This week, The Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine Mainely Moms and Dads confirmed the chemical is still out there, and it can be found in many of the foods we’re giving our babies and toddlers. From the organization’s news release:

“The Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine sent fifteen containers of food to Anresco Laboratories for analysis in January and released the results today. BPA was found in 11 of the 12 sampled containers of baby food manufactured by Beech-Nut, Gerber, Earth’s Best Organic and Shaw’s Wild Harvest brand. It was also found in all three of the canned foods sampled including Campbell’s Disney Princess SpaghettiOs, Dora the Explorer soup, and Chef Boyardee macaroni and cheese.”

This is pretty scary. In case you haven’t seen the data: Teams of independent researchers have found that BPA isn’t as safe as once though. The reason: It acts as an endocrine disruptor, mimicking human hormones like estrogen. People have linked it to increased risk of breast cancer, thyroid issues, lowered male fertility rates, decreased birth weight, and wheezing, among other ailments and issues. Another October 2011 Harvard School of Public Health study found BPA exposure in the womb is linked to behavioral and emotional difficulties in girls. Of course the folks who bring us this plastic and resin say it’s perfectly fine. Me? I’m thinking that all those researchers can’t be wrong, which is why I limit my family’s BPA exposure as much as possible.

The smart folks in Maine are asking manufacturers of food intentionally marketed or sold to children under three to replace BPA or disclose how much BPA is in their packaging. They say a second phase will ask for a complete ban of the substance. It’s a start, I guess, but I’d rather see our governments come out and ban BPA in all food containers as well as anything that might be ingested by kids or adults. What do you think?

• About 10 percent of the juices that CR sampled (from five brands) showed arsenic levels that “exceeded federal drinking-water standards. Most of that arsenic was inorganic arsenic, a known carcinogen.”
• 25 percent of samples had lead levels “higher than the FDA’s bottled-water limit of 5 ppb. As with arsenic, no federal limit exists for lead in juice.”
• We’re getting a large portion of our arsenic exposure from apple and grape juice. CR called the juices, “a significant source of dietary exposure to arsenic,” according to its analysis of federal health data from 2003 through 2008.
• Kids are drinking a heck of a lot of juice. According to a CR parents poll, 25 percent of kids under five drink more juice than their pediatricians recommend.

Consumer Reports says the source of the arsenic and lead is contaminated apple orchards. Soil is contaminated due to a number of reasons, For example, arsenic-based pesticides that were used in the past are still hanging around. Plus, there’s plenty of arsenic and lead in the environment from things like the production of pressure-treated wood.  Even more significant, I think, (and something the CR article points out, too) is the fact that much of our apple juice is made from concentrate that comes from China, a country that still uses arsenic-based pesticides.

I have always had a few rules about juice. First, anything my kids drank had to be 100 percent juice — no high fructose, sugar-added junk for us. Second, it had to be organic. Finally, juice was an occasional thing. We drink it sparingly at playdates, at mommy-and-me classes, and always watered it down in a 2-to-1 ratio of water to juice.

These rules, I assumed, would keep my girls healthier. We would avoid pesticides and reduce our risk of obesity. After all, juice is way better than the other options out there — aside from water, of course. Two separate 2010 studies out of Louisiana State University Agricultural Center and Baylor College of Medicine seemed to support my theory.

One study found that children between the ages of two and five who drank 100 percent fruit juice had “significantly” higher daily intakes of vitamin C, potassium, and magnesium and “significantly lower intakes of added sugars compared to non-fruit juice consumers.” Juice drinkers, for some reason, also ate more whole fruits and whole grains. The other study — of children ages six to 12 — had similar results. Kids who drank juice took in more key nutrients and ate more dietary fiber, according to the study. In addition, “overall diet quality, as assessed by the Healthy Eating Index — a measure that evaluates conformance to federal dietary guidance — was higher in all fruit juice consumers assessed.”

