All the colorful fruits and vegetables may not be healthy….
Yes, you heard me right… Colors these days are deceptive!
The adage "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" is one we all aspire to live by. And a brilliant red apple will undoubtedly catch our attention and tempt us to buy it unintentionally under the impression that it is healthy. What if you learn that this apple has baggage of its own that prevents it from being healthy?
Many people are unaware that fruits and vegetables contain various chemicals to speed up or slow down the ripening process, such as calcium carbide or auxins, in addition to the fact that pesticides and insecticides have become a necessary component of farmers' livelihoods. Moreover, additives serve as synthetic colorants that give apples their distinctively brilliant red appearance. This is also used for broccoli, which has a fresh green appearance, and carrots for their dazzling orange color.
The vibrant yellow zucchinis and the juicy pink litchis may catch your sight and tantalize your taste senses, but the actual danger lurks beneath the seeming freshness in the form of a poisonous mixture of chemicals that, if consumed over the long term, may be fatal. The most often used chemicals to give fruits and vegetables color and freshness include rhodamine oxide, copper sulfate, malachite green, erythrosin B, and dangerous carbides.
The abundant usage of malachite green, a well-known carcinogen employed in the textile industry, is responsible for the rich green of peppers, cucumbers, and peas. Several green vegetables are treated with copper sulfate solution, also known as blue vitriol, including bottle gourd, ridged gourd, bitter gourd, beans, lady's fingers, and drumsticks. Consuming copper sulfate, one of the key ingredients in fungicides used in agriculture, is harmful to the liver and kidneys because it helps the body produce free radicals, which accelerate the aging process.
Rhodamine B, another deadly carcinogen and important component of agricultural pesticides, gives strawberries, cherries, sweet potatoes, and apples their vibrant red color. This substance may infect people and irritate the skin. In order to maintain their "freshness," fruits and vegetables are frequently treated with erythrosin B, another chemical.
Moreover, vendors frequently employ calcium carbide, a chemical primarily used in steel factories, to artificially ripen fruits like mangoes and bananas. Carbides are not only neurotoxic (harmful to the brain) but also carcinogenic (since they contain both arsenic and phosphorus). Acetylene gas, which is produced by carbides, can lead to seizures, Alzheimer's disease, dementia, cerebral edema, and other neurological disorders.
In order to give their produce a gleaming, "farm-fresh" appearance, vendors also apply petroleum oil to fruits and vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, apples, and aubergines. Petroleum is hazardous to humans and causes a variety of respiratory and gastrointestinal issues. It is also a known carcinogen. In order to make the leftover vegetables "farm fresh," spray is once again applied to them at the end of the day. At the beginning, silicone spray is used to impede the ripening process. The fruit and vegetables are then submerged in a blue vitriol solution to preserve their sheen and bright green color.
But the ominousness continues in other ways. Hormones are used by farmers to hasten the development of fruits and vegetables. They inject hormones like oxytocin into crops to dramatically speed up their development rate; The use of these hormones on plants is technically forbidden; they can only be used on animals.
Agriculture's globalization has seriously endangered both farmers' and vendors' ability to make a living, and this, combined with global warming's unpredictable climate fluctuations, has made farming a risky business. Some farmers and sellers must take extraordinary measures to stay in business due to intense competition on both the domestic and international levels.
Nowadays, it would be absurd to claim that eating fresh fruits and vegetables is healthy because the irresponsible use of chemical compounds negates their nutritional value. Although washing the fruits and vegetables well with water before peeling or cutting is advised to get rid of pesticides, this is not a foolproof procedure because washing does not get rid of the chemicals that have already gotten inside the fruit or vegetable. In addition, some additives, like petroleum, are not removed by washing since they are insoluble in water.
Does this have a potential solution?
Honest agriculture techniques are the answer to this problem. The authorities should make sure that farmers and sellers uphold standards. It is important to raise awareness of the problems that tainted fruits and vegetables pose. Artificial colors have a huge role to play today because they are directly correlated to nutritional advantages when it comes to agricultural products.
We accidentally go for fruits and veggies that look 'farm fresh'. Farmers and merchants take advantage of this vulnerability in us by adding colors that not only strip the fruits and veggies of their nutritional value but also make them hazardous. This adulteration prevents the fruits and vegetables from being healthy and good for our health in the first place.
