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You’ve heard the saying: “You are what you eat”? It sounds like a metaphor, yet it’s true. The nutrients from food are the building blocks of every cell in the body, from our digestive and immune system, to our skin, hair, muscles and bones.

Are you aware that most food is grown and produced using a lot of toxic chemicals? The problem is we’ve become disconnected from our food. We see food as a product on our supermarket shelves in branded packets labelled ‘healthy’, ‘low fat’ or ‘low carb’, ‘no added preservatives’, the list goes on. Packet foods that are labelled as healthy are usually just the opposite. We’ve forgotten that real food started life in the ground.

Why did we start using chemicals fertilizers?

This began with nitrate. ROF Pembrey used nitrate to make ammunition in the second world war. After the second world war there was a surplus of nitrate. Imperial Chemical Industries then developed nitrate for mass agriculture because it was proven to make crops, such as wheat, grow quicker.

In using nitrate for this purpose it damaged the DNA of the wheat and made it susceptible to pest attack. Now in a sane society you’d image we’d learn from that mistake, right? No, that’s not what happened. Instead what the agriculture industry did was invent pesticide… By spraying another toxic chemical onto our food many times a year it kept the pests away… at least to begin with. But what happened after a while is that the crops started to get attacked by fungus. Fungal attacks that had never happened before the use of pesticide. But don’t worry. The agriculture industry giants had the answer — another toxic chemical to combat the fungal attack. Hello fungicide.

So now many times each year all these toxic chemicals are sprayed onto our food. We have nitrate, pesticide, fungicide and herbicide, it goes on and on.

A team from the Leicester School of Pharmacy have discovered that fruit and veg contain an anti-fungal compound called Salvestrol. When consumed as part of a healthy diet Salvestrol can help us fight fungal disease. You know what I’m about to say next though?… The chemicals our crops are sprayed with, kill Salvestrol too.

So what can you do? Too often I’ve heard people say that the organic industry is a ploy to get us to pay more for our food. Well, think about it like this; We live in a society where money is our God and where consuming more goods is the sign of a strong economy. Until that changes we are bound to live by the social and economic order and ideology called consumerism.

So how to decide whether to buy organic food?

Here are everyday options we face when buying fruit & veg at the supermarket. I’m not attempting to advice you. I’m engaging you to think for yourself.

  1. Eat Chemicals. Buy fruit and veg covered with toxic chemicals, depleted of vitamins and disease fighting compounds.
  2. Eat as nature intended (well almost). Pay a little extra and eat organic fruit and veg. Did you know that organic farmers are allowed to spray crops with pesticides? Though it’s likely to be pesticides such as neem, pyrethrum and rotenone which are derived from plants.
  3. Take responsibility. Grow you own food (this is my preference.

If you’re one of the many people I’ve spoken to who like the idea of organic food but complain about paying more money, stop moaning and do something positive or proactive. Protest, write about it, spread the word or grow your own food. Many of us moan without end about important issues like this, yet are unwilling to do anything. We’ve become a nation of people unwilling to take responsibility for ourselves.

What has any of this got to do with Yoga?

The aim of Yoga is to connect with the higher self, so what we consume is important. Not only the food we consume, the information we consume too. If you consume good nutrients and information, you’ll thrive. Consume toxic food and information, then it’s not difficult to work out the consequences.

Final Thoughts: Don’t take my word for it. Do your own research. Come to your own conclusion based on many varied sources. Don’t settle for the official answer. And, better still explore and learn from your own experiences.


I appreciate your feedback and look forward to any questions. Can you think of any options I’ve missed? If so please join the conversation by commenting below.

Posted by Andy




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