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Why
Is It A Problem?
by Dr. Wjatscheslaw
Wlassoff
Artificial ripening of fruits and
vegetables is a common practice which causes serious concern among many people.
Do scientific evidences support such
concerns?
Recent decades witnessed a clear trend
for increasing consumption of organic food.
Driving forces behind this trend is
growing health awareness and tendency to adopt healthier lifestyle.
Modern agriculture: chemicals galore
Modern
agriculture tends to utilize a variety of chemicals such as fertilizers,
growth enhancers, herbicides and insecticides.
Yet more
additives are employed to modify or enhance the taste.
And even though
most chemicals are rigorously tested and considered safe, the total exposure to
multiple unnatural ingredients can become rather substantial.
The long-term
consequences of such exposure are not sufficiently studied.
The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention currently recommend a diet that is “rich in
fruits and vegetables” to help “reduce the risk of cancer and other chronic
diseases”.
Not only fruits
and vegetables help to reduce the risk of chronic diseases, but they provide an
abundance of vitamins and nutrients the body needs on a daily basis.
The lack of
fruits and vegetables in our diet is proven to increase the risk of obesity,
type II diabetes and other serious chronic conditions.
Fruits and vegetables are good for health, but what about their
quality?
The proverbial
“5-a-day”, five portions of fruits and vegetables as a part of everyday meals,
is a cornerstone of any modern healthy diet.
Eating five
servings of fruits and vegetables every day can help the body better manage the
weight, prevent fat gain, and maintain a better blood glucose balance in the
system.
There is an
abundant amount of research demonstrating the importance of consuming plentiful
fruits and vegetables for decreasing the health-related mortality risk.
Recent data
demonstrates that fruit and vegetable consumption is associated with a lower
incidence of cancer and cardiovascular diseases.
But how healthy
these products remain after being exposed to multiple chemicals during their
growth, production and transportation?
In many cases
the answer to this question is not straightforward.
Artificial ripening is a common practice
Fruits,
particularly of the exotic varieties, that need to be transported for large
distances before they reach the consumers, are often picked up before they
become ripened.
This is done to
ensure that they do not get spoiled during transportation.
To make sure
the fruits look and taste appealing for the customer, they are often subjected
to the process of artificial ripening.
Certain
chemicals, such as ethylene and acetylene, accelerate the
natural processes inside fruits and allow them to ripe in a short period of
time.
The resulting
products sometimes do lack in the taste but at least look nice and fresh.
Side effect of
such practice is yet another exposure of natural foods to the chemical
treatment.
The practice of
artificial ripening does cause concern among many people.
What the
science actually says about the safety of artificially ripened fruits?
Artificial Ripening Might Cause Contamination Of Fruits With
Dangerous Chemicals
Both ethylene
and acetylene, the compounds used to speed up the ripening, are gases.
They completely
disappear from the fruits and vegetables by the time they reach the shelves of
the shops.
There is,
however, one particular concern with the treatments of fruits and vegetables by
acetylene: the source of the gas.
The problem is
that the cheapest and most available source of this gas is calcium carbide.
This simple
inorganic compound easily releases acetylene upon chemical reaction with water.
Even though calcium
carbide does not represent any danger since the products are not exposed to it
directly, it might cause problems if it is not chemically pure.
Industrially
used calcium carbide is often contaminated with various toxic
ingredients, such as phosphorus and arsenic-containing chemicals, that can
be released together with acetylene and become absorbed by the treated fruits
and vegetables.
Many of these
contaminants are known to be dangerous for health, and some are known to
increase the risk of cancer.
A safer
approach to accelerate the fruits ripening artificially relies on the use of
ethylene.
Ethylene can be
easily obtained at the spot using ethylene generators. Unlike acetylene, it
is usually free of impurities.
The use of
calcium carbide is prohibited in many countries but not
explicitly banned in the United States.
This chemical
is also commonly used in many developing countries such as India, often
ignoring the official bans.
The use of
chemically pure calcium carbide does not cause any problems since all health
risks are associated with contaminants, but this is something very difficult to
control and regulate.
As a result,
establishing the history of chemical exposure of artificially ripened fruits or
vegetable might become a “mission impossible”.
Organic food reduces risk of exposure to various chemicals
Switching to
organically grown and treated products would cut such risks altogether.
Organically grown
fruits and vegetables are also free of pesticides, insecticides and most of
other chemicals than are commonly encountered in agricultural products these
days.
A number of
pesticides and fungicides (chemicals killing the fungi that grow on fruits and
vegetables) are known to have carcinogenic properties.
In addition,
many people are concerned with the growing production of genetically modified
food and particularly with insufficiently studied long-term effects of
consuming such products.
Organic
products are free of most of such problems and complications.
Organic food is not necessarily an ideal solution
Nevertheless, a
word of caution should be said in regards to the use of organic products.
They are
commonly praised as a healthy and desirable option, but it is rarely mentioned
that due to the lack of various chemical treatments these products are more
often affected by natural bacterial, parasitic and fungal infections, which are
not always easy to detect.
In some cases,
organically grown products are simply not as rich of valuable vitamins and
nutrients as their non-organic counterparts.
This is a
consequence of being grown in the conditions of relative lack of nutrients
(i.e., lack of fertilizers) and lack of protection from the plant’s natural
enemies (insects and various infections).
Many people
believe that some organic agricultural products are simply not as tasty as the
cheaper stuff found in any food shop.
Eventually, we
need to look for the proper balance of cost and benefits.
Dr.
Wjatscheslaw Wlassoff
Biomedical
Scientist
Dr
Wlassoff has a PhD in Biomedical Sciences and has been working as a researcher
and lecturer in several universities around the world for 20 years (University
of Cambridge, University of North Carolina, Queen's University Belfast,
University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and National Institute of
Genetics in Japan). He worked in many areas of science related to chemistry,
biology, medicine and pharmacy. Dr Wlassoff published a significant number of
research papers and reviews in peer-reviewed scientific journals. He also works
as a freelance academic writer and runs his own online medical and scientific consulting
business.
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