Say NO to carbide in bananas which induces cancer
Posted on April 22nd, 2013
Shenali Waduge
We all love to eat bananas and Sri Lanka is famous for a unique variety of them and their taste has stood above the most nations of the world. We eat a lot of bananas in Sri Lanka. However, profiteers have found inventive ways to use hazardous chemicals that artificially ripens fruit causing numerous health hazards. Should we be surprised that cancers are on the rise? Moreover, we why should we pay and get cancers and suffer other health hazards which end up a great source of income to Shylocks in both the food and health industry? Consumers now need to be more vigilant than ever.
Calcium carbide is now used in virtually all fruits to artificially ripen them. Calcium carbide has cancer-causing properties and neurological disorders. Calcium carbide has traces of arsenic and phosphorous. Pregnant women eating such bananas are likely to have children with abnormalities too. Many countries have banned the use of carbide ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” what is the status in Sri Lanka?
Sellers buy cheap immature bananas from damaged trees and then place them in a box together with some carbide blocks which induces them to ripen within 24 hours ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” some use sprays, or dip fruits in calcium carbide mixed with water.
IT IS THE MIDDLEMEN WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR RIPENING AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE.
Calcium carbide generates a gas called acitilin which can generate heat and gas and that is why it is used in the welding industry ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” this is what goes into our bodies when we buy fruits which we think are nutritious and we often force our children and even invalids to eat them too, unknowingly making their conditions far worse.
Previously an apple a day would keep the doctor away ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” but now an apple a day is sure to take you regularly to the doctors!
How to differentiate Naturally ripened bananas from Artificially ripened bananas
Fruits ripen as a result of a natural hormone in the fruit which produces ethylene naturally.
Using calcium carbide makes the fruit produce acetylene gas which is flammable and explosive compared to ethylene. This is artificial ripening because a chemical reaction takes place ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” heat and acetylene gas are produced and ripening process is hastened. Fruits artificially ripened with calcium carbide are soft, have good peel/skin color but there is no flavour and they have a shorter shelf-life. Those which are forced to ripen with carbide are often lemon yellow and their stalks green. Moreover the fruit itself is a clear yellow without any black spots.
A naturally ripened banana in contrast has a dark yellow outer skin, there are small black spots around the bananas and the stalks are black, the flesh is not ripe inside and remains green and raw.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ During the natural ripening the biochemical changes include chlorophyll degradation, biosynthesis or carotenoids (antioxidants, immune system booster, anti-cancer agent), anthcyanins (powerful antioxidant), essential oils plus the flavour and aroma. These healthy chemical changes are lost with artificial ripening.
Some tips on how to choose fruitsƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
1.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Do not choose fruits that are attractive on the outside as they may not be good for health. Fruits that have a uniform colour, for example, a bunch of bananas having a uniform colour, are more likely to have been artificially ripened.
2.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Wash the fruits thoroughly before consuming. Keep them under running water for a few minutes, so that the chemicals are washed away.
3.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Do not buy fruits sold during their off season, as they are more likely to be artificially ripened.
4.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ While eating mangoes and papayas, always remove the peel before cutting fruits into pieces.
With the number of supermarkets offering value-added services it is upto consumers to demand that they personally vouch that the fruits they sell have not been artificially ripened using calcium carbide. Consumers must insist that supermarkets display signs that the fruits they sell should have a SIGN THAT CLEARLY READS ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” THE FRUITS WE SELL ARE NOT ARTIFICIALLY RIPENED ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” until such time consumers should stop buying fruits. The same must apply to vegetables as well. Why should consumers pay and get sick ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” even illnesses that have no cure!
The overall unity of the consumers must combine to make such consumer-friendly initiatives a success because in the end we are all concerned about being healthy and living healthy.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
April 22nd, 2013 at 4:43 pm
People should grow SOME of their veggis and fruits domestically. NOT everyone can do but those who can should do it.
Another way to CULL the Colombians and ensure a healthy life for non – Colombians!
Fruits coming from Vanni and Jaffna are loaded with chemicals although they SAY they aren’t. Because of SALTY and VERY DRY conditions, Jaffna farmers want their fruit to ripe quickly.
April 22nd, 2013 at 6:59 pm
This is corruption coming home to roost. Poor governance, corruption, ignorant political appointees are to be blamed. The sinhalese in the NCP have been poisoned by Arsenic apparently imported as fertiliser, rest by carbide? where are the health care and agricultural officers, where are the ministers who are supposed to safe guard the people. It stinks.
April 23rd, 2013 at 2:07 pm
“Talks with China fail, more troops may be sent to Ladakh
New Delhi: India and China on Tuesday failed to break the deadlock over the deep incursion by Chinese troops at Daulat Beg Oldi(DBO) sector in Ladakh at their second flag meeting and more Indian soldiers may be deployed in the area.
Sources here said the over three-hour-long meeting of Brigadier-level officers at Spanggur Gap in the Chusul sector did not produce any result as the Chinese troops refused to move out from the Indian territory. Brig BM Gupta and Senior Colonel Ayan Yanti led the respective sides.
The Chinese side maintained that the area where they have set up tented posts is part of their territory and denied any intrusion, they said.
India asked the Chinese side at the meeting to withdraw from DBO, which is at an altitude of 17,000 feet, and revert to status quo as was before the incursion, the sources said.
Sources said there was no positive response from the Chinese side and the matter continued to be deadlocked, the sources said.
At the meeting, the Chinese side raised objections to construction of bunkers by India at Phuktsey area and wanted the structures to be demolished.
Sources also said that India may ask for more flag meetings to resolve the issue and avoid any escalation in the situation. The first flag meeting was held on April 18.
Indian Army had earlier sent a team of Ladakh Scouts– an Infantry regiment specialising in mountain warfare- to the DBO sector, manned by the troops of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP)–soon after the incursion was detected.
Additional troops may be deployed in the area if the situation does not de-escalate and Chinese troops do not go back to their old position, sources said.
A platoon-strength contingent of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had come 10 km inside the Indian territory in Burthe in DBO sector on the night of April 15 and established a tented post there.
Details of the agreed position of the Line of Actual Control(LAC) were also shared by both the sides.
Transgressions in the Ladakh sector have taken place earlier also due to differences in perception of the LAC. The Defence Ministry had earlier also maintained that the LAC is not properly demarcated in some areas.
ITBP troops have also established a camp approximately 300 m opposite the Chinese location and is monitoring the development.
PTI”
April 25th, 2013 at 10:09 am
“No to Carbide!” is a drop in the ocean response to save a world being slowly poisoned from many perspectives by the toxins in fertilisers used in cultivation of vegetables, induced hormones in livestock, poultry, farmed fish etc. and what escapes into the atmosphere, the ocean and waterways through effluence of manufacturing industries, and the burning of fossil fuels,and vehicle emissions where the incidence of various forms of cancers and other life threatening ailments have increased alarmingly. The so called pundits seem quite oblivious to the reality of it all where industrial giants and manufacturerers somehow manage that hoax of a cover up in every case to market their products and its all about greed!
There are pandemics on the horizon which are slowly surfacing today based purely upon man created poisons getting into the global food chain and a frightening aspect for the future of mankind.
The moral of the story is a pointer towards how much mankind is interfering with nature where reprisals are bound to be stark and grave for future generations unless remedial action is taken swiftly where hopefully it isn’t already too late.