If you’re really serious about improving your health through nutrition (which you should be), there are 3 things I’m gonna ask you to give up – at least until the research is more conclusive: Genetically Modified Foods (GMF), Irradiated Foods (IF) and Your Microwave (YM).

Along with antibiotics, NSAIDS, nutritionally void processed foods and chemical additives, these 3 are on my List Of Nasties. Why? Because there simply hasn’t been enough long-term independent research on any of them.

1. Genetically Modified Foods

There’s been a lot of debate about GMF – not much of it has any real value without some sort of science to back it up.

However, one of the early studies into genetically modified crops, conducted at Cornell University, looked at the use of a soil bacteria – Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) – to engineer crops to be resistant to larval stage insects.

Researchers used pollen from Bt corn crops and dusted it onto the leaves of milkweed plants – the sole diet of Monarch butterflies. Almost 50% of those caterpillars died. The survivors grew to only half their normal size.

What does that mean for consumers eating GM foods? What does it mean for the environment? What does it mean for butterflies? I don’t know. You don’t know. Science doesn’t know.

What can you do about it? Read the labels – look for Non GM foods – and buy Certified Organic.

2. Irradiated Foods

Did you know that Irradiated Foods contain molecules that are found nowhere in nature?

Irradiation uses nuclear wastes to keep food fresher for a longer period of time … so you can buy last season’s crop this season – after all, who wants to buy fresh food, right?

Irradiation allows no bacteria to survive – salmonella and all other nasties are eradicated – but it leaves no radiation in the actual food. In some cases, it also leaves virtually no nutrients in the actual food. Milk loses more than 70% of its Vitamin A, Riboflavin and Niacin when exposed to irradiation.

There are no long term studies on irradiation. Do you mind being a food industry guinea pig? Do you mind if a food irradiation plant sets up next door to you, delivering nuclear waste materials?

3. Your Microwave

Now, before you start screaming about how you can’t live without your microwave, and the manufacturers say it’s safe, and you’ve been using yours for 20 years blah, blah … save it for someone who’s listening.

These are the facts … A recent study conducted by a Swiss researcher, Dr Hans Ulrich Hertek, found that eating microwave cooked food lowered hemoglobin levels and cholesterol levels. White blood counts rose.

Studies also show that when breast milk is microwaved to 98.6 F, almost all the antibodies and lysozymes that help protect babies from infection are destroyed – zapped, if you will. Vitamin C levels are also virtually wiped out.