[pct-l] trail snacks

[Paul Robison]

I was not trying to say that irradiating food leaves mercury in it... I was saying that the body has no way to dispel ingested radiation ( the way it does have is very slow and strains the thyroid... ie. iodine pills when you know your body will be ingesting radiation ) "much LIKE mercury". I figured mercury was a good reference because people who fish / most people have a good understanding of how Mercury builds up in the body.  As to how how much of the food is radiated itself; who knows ... Could be minimal ... But why risk it?  That dog jerky is only marginally cheaper the human jerky.

Sorry my first message was unclear,
~Paul

Sent from my iPod

On 2011-03-07, at 1:59 PM, Peggy Rice <msrice27 at gmail.com> wrote:

> As a biochemist, I have to speak up about food irradiation.  It does not
> affect the heavy metal content of your food.  Irradiation shoots ionizing
> radiation (tiny sub-atomic particles) through the food, killing any
> microorganisms and viruses in the food.  The radiation does NOT remain in
> the food.
> 
> Irradiation does alter the nutrients in the food, but not any more than
> conventional cooking or microwaving - each of those 3 methods creates
> different changes in food nutrients. It's unclear whether the changes from
> irradiation are better/worse/equal to cooking.  If you use spices, you're
> probably already consuming irradiated food - it's almost the only way to
> kill deadly molds that would be present in spices, while still preserving
> the flavors.
> 
> That said, the standards for producing pet food are not as high as for human
> food, and there is less oversight of the process (not that there is enough
> oversight for human food).
> 
> YMMV (yummy microwaved minature vegetables),
> 
> Peggy
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