Irradiation a cause for concern for
future generations.
Objections to food irradiation
Some years ago I
addressed the Manakau City Council with an objection to the proposed
process of a gamma Irradiation plant in Mangere, and took the
opportunity at that time to broaden the area of my objection to the
whole of New Zealand territory which at that point of time, had been
described in our nuclear free zoning.
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I had and still have reason to believe that the process
of gamma irradiation - although not harmful to humans - is, in it's
own, of far less value to humans than food that has not been
irradiated.
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Although it is quite a
good cause to have food products last longer, It is doubted that this treatment does
in any way improve the usefulness to the body functions by decontaminating the food
items.
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To be of full value, food should not
only have the flavour, nutrition, proteins, starches, vitamins etc but also quantities of
bacteria.
Germs are Good for us.
- In 1960 a method of
raising pigs, rabbits, mice and other animals entirely free of microbes
(gnotobiology) was brought into perfection.
These pristine
(germ-free) animals are by and large miserable creatures, seeming at nearly every
point to require artificial substitute for the germs they lack. One defect of
animals reared without microbes was scarcely surprising - they are extraordinaryily vunerable to
infection.
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Less predictable characteristics of germ-free animals are defects in the structure of their
tract, and their need for nutrients that animals normally receive from their resident
microbes.
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The gut abnormality resembles those seen
in human disease like sprue, in which the gut no longer absorbs food
materials properly. The wall of the small intestine is thin, with little connective
tissue.
- The villi (tiny
finger-like projections through which sugar and amino acids pass into
the blood stream) have bizzarre shape, and their cells are replaced less
rapidly than usual.
Clearly, bacteria are essential
for the intestine - otherwise it becomes weedy, inefficient and unresponsive to mechanical
stimuli.
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Even the
activity of the heart (by volume of blood pumped) is weaker in germ-free
animals.
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It is a considered opinions
of health professionals and others interested in nutrition that, with the aforementioned
facts taking the immunisation function of the body and putting it into a
machine has a lowering effect on the efficiency of the body's own immune
system.
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Therefore,
I would suggest that food irradiation be left to the body's own immune
system.
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