Todd:
How do you know when you should eat organic? Really, I mean aren’t we all talking about that? When to have organic, when not to? Should you drink water from plastic bottles like the one that’s in front of me right now? Does washing produce remove the pesticides off of your fruit or vegetables? Well, all of these things are vital for us to talk about, and who better than Dr. Maoshing Ni, EmpowHer’s 38th generation doctor of Chinese medicine, a member of our Medical Advisory Board. Hi, Dr. Mao
Dr. Maoshing Ni:
Hi, Todd.
Todd:
Dr. Mao, let me get this straight; my wife and I talk about this all of the time. It was the question last night: When should we be eating organic and when should we not?
Dr. Maoshing Ni:
Well gee, Todd, if you can help it, try the organic all the time. Well, I think for some people it’s also affordability. I think that that is a really important point too because organic food generally is a little more expensive and, so I can understand if families balk at “Wow, gosh, you know what, I’d love to do it, but I just can’t afford it right at this point.” And what’s really nice about it is that we are seeing large companies like Wal-Mart rolling out more organic food. We are seeing supermarkets having more organic selections.
So it’s no longer, you know, the domain of only the health food stores. Now, you know, obviously, you know, we shop at all kinds of places–farmers’ market, Whole Foods, co-op. I mean, you’ve got a lot of choices, and so whenever possible, because pesticides and herbicides are a big problem because so many of them have now been shown to be endocrine disrupters. What that means is they often mimic estrogen even though they are not actual estrogen, but they mimic so your body will react to them as if they are estrogens. So they are called xenoestrogens, so estrogen from environment, and some of them can be potentially carcinogenic in laboratory studies on animals.
And so we need to be very careful. I mean, you know, the rise of cancer and immunological disease and neurological disease and many of the conditions today more and more now we are finding that is due to environmental toxins. And so it behooves you to really pay attention and to eat and buy organics as possible.
Todd:
Dr. Mao, does the outside of the fruit or vegetable determine its susceptibility to pesticides? Do you know what I mean by that? Like the texture…
Dr. Maoshing Ni:
Well, yes. Yeah, I know, of course, like a banana, of course, you know, if you can peel something it’s a lot better.
Todd:
I know it sounds like a silly question, but I wonder that. I mean, look, I go into store the other day, and it says 100% organic cotton shirt, and, you know, I am not planning on eating the shirt. Does it matter?
Dr. Maoshing Ni:
Does it matter? Of course it matters. Well, they spray cotton heavily. I mean, cotton is one of the most heavily sprayed crops. So they spray with pesticides and herbicides so that the cotton yield can increase and so that doesn’t become susceptible to bugs. So the net effect is that that cotton itself is already filled with pesticides.
Now they do wash it and some of it comes off, but some residues will stay. And that’s the problem is that, you know, this residue is the issue here and we are, you know, very wary of that, and at the same time this cotton, right, gets weaved into the cloth, and then it gets, let’s say, you know, produced offshore in Third World countries, and which is where most clothing is coming from these days, and then they are dyed and then printed with toxic dye.
So now you’ve got not just the stuff that’s in the cotton itself, but you’ve got stuff that are in the dye that’s a real big issue.
Todd:
And it sits on my skin and you go outside and you exercise and you sweat in it, right?
Dr. Maoshing Ni:
Absolutely. You see, a lot of the dyes are actually carcinogenic, and that is a really, you know, big concern. In the U.S., we have pretty much outlawed many of the toxic, carcinogenic dyes in the U.S., but so then you ask yourself, “Good, wellwe should be safe, right?” But where are your clothes from these days? That’s the problem. They are all from overseas.
Todd:
Dr. Mao, a moment ago you talked about washing fruits and vegetables. Does peeling or washing fruits and vegetables help remove pesticides?
Dr. Maoshing Ni:
Yes, it does. Yes, there’s vegetable soap and fruit soap out there; you can use that to take some of the oil-based residue from the pesticides off. So, that’s an excellent, excellent choice. If you are concerned about it, but you can’t buy organic due to whatever reasons, whether it’s not accessible or whether it’s not affordable, then buy a fruit and vegetable wash, and then use it on a regular basis.
