Just got my research newsletter from Washington State U. Their research shows that figs--whether organic or not--have very high levels of acid rain. The second most fruit is cherries and figs have 87 times that of cherries.

It was interesting that drying the figs reduces the levels to near zero.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2006 02:15AM by Ed.

I've been eating figs all summer and they taste and feel good to me. At this point I will trust my experience over some research paper.

but what about organic figs? and i thought we don't even have to worry about stuff like this with organic fruits. i hope not thats why i trust organic

wouldn't it depend on where the fig was grown?

I'm with Bryan on that one. I just ate a little basket of organic figs yesterday and they were delicious. If we listen to everyone we wouldn't be able to eat anything because there's something negative about everything.

I am just jealous - I can't find ANY fresh figs where I live. I have always wanted to eat one, but they are never around in my area.

Acid rain only harms a plant by making the soil too acid. As long as the grower limes his soil to neutralize the acid no harm is done. The fruit will be just fine.

ed: [schools.ceh.ac.uk] This link outlines the problems toxic metals like mercury that acid rain commonly contains cause to crops. The acidification of the soil can also dissove aluminium that poisons the plant and anyone that eats it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2006 04:41PM by brome.

Figs are not vegan anyway:
[en.wikipedia.org]

Although it does say, that "there are several commercial and ornamental varieties of fig that are self-fertile and do not require pollination; these varieties are not visited by fig wasps." But doesn't say which ones.

So maybe you're not eating wasps. B12, right?

Ian.

I have eaten both kinds of figs. That is, I've picked figs from self pollinators and those that require the wasps. In fact, I've picked figs that were a bit overripe, opened them up, and a swarm of wasps flew out of the fig. After I was certain all the wasps had departed, I ate the yummy fig. There may have been some some babies in there, and perhaps even some wasp @#$%&, but I didn't care, as the fig was slightly dehydrated (as I like them) and super sweet.

We can't avoid ingesting insects every so often. When you sleep, mites in your bed can be inhaled into your lungs or your mouth. Then there are bacteria that get eaten all the time. One really can't get hung up on this. Those insects or bacteria that get ingested by me unintentionally were volunteers, not victims or slaves.

Hehe, I was put off figs for about 5 minutes when somebody told me the fig wasp story. But I couldn't resist the yummy sweet figs I had already bought.

The male fig wasp doesn't have wings, so I can't fly away, their only job (other than making babies) is to create a tunnel to let out the baby wasps, they normally die in the fig (and get eaten by whatever eats the fig). Maybe the male fig wasp in your fig full of wasps had died and couldn't create the tunnel for the babies to escape. Think of all the creatures you helped to save by openning that fig.

Anyway, who knew wasps would taste sooooo good? ;-)

Ian.

BRYAN... DUDE.. LOVE THE BEARN AND STACHE MAN!!!! As far as figs.. yeah I would say it depends on where they are grown.. of course perhaps maybe the Montana figs could have some acid rain water imported just to make it work... WSU huh? hmmmm I would think that eastern Washington would not have acid rain... I thought all the acid would still be down in Berkely.. HA HA HA HA

I am pretending I am not hearing this.

Gosia


RawGosia channel
RawGosia streams

rawgosia Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am pretending I am not hearing this.
>
> Gosia


lol

oh, ugh. so happy that i don't like figs and never eat them.
i am SO not into eating da buggies. ick.

that instinctive-eating-yummy-green-bug-thing just never appealed to me.

Bryan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> When you sleep, mites in your bed can be inhaled
> into your lungs or your mouth. Then there are
> bacteria that get eaten all the time. One really
> can't get hung up on this. Those insects or
> bacteria that get ingested by me unintentionally
> were volunteers, not victims or slaves.

Ewwwww! The thought of mites in my bed creeps me out! I know they are there, but I would rather pretend that they don't exist!

Bryan - I also have to say that I love the beard! Looks great! How long did it take to grow that?

wait..........THAT'S BRIAN?????????