Great. Juice is good for adults, too, as studies have found that it can reduce the risk of some cancers and is beneficial to cardiovascular health. Except, of course, when the juice contains carcinogens. So what’s a parent to do? I plan on sticking to water or orange juice for a while, or limiting my purchases to apple and grape juices that are organic and clearly marked, “Made in the U.S.A.” How about you?

The story has been the same all over the Island. Everyone, or so it seems, is talking about how crazy-vicious the mosquitoes are and how SOMEONE should do something. This weekend we got a call telling us that Nassau County was going to do that something: The county was going to be spraying my area and others surrounding us with Scourge, a resmethrin- and piperonyl butoxide-based pesticide since someone in the area had been diagnosed with West Nile virus.

As much as I hate those bugs, as much as I wish they were gone, I wish the county had simply let nature — and the impending cold weather — take care of the mosquitoes.

First off, I really don’t like the fact that our county executive robo-called everyone in Nassau warning them to keep their windows and doors closed, take children’s toys inside, cover fish ponds, and keep pets inside. The fact that it would take the time to do this means that these are not simple warnings. There is actual danger. And I really hate the product spec sheet from Bayer Environmental Science, the company that manufactures Scourge. “Harmful if absorbed through the skin,” and even better, “Caution. Keep out of the reach of children. Hazard to humans and domestic animals. This pesticide is highly toxic to fish.”

But what I really hate is that experts have come out against spraying, linking it to cancer, behavioral and developmental issues, and respiratory problems. The Cancer Prevention Coalition, founded by Samuel S. Epstein, M.D., who is at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Public Health, has a long, scary FAQ about Scourge. Here are some of the highlights taken directly from the site:

• About one-fourth of the Scourge formula is “inert ingredients,” including petroleum by-products.
• Unpublished data by the manufacturer reveal that Resmethrin is cancer-causing, with specific risk of liver and thyroid cancers.
• Unless homes are air-tight and windows are closed at the time of spraying, all residents living in the vicinity of Scourge applications are at risk from inhalation.
• The EPA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health have emphasized that the inerts used in Scourge are frequently contaminated with the potent carcinogen benzene, a well-documented cause of leukemia and other malignancies.
• There are many case reports on these inert ingredients causing respiratory problems including irritant and allergic responses, asthma and conjunctivitis following inhalation or skin exposure to Scourge.
• Children and the elderly are at increased risk for problems.
• There are less toxic control methods that are just as effective.

Another source — the California Environmental Protection Agency — in a 2007 study reported that “for resmethrin, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has concluded that there is a likely risk of carcinogenicity in humans, requiring the manufacturers to provide more detailed data to prove that it can be used safely in vector control.”

And yes, according to the National Pesticide Information Center (NPIC), the chemical takes a long time to leave the environment. According to the chemical’s fact sheet: “The typical half-life of resmethrin in the soil is 30 days.” So after a month, about half of the amount of pesticide sprayed is still out there. The worst part, also according to the NPIC, is that the reason the county is spraying in the air is that it is released as an “ultra-low volume (ULV) spray” that lets “very tiny droplets that stay in the air and kill flying mosquitoes that may carry public health diseases.” The way I am reading that is that the spray sticks around a bit in the air. How long? Who knows?

I called Nassau County this morning and was told that the spraying trucks, which get a police escort, will be driving up and down blocks tonight between 7 p.m. and 2 a.m. The Scourge is blasted out 75 feet on either side of the truck, which means it will be coming right at my house, my windows, my front door. I’m really pissed.

Today, when I dropped Little Girl off at school I asked the director if she will be washing the outside equipment tomorrow. In the morning especially there is dew all over everything and it will intermingle, I assume, with a dose of Scourge. The director said the kids would be staying inside all week because she wouldn’t have time to power wash until the weekend. Sigh. I hated being the bearer of bad news, but I am glad my child, who is constantly touching her nose, eyes, and mouth, will be protected from the Scourge. Of course, the better protection would have been to avoid spraying in the first place.