Todd:
Dr. Mao, I asked my wife this question last night. Dry fruits, do dry fruits have less nutritional value than, let’s say, whole fruits?
Dr. Maoshing Ni:
Not necessarily. Most of the time if the fruit is just dehydrated, you’re just losing water, that’s all, and in fact, dry fruits can be more concentrated in nutrition because you can eat more dry fruits than you could eat them fresh. Pound-by-pound you are going to get a whole lot more nutrients and fiber from dry fruits. Now having said that, dry fruits also contain more sugar too. So if you are sugar-sensitive, I would suggest that you also be aware and not overdo it.
Todd:
Wow! Okay, that’s pretty interesting, and then how about the loss of nutritional value when food is frozen?
Dr. Maoshing Ni:
Well, if the food is harvested and frozen right away, very minimal loss. So, it’s actually a good way to sort of buy your fruits and vegetables if you can’t buy them fresh. Obviously, fresh is always best, but the second choice would be of course frozen versus canned or anything like that.
Todd:
Now Dr. Mao, can you hear this right here? [sound]
Dr. Maoshing Ni:
Yeah, I can hear that.
Todd:
That is my plastic water bottle. What should women know about drinking bottled water from plastic bottles?
Dr. Maoshing Ni:
Well, the plastic bottle is… see one has to realize that there’s a process of making plastic. So the two main types of plastic are called thermoplastic and thermoset. Most people don’t know, but plastic comes from petroleum and coal. Those are the active ingredients that are needed to make plastic.
Thermoplastic is flexible, squeezable, vaporizes plastic molecules when heated. That’s why you don’t want to put that Saran™ Wrap or that plastic thing over your food when you are heating it. You certainly want to try not to heat anything in a bag, plastic bag, and so, you put in microwave and you are just vaporizing all those plastic molecules, and so packaging, containers, wrappers and so forth and even these beverage bottles now, okay?
Thermosets are like really hard plastic. Those are the heavy-duty plastic bottles and containers and that don’t vaporize plastic molecules, but everything, both these type of plastics require BPA–bisphenol A--which is a chemical that’s used to shape the plastic, and so that is an endocrine disruptor as well as the plastic itself really mimic the xenoestrogen. So, it’s a big concern, and so what I suggest is that because some of this stuff can cause, in laboratory experiments and in animal experiments, cancer, birth defects, genetic changes, even skin disease, liver problems, vision problems, and indigestion, ulcers.
So, you know, exposure of it on a small amount basis is not an issue, but if you go in day in and day out, and you got genetically predisposed problems to xenoestrogens, then you’ve got, you know, problems that potentially can arise down the road. So my suggestion is that, take your own water bottle, and I like glass, if you can get one of those, you know, glass bottles that may be a Pellegrino bottle or something that after you finish drinking you can fill it with water you filter from your home.
Now, a couple of reasons–number one, it’s green. In other words, you are not having this water transported across thousands of miles to get to you. So you are cutting down on your carbon footprint here, and then you are not engaging in using disposable of plastic to pollute the environment further, and number two, it’s cheaper. It’s cheaper and you are using the same filtration system, perhaps even better filtration system that there are great, many of them are out there on the market place now. Just the over-the-counter or the under-the-counter water filters do a fine job to filter out all the toxins and heavy metals and even bacteria.
Todd:
So you are saying that you don’t need a doctor’s prescription to get that filter?
Dr. Maoshing Ni:
Not at all. You can go out there; there’s many ones that are available. Many of the good filters are using carbon filters. These are carbon block filters, and they may have multistage, but, you know, again, they all do a very adequate job.
Todd:
Well, he is Dr. Maoshing Ni. His newest book is “Second Spring,” it’s Dr. Mao’s hundreds of natural secrets for women to revitalize and rejuvenate at any age. Thank you so much for joining us today, Dr. Mao.
Dr. Maoshing Ni:
Thank you.