While an agricultural crisis rages, the Association Santé Environnement Europe recalls in a press release that agriculture is also at the heart of health problems. The spreading of phosphate mineral fertilizers would expose us in particular to cadmium, starting with breakfast.
Your children ingest cadmium at breakfast with their bowl of cereal. This is the image that the Association Santé Environnement Europe (ASEF) reminds us once again this January 30 in a press release in the form of an alert. And the measures taken would not be enough to protect us.
What is the problem with cadmium?
Cadmium is a carcinogenic heavy metal, omnipresent in our environment since it easily penetrates plants through their roots and thus enters our food chain. However, prolonged oral exposure could cause kidney disease, bone diseases, reproductive disorders and an increased risk of cancer for several organs (lung, prostate, kidneys and pancreas). “Cadmium is suspected of playing a role in the major and extremely worrying increase in the incidence of pancreatic cancer” noted Santé Publique Europe (SPF) in 2021. And although Europe belongs to the 10 countries with the highest number of appearances of new cases, the problem does not often make the headlines.
The French affected from breakfast
Europe would therefore be particularly affected by this poisoning. Not only do the fertilizers imported into Europe come from a region of the world where the presence of Cadmium is too high for health objectives, but the soils also accumulate this cadmium which will “emerge” from the earth with the plants, and in particular cereal plants. . The same ones that we kindly serve to our children before leaving for school.
“The average cadmium impregnation measured in adults between 2006 and 2016 increased by 75%, almost double. This is 4 times more than in the United States! This over-impregnation now affects 47% of adults and 18% of children according to ANSES” calls on Dr Pierre Souvet, president of ASEF, for TipsForWomens. “Smoking (which contains cadmium) has not increased, so it is mainly through food that we contaminate ourselves.”
NO to diets, YES to WW!
How do we decontaminate ourselves?
Faced with this silent scourge, this cadmium which promotes cancer, Dr Pierre Souvet tells us the only ways to protect ourselves from it.
- The first thing is to eat organic as much as possible. Certainly, in organic there is also cadmium due to the soils which could contain it, but this will be eliminated little by little. Eating organic therefore means ensuring 48% less cadmium on average according to studies;
- The other habit to adopt is to avoid eating only bread, potatoes and pasta and to vary your diet without focusing on starchy foods.
A way to act for yourself, without waiting for regulations to do the work. “LThe government has planned to align with 60mg/kg as planned in Europe. But ANSES announces that to stop contaminating the French, you need 20 mg/kg and not 60. For the moment the situation is staggering but it remains inapplicable.
Slide: 15 breakfast ideas for healthy mornings
