Fruits full of pesticides, antibiotics in meat and flavour enhancers, additives and the like in convenience products: Our food contains a whole cocktail of unhealthy to toxic ingredients. In her new guide "What can I still eat?", biologist and nutritionist Dr Andrea Flemmer provides a comprehensive overview of what is in our food to the detriment of our health. She sheds light on the background, explains the connections and gives tips on healthy alternatives as well as practical recommendations for a diet that is as low in harmful substances as possible. She gives an initial overview in this interview.
Dr Flemmer, in your latest book "Was kann ich überhaupt noch essen?" (What can I still eat?), you describe very impressively how many harmful substances and hidden additives are hidden in our food. From glyphosate and microplastics to endocrine disruptors, our food seems to do almost more harm than good. Are there any foods that I can still eat without worrying?Andrea Flemmer: Oh yes, organic food! They a) must not contain any pesticides and b) only a few additives. This may not save you everything, but it saves you most of it!Have you completely removed certain foods from your diet after researching this book? And if so, for what reason?I have. Conventionally produced meat. I can't check what the animal has eaten. And since the meat-and-bone meal scandal in the UK, I want to make sure that the animal I eat didn't get this "food". I was working as an environmental officer at the time and a company that produced meat informed me where the meat that Germany was no longer buying ended up. No, meat is too unsafe for me. Quite apart from the fact that I don't believe in factory farming.You mention the "Dirty Dozen", a list of foods that are particularly heavily contaminated with harmful substances. These include tomatoes, grapes, cherries, apples and strawberries. Should I avoid these foods altogether?Not at all. We need a whole mix of foods to ensure that we get enough vitamins, minerals, etc. My only advice is to buy these in organic quality.So can I protect myself by choosing organic food because it contains fewer harmful substances?You can definitely protect yourself by doing so, as neither pesticides nor artificial fertilisers may be used for organic food. The latter also harms our energy supply. Two per cent of our global energy needs are spent on the production of artificial fertilisers. In the chapter on fast food, junk food and the tricks of the food industry, you shed light on what instant soups actually contain, among other things: Palm oil instead of butter, glutamate as a flavour enhancer, salt and sugar for taste, cream and milk flavouring instead of real cream, ascorbic acid, emulsifiers, the thickening agent xanthan gum and so on. That sounds neither nutritious nor healthy. Do you advise against eating ready-made products and highly processed foods altogether?Well, then you wouldn't be able to go out to eat. My advice is to avoid ready-made products as much as possible and cook your own food instead. But there are also companies that at least don't use any additives. Apart from that, organic products are only allowed to use significantly fewer additives. If anything, then these .One chapter in your book is entitled "Which diet is the healthiest?". Do you have a simple, universal answer to this question?Lots of vegetables, lots of fruit, fish twice a week, little meat and organic if possible.You mention that more robust fruit and vegetables (such as potatoes, carrots or cabbage) contain fewer pesticides. As these species are not as susceptible as grapes or strawberries, for example, they are also treated less with toxic pesticides. So: root vegetables are usually less contaminated than leafy and fruiting vegetables. Do you have any other rules of thumb for choosing foods that are lower in toxins?Apart from organic quality, I recommend fruit and vegetables with shells, e.g. nuts or avocados.You also write about "ugly food", i.e. food that is crooked, has scabs or other supposed blemishes. In what way can these "ugly foods" be healthier?Well, I've had complaints that organic fruit and vegetables don't look so great. I still remember my parents' apple tree. The fruit usually looked good, but not all of it. Then you just removed the relevant parts. But the apples were much better than any supermarket apples. It was also discovered that the old varieties do not cause allergies - but more about that in my next book. [[image:76543436 "The visible, supposed flaws of "Ugly Food" can also be a sign of quality as an indication that fewer pesticides and similar harmful substances were used in their production." "Irina Tetereva/Shutterstock"]]The last chapter is dedicated to the future of our food. Among other things, it deals with vertical farming, drought-resistant plants and insects as a source of nutrients. Do you think that new methods, varieties and food sources will reduce or exacerbate the pollution in our food in the future? Are there any approaches that give us hope for less poison in our food and the environment?There was a TV programme on ARTE recently - no, that didn't put me in a positive mood at all. I have a degree in biology - I know how unpleasant some insects are. It's just more convenient to reach for the poison syringe. I'm still waiting for all the pesticides to end up in our drinking water. It was not for nothing that an intelligent water engineer had the entire catchment area of Munich's drinking water converted to organic and I also analysed this water during my studies - pollutants were added so that we could learn how to detect them.