The sick, crazy part is I just got off the phone with a staffer at Nassau County executive Edward P. Mangano’s office who told me that the county did not want to spray. That they had hoped the mosquitoes would die when we got a frost earlier in the month, but that they got “beaten up” in the press for not spraying. The source also said (and yes, I identified myself as a journalist) that he agreed with my safety concerns and that the chemical “probably” is a carcinogen, and that’s why the office does as much as it can putting out press releases and letting people know about the dangers, but the media and the public just don’t care. And that is the most depressing fact of all.

My in-laws and my mom were here for dinner and a visit. After dinner I went out to pick up some ice cream. The place was surprisingly quiet for a Sunday evening. I ordered my quart of banana ice cream and then decided I’d get some hot fudge for the grown-ups. The girl brought out two clear plastic cups to show me the different sizes available. I wanted the larger one, I said, but could she put it in a paper cup? My 7-year-old might have some and I didn’t want to have to worry about BPA leaching into the fudge. After all, hot liquids and plastic should never go together.

The girl, not sure of what to tell me, went into the back and brought out the owner’s son. I explained what I wanted. “I don’t want hot liquid going into plastic since I have two little ones and I’m afraid of BPA,” I explained. I asked for the same amount to be squirted into a plastic cup. He was downright nasty, holding up the plastic and telling me that THIS was how it was served. I understood, I said, but I didn’t want the plastic. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, everything is dangerous, and then they find out it’s not. You are the first person to ever complain about this. THIS is how it’s served,” said the son, who definitely never went to business school. Okay, so I would skip the hot fudge that night, I figured, but I had an idea. “Well, how about if I bring my own container next time?” He sneered at me like I was stupid. “THIS is how it is served.” I was stunned. He was being rude and disrespectful to me, a good customer, in front of other customers. THAT’S how you treat someone who has been patronizing your store and sending people your way for more than a decade? When he walked away I asked the clerk what the guy’s name was. Brendan, she told me.

This morning I called over to the store. I recounted my story. Not once did the owner apologize for her son’s behavior. Instead, she told me that they are very busy and very overworked and that did not sound like Brendan so I probably caught him at a bad time or maybe…and she sort of trailed off as if to imply that maybe I had been nasty to him. Then she finished her thought telling me that they deal with people all day and everyone has special requests and people “push” them. I did not push, which is why I started getting really mad. I am nice to a fault to anyone dealing with the public. I waitressed at diners for more than a decade — from the age of 13 until 23. I worked in towns that are notoriously tough. I know how people treat waitresses, retail clerks, cashiers, service people. Many treat them like dirt. As such, I go above and beyond when I am dealing with anyone who works with the public.

I explained that to her, telling her that as someone who worked with the public for a decade, I knew from Day 1 how important it is to be nice. “Maybe,” I said, “You should apologize for your son’s nasty behavior. The customer is always right,” I told her. She proceeded to tell me that they are short-staffed and how would I feel if someone called me and started complaining about my child. (Keep in mind that her “child” is well into his 20s from what I can see.) I didn’t tell her (I should have) but if my child was rude to someone at my business establishment I’d be pretty mad at my child. And I would apologize to that customer. But that’s just me, I guess.

Since she really didn’t believe that her child was mean, I told her that maybe she should talk to the other clerks and ask them how nasty her son was. My clerk, for example, looked like she was shell-shocked, I told her. The owner asked me what the clerk looked like. When I told her, she had the nerve to tell me that THAT clerk is new and she always looks shellshocked. Really???

We finished the call. She said she’d “look into” the BPA issue, but really, it was not a huge deal. She was so busy and had so much work to do. Bottom line: I did not get an apology. I got more rudeness. I am really stunned not just that the son was so mean but that she acted the way she did without knowing all the facts. Bad business in my opinion. Too bad she couldn’t just show me a little kindness and compassion. Instead, she defended bad customer service and lost a really good customer.

