Irradiated ingredients found in half of all health food supplements

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Note: irradiation reduces the potency of vitamins, alters the structure of proteins (amino acids), fats and starches and makes them toxic. Irradiation also will have an adverse effect on the protein in protein bound minerals (amino acid chelates). - CW

Elwood Richard

As a physical chemist who has done research applying low energy to organic compounds, I would like to warn about irradiation dangers. My research applied the equivalent of about three volts to sodium acetate (acetic acid is the acid in vinegar), and then analyzing the products that resulted. Many compounds were created than were more complex than acetate itself (such as ethyl acetate and n butanol) These compounds were created because even three volts was enough to remove an electron from the acetate ion, and create a free acetate radical. This radical had enough energy to react in ways that are not normal in body chemistry, in which most reactions take place at less that 1.5 volts (actually electron volts, but it is really the same thing).

Irradiation takes place at energy levels about 100,000 times more than I used in my experiments, and creates super energized free radicals. This is what kills the microbes. There can be little doubt that irradiation creates a host of chemicals, and likely there will be toxicity to some of them.

Using irradiation is an inexpensive way of taking items with unacceptable micro levels, and reducing them to undetectable levels. Our firm tests for microorganism levels on all materials, and rejects those with undetectable levels of microorganisms because that shows irradiation was used on them. Generally herbs that have been in contact with the ground such as ginseng and golden seal root are often irradiated.

In addition to the toxic chemicals produced, irradiation also destroys many valuable components in nutritional substances such as antioxidants, enzymes, and many vitamins. It seems too late to stop irradiation of foods and nutrients, but a mandatory labeling program would be a good first step.

Elwood Richard, Founder Now Foods

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From: christinedoyle [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2006 9:58 AM

Irradiated ingredients found in half of all health food supplements

Source: Daily
Mail Date: 02/02/2006
The Daily Mail is the only newspaper to report that the Food Standards Agency has found that half of all health supplements contain irradiated ingredients. Some were found on sale in high street retailers such as Boots and Superdrug. Tests on 48 popular products including ginseng and aloe vera capsules found that 24 were wholly or partially irradiated. It is illegal to sell irradiated foods in the UK other than a few herbs and spices where labelling is required, but none of the irradiated products in the survey were labelled as such. The Health Food Manufacturers' Association has stressed that irradiation, which is used to kill off bugs and extend the shelf-life of foodstuffs, was 'not a food safety issue'.

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