Be Vigilant!

 

Whether if you're at home or on the road traveling, it is vital that a person looks after their selves, including what you eat.

This isn't the paper that goes over what not to eat and what to eat to stay healthy. No.

This is about bugs! 😱😱😰

All foods that have been grown can be laced with bugs. Bugs meaning insects, bacteria, fungi, and virus.

It's a well-known fact that there are animals, insects, birds, reptiles, humans, and etc. out in the great outdoors.

And these creatures will walk, fly, stand, or crawl, etc. on and over plants that grow. Thus, there is a great chance of the animal, insect, bird, reptile, or etc. has excreted on the plant growing, depositing fecal matter, urine, or vomit. There is also a great chance that an insect has taken up residency in the fruits of the plant. (Vegetables and fruit). 

O.k. well if you're o.k. with that, then let’s look a bit closer at the content of the fecal matter, urine, and/or vomit.

If we were to take a magnifying glass or a telescope to the plant, we'd see that in this fecal matter, urine, and/or vomit that was deposited on the plant, there are thousands of bacteria, virus, and/or fungi.

Many of these bacteria, virus, and fungi are virulent strains to people, causing food poisoning, infection, and at times death. Even the foods that have been washed numerous times can contain bugs, dead or alive.

 

What can we do?

Well, I can tell you, do not panic or don't stop buying foods grown outside.

• For all plants we eat, whether if we buy it from the store, whether it's been processed/washed by the store, or if we grow it ourselves, we must clean the plant before eating it. 

1.      Try washing produce that is hard to wash due to being fragile by way of soaking it in vinegar water. The vinegar creates an acidic environment that many bugs do not like. Try soaking for 10 minutes, swooshing it around from time to time. Look closely at the plant, making sure to clean off mud/dirt left on it. Notice if there are any dead insects left on it. I'm not an expert, but I've added about 1/4 cup of white vinegar to 1/2 gallon of water. (Lettuce, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, kale, etc.) Note-I’ve been told many restaurants do not re-wash lettuce that comes to them marked washed from their suppliers. It is served straight from the packaging.
2. With other plant products that are sturdy and do not absorb water while washing, I'll use diluted dish soap and water, rubbing constantly around the produce with the diluted soap, then rinsing it off immediately, rubbing while rinsing. I have taken an old dish soap bottle that has about 1 inch of soap left in the bottom. (Note, this is hand-washing dish soap, ONLY!) I'll fill the bottle up with water. Mix. This is my vegetable/fruit wash. This soap was made edible to use on dishes, but the taste of it, if left on the produce is horrible. This is why I use diluted dish soap on my produce. It's easier to rinse off. I'll use this for oranges, bananas, apples, turnips, etc.
3. I know others have suggested using vinegar water and adding baking soda. It creates a great reaction making you think it's cleaned your plant products. But in my thoughts, the reaction is a base (baking soda) mixing with an acid (vinegar). What happens when they meet? They create a boiling effect and the base is neutralized and the acid is neutralized, meaning the water is probably similar to water at a pH of 7. So, pH 7 will not help to get rid of bugs. But if baking soda was used alone, the pH would be around 8. When introduced to water, it will be closer to 7.5?  If white vinegar is used alone, it's pH would be around 2.5. So, when mixed with water, the pH maybe around 4? So, by looking at this, I'd think the vinegar would be best to use to help kill and rinse off bugs (bacteria, virus, and fungi.)

All the above ideas are what I practice in my kitchen every day. They have worked well for my family and I.

• But when it comes to bugs, the insect type, try looking close at all your plant products. I've had a live broccoli worm from my store-bought broccoli show up on my crown of broccoli!  I've had worms show up on my organic home-grown lettuce. My daughter unfortunately found the worms crawling in her lettuce salad. And this was even after washing both items very well and looking at it!

Even if the produce isn't organic, there still is, off and on, insects showing up on them or in them.

• Each time I use the wonderfully tasty Medjool dates from California, I will cut open each date and look closely at the inside. At times, the date looks great! Other times, there may be a black fungus growing in it, due to a rainy season in California. Other times, I've off and on found either chewed up date inside or the actual worm! The chewed-up date is a sign there is an insect inside. I throw out all insect infected dates or fungi infected dates.
• How about apples? Cut them open and look inside the core. At times, I find fungi. Other times, there can be a worm, eating from the inside out. I throw out all infected fruit away.
• Cracking open nuts from their shells can share with you a nut contaminated with either fungi or an insect.
• When buying wheat flour, while opening the bag, place your nose in the opening. Take a big breath in through your nose. It should smell like sweet wheat flour. But if it smells like fungi, then your bag of flour is contaminated with fungi microorganisms that form mycotoxins. This happened during processing of the wheat. Mycotoxins are extremely toxic to all who consume them causing acute symptoms in a person. Never eat this type of flour. Bring it back to the store for your money back. If you need flour at this point, try a different brand for a while. 

          I remember one Christmas season, before I started to smell my flour, I made batches of Christmas cookies. Each time I ate a cookie; I'd taste an undertone of fungi! It got to the point I just threw out all of my cookies. A great expense with flour and butter prices! Bad flour can ruin your baked goods and can have detrimental effects on your health.

All in all, don't be afraid to buy produce including organic. But at the end of the day, it's up to you to protect your health and your family’s health. And a way to do this is to "clean" the produce/plant products yourself every time you go to consume them.

By Cynthia Bergsbaken, Reiki Master of Reiki in the Prairie LLC

Disclaimer by Reiki in the Prairie LLC and Cynthia Bergsbaken copyright 2015

I am not a psychologist, psychiatrist, or medical doctor.  These articles I have written, are from reading and experiencing them.  Many of these articles are my own experiences with my own inventions to heal as well.

If you have a medical condition-physically/mentally/emotionally, please see a qualified medical doctor.  Do not substitute my articles for proper medical care.  You are too important to the world.

I have used all procedures I have written about and have found them to be helpful as tools to help myself become a better person.   I am sharing them with you because used as a tool, they are helpful in Shadow working on ourselves.  (Shadow working is healing our inner shadows that are unconscious or subconscious.  Inner shadows are our belief systems, our thoughts, our behaviors, our life experiences.)

I created this blog for my Reiki clients originally.  Combining these tools with Reiki creates a happy, healthy person.  These tools, when used alone are also beneficial!

 

 Resources:

1. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8908971/

***All original content is copyrighted by Cynthia Bergsbaken, Perceptive Blogger & Reiki in the Prairie LLC.

Reiki in the Prairie LLC is a legal Entity under law, 2015.

April 11, 2020

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