And the worst part, of course, is that they are still pour piping hot liquid fudge into clear plastic containers. It’s amazing to me that people in the food industry would be so uninformed about BPA and its dangers. They should be avoiding plastic whenever possible, as per a story from today’s DiscoveryNews. According to researchers, even plastic that’s marketed as BPA-free is leeching substances that act as endocrine disruptors.

Contamination occurs in a number of ways. For instance, if someone preparing a hot dog doesn’t wash their hands after going to the bathroom or someone picking food in a field decides to pop a squat and drop a deuce among the veggies rather than making a trek to an outhouse or Port-a-Potty someone you can catch their bug. (Sounds gross, but for those workers who are paid for what they pick a 10-minute poop break means lost cash.) If meat is the source, the E.coli may come directly from the feces of the animal in question. Slaughterhouses are dirty, nasty places, and if an animal poops itself as it’s being electrocuted and that feces gets on the carcass….well, you get the picture. Contamination also happens if the cow’s intestines (filled with E.coli) make it into the ground beef mixture.

Meat that is contaminated can be rendered safe by cooking it thoroughly — bringing its internal temperature up to at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit. You can also mitigate risk by washing and peeling riskier vegetables such as sprouts and spinach, and cooking them as well. And it should go without saying (but I’ll say it) that everyone should wash their hands thoroughly before handling any type of food or eating it.

To date, researchers haven’t figured out where the latest outbreak of E.coli is coming from. They’ve been testing a variety of vegetables including sprouts and cucumbers, but nothing has come back positive yet. As a result, officials are warning people, asking them to avoid eating leafy vegetables and raw tomatoes. For us here in the States, this should be a wakeup call about the way our food is produced. Meat shouldn’t be factory farmed. Vegetables should be picked by people who are allowed to take bio breaks. Me? I’ll just stick with what I’m doing: Buying fresh, locally-sourced meat and vegetables, most of which is organic. I’ll also keep reminding people that if they are sick, they should take extra care with handwashing for at least two weeks after their infection. People don’t realize or don’t know that most stomach bugs take several weeks to leave the digestive system even when there are no symptoms present. You can pass along a stomach bug even if you or your child hasn’t thrown up or had diarrhea for a week or two.

The good news is that the large majority of people who do contract E.coli tend to get better. Still, my heart goes out to the families of those 22 people who died. It’s so sad that they died doing something that should carry no risk.

Most of us probably remember or have used moth balls. Small, smelly white things, they are used to help prevent insect and pest infestation in stored clothing. Carpet beetles, moths, and mice, among other things, hate the smell of moth balls. I do, too, actually, and for good reason. The key ingredient of mothballs is naphthalene or para-dichlorobenzene, which, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is dangerous stuff. “Inhaling para-dichlorobenzene can lead to vomiting, diarrhea, respiratory distress and other illnesses. Swallowing it can damage the nervous system and, in extreme cases, can cause coma or death.” Oh, and it effects your red blood cells. Here’s the EPA’s product fact sheet on the stuff. Babies and children are especially vulnerable as deaths of preemies and infants have been reported after exposure. Nice.

As usual, the European Union is WAY ahead of the United States when it comes to this dangerous chemical. It banned the pesticide in 2008. The reasoning, of course, is that when you open up clothing stored in moth balls, you are inhaling the pesticide. If you can smell it, you are inhaling it. That’s probably why pediatric doctors in Australia and New Zealand are also trying to get the substance banned.

I totally understand why. I opened up my Space Bags three days ago and almost fell over from the smell. I put both bags outside hoping the smell would dissipate. Today, the smell is still just as strong as it was when I first broke the airtight seal. All those beautiful clothes have been rendered unwearable. I’m not sure what I am going to do. Thankfully, I only used moth balls on the 3T stuff, and decided pretty soon after that moth balls were dangerous and stupid so my 4Ts will be as moth ball-free as the 2T, 18 month, and infant stuff was.

