Study Looks at Particles Used in Food:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/06/busin ... group.html
I'm wondering why, if there's any reasonable worry here (who thinks there isn't?), the FDA can't just go ahead and require a label so consumers can at least make their own choices as to what goes into their mouths?
Assuming nothing is done soon on this, I'm wondering whether the wave of the future won't just be Leaky Gut Syndrome from gluten and casein intolerance, but a new thing that takes forever to identify: millions more Leaky Gut problems from nano intolerance. And tons of people as sick as we are from diseases that never had to happen.
And about that nano thing... does the whole body gains its own leaky kinds of problems, whether it's connected to the gut or not? The mouth, the nasal passages, the sinuses in the face, the skin... whatever part gets exposed to the nano particles, I suppose. No such thing as a blood brain barrier.
I just remembered that infants can't read labels or make informed choices. Neither can the mentally handicapped.
Why should the profit motives of making things sell better--like making whiter donuts or creamier fast foods--override common sense in protecting the public?
Personally, I wish we had a more proactive FDA.
Nano: Hello Leaky Gut?
Moderators: Rosie, Jean, CAMary, moremuscle, JFR, Dee, xet, Peggy, Matthew, Gabes-Apg, grannyh, Gloria, Mars, starfire, Polly, Joefnh
Hi Mary,
I'm no physicist (maybe Joe can shed some more light on this), but IMO, people who have normal tight junctions should not have any problem accidentally absorbing particles in the 10 nm range. The tight junctions open to accept amino acids (they try to keep out molecules). Most amino acids run around 1 nm in size — the largest amino acid is tryptophan, which is about 1.2 nm long.
Of course nanoparticles would probably be a problem for us, because while we are reacting, most of us have a leaky gut and our tight junctions are locked open too wide (wide enough to allow peptides and molecules to pass through into the bloodstream). Perhaps nanoparticles are why we have problems tolerating some processed foods that should otherwise be safe, according to their ingredient list.
IMO, if they should pass through the tight junctions (because of increased intestinal permeability), then they would be likely to cause the same symptoms of arthritis-like pain and inflammation of joints that we have to deal with when we have increased intestinal permeability, because the immune system would almost surely recognize them as foreign agents once they enter the blood stream, and cause inflammation in the joints and any organs wherever they happen to be deposited. But I could be wrong.
Most people who have normal digestive systems though (i.e., no leaky gut), shouldn't have a problem with them.
Tex
P. S. The FDA doesn't have the foggiest idea how either the digestive system or the immune system works, so they would never recognize the risk involved with nanomaterials.
I'm no physicist (maybe Joe can shed some more light on this), but IMO, people who have normal tight junctions should not have any problem accidentally absorbing particles in the 10 nm range. The tight junctions open to accept amino acids (they try to keep out molecules). Most amino acids run around 1 nm in size — the largest amino acid is tryptophan, which is about 1.2 nm long.
Of course nanoparticles would probably be a problem for us, because while we are reacting, most of us have a leaky gut and our tight junctions are locked open too wide (wide enough to allow peptides and molecules to pass through into the bloodstream). Perhaps nanoparticles are why we have problems tolerating some processed foods that should otherwise be safe, according to their ingredient list.
IMO, if they should pass through the tight junctions (because of increased intestinal permeability), then they would be likely to cause the same symptoms of arthritis-like pain and inflammation of joints that we have to deal with when we have increased intestinal permeability, because the immune system would almost surely recognize them as foreign agents once they enter the blood stream, and cause inflammation in the joints and any organs wherever they happen to be deposited. But I could be wrong.
Most people who have normal digestive systems though (i.e., no leaky gut), shouldn't have a problem with them.
Tex
P. S. The FDA doesn't have the foggiest idea how either the digestive system or the immune system works, so they would never recognize the risk involved with nanomaterials.
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.