The Renaissance Humans Podcast Andrew Perlot

Study after study has found high levels of heavy metals - like lead, arsenic, and cadmium - in processed food and supplements. In this episode of the Renaissance Humans Podcast I talk to Jackie Bowen of the Clean Label Project, which tests processed foods for contamination. We talk about what her testing has shown, government regulation and food testing, and much more.

There's a beautiful space inside of us that few bother to visit in the modern world. Since the beginning of humanity, this space has been a font of inspiration as well as a peaceful retreat when life gets hectic. 

Today we're going to talk about the two ways you choose a different option, and have two different experiences with the space inside of you that shows up when you make space for it.

We're going to talk about meditation and finding inspiration.

In this episode I talk about how I ran across the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius's book, Meditations, when I was 16 years old, and how it planted three important ideas in my brain that have never left. 

These three ideas allowed me to escape the obesity, colitis, headaches, depression, and other problems that had dogged me for much of my early life.

Almost anyone can be healthy at 20 and build enough fitness to run a Triathlon if they're willing to work hard enough.
But what about at 81? What sort of diet and lifestyle regimen does it take the preserve enough of your body's functionality and mental capacity so that you can still suit up for the starting line in your eighth decade of life?
In today's podcast I talk to Dr. Ruth Heidrich, who's run more than 60 marathons and triathlons and taken home more than 1,000 medals, held three world fitness records for her age group, was once voted among the top 10 fittest women in North America, and accomplished most of this after beating cancer of the breast, bone, and lung.
In the interview we talk about the singular dietary strategy she used to beat cancer and fuel her athletic pursuits, as well as:
How she's aging physically and mentally in comparison her peers. Beating cancer, arthritis, and building her bones. What keeps her enthused about life at 81. The heavy opposition and derision she faced when she upgraded her diet in the 1980s. What she eats on a daily basis. What daily training looks like for an 81-year-old triathlete.

Do you feel guilty eating a pesticide-sprayed strawberry?
Outreach programs like the Environmental Working Group's "Dirty Dozen List," have convinced many people that unless they're eating organic, they're poisoning themselves and causing cancer. After all, if there's an organic program, it must be because synthetic pesticides are unhealthy and we need a better alternative, right?
But here's the thing: most toxicologists and other food safety experts look at the science investigating this topic and conclude that there's no health advantage to be had from organic.
In this episode of the Renaissance Humans Podcast I talk to Dr. Carl Winters, Ph. D., of the University of California at Davis. He's the Director of the FoodSafe Program and Extension Food Toxicologist in the Department of Food Science and Technology, and has spent much of his career investigating the effects that pesticide residues have on us, and what the health tradeoffs might be if you choose organic over conventional.

Dr. Steve Savage: "Many consumers believe that the Organic label means the food has superior nutrition and is safer, especially in regard to pesticide residues.  This is not true. Studies have shown no appreciable difference in nutrition between crops grown either organically or conventionally." Organic food is healthier and better for the environment, right? Did you ever stop to consider how you learned this? In this episode of the Renaissance Humans Podcast I speak with Dr. Steve Savage, a plant pathologist who's spent over 30 years in the agriculture industry. Dr. Savage is deeply concerned with the challenges of feeding our world's growing population with healthy food, but when it comes to organic, he thinks the wool has been pulled over our eyes. In this conversation we talk about:
Is organic food safer for consumers? How about farm workers? How organic food production damages our environment. Should we buy produce imported from foreign countries with lax agricultural safety standards? The problems with the Environmental Working Group's "Clean 15" If you're not interested in the whole interview, you can skip around to the specific topics you'd care to hear about with the show notes list below.
Listen to the episode on itunes here.
 
 
Show Notes:
How did everyone come to believe organic fruits and vegetables are superior for our health when there's not a lot of hard evidence suggesting this? 4:25 What sort of chemicals will you find on USDA certified food? 7:10 The USDA's safety program and the testing done on organic foods. 10:14 Does all conventional produce have pesticide residue on it, and what does the Environmental Working Group Ignore? 12:07 Are USDA/EPA toxicologists politically-silenced, incompetent, or lacking the tools to know if conventional food is harmful? 14:47 The Environmental Working Group's argument 15:57 How has the danger presented by synthetic pesticide sprays changed over time? 16:59 Scale of natural vs man-added pesticides on produce 20:15 What relevance does the “Clean 15,” really have? 23:37 Why the USDA doesn't claim organic will make you healthier, and what the purpose of the organic program is 26:37 Can organic be worse for the environment? 30:00 Why is it so much harder for organic growers to do environmentally-friendly no-till production? 34:00 How many calories or pounds per acre can you produce in organic vs conventional food production? 36:07 Can we feed the population we have with organic food? How about the growing population of 10 billion people? 39:47 Would Dr. Savage eat organic if he was in China? 42:20 Would organic production fix Gulf Of Mexico dead zone? 44:27 Could local production, permaculture, or small farms fix our environmental issues? 47:43 Does conventional food production harm agricultural workers? 51:26 Why the children of farm workers have stunted IQs 56:01 Andrew's Thoughts conventional produce safety. 1:00:42 Is synthetic produce dangerous if we eat way more produce than average? 1:05:03 Should we be concerned with eating imported grapes from Chile or other foreign countries? 1:07:06 How did Dr. Savage get involved with agriculture. 1:09:22 Looking forward, what are the major agricultural advances that could help us out? 1:13:34