So what’s the take-away? Why should you care? It bears a reminder that just because something is sold at the store doesn’t mean it’s healthy or safe to use, especially around children. Here I thought I was doing something smart, and I was doing something extremely stupid by adding a chemical to clothing that would have gone on my kid’s skin. It’s also a reminder to be especially careful when taking out heirloom or stored clothing that may have been stored with the chemical. Moth balls are bad news. Protect your kids, and protect yourself.

And what about all those gorgeous clothes sitting in my backyard? Yesterday I dumped them into a mesh bag. I’ll check them again next week, however I anticipate I’ll be making a trip to the stores soon. I’m thinking it will be fall (at the earliest) before we’ll be able to use them!

Take my dinner tonight. I ate a baby spinach salad dressed with chicken and artichoke hearts and sprinkled with a little balsamic vinaigrette dressing. The spinach was organic. (I should say that when it comes to the Dirty Dozen, the 12 vegetables and fruits that have the most pesticide residue — celery, peaches, strawberries, apples, blueberries, nectarines, bell peppers, spinach, kale, cherries, potatoes, and grapes — I am vigilant with my own diet.) So was the dressing — don’t want to eat non-organic grapes and all. But the chicken and the artichokes were Trader Joe’s conventional stuff.

Granted, they are probably going to be better than what you might find at a regular supermarket, but by how much? Certainly the chicken wasn’t my air-chilled organic chicken breast (it’s so important, that air-chilled part) that I typically buy for the kids. And the artichokes were the non-organic kind sitting in brine and oil. Yummy, to be sure, but probably doused in pesticides since, as I have just learned, artichokes are perfect candidates for “aphids, botrytis rot, and fungus, so most commercial artichokes are sprayed heavily with pesticides and fungicides.” Even worse there’s a list of the top 50 pesticides used on artichokes in California. Really?!? Son of a…

Okay, so now I am sitting here feeling queasy. Sure, as my mother likes to tell me, you can’t live your life in fear. However, if you’re walking around at midnight in a shady section of town and a guy who looks dangerous is walking toward you on the street, wouldn’t you cross the street to avoid any potential problems? Or would you just keep walking and see what happens? Because you can’t live your life in fear. Me, I’d cross the street. Or in this case next time I’ll spend the $3.99, and buy the organic artichoke hearts packed in oil from Whole Foods. Also, next time I won’t be lazy and buy the prepackaged balsamic chicken. I’ll make my own. I guess since the whole monkey see, monkey do comes into effect I should have been doing that all along. Sigh.

The more I learn, the more I wish I didn’t know and the more I wonder how big agriculture can get away with this crap. FIFTY pesticides for a single crop of artichokes? For shame, Mr. and Mrs. Conventional American Farmer. For shame.

I really appreciate you apologizing so profusely when, out of the blue, your 20-month-old went postal on my 2-year-old and smacked her as we passed by. I really do. I wasn’t that fazed by it, actually. Kids are kids. They do nutty things. And I didn’t think a second thought about the fact that the kid was bouncing off the walls and screaming at the top of his lungs so early in the morning. (Wow, he can really shriek, can’t he!) Or that he wasn’t listening to a word you said when you were asking him ever so nicely to apologize. Until, that is, I saw what you were feeding him. A huge cup of Froot Loops, a cup of some otherworld-colored red juice, and a bag of cookies. Hmmm.

Hey, lady, don’t take this the wrong way but how can you expect your kid NOT to be hyped up and wacky when you are feeding him crap for breakfast? Yes, I said it. Crap. A quick read of Fooducate’s excellent blog post — Froot Loops is NOT a “Smart Choice” — about the topic explains why. See, that large cup of cereal you’re giving your kid? Well, it’s probably bigger than the actual serving size that has — get this — 12.5 grams of sugar and 150 calories. In fact, the first ingredient, according to the good folks at Kellogg’s, is SUGAR! Here’s the ingredients list taken from the Google cache of the Kellogg’s website. (I couldn’t get the actual Kellogg’s ingredients page to load live.)

