Plausible Deniability

[Guest guest]

Plausible Deniability

Dr. Rita Louise

The other day my family and I visited my in-laws for the weekend. We had

just finished eating breakfast and I began cleaning the kitchen. On the

counter by the stove, there was a splattering of grease, which I embarked on

wiping up. My mother-in-law told me to " hold on " as she reached under the

kitchen sink and pulled out a bottle of " grease away " . Within seconds of her

spraying it onto the counter, the fumes reached my nose and throat and I

started to cough. With eyes half open, I looked at my mother-in-law and

announced, " That product is pretty darned toxic " . Her response was " but it

works good! "

I was taken aback at her reaction, but it made me think of the hundreds if

not thousands of products for sale on any given day that are harmful to our

health. What astounds me the most about this is that we happily choose to

use them regardless of their potential risk. Granted, these products are

designed to make our life easier, but in the end, what price are we really

paying?

I remember a number of years back I was helping a friend clean his apartment

prior to his moving out. I volunteered to clean the bathroom and worked

diligently on the shower door. After scrubbing it for about 45 minutes and

going through almost a full bottle of 409 cleaner, was I surprised when I

discovered a swan etched into the glass that made up the slider door. I was

also surprised the next day when I looked at my fingertips and noticed that

I didn't have fingerprints anymore. I was even more surprised when I found

that I could create long tears in the skin of my fingertips with just a

gentle tug.

Many people don't realize that our skin is permeable and can absorb

materials it comes into contact with. Don't believe me? Here's a way in

which you verify this for yourself. Place a clove of fresh pealed garlic

into the toe of one of your shoes. Within 20-30 minutes, you will begin to

smell the scent of garlic as it is excreted by the pours of your skin. You

may even begin to notice the scent of garlic on your breath.

If our skin is permeable enough to allow the oils of a single clove of

garlic to pass from our toes to the rest of our bodies, then it only makes

sense that toxic products that come into contact with our skin will be

absorbed as well. It's not only what comes in contact with our skin that we

should be concerned with, we should also worry also the " fumes " or airborne

molecules that we breath in at the same time. When we choose to use products

such as 409, chlorine bleach or even spray our showers down daily with

Tilex, do we worry that long termed exposure to these toxic products may be

harmful to our health? Probably not. More than likely, we echo the words of

my mother-in-law: " but it works good! "

Household cleaning supplies aren't the only things we happily purchase and

use that negatively impact our health. Ok, picture this: you walk into the

supermarket. On the wall to the left is the produce section that is stocked

with a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. Along the back of the store

is the meat and fish section and down the right side of the store sits the

dairy cases. Filling the remainder of a typical supermarket, other than

household cleaning and personal hygiene goods, are food products, which,

bottom line, are not good for us.

Think about it, what do you find sitting on the shelves? Hamburger Helper,

Spam, macaroni and cheese, Pop-tarts, Sugar Smacks. If you read the label,

these foods are primarily made out of white flower, white sugar and

hydronated vegetable oils. They are also loaded with artificial colors,

preservatives and flavors. If you look close enough, you will even find

" foods " being sold that aren't made out of any real food products at all.

In our fast paces world, prepackaged, preprocessed foods are quick and easy

to make. In fact, they let us cook a dinner for 4 in less than twenty

minutes. But what are we really eating? Our bodies need proteins,

carbohydrates and certain kinds of fats in order to survive. It also needs

vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients. These building blocks are found in

fresh food, such as the kind you find around the perimeter of the

supermarket. So while we may be " eating " enough daily, prepackaged,

preprocessed, fat laden foods do not contain many, if any, of the essential

building blocks we need. Instead, they are filled with items in which our

bodies cannot digest nor assimilate.

While giving a presentation on nutrition, I mentioned that some brands of

salad dressings, especially the ranch or other creamed varieties contain a

chemical called propylene glycol. I had learned in college that

polypropylene was a kind of plastic, so taking it the next step; I inferred

that propylene glycol was some kind of petroleum derivative that was added

to the dressing. One of the attendees spoke up and shared with the group

that propylene glycol was indeed a petroleum derivative and was better know

by another name: anti-freeze.

In recent years, food manufactures have jumped onto the health bandwagon

developing low calorie, sugar free or fat free food alternatives. These

products are advertised as being good, if not better for you than their

counterparts. The truth you will quickly discover, if you read the label, is

that sugar, salt or some kind of chemical replaces the natural " offending "

ingredients. Decidedly they may look and taste like the real thing, what I

don't understand is why we would choose to eat it.

Let me give you an example. A couple of years ago, Frito-lay developed

potato chips that are fried in Olestra. Olestra is a fat substitute. Potato

chips fried in Olestra have no fat and fewer calories than their

counterpart. This is primarily because they are not fried in oil. Marketed

as " Wow " chips, these are the only food type products sold on the market

that comes complete with a warning label. The manufacturer warns of

potential digestive problems that can be experienced when consuming their

product as well as impairment in the absorption of specific vitamins. The

question that always comes to the forefront of my mind is: are we that

desperate to eat a potato chip? In turn, if we are looking to cut calories,

eliminate sugar or reduce our fat intake is it that hard for us to control

ourselves that we need to endanger ourselves. for a chip?

When asked, most people will admit that Hamburger Helper, pop tarts or even

409 probably aren't good for us, but the reality is, however, that if people

weren't buying these products, they would not be on the shelves. Did you

realize that both Homel and Libby jockey for shelf space at the store to

sell their version of potted meat? In the big picture of things, this means

somebody is buying it. And if you don't know what potted meats are, I

challenge you to go to the supermarket and find out exactly what it is.

From strictly a business perspective, manufactures spend millions

identifying and filling our needs. In today's high dollar advertising

budgets, many times we don't even know we have a problem until we see it on

TV. If we took the time to ask ourselves if these products were good for us,

we probably wouldn't buy them. If we didn't buy them, manufacturers would

move on and introduce something bigger, better, faster or brighter.

Personally, I find it a sad state of affairs when buying a truckload of

Raman noodles costs considerably less than buying a pound of fresh fruit or

even a head of lettuce. And while parent argue and protest about violence on

TV, they contentedly allow advertisers to market some of what I would

consider the worst foods to children, thus programming a whole new

generation as to the " benefits " of these non-food items.

We are constantly looking for the proverbial magic bullet. We can continue

to deny the health implications of long termed exposure to toxic, unnatural

products being sold on the market today, or we can choose for health: our

own, our children's and that of the planet. The choice is and always has

been ours to make. In the rushed and harried world we have created for

ourselves, faster does seem better. But is it really?

Dr. Rita Louise

Body, Mind & SoulHealer

4925 Greenville Ave, Ste 200

Dallas, TX 75206

(972)475-3393

e-mail:rita@...

http://www.soulhealer.com/deniability.htm