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What did we eat under socialism and what do we eat today? What effect do current foods have on the human organism? What remains hidden from us and why? Answering these questions is Martin Hyroš, author of the book The Current Quality of Food – The Hidden Genocide of the Czech Nation.
Genocide
Genocide is understood as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such:
- causing serious bodily harm or mental disorders to members of such a group;
- deliberately placing any group in such living conditions as to bring about its complete or partial physical destruction;
- measures aimed at preventing births within such a group.
In the history of humanity we find many periods when people had nothing to eat and therefore ate anything that at least seemingly could stave off hunger.
However, there is only one period when people live in relative prosperity and yet deliberately mix poisons into food that demonstrably damage their health. Unfortunately, we have lived in this period for the last 20 years.
Food quality – how to compare it
To objectively compare and evaluate food quality, we must go into the past and look at the standards that regulated this area before and now.
Fruits and vegetables
With vegetables and fruit we must pay attention especially to two things. To nitrates and pesticides.
Nitrates
What are nitrates?
Nitrates are chemically salts of nitric acid (e.g. potassium or sodium salts) forming a natural component of plant and animal matter (metabolic products).
Possible dangers for the human organism:
By metabolic conversion of nitrates in the human body nitrites are formed and these are further converted into nitrosamines with carcinogenic (cancer-causing) effects. Another danger is nitrates in infants.
They bind to the red blood pigment hemoglobin, which in small children has a different chemical structure, thus blocking the transport of oxygen in the body.
This can cause respiratory problems in children accompanied by bluish discoloration of the tissues – so-called infant cyanosis – up to asphyxiation.
Nitrate limits under socialism and today
Currently official media inform us that nitrate limits „are not exceeded.“ It would seem that everything is in order.
Let’s look at what is hidden under the term limits „were not exceeded“.
Abolition of the nitrate limit for most fruits and vegetables
Here a table of limits is clearly made showing how they changed over time. You can see in it the original, very strict standards valid under socialism (column year 1986), through the partial relaxation of these standards after the regime change (column year 2002) up to the present time, when we are in the EU, and when limits were mostly abolished and the rest were massively raised (column 2012).
From the table it is apparent that everything is subordinated to the highest possible yields, i.e. massive use of fertilizers. It’s about money; no one cares about the population’s health.
Conclusion
For most fruits and vegetables limits are not set at all.
Limits have been raised many times compared to 1986.
The original standards valid under socialism are commonly exceeded by hundreds of percent.
In fact nitrate checks have ceased – during the entire year 2012 only 99 samples of vegetables were tested.
Basic types of vegetables, such as peppers and tomatoes, are not checked.
