Over the last couple of weeks, I have received an increasing number of emails basically asking the same question “What can I grow to protect myself from radiation from Japan?” To answer that question I must state that:
1 I am no nutritional expert and
2 even though I studied nuclear physics as part of my degree I did not study the effects of radiation.
Personally, I believe that the only people who should be worried about this are those living in Japan and possibly their very close neighbours. I base this statement on the fact that all the experts, by that I mean those who work in the nuclear industry and not those TV and newspaper pundits who are paid to create headlines, are saying that this will not be a major disaster like Chernobyl and that the levels of radiation are predicted to be so much lower than at Chernobyl. I am not saying that those people who live in Japan should not be concerned, they should. But the emails I am getting are from people living here in the UK and the USA. We are so far away that the chances of large scale problems are so minuscule I don not think they could be calculated.
OK rant over.
The following is based on the research I have done.
There are some foods that can help overcome mild radiation exposure and would be beneficial to those who are exposed to radiation as part of their jobs, i.e. nurse and doctors in an x-ray department.
Most of these foods can be found in our supermarkets, whilst others can only be bought in Asian food markets or health food stores. One of them is seaweed. Seaweed contains iodine and other chemicals that fight radiation poisoning. If you are not fond of seaweed there are other foods that can help.
Eating apples can help. Apples have high levels of pectin which can bind to radioactive particles and sweep them out of the body. If you don’t like apples, there are also citrus fruits like lemons, oranges and grapefruit that have high pectin levels. And also beans, peaches, peas, oatmeal and pears have high amounts of pectin in them.
Other foods such and green foods can also help, Bok choy, spinach, broccoli, collard greens and mustard greens are a few. Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli help because they contain sulphur which helps the body to repair itself. Overall, eating more fruits and vegetables will help the body repair cell damage and assist in getting radioactive substances out of your body.