More of M's Musings

Few days ago on Facebook I saw a post from one of the groups I have followed for a while. They advocate GMO labeling on our food products. I've shared the post on the Mayur Naturals FB page.

It's great that we have all achieved something that seems to be a fundamental right, to know what we are eating. You know, eating, to nourish our bodies??! I know there are many that have different opinions on GMO products and that is fine. I'd like to have a choice, however. Just like I give you the honest information on the body products I make, I would like the food industry to do the same for me.

Something in particular caught my eye and sent me down memory lane. The post said, "... the bill contained a provision that requires the FDA to come up with a labeling standard before GMO salmon can be sold in the U.S.! " My musings today are about fish! May not have much to do with skin care, but maybe it might.

I am originally from the eastern side of India, near the ocean and the river Ganges flows right through my birth city of Calcutta. To say that we like fish is an understatement. It was considered sacrilege if a fish dish was missing from the lunch table. No lunch was complete without it. Milk was mandatory at breakfast, fish for lunch. Neither was optional. Being the kids that we were, we often revolted. But all in vain. "You cannot go to school without first finishing your milk!" For those of you who are thinking, well that sounds like a score, think again. Staying home from school was far worse than drinking my milk. There was the wrath of all at home and there was the wrath at school from the nuns. So I drank my milk. Fish, same story. I remember when I was pretty young, around, 5 years of age, I was not allowed to get up from the table until I finished my meal. I think I sat there for about 2 hours. Everyone was done, siesta time done, I was still sitting there.

Anyway, back to my fish and milk story. Well, I grew up, went to college in the US, fell in love, got married, life ensued. And I started noticing things. Things were much bigger here. Everything was. And young girls developed much faster. I started to look at ingredients. I started to take an interest in my food and started to get educated and make choices. Back in those days, organic food was not available everywhere and it was much more expensive than regular food. Sometimes 3 to 4 times more expensive. So, I could not always afford it but I bought organic as I could.

It also didn't help that I lived in Iowa. Farmland. In the 13 years I spent there, I saw the big conglomerates come in and buy farm after farm. I knew some farmers first hand, I saw what they would put in the dearly tired soil come spring. One farmer was a chicken supplier to one of the biggest soup companies. I knew back in the 90’s that chickens were fed arsenic so they would grow faster. This information has just recently been made public. So I turned to fish. Yup, fish that I grew up with and protested eating as a kid.

My mother-in-law at that time loved to send me clippings on good pre-natal health. Most of them at first said fish was good. Then they became warnings. Fish has too much mercury from the industrial waste that used to be pumped into the oceans, and in some countries, it goes unabated still to this day. I remember thinking back then, wow, even fish has been polluted on this planet that is two-thirds water. And it seemed unfair. Fish has so many benefits. A simple Google search will provide a plethora of articles. Everything from brain health, heart health, helping asthma, Omega 3 oils, skin and hair nourisher, the list seems never ending. But it also contains mercury. So I stopped eating fish. Then came the days of farm fisheries. I truly believed in those days that it was more healthy. After all, if you could grow it healthy, who wouldn't. And from an ecological stand point, it seemed like a good idea to not over harvest the oceans. So I started eating fish again.

But money and profit are strange things. It's never enough. The farms started injecting color into salmon, one of my favorite fish to eat. Then they had to produce bigger and bigger fish. These days, salmon farming has gone to a whole new level. One article had this to say:

Farmed Salmon:

· have seven times the levels of PCB’s as wild salmon

· have 30 times the number of sea lice

· are fed chemicals to give them color

· are fed pellets of chicken feces, corn meal, soy, genetically modified canola oil and other fish containing concentrations of toxins

· are administered antibiotics at higher levels than any other livestock

· have less omega 3’s due to lack of wild diet

· are crowded into small areas inhibiting movement, and causing disease

Then we have all the different GMO to make salmon defy nature and grow all year round, instead of spring and summer as Mother Nature intended and to grow to marketable size in half the time it takes naturally.

So I am kind of back to wondering the same thing I did with milk and growth hormones 25 some years ago. If the food I am eating has chemicals that made it come to market sooner, does that mean I get to God sooner too? That is a bit tongue in cheek, but really, let’s think about it. Would it make us age faster? Does it do more harm than good?

I have considered using Cod Liver Oil in some of my serums. It is so very good for your skin. But due to all of the above and not really knowing what I’m buying, I decided against it.

Suffice it to say that I am truly happy about at least having a choice in knowing how the salmon was raised at the grocery store. A small step I think, but a significant one.

To our health!

M.