Re: food irradiation stuff (radiation biology lesson?)

["Harald Weiß, D-24147 Kiel" <weiss@ki.comcity.de>]

Peter Fear wrote:

> However, if the cells are
> not dividing, then there appears to be no effect.

> Your digestive system does not bring
> the damaged DNA in from the irradiated food into your cells but
> instead it
> breaks it down into the nucleotide bases. Because of this it doesn't
> matter
> if your food can grow (is viable) or not.
> The main thing is that you do not
> want your food to be "living" because if it is it will change it's
> quality
> and usually for the worse.

All this is so true from a rational point of view, but it won´t help us
completely. Here in Germany I observe quite a lot of people who want
food that is living up to the very monent they eat it or at least to the
moment when they buy it. You won´t convince them by ratio, because they
FEEL that this is essential for having better food than you and I are
contented with. In addition, environmentalists use the argument,
irradiation might break the molecules down to parts that are not proven
to be harmless, so there were a risk unknown in nature.

Now it´s your turn, again.

Standard disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are mine, which only
means that they don´t necessarily coincide with those of my employer or
his customers.

--
Harald Weiß                 weiss@ki.comcity.de
Preetzer Straße 263         Tel  +49 431 7859659
D-24147 Kiel                Fax  +49 431 7859658
..