This is going to be a key question when we face our choices of food everyday.
The incidences of the melamine contamination in milk powder, eggs, chicken feed, and wheat gluten remind us once again the kind of risk that general consumers like you and I are exposed to.
As the way goes, contamination seems an inevitable part of our modern day living. We kind of accept that vegetables would come with pesticides, the piece of meal on the table might contain some residues of hormones harmful to the body, and virtually all the processed food would have artificial things there including additives, and preservatives.
However, we never can imagine that things could be so sinister and disastrous when it comes to greed by even a few. Vegetables end up so much contaminated with heavy metal just because someone takes the easy way out using industrial waste/sewage for irrigation. What about fish farmers using contraceptive pills in their feed, or DDT used on vats of pickles to keep the bugs away, or opiates added in the soup to create an addiction by customers.
How relevant is the motto “buyer beware” these days!
Even health supplements are no exception. The incidence of cross contamination leading to the collapse of the public company, Pan Pharmaceuticals, in Australia in 2003 is still fresh in our minds.
When we come to choosing products like fish oil (Omega 3) as an example, it warrants to check out what really is free of heavy metal and organic contaminants. Most of the products on the shelves would not meet this criteria because they are only food standard GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices).
The world is like a toxic cradle. By becoming aware of the likely risks, and also staying away from these likely dangers would be the best policy.
Live Life, Junius.
p.s. by the time of this writing, it has been reported that the milk powder contamination has caused at least 4 deaths and over 13,000 children being hospitalized in China.
We often hear people say “think out of the box”? What exactly does it mean?
I would say that the box could be our comfort zone. The Wikipedia defines comfort zone as the environments and behaviours with which one is comfortable, without creating a sense of risk. With this definition, an analogy that vividly comes to mind is the one about the frog. The poor thing sits comfortably inside a jar of water, not knowing that it is on a simmering fire and is gradually (unaware by itself) boiled to death. People say the biggest danger is the lack of a sense of danger. How true it is!
I would also describe the box as the box of conformity. Human civilization has gone through different eras of transformation, from the agricultural state, to industrialization, to the computer age, and now the information highway. For most things, we know that we simply cannot apply the same principles from our ancestors and make it work at this time and age. We need to change.
I remember some interesting questions from a brain-power workshop I attended some time ago. For instance:
“Who would win the race, the rabbit or the tortoise?” (Would you like to think of your answer first before reading on?)
I don’t know your answer, but almost all the people on the floor (including myself) said,” the tortoise!”
We were right if we were asked about the forever told story of the Rabbit and the Tortoise. Why on earth would we think that the tortoise could run faster than the rabbit if not because of that story you and I have heard over a hundred times? This is a good case of conformity, isn’t it?
Now, what about “1+1 =?” 
Live Life, Junius.
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