A significant number of people across the world are using the words organic and natural for denoting 'safe' nowadays. Plenty of conservative states are also endorsing organic products over human-made things. So, what is this deal about organic stuffs? OR, Is there any real deal exists?
Whatever people celebrate as organic or natural are also chemicals! Whether it is crops grown without chemical fertilizers, fertilizers made from garbage, or traditional medicines, all natural products are nothing but chemicals; no exceptions are entertained!
Let us look into ourselves. The basic unit of life, a cell, is made up of chemical substances such as deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), ribonucleic acid (RNA), proteins, lipids, carbohydrates etc. Moreover, nearly 70% of the human body is a chemical named "dihydrogen monoxide" (DHMO), or "hydroxylic acid"! Oh, that is nothing but the uncommon names of water.
At least one time in your life somebody must have told you to eat only homemade food because restaurant food might contain 'chemicals'. Someone else might have suggested you not to take 'allopathic' medicine as the chemicals in it may damage your organs. You may also have come across people saying "chemicals are the reasons for cancer". Such fear of chemicals is known as chemophobia. Since the advent of modern medicine (wrongly termed as allopathy), pseudoscientific medical practitioners are taking advantage of chemophobia and are stamping many useful chemicals as toxic. They also proclaim that all natural things are safe and human-made substances are potentially poisonous.
Is everything obtained from nature safe?
There exist substances in nature that are threatening to animals (including our species). Those are called natural toxins. Such 'natural chemicals' can cause damages ranging from stomach upset to death to humans . Let me list some of them.
- In one kilogram of cassava, a staple food of tropical and developing countries, contains one gram of hydrogen cyanide, an extremely toxic substance for our health.
- Fruits such as apricot, apple, cherry etc., contain either hydrogen cyanide or chemicals like mandelonitrile or amygdalin which can turn to hydrogen cyanide by chemical reactions.
- Sprouted potato and its outer skin are sources of glycoalkaloids that can cause health problems and lectins in beans can give a bad time to your gastrointestinal tract.
Avoid sprouted potato and wash beans thoroughly to avoid natural toxins. Besides these, oxalic acid, furocoumarins, and cucurbitacins etc., are some other undesirable chemicals to our body.
The hoax about cancer-curing potential of vitamin B17
There was a 'claimed to be' scientific fact about vitamin B17 spreading on the internet that the cancer disease is the deficiency of this vitamin. And people believed that the food supplements containing this so-called vitamin could cure cancer. In fact, vitamin B17 is another name of amygdalin which I mentioned as a cyanide forming chemical above. The essential vitamins that we include in the 'B-complex' do not contain B17. The United States' Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) enlisted amygdalin as a toxic chemical in the early 1980s itself. Still, no one has come up with a proof of its cancer-curing potential. But it is 100% sure that it can cause cyanide poisoning to a healthy human.
Cancer and chemicals
Cancer is a set of disease conditions arisen by uncontrolled multiplication of cells in an organ. In a process called metastasis, cells of an affected organ can propagate through the bloodstream and reach other parts of the body to form cancer in a different organ. Cancer is the after effect of alteration in DNA molecules (a process known as mutation) that determines almost everything in each of our cells. Succeeding generations inherit these mutations as parents pass there DNA to offspring. People with such ‘genetic predispositions’ are at high risk to fall prey for cancers. Some chemicals known as carcinogens, radiation, and a few viruses can cause DNA mutations that can result in cancers. Unhealthy food habits, tobacco, and obesity also can increase risk.
In a recent report, scientists have identified that the majority of cancers are caused by random mutations in DNA, which happens all times in our body. Although there is an efficient mechanism to repair such random mistakes, there is a chance of error every 100 million nucleotides (building units of DNA). These may lead to cancer if it occurs at specific parts of DNA that control growth and division of cells.
Currently, although we have better treatments for cancers and increasing survival rates, pseudomedicine is becoming a roadblock to efficient use of the best. The fraud doctors who are also advocates of organic and natural products are spreading hoaxes like "cancers are the after effect of bad lifestyle and consumption of food containing chemicals only". They also have natural and easy remedies such as amygdalin containing diet that I mentioned earlier. Even now, approaching such frauds and delaying the modern therapy and this is causing a large number of cancer deaths in developing countries. Cancer treatment involves chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery and, targetted therapy. No one has identified a shortcut to cure cancers.
The policymakers in the healthcare sector should pay at most attention to fraudulent treatments for cancers. Spreading hoaxes and practicing dangerous health treatments should be legally encountered by states. Moreover, cancer therapies should get high priority in the healthcare policy making.
Organic farming
There are strict guidelines by food and drug regulatory agencies across the globe to avoid carcinogens in food additives and fertilisers. All chemical compounds that can be added to eatables as colouring agents, preservatives etc., are strictly under lens from time to time. But chemophobia is a never-ending problem and eyebrows are continuously up against such chemicals; this fertilizes the soil for organic farming. The so-called organic vegetables are remarkably popular, and their ‘no added chemical fertilizers’ tag increases the market value as well. Continues organic farming will deplete essential elements in soil that helps in the healthy growth of plants and the yield will decline eventually. So the usage of chemical fertilizers is a must for food security in a world with poverty and malnutrition taking lives of millions.
In fact, agriculture itself is against nature. That makes organic farming an oxymoron if you consider organic as natural. A single plant species occupying a vast piece of land is an extremely rare natural scene. From the time immemorial humans cultivate plants against the will of nature, to feed their exploding population - another anti-nature activity. So it is a bad idea to consider agriculture as organic.
So, what is not a fraud?
Well, everything that we do for the survival as a species must be written at the bottom of this list. Nature is already suffering from almost everything that we did here. We are already in a ‘struggle to live mode’ on earth. Good quality life on earth demands better health for everyone. Along with people who do not care for others, scientifically illiterate ones are also causing damage to society. Thus hoaxes are created, and fraudulent practitioners emerge.
Put an effort to avoid frauds. Educate yourself and the people around you to stay away from fake news. Scientific temper is the key to a better life; embrace it.
Reference and suggested readings
- Cell : [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_(biology)
- Kunkel, Thomas A. "DNA replication fidelity." Journal of Biological Chemistry 279.17 (2004): 16895-16898.
- FDA warning about amygdalin
- Natural toxins in food : WHO's report
- Mutation
- Tomasetti, Cristian, Lu Li, and Bert Vogelstein. "Stem cell divisions, somatic mutations, cancer etiology, and cancer prevention." Science 355.6331 (2017): 1330-1334.
- Image 1 and 3 are taken from Pixabay - Free images library