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Sandra Greene
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1 Copyright You have the right to re-distribute this guide.

2 What is in the wax on fruits and vegetables? 1: Wax on fruits and vegetables One type of wax is carnauba, from the leaves of palm trees. The manufacturer s claim this product has a superior natural wax emulsion with a high gloss, long shelf life and superior drying characteristics. The waxes on food are similar to those used to shine floors, furniture, shoes, and vehicles. Derived from petroleum and natural sources, they often contain some combination of paraffin, shellac, carnauba, polyethylene and synthetic resins. Due to its high melting temperature, the wax cannot be washed off and often used as a vehicle for applying bactericides, fungicides, growth regulators and dyes. How safe is the wax on fruits and vegetables? The FDA rather used its limited resources to inspect food with a higher chance of being harmful to people. Waxes on fruits and vegetables are among those products that, because they fall in the category generally recognized as safe, have not been subjected to the rigorous lab and clinical testing. Even fruits we peeled get the wax treatment such as clementine s, avocados, cantaloupes, or pumpkins. Harmful bacteria might get trapped between the wax and produce during processing. And the only way to remove the wax would be to peel the fruit or produce, but usually the peel is where the fiber is. 2: Dangerous pesticides Pesticides and other poisonous chemicals used in growing fruit and veg could be putting young children at risk of developing cancer in later life, say scientists. Pre-school children are in particular danger of exposure to the dangerous compounds, a U.S. study found. Research leader Professor Irva Hertz-Picciotto, of California University in Davis, said: 'Contaminants get into our food in a variety of ways. They can be chemicals that have nothing to do with the food or byproducts from processing. We wanted to understand the dietary pathway pesticides, metals and other toxins take to get into the body.' Exposure: Tomatoes, peaches and apples were all found to have high levels of pesticide in the study A study of 364 children of whom were under-five - found safety consumption benchmarks were exceeded for arsenic, dieldrin, DDE and dioxins. In addition more than 95 per cent of pre-school children exceeded non-cancer risk levels for acrylamide - a cooking byproduct often found in processed foods like potato and tortilla chips. Non-cancer effects include the death of cells.

3 Pesticide exposure was particularly high in tomatoes, peaches, apples, peppers, grapes, lettuce, broccoli, strawberries, spinach, dairy, pears, green beans and celery. Study leader Dr Rainbow Vogt said: 'We focused on children because early exposure can have long-term effects on disease outcomes. 'Currently the US Environmental Protection Agency only measures risk based on exposures of individual contaminants. 'We wanted to understand the cumulative risk from dietary contaminants. The results of this study demonstrate a need to prevent exposure to multiple toxins in young children to lower their cancer risk.' Some pesticides can be removed from fruit and vegetables through washing and light scrubbing. The researchers used data from the 2007 Study of Use of Products and Exposure-Related Behavior (SUPERB) which surveyed households in California with children between two and five to determine how their diets, and other factors, contribute to toxic exposure. Specifically SUPERB homed in on 44 foods known to have high concentrations of toxic compounds. This included the metals arsenic, lead and mercury, pesticides chlorpyrifos, permethrin and endosulfan, persistent organic pollutants dioxin, DDT, dieldrin and chlordane and the food processing byproduct acrylamide. Toxin levels in specific foods were determined through the Total Diet Study in the US that determines levels of various contaminants and nutrients in foods and other databases. Prof Hertz-Picciotto said: 'We need to be especially careful about children because they tend to be more vulnerable to many of these chemicals and their effects on the developing brain.' The study published in Environmental Health outlines strategies to lower family exposure. For example, organic produce has lower pesticide levels. In addition, toxin types vary in different foods. Certain pesticides may be found in lettuce and broccoli, while others affect peaches and apples. Prof Hertz-Picciotto said: 'Varying our diet and our children s diet could help reduce exposure. 'Because different foods are treated differently at the source, dietary variation can help protect us from accumulating too much of any one toxin.' Study co-author Prof Deborah Bennett said: 'Acrilomides come from chips and other processed grains. 'Even if we set aside the potential toxins in these foods, we probably shouldn t be eating large amounts of them anyway.

4 'However, we should be eating fruits, vegetables and fish, which are generally healthy foods. We just need to be more careful in how we approach them.' Eleanor Barrie, Cancer Research UK s science information manager, said: 'This study is small and was conducted in California so it doesn t tell us anything about levels of particular chemicals found in foods in the UK. 'It s really important to remember that the levels of pesticides found in fruit and vegetables are usually very low, and there is no evidence that eating these small amounts of pesticides increases the risk of cancer. 'In fact, eating lots of fruit and vegetables actually reduces the risk of some types of cancer, so it s a good idea to get your five-a-day.' 3: Tricky lighting Have you ever thought about the lighting in your grocery store? Stores might be using green filters to make fresh veggies look greener and how a red filter can be used to make red meat look more appealing. This lighting trick can actually be a health code violation. Deceptive lighting or signage could be subject to health inspectors violations. TIP: Remove meat or vegetables from the display and examining them in normal light before buying them. 4: The supermarket maze Believe it or not, all supermarkets follow a similar overall layout. Fresh produce; fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy are all stocked around the outer limits of the store whereas pre-packed, processed and frozen foods are placed in the center of the store. They do this on purpose. It means that to get to the stuff you need for your diet, you have to look at all the stuff you don t. Then as you work your way through the aisles, you buy stuff you don t need. You therefore spend more and they make more. Cunning isn t it? They also keep staples such as bread and milk towards the back of the store in an attempt to get you to walk past almost everything else to find them. Plus, if you re looking for tea bags, it s no coincidence that biscuits are just next to them. Supermarkets pair up like for like products knowing that you re more likely to end up buying both. You can beat them at their own game. Help your health and your wallet stick to the perimeter. If you have to go into the middle, use the aisle signs to go straight to the product you need. Then you won t be looking at unnecessary items.

5 5: Pricing layout We read from left to right so retailers stock expensive items on the right. While scanning the shelves for options the eye travels from left to right. The eye ends up on the most expensive items on the right making shoppers more likely to purchase these. 6: Misty produce Most supermarkets mist their fruits and vegetables every so often, despite the fact that it makes the produce rot faster. Why? Because humans like shiny things. We equate a dewy mist with being fresh, and consider shininess to always add value, from hair to cars and laptops to produce. Shinier = Better. Those misters are only there to make your brain think the produce is fresher and more valuable than it actually is. 7: Understaffed checkout lines Do the check stands at your supermarket seem to always have lines no matter when you go? Grocery stores don t want you zooming through the checkout stands, because this is where overpriced, impulse items like candy, soda, magazines and DVDs are located. While you re waiting you may get hungry, thirsty or bored all of which work in favor of grabbing a stimulating magazine or candy bar. TIP: Be aware that you are being stalled for a reason, and resolve not to add to your cart in the checkout line. Sources: LEARN MORE SNEAKY FOOD INDUSTRY TRICKS AT:

Lesson 5 Keeping It Going!

Lesson 5 Keeping It Going! Welcome Aloha and welcome back to the fifth lesson of the PILI Lifestyle Program. Lesson 5 1 Let us begin with a review of last week s lesson. What did we talk about last time? We learned that healthy