Have you ever gone to the grocery store and gotten a cucumber, picked it up and felt a waxy material on it? This wax is on multiple forms of produce. It’s been used on cucumbers and apples mainly, to prevent them from going bad, preserving their shelf life. From the point of a grocery store its understandable that they’d want to utilize this wax to preserve food.
They call these waxes ‘natural’ whether it’s one kind or the other. A quick google search and you’ll find: “Both natural waxes (carnauba, shellac, beeswax or resin) and petroleum-based waxes (usually proprietary formulae) are used, and often more than one wax is combined to create the desired properties for the fruit or vegetable being treated.
They call these waxes natural but upon further investigation this is what I found..
The wax is actually a mixture of up to fifty different compounds, most of which fall into the chemical category known as esters. There are also alcohols like heptacosanol and malol as well as hydrocarbons such as triacontane, C30H62 in these waxes.
The problem is that these waxes are difficult to wash off because they are thick and even warm water and soap doesn’t remove them entirely. This is like taking a healthy fruit or vegetable and dipping it into a chemical concoction that dries around the outside. Think of it like a strawberry covered in chocolate, only the chocolate is a chemical concoction that harms your gut health.
Avoid ANY foods that include a wax on them or feel waxy on the outside. This is bad for your gut health, your liver health, your kidney health and your lymphatic health. It forces your body to discharge, detoxify and remove these things. It activates your immune system and wastes precious resources in your body.
And Now, There’s a NEW Toxic WAX in Town
There’s a new produce wax that Bill Gates has been a part of releasing into the public through the massive grocery store outlets all over the country. Costco is exclusively selling all of it’s organic produce using this new apeel technology, and both walmart and Kroger have followed suit.
What is apeel you might ask? Apeel is a type of wax that is used on all produce. They put this on fruits and vegetables to preserve the shelf life of the product. The problem is, no one really knows that’s in this wax. Its a ‘proprietary formula’ that doesn’t let food oxidize (age) as quickly.
It’s understandable from the perspective of the grocery store, they buy many tons of produce each year from farmers all across the country and sell it in the store. Shockingly, about 30% of food in grocery stores goes to waste. About 16 billion pounds of food each year is wasted each year in the US alone.
How wasteful is that? While researching for this article it was hard to read this statistic. I had to stop and think about this for a minute and really let it sink in. Yet still we have people who go hungry in this country. This food could be given away to the homeless, it could be preserved by different means. There could be a variety of solutions applied here. I hope grocery stores get wiser and operate smarter, while wasting less in the future moving forward.
One such way that they have tried to do this is to integrate the apeel technology onto their food. It sounds smart, and from their eyes it is because it prolongs the shelf life of food substantially. Take a look at this cucumber that has apeel technology on it for example:
As you can see, the apeel technology (all the way to the right) lasts the longest. It lasts longer than a cucumber sitting on the shelf with no protection. It lasts longer than the cucumber that is plastic shrink wrapped (in the middle) and it uses less plastic waste. On the left, no solution doesn’t do much.. The food dies quickly. The plastic shrink wraps helps but it doesn’t last too long. The apeel lasts the longest.
The problem is that this “proprietary chemical concoction” goes right into our gut causing a variety of issues. An upset stomach, bloating, or a whole other variety of health challenges.
You have to think about what this product is doing, this apeel technology. It is quite literally preventing oxygen from passing it’s barrier to get into the food.
You then eat this food, including the wax that is put on it because even if you do try ot wash it off you might only get half of it off. This chemical that is meant to stop oxygen from transporting through it, to create a barrier is then in your body.
Oxygen, is the #1 nutrient for life. You need oxygen to travel through your lymphatic system, to be contained within hemoglobin to travel throughout your body in red blood cells. If you are ingesting chemicals willfully that prevent the movement of oxygen you are directly harming your health in this way.
Many stores now use this apeel wax coating on their produce and many consumers have reported feeling upset stomachs, indigestion, bloating and more.
It doesn’t seem to me that Costco (which Bill Gates owns a large portion of), Wal-mart or Kroger, or any other grocery store cares as much about your health as they do their bottom line. But what’s new? I’m just here to give you the truthful, most relevant information I can as a health journalist. It’s up to you to make wise decision.
Watch out for apeel on your produce, and avoid it if possible, you can find stickers on avocados, citrus fruits, and much other produce. Right now might be the best time ever to begin to grow your own food.
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