SUGAR; WHOLE GRAIN CORN FLOUR; WHEAT FLOUR; WHOLE GRAIN OAT FLOUR; OAT FIBER; SOLUBLE CORN FIBER; PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OIL (ONE OR MORE OF: COCONUT, SOYBEAN AND/OR COTTONSEED OILS)†; SALT; SODIUM ASCORBATE AND ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C); NIACINAMIDE; REDUCED IRON; NATURAL ORANGE, LEMON, CHERRY, RASPBERRY, BLUEBERRY, LIME AND OTHER NATURAL FLAVORS; RED #40; BLUE #2; TURMERIC COLOR; YELLOW #6; ZINC OXIDE; ANNATTO COLOR; BLUE #1; PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6); RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2); THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B1); VITAMIN A PALMITATE; BHT (PRESERVATIVE); FOLIC ACID; VITAMIN D; VITAMIN B12. † LESS THAN 0.5g TRANS FAT PER SERVING.

I love Fooducate’s take on this, so I will just provide it below.

“In fact, Froot Loops is 41% sugar by weight. And Whoa(!) partially hydrogenated vegetable oil too. Doesn’t sound like a smart choice to us. A 1 oz serving (which by the way is too small for regular people) contains 12 grams of sugar – that’s 3 teaspoons. 48 of the 110 calories per serving are from sugar.”

I will give Kellogg’s props for going for the real sugar over the high fructose junk, but still…that’s a lot of sugar! What, you don’t think sugar riles kids up? Okay, well you can’t dispute the fact that the artificial colors do. About two years ago The Center for Science in the Public Interest formally petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to ban eight artificial colors that had been conclusively linked to hyperactivity in children: Yellow 5, Red 40, Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3, Orange 8, Red 3, and Yellow 6.

The FDA in March will finally get around to determining whether or not the ban should happen. Meanwhile, in Europe, there’s already a warning label on foods that contain these chemicals: “Consumption may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.” But I digress as always…

By my count, there are four of the six offending colors in Froot Loops. Wow. So maybe, just maybe that’s the reason your kid is acting a little wacky? Kid eats food dyes and LOTS of sugar. Kid goes bonkers and starts smacking anything that walks by it. Sort of like a rabid dog. But instead of rabid we’ll call it hopped up on sugar and food dyes kid. And we haven’t even touched the colored water masquerading as juice or the bag of cookies!

Okay, so getting back to the point of this letter. Again, I am so fine with the fact that your kid smacked my kid in an unprovoked manner. Kids that young are just learning. I can even overlook the frenetic behavior. Big resort. Micky and Minnie hanging out close by. However, I am not fine with the fact that you’re giving him food that’s possibly making him nuts. Maybe you could try a more healthy alternative next time? If not for your kid’s health but the health of the innocent bystanders?

Getting off my soap box now, and thanks in advance! Love, –KB

This post is how I am participating this week in Real Food Wednesdays and Fight Back Fridays — two awesome campaigns to get people eating real food again.

“Doctors have long recognized that the unsaturated fats in fish, called omega-3 fatty acids, appear to reduce the risk of dying of heart disease. For many years, the American Heart Association has recommended that people eat fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids at least twice a week.”

And that’s where you lose me. I am not a fan of fish. I am a tuna-only kind of gal both because I don’t love the taste, and I am worried when the Food & Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency come out and warn against eating too much fish due to high levels of mercury and PCBs. (And that was before the BP oil spill, which HAS to affect the fish in that area — where we get most of our fish.) Okay, digressing…so bottom line: While I know plenty of people who take fish oil supplements and eat their weekly fish, I am not one of them. Sigh. I’ve been getting my omegas from flax seed (love, love, love Trader Joe’s Soy & Flaxseed Tortilla Chips) and eggs. Last night, I went to a food event in the city, and found another source of DHA, though: life’sDHA, which is DHA that comes directly from algae.

