by PRS

Created on: December 12, 2009

When food is given a dose of radiation, some of the molecules that make up that food begin to vibrate until chemical bonds are broken and the molecules are broken down into smaller pieces.  The purpose of irradiating food is to destroy bacterial and fungal organisms that are in the food which are harmful to humans.  While the exact molecules that are destroyed cannot be predicted, irradiation does not have a noticeable effect on the taste of food, but it does have a very noticeable effect on the populations of bacteria and fungus.  Not only does destroying the bacteria and fungus make the food safer to eat, it also will increase the shelf-life of the food.  It is important to note that irradiating food does not cause the food to become radioactive.

While this may sound good, there are also many drawbacks to irradiating food.  One of the biggest is the uncertainty of what molecules are being broken down, and what the resultant products will be.  One type of molecule that is greatly effected by irradiation are lipids.  While many people try to control the ratio and types of fats they ingest, irradiated food produces much less predictable fat and lipid content than non-irradiated food.  In fact, some of the lipids and fats produced by irradiation are so unique that they aren't even found in normal food and your body does not know how to deal with them.  Usually these lipids end up floating in your bloodstream and can lead to cardiovascular disease.

Another negative reaction by food to irradiation involves the nutritional value of the food.  Vitamins are small molecules that the body needs to ingest in order to provide a wide variety of functions.  When food is irradiated,  approximately one-quarter of all the vitamins contained in that food is destroyed.  Irradiation also can cause carbohydrates to be reduced to simple sugars.  While this is something that the body does naturally over time, carbohydrates are generally healthier for the body because the body is better able to manage energy levels using carbohydrates rather than simple sugars.

The final negative effect that irradiation has on food is probably the most alarming.  Because irradiation is non-specific on which molecules it destroys, one of the products that is often produced is a class of chemicals called free-radicals.  Free-radicals are small, highly reactive molecules that have been shown to be a leading cause of cancer.  They react very effectively with DNA and cause mutations at a very high rate.  Mutations in the DNA of cells is the cause of cancer.   One things that nutritional research has stressed in the last decade is the importance of eating foods that are high in antioxidants.  Antioxidants are molecules that capture free radicals and prevent them from harming the DNA of cells.

Irradiation is an unnecessary process if food is stored and prepared properly.  While the incidence of bacterial and fungal poisonings can be reduced, Irradiation also increases the cost of food, lowers the nutritional value of food, and introduces free-radicals into the body, which medical research has shown is very harmful.

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