volume, these substances are collected in certain parts of plants.

Nitrates themselves are just non-toxic and non-dangerous salts, but in the body or in plants throught metabolic processes they obtain nitroso compounds, oxidized nitrate salts. They have properties of free radicals, damage cages and DNA, possess mutagen (cause mutations of cages) and cancerogenic (cause tumoral growth) effects.

Moreover, nitrates of vegetables, fruits or cereals in heat or humidity, in the digestive process of the human intestine by the microflora of the colon are converted into nitrite compounds. These substances in large quantities are dangerous for human health.

Nitrites are widely used in the food industry for the production of sausages and canned meat, for adults they are not dangerous, but can pose a real threat for children. Therefore, children should not consume foods rich in preservatives, sausage and meat semifinished products. Being a nursing mother you should not abuse nitrates and nitrites because they pass into breast milk.

Danger of nitrates and nitrites

Nitrites, being perfectly absorbed from the intestine into the blood, form a special connection with the blood hemoglobin - methgemoglobin, a very strong chemical composition unable to carry oxygen.

If concentration of a methemoglobin increases to 10-15%, the first symptoms of poisoning: weakness, drowsiness and slackness can be shown. Some hours later symptoms of toxicosis and sharp poisoning are shown: nausea, vomiting and diarrhea; liver increases and becomes painful.

When poisoning progreses pressure sharply decreases, pulse becomes weak and rough, hands and feet grow cold, breath becomes frequent. It may cause a headache, ringing in the ears, severe weakness, jerking of face muscles, impaired coordination, loss of consciousness or even coma.

What products are the most polluted by pesticides?

There is a rating which is called "dirty ten". The products which are most polluted by pesticides enter into it: peaches, apples, sweet pepper, celery, nectarines, strawberry, cherries, grapes, spinach, lettuce, potatoes. In general, you should be careful when choosing greens, berries, stone fruit and root crops.

How to distinguish "nitrate" vegetables?

Theorist and practitioner of biodynamic farming Alex Podolinksy in the book "Biodynamics - the way to efficient agriculture", notes that nitrate vegetables have a characteristic bad smell, when cooking in a pan there is just a few vegetable lest because of initially high content of water. It is caused by nitrates (mineral salts) which by the laws of physics attract a lot of water, because of that even the taste of the product seems expressionless, watery.

In order to reduce the chance of meeting with the chemicals in fruits and vegetables carefully choose producer, whenever possible demand the certificate from sellers. Don't buy products in the spontaneous markets.An alternative to conventional products are organic. Overall, look and you will always find!

Take care of your children and relatives. Do not give them "chemical" fruits and vegetables out of season. Wait for the season and charge with vitamins, but don't forget about methods of precaution and know when to stop! Good luck!

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