Someone wise had rightly said that ‘Health begins in the soil’ and we couldn’t agree more! This was truly achieved with traditional farming methods which worked on the indigenous knowledge of farmers who used nature derived methods to grow crops for sustenance. However, as population expanded over time, the traditional methods gave way to modern ones. To get quicker, bigger and diverse yields, crops were starting to be infused with antibiotics, pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Genetically modified (GM) and engineered varieties of these crops too hit the market claiming that they were economical and would aid food security.
But then, all these additives to make grains and crops look bigger and shinier and purportedly healthier, started to show their true colours. Human health was starting to be affected and it was found that the consumption of such artificially modified food was one major culprit in causing health hazards. Let’s see how.
While modern farming did achieve its goal of faster crop production, it did not warn about the toll on the human body due to such farming methods. Antibiotics are routinely used on crops and livestock to handle infections.
The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has termed antibiotic resistance arising out of modern farming techniques, “one of the most pressing public health problems”. Bacterial resistance that makes way to your body via the food you intake, can render even the most common infections deadly and leave you helpless when fighting a life-threatening infection. Due to this resistance, infections in the body last longer thus resulting in the prescription of stronger and costlier medication.
Another pressing issue is that the constituents needed for modern farming, like the herbicide glyphosate, play havoc with the human gut. This problem not only obstructs digestion, but also invites the so-called “21st century lifestyle diseases” like diabetes, hypertension, obesity, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and autism among others.
One more alarming problem that industrial farming causes hormonal changes in the human body. Crops are routinely infused with steroids for better outputs. However, when such crops are ingested, the hormones in them make way to the body thus possibly altering normal physiology in the long term. According to research, such GM crops or food turn into endocrine disruptors thus increasing infertility, destroy umbilical cord cells and even lead to defects in newborns.
Similarly, research has propounded that modern methods of wheat farming have increased gluten intolerance thus leading to celiac disease in many. This modern ‘wheat breeding’ as experts call it, has also taken away all the nutrients away from the crop, leaving it only with all starch. This, again, has increased the risk of not only lifestyle diseases, but also conditions like cancer, depression and dementia among others.
The use of synthetic additives like artificial colours and sweeteners in modern farming have also been linked to allergies, migraines, hyperactivity and learning difficulties in humans.
Today, people have become more aware of the health hazards of GM foods or crops grown with the use of industrial techniques. Thus the realization that traditional, natural agriculture was a proven method to gain good health.
Traditional farming techniques do not make use of antibiotic or drug cocktails to produce healthy crops. Research propounds that foods grown using traditional methods may have lower amounts, but higher quality of proteins. The food made with the help of crops that have been produced by traditional farming has proven to be more nutritious – in the sense that they contain antioxidant and anti-cancer properties. Also, they boast of being fresh and high in nutritional value because no chemicals have been added to them to increase their shelf-life.
At Grain2Grind, we make sure to engage with those involved in ethical farming practices. The soil of the farms our grains are sourced is not tampered with harsh chemicals or fertilizers thus enriched by natural living soil . A pure harvest means you get high levels of nutrients, fibers and other minerals on your plate. To experience the goodness of stone-milled freshly ground atta yourself, order your batch from us now!
Sources –
https://www.beyondpesticides.org/assets/media/documents/journal/bp-36.4-w17-Antibiotics-Cited2.pdf
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/interviews/prevention-is-the-only-cure-21092
https://www.naturalmedicinejournal.com/journal/2016-04/modern-industrial-foods-and-their-effects-human-body
https://orgprints.org/19504/1/Report_2011_%281%29.pdf
Comments are closed
