Since the triple meltdown and subsequent China Syndrome event at Fukushima Daiichi, we must be very careful as to choosing foods and bath and body product ingredients which have tendencies to bioaccumulate radionuclides. Essentially, these are foods that have a chemical affinity for certain radioactive particles in the air, water, or soil, and will tend to accumulate these particles. Generally speaking, the higher up the food chain you eat, the more radioactivity you will be exposed to internally through your food, but there are notable exceptions.
California strawberries, pistachios, almonds, and a range of other products have all shown elevated levels of Cesium-137, one of the aerosolized radionulides released en masse during the failure and immediate aftermath of the Daiichi reactor failures. Further, the flow of contamination into the ocean and atmosphere from the failed reactors continues, with the accident remaining uncontained, and the infrastructure which maintains cooling to the spent fuel losing structural integrity. Practically, this means that contaminated food is
not limited to 2011 harvests, as the source of the contamination continues to spread it across N. America. The disaster is far from over.
The contamination being released into the atmosphere in an ongoing fashion begins a continual circuit around the pole, riding a weather pattern known as the tropopause. Evidence of this contamination is abundant, as one need only watch the cold fronts sweeping south across N. America carrying contaminated air, and correlate that data with Geiger counter readings from publicly available monitoring networks.
California is a major producer of Almonds, and is also one of the areas hard hit by radioactive fallout. Radioactive fallout concentrations are predicted to become increasingly more toxic on the west coast of North America according to scientific models. For this reason, Almonds is an food and body product ingredient that we have decided to avoid in our diet and in our formulas. No raw almonds, Almond milk, Almond oil, Almond butter, or Almond Kernel meal. Although I have not seen results published regarding Apricot Kernel meal published, we are reticent to use this ingredient, because Almonds and Apricots are both in the Prunus genus. I would be happy to learn if there is evidence that Apricot kernels do not accumulate Cesium similar to Almonds. For body products requiring mild abrasive scrubbiness of Almond or Apricot kernel meal, we are now using powdered Zeolite as a substitute.
Zeolite is a microporous mineral, meaning it has regular patterns of holes in its molecular structure, and has the characteristic ability to chealate, or bond with and