Holiday Health

Environmentalists tell all sorts of horror stories about manmade chemicals in our food. But, in fact, everything we eat is full of naturally occurring carcinogens, mutagens, and toxins. We regularly consume 10,000 times more natural toxins than manmade ones without ill effects. So maybe the hysteria about chemicals is overblown.

Natural Toxins in a Christmas Dinner

Fresh Vegetable Tray
Carrots: carotatoxin, myristicin, isoflavones, nitrate
Celery: nitrate, psoralens

Entrees
Roast Turkey: heterocyclic amines, malonaldenyde
Stuffing: benzo(a)pyrene, di- and tri-sulfides, ethyl carbamate, furan derivatives, dihydrazines, psoralens, safrole
Cranberry Sauce: eugenol, furan derivatives

Vegetables
Lima Beans: cyanogenetic glycosides
Baked Potato: amylase inhibitors, arsenic, chaconine, isoflavones, nitrate, oxalic acid, solanine

Dessert
Apple Pie: acetaldehyde, isoflavones, phlorizin, quercetin glycosides, safrole

Beverage
Tea benzo(a)pyrene, caffeine, quercetin glycosides, tannins

Source: American Council on Science and Health