I have to admit when I got to the event and saw life’sDHA I almost walked by. I hate telling people I don’t want to taste their products, and in this case I assumed fish. But I stopped and read the paraphernalia.

“Martek’s microalgae are grown in fermentors that range in size from 80,000 to 260,000 liters. The algae are then harvested and processed to extract the DHA-rich oil. The finished product is a clear, amber-colored oil rich in DHA.”

Hmmm. Okay, so that sounded good. But then another editor there asked the Martek guy about the extraction process, which, she said, used hexane, an explosive volatile solvent that is a byproduct of gasoline refining. (Uggg. A petroleum product AND a neurotoxin!) The Martek guy was very clear: The life’sDHA in the products that you find in the supermarket do not use hexane. I emailed him today just to be sure. His response:

“You are absolutely correct. For our foods and beverages, we use a water-based extraction process. Basically, we crush the algae and separate the DHA with a water extraction.”

Okay, that sounded better. (I’d still like to see the use of hexane dropped completely. From what I understand it is used to extract all the DHA used in baby formulas.) Of course, health benefits aside, if the food tastes like algae, I’m not eating it.

I was lucky enough to taste several of the products that contain the life’sDHA including Cabot reduced fat cheddar cheese with Omega-3 DHA and Francesco Rinaldi ToBe Healthy Pasta Sauces. Both were actually really yummy. So now, while I won’t stop eating my flax seeds, I have another option when it comes to eating omega acids.

Of course, you can get too much of a good thing, so before you start scarfing down omegas, do a little research. As May Clinic’s dietitian Katherine Zeratsk explained in a recent podcast: “…if someone were to take too much of a supplement, or have a diet extremely rich in the fatty fishes, you should be concerned about exceeding these limits because they could potentially lead to a side effect such as bleeding — something as devastating as a stroke or as simple as a nosebleed.”

Zeratsk also says it’s “extremely difficult” to take in too much, but just thought I’d put it out there. As the old adage says, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Do you worry about getting enough omega acids in your diet? How do you do it if you do worry? I’d like to know.

BTW: This post is how I am participating this week in Real Food Wednesdays and Fight Back Fridays — two awesome campaigns to get people eating real food again.

Lead paint is one of the culprits, so anyone who lives in a home built before 1977 — when the U.S. government banned lead paint — is at risk. Especially if you’ve recently done renovations. But there are other sources as well. Ammunition, foreign mini blinds, or being close to a highway or major road (where, theoretically, there might be a build up of lead from car exhaust) increases risk. Also, there have been many, many toy recalls because of high levels of lead. Who cares, you might wonder? Well, here’s an excerpt from my Parents article:

“Although lead can be toxic to nearly every organ in a child’s body, lead poisoning most commonly causes learning disabilities, speech delays, and behavioral problems, including aggressiveness. Physical symptoms run the gamut from poor appetite to stomach pain to persistent sluggishness…In high doses, lead poisoning can lead to kidney damage, deafness, and coma.”

Scary stuff, right? And now there’s one more source of potential lead to worry about. Yesterday, researchers from Virginia Tech identified another source: brass products in plumbing systems that can leach high levels of lead into drinking water even in brand new buildings. Water faucets and drinking fountains can be affected. Lead leeches out into the water, and then you cook in it or kids drink or bathe in it and you’ve got a problem.

So what’s a person to do? Get your kids tested for lead, of course. Some states mandate testing in childhood, some don’t. (Anyone on Medicaid, for example, gets the test.) It’s a simple pinprick. And just because your child passes the test (has low levels) at 18 months, ask for a retest every few years. You can also get tested before getting pregnant to make sure you have a clean bill of health since the fetus can be affected by high lead levels. (High lead levels are linked to an increased risk of maternal high blood pressure or preeclampsia.)

Have you ever done a home lead test? Have your kids been tested for lead? I’d like to know.