According to an article published in the Independent (London) on December 7, 2008, entitled “It’s Official: Men really are the weaker sex“, the author, Geoffrey Lean writes: The male gender is in danger…and a host of common chemicals are to blame.
Men, if its one reason to eat organic food, it should be preserving your penis and your masculinity! Read on…
The chemicals are known as “endocrine disrupters” or quite literally “gender benders” because these chemicals will interfere with hormones. The chemicals include: “phthalates” which are used in food wrapping (think shrink wrap on your meat! and other packaged food – especially vaccuum sealed food like cold cuts!), flame retardants in furniture and electrical goods and many pesticides. Now more than ever, eat organic! And, organic local food from the United States (anything that is “organic” but that is grown in a foreign country and imported gets sprayed as soon as it enters the United States! and its probably sprayed with something pretty strong given the xenophobia of our government and foreign dirt and farming! – ever tell a custom agent you’ve been on a farm in a foreign country and you’ll be quarantined for weeks)
A report released by CHEMTrust, a British organization that studies chemicals independently, demonstrated that male fish exposed to these chemicals actually developed eggs in their testicles. The female hormones that end up in the sewage that contaminate these waters from overuse of oral contraceptive pills has also affected the fish in this way. In addition other chemicals are to blame for feminizing properties. There are actual centers of excellence at various universities now dedicated to this gender bender study of endocrine disrupters. It is very scary stuff because the future of our species depends upon this.
As a nutritionist I am especially interested in this and many of my clients, both male and female have complained to me of the inability to get pregnant (females) and trouble with pregnancy with their wives (for my male clients). They all want to know, what can I eat to help and now its more, what shouldn’t you eat! What shouldn’t you expose yourself to, but it may be beyond your control. That is the scary part, that this is no longer a problem of what one person can do, but an entire ecosystem, an entire planet is showing signs that our collective industrialization and the chemicals overflowing in our environment in our drinking water (despite purification folks! even if you are getting your water from Fiji! and I don’t even want to begin to tell you what kind of CO2 damage you are doing by getting water from Fiji not to mention what you are doing to the local economy and water supply in Fiji, but I digress!)
So what’s happening, what is the outcome in humans, because seriously, do we really care about Fish in British waters (we should!!! 1) we eat that fish – and you are what you eat, hate to tell you 2) fish are smaller and show signs of what is happening first before it happens to us, but shows the damage that is coming!)? Well, what is happening is a feminization of the human species. More women are being born than men. Global ratios of women to men are shifting. I know being single and living in a big city, I wonder, where are all the single men, I think sometimes I’m just crazy, but really, there are more women and certainly more women being born. The article in the independent cites how communities where the waters are heavily polluted with phtalates and other gender bender chemicals many more girls are born and in the US and Japan, more than 250,000 babies that should have been born male, have been born female. But somehow the evidence seems weak as a scientist, I wonder, where’s the proof?
The article cites sperm counts are dropping precipitously. Hamsters apparently produce nearly three times the amount of sperm than humans do these days…where they used to produce 150 million per milimeter of sperm fluid, now they produce 60 million over 50 years. The hamsters are still producing 160 million.
While there are always outliers as my good friend Malcolm Gladwell loves to write about, what is more the norm is that people are having trouble reproducing. We are also having less interest in sex, it could be what we are eating through the chemicals in our food, but also what we are drinking, breathing, putting on our skin and putting on our heads at night when we sleep. It is wise to take a look at the composition of your pillow and perhaps eat an organic apple or two if you want to retain your masculinity. Think of your penis!
