Effects of eating irradiated food

This is Part II of an article about irradiated food.

Click here to read Part I, which introduces the process of food irradiation and discusses the business interests surrounding it.

The most active proponents of food irradiation is actually not the food industry, but the nuclear industry. It allows the nuclear industry to sell its technology and its waste products!

Research into the effects of eating irradiated food is both difficult and complex. But the scientific data so far suggests that they have lower levels of vitamins as well as higher levels of harmful free radicals.

This article was first published in a 1994 issue of The Good Life, which had the theme, Strange foods.

Toxic chemicals

Radiation can alter the chemical structure of food. This creates unstable molecules, or “free radicals”, which can lead to the formation of toxic new chemicals.

Cooking and other methods of processing can also create free radicals and toxic chemicals. However, certain types of free radicals are produced through food irradiation only.

It is not easy to study these chemical changes. But the dangers are real. Free radicals can damage body cells and promote cancers.

Vitamin loss

This is not disputed. Vitamins are lost or damaged by irradiation. Depending on the vitamin, the type of food and the dose of radiation, losses commonly range from 20 percent to 80 percent.

Among irradiated foods, fruit juices lose more vitamins that fruit, which lose more than vegetables and grains, which, in turn, lose more than meat.

(This makes perfect sense to those with a macrobiotic understanding of yin and yang. Yin irradiated foods tend to lose more vitamins than yang foods.)

Vitamin E, in particular, is so badly damaged that even if it is put back as an addictive later on, it will still get destroyed. This will affect grains and beans that contain natural polyunsaturated oils. Vitamin E protects these oils. Without Vitamin E protection, the oils easily turn rancid and toxic.

Proponents of food irradiation argue that vitamins are also lost during cooking. But with irradiation, the vitamins are lost before cooking. With cooking, even more vitamins get lost.

Moreover, irradiated foods are meant to be stored for long periods. This means further vitamin losses. And some vitamins, like vitamin B1, are lost more quickly if the food had been irradiated.

Vitamins are therefore lost in several stages -- during irradiation, accelerated losses during storage, additional losses because of long storage, and finally in cooking.

Bacteria, viruses...

Irradiation is often used to kill moulds, yeast, bacteria, viruses and other microorganism that cause food to spoil. Mutants
Not all may be killed, however. Survivors can develop new strains that are resistant to irradiation. Resistant bacteria have been found in areas with high levels of radiation and such bacteria will flourish around radiation plants.

Under laboratory conditions, researchers have developed resistant strains of salmonella bacteria through repeated doses of radiation.

Another problem is that when only some bacteria and viruses are destroyed in irradiated food, those that survive will multiply quickly because they no longer have natural enemies. For example, when radiation destroys salmonella bacteria, the bacteria that cause botulism, another form of food poisoning, will flourish.

To make matters worse, consumers won’t know. Spoilt food normally has a bad odour, produced by bacteria, to warn us not to eat it. When most bacteria are destroyed, there will not be any warning odour.

And while irradiation destroys bacteria, it will not destroy the toxic chemicals produced by bacteria. Particularly worrying is the fact that irradiation increases the level of aflatoxin, a toxin associated with liver cancer. The increases ranged from 31 percent for corn, to 84 percent for onions.

Loss of immunity

Animal studies further suggest that eating irradiated food will depress immune function. It lowers the body’s resistance to a wide range of diseases.

This problem seems to occur more with freshly irradiated food. But if we were to eat only irradiated foods that have been kept for a long time, we face other problems, including greater nutrient loss.

Chromosome defects

Studies in India found a small increase in polyploidy, a rare defect in the chromosomes of blood cells, among people who were fed irradiated food. Once they returned to normal food, their blood gradually became normal. Similar effects were observed in animals.

This is an important matter. Chromosomes contain the blueprint for cell function. When they are damaged, they can cause cells to function abnormally, resulting in cancer, birth defects, etc. So far, there is no conclusive evidence that such problems do occur. But chromosomes damaged is itself a cause for concern.

Fewer offsprings

A study on fruit flies (which are commonly used to rest for mutation) found that flies fed irradiated foods produced far fewer offsprings. For some reason, the study used chicken meat, which is not what fruit flies normally eat. So the study was dismissed as irrelevant.

Still, the results are telling. Flies in the control group (not fed chicken meat) produced an average of 721 offsprings. Those fed, non-irradiated chicken produced less than half that number, only 333.

But flies that were fed electron-irradiated chicken produced even fewer offspring -- 160. And, flies that were fed gamma-irradiated chickens produced only 57 offsprings.

Other effects

Some studies produced a range of adverse effects in animals that ate irradiated food -- higher death rates, reduced growth rates, lower birth weight for offspring, changes in white blood cells, kidney damage, tomour growth , etc. However, other studies failed to produce these effects, so the findings are not conclusive.

As early as 1979, J Barna of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences reviewed the scientific literature on food irradiation. He found hundreds of effects and classified these as beneficial, neutral, or adverse.

Overall, Barna found 185 beneficial effects, 7,191 neutral effects, and 1,414 adverse effects. For bacon, soy beans, corn oil and other foods, the pattern was similar -- few beneficial effects, mostly neutral and adverse effects.

Sadly, one “beneficial effect” seem to have outweighed all the rest: MONEY.