Hello everyone. I have had my KP mostly under control for over a year now thanks to the information shared in this message board--I thank everyone for that.

Lately I have been researching the effects of all of the unnatural junk we put into our bodies everyday--and I just wanted to through out a thought on something that may indirectly have an affect on the KP condition.

Most everything we buy in normal grocery stores has either been grown using pesticides, hormones, or some other unnatural or chemical ingredients or processes. There is, however, not a huge amount of 'scientific' evidence on if this harms the body or not. (Go figure??) Ever wonder why you can buy oranges in off-season?? Crop growers use special chemicals and genetically altering drugs in order to force fruit to ripen in off-season. Grains, plants, etc. are grown using many of these procedures, also--and then are fed to the animals that eventually find their places into our grocery stores. In addition, animals are fed chemically enhanced foods and given special hormones in order to produce some desired effect the farmer wants. All of this finds its way into our bodies.

There is a growing amount of information coming out on how devastating all of these chemicals, pesticides, hormones, etc. are on our bodies. This is all of what I have been researching--and I have decided to switch my family's diet to organic foods. The USDA has recently come out with strict guidelines on organic foods and using a "USDA Organic" labeling system. Organic foods are basically foods that were grown without using pesticides, hormones, and other chemicals--the animals have to be fed natural feed and cannot receive certain type of injections. The animals also must be cared for properly (can't be boarded into a crate and just left there to make a certain type of meat, etc.). There is a long list of guidelines concerning these organic foods--the end result being that organic foods are a much healthier source of nutrition for us and our families. Think of this--you may think that you are making a great decision buying that popular brand 100% apple juice on the shelf for your child--however, that apple juice was made from apples sprayed with pesticides and other chemicals, and possible genetically enhanced. When you serve that child that juice, you are serving them those pesticides, chemicals, as well... I don't mean to sound harsh--I serve it to my daughter as well; however, now that I have done this research, I have decided that all of that MUST harm our bodies. How can it not?

The slight down side to this is that many stores do not carry a huge amount of organic foods--partially because the population is not yet demanding it. Some store, Public in my area, carries quite a bit on each isle for the type of food on that isle. There are also many stricly organic stores both online and actual physical stores. There are also chains of larger stores that carry all natural and organic items (Whole Foods). The prices are a little higher than on non-organic foods. This is partly due to organic foods being harder to come by--the mainstream is the non-organic. This is also partly due to the american public not buying them enough. Once more and more people switch to organic foods, these prices will come down (as they already are year by year).

The pros definitely outweight the cons. If money is a big issue for you, you could always stick go partial organic on things just for your children or just certain items that have the most amount of these chemical/hormonal ingredients (animal products (meat, dairy, etc.), fruit, vegetables).

Long story short (well, sorry, I guess this could've been shorter)...research is starting to show that there is strong likelihood that these chemical/hormonal ingredients could be causing cancers, depression, headaches, menopausal and cycle issues, acne, and many more things. Perhaps KP can also be somehow linked to this indirectly. Maybe these ingredients cause a certain type of skin cell irregularity or something...who knows...

I have not read any research on this and KP--I am only 'theorizing' that it may have an effect. And even if it does not...I am happy that I have done this research and made the decision to limit my family's eating of all this JUNK!

Here are a few links or information for anyone who is interested:

Book: What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Premenopause: Balance Your Hormones and Your Life from Thirty to Fifty At Amazon.com--gives description of book
(There is actually many books on this topic overall (not just menopause related) if you do a search.) I just really liked this book.

Natural/Organic Groceries:
Whole Foods
Has ALOT of information about organic foods, guidelines, etc..

USDA Organic Program Site

Hormones in our food
This site has alot of good information.

Kids eat great site


OK....better get back to work...

Something to think about.

Take care.

There is no way to prove that cancer is caused by those added agent but some studies have shown that females growing male pattern facial hair is related to increase of hormones in foods, medications for fertility or preventional of menopausal symptoms.

Since my daughter had bone cancer our family has been eating organic foods and grain fed animals with out hormones. The diet has done nothing for my son's KP. they have had it since toddlers. As I had said earlier her KP is permanently gone but it is not from the diet.

I think that is probably quite true Sammon. Modern science is a good thing, but then again, with some things probably not. A lady I work with was telling us at work this week that she heard something about high fructose corn syrup causing cancer. I drink Mt Dew every day and that is the 2nd ingredient on the label. I am going to start drinking more tea now.
Whether these things do or don't, it really would be better to go organic, or at least to eat better and read labels on everything, and watch a bit better. Thanks for posting this. I am going to check out the links.
Molsmom

Hi LaserNurse and Molsmom,

Thank you both for your response. I was curious if anyone could report if they have been eating organic foods for a long time, and still have KP--or if it got better or worse with the change in eating habits. I imagine it could take a long time to get the unnatural 'junk' out of our systems before we may see benefits.

I agree fully that it definitely can't hurt to switch to more natural, organic foods!

Take care,
Dusty

This is an interesting post. I don't have an answer but I do know that I felt much different when I was in Europe on vacation a couple of times. A friend of mine agreed. He goes to Europe a lot and felt the same way. Cleaner I guess. Less junk going into our bodies. Also, less junk coming out if you know what I mean.

I can't remember if my skin was any better there but it would be interesting to find out if there is more KP in the US as opposed to Europe, where they refuse to eat the junk that we do. I see Australians on here as well as people from the UK but I don't know so much about their diets. I was in Italy and France. My friend usually goes to Germany.