LOL. TEASING.

i love it too.

hm, guess figs aren't kosher then. but that seems VERY strange! i know they're mentioned in the torah as a delicious food.

i've loved figs since i was a kid in greece and we had a tree in our backyard. though i don't eat them fresh that often since the price puts me off. but the buggie thing doesn't put me off. the caterpillars i've found in Medjool dates have scared me before. i give those dates to my indescriminate husband.

guess i'd also consider it extra protein. can't hurt too much, and the wasp died naturally. but i'm going to try to forget this so i can not open the figs and look around for bug parts like i do with dates.

That is VERY strange! That is so odd, how come I've never heard about that before? I never knew that wasps or any insects laid their eggs and hatched in figs. Are there any other fruits that are like that as well?

It's one thing if certain foods occasionally get an insect on or in them, and another if all of a certain food has them living and hatching in them. It's like their cocoon or something. Are all fig varieties like that? I don't even like figs so I think I will stay away from them if they are all like that. I know that also fruit flies lay their eggs in or near ripe fruits and ruin them. They get all mushy where they have done this, so it's a little easier to tell.

I've also stayed away from greens for that reason because they are so bug prone and often infested. It's not a rational thing, it's a mental thing where I don't want to be aware of them and it is a turn off to eating and foods. I found lots of live bugs in broccoli trees so I couldn't eat those anymore. Just the stems. The thought of eating large live bugs, ehhh. And all the live bugs I find on salad greens etc. Do you know when you have eaten them, are they bitter? My husband doesn't care either and is very rational/logical about it being unavoidable. I'm just more paranoid with food and picky. I wash everything really well and even examine each piece before putting it on my plate. He washes nothing and just cuts everything up and puts handfuls of mixed baby greens on his plate etc. Even though when I do look I'm always finding things, he still doesn't care and isn't worried. Although if he does come across one and sees it he will put it outside and let it go. I just don't know how to have that attitude. So please don't make me aware of anything else. Hee.

That link said that the acid rain does get absorbed by fruits and vegetables directly and can contaminate them with heavy metals. I also heard that brazil nuts are radioactive and toxic as well. Because of nuclear fallout etc. etc. etc.

that's it

i'm just going to eat clouds and a pint of sun
a quart of tears
a liter of stories
and stories
and stories
and stories
i'm going to weigh letters
like little insect legs
crawling out of the purple fig pages

Hello,

If a fig, or anything else for that matter, is grown locally and organically, it will not contain the acid rain mentioned in the research paper -unless that area is notorious for acid rain fall as well.

Thanks,

Aril

Ok. I don't understand why someone would ask if acid rain affects organic figs. Its not like the acid rain would avoid falling on the organic farms and search for a non organic one.

Anyways... AFAIK acid rain is caused by the combination of NOx and SOx to water. AFAIK NOx and SOx are caused by fossil fuel burning such as car exhaust and coal energy plants therefore the places with more air pollution get more acid rain.

My question is: how does eating NOx and SOx with water (acid rain) affect your health?

<When you sleep, mites in your bed can be inhaled
> into your lungs or your mouth. Then there are
> bacteria that get eaten all the time. One really
> can't get hung up on this. Those insects or
> bacteria that get ingested by me unintentionally
> were volunteers, not victims or slaves.

May be that's why God did not give us microscopic vision, otherwise we would see bugs everywhere.

hahaha Rawgosia! I am pretending I am not hearing this too! figs are great, they are so cool!!

honestly if all the fruit in the world were poison, I would still eat them.

Bear in mind that whomever conducted this research undoubtedly lives on cooked, inappropriate, junk and non-foods. One might assume that people who make their living performing 'scientific' experiments would be the first to see the connection between cause and effect in their personal lives, but very often they are the LEAST likely to do so. If the person who is telling me to not eat figs because of acid rain, chem trails, depleted soil or any other nonsense is eating a diet better than mine, I'll consider taking the advice. Otherwise, I'll disregard it as I do all of the hot air which comes from the medical establishment and its academic periphery.

Regards,
Nora
www.RawSchool.com

I think back in the Renaissance they had it better figured, lumping science & art together rather than math & science as we do today. Math people make terrible scientists, imo. Creative thinking and the ability to make connections between unrelated things is essential to good science. Otherwise you just end up with piles of worthless, methodical studies as we see today.

sunshine79 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think back in the Renaissance they had it better
> figured, lumping science & art together rather
> than math & science as we do today. Math people
> make terrible scientists, imo. Creative thinking
> and the ability to make connections between
> unrelated things is essential to good science.
> Otherwise you just end up with piles of worthless,
> methodical studies as we see today.


Very nice observation(or someone else's observation). I like.

rawnora Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Bear in mind that whomever conducted this research
> undoubtedly lives on cooked, inappropriate, junk
> and non-foods. One might assume that people who
> make their living performing 'scientific'
> experiments would be the first to see the
> connection between cause and effect in their
> personal lives, but very often they are the LEAST
> likely to do so. If the person who is telling me
> to not eat figs because of acid rain, chem trails,
> depleted soil or any other nonsense is eating a
> diet better than mine, I'll consider taking the
> advice. Otherwise, I'll disregard it as I do all
> of the hot air which comes from the medical
> establishment and its academic periphery.
>
> Regards,
> Nora
> www.RawSchool.com


You need to learn to think objectively.

Well you don't "need" to but if you want to be taken seriously by intelligent people you might want to.

The diet of the researcher who collects data is IRRELEVANT to whether or not figs may or may not have acid rain.

Also, how are "chem trails" and "depleted soils" relevant to this discussion and why do you call them nonsense? Those issues weren't even brought up. Is there some insecuirty there? You gonna stick your head in the sand on such issues because you don't have an answer in your religion to deal with such concerns? Judge the messege, not the messenger. You might want to take course is logic, you'll learn something even if the instructors diet isn't "better than yours".

Hi Narz,
Nice to see you again. You're right, my comments were clumsy and overly facetious. I'll try to clarify in a manner that might be more to your liking. My point was that the fundamental principles that a researcher holds to be true do affect his/her work. For example, a researcher who acknowledges the frugivorous nature of human beings and the importance of fruit in the diet might draw entirely different conclusions from experiments like these than one who thinks humans are omnivores (as most of them do). Additionally, SAD researchers, in their zeal to legitimize their work, sometimes attach too much importance to the outcomes of their experiments for the sake of public notoriety. More traction can be had by a researcher who claims that eating figs is "dangerous" than by one who encourages the consumption of figs because the benefits far outweigh the risks. Yet, the latter would be closer to the truth, imo. I've been raw and hygienic for many years now and if it was true that figs contain dangerous levels of poisons, I'd be feeling the consequences of eating two pounds of them almost every day for at least two months. In fact, I'd have felt it the first time I ate figs this summer. Eating a very clean diet for a long period of time allows the body to become vital and sensitive such that its responses can be trusted.

Of course we haven't even touched on the biggest reason why research should be regarded with skepticism -- the economic incentive. Who benefits from having the public think that eating figs is risky? That's an important question and I certainly don't have the answer but I'd need to -- in addition to a lot of other information about how and why this work was done -- in order to determine whether the outcomes are valid.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to expound on my perspective.

Regards,
Nora
www.RawSchool.com

just to balance things out, there's also some research demonstrating the benefits of figs. clearly though, most of the health-related research today is aimed at understanding diseases and treating symptoms, instead of understanding the factors that truly promote optimal health.

(Ficus carica = common fig)

Antioxidant activities and anthocyanin content of fresh fruits of common fig (Ficus carica L.)
[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

Antimutagenic activity of Armoracia rusticana, Zea mays and Ficus carica plant extracts and their mixture
[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

Experimental diabetes treated with ficus carica extract: effect on oxidative stress parameters.
[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

>>eating two pounds of them almost every day for at least two months<<

Nora, where do you get your figs?
i cant seem to find any good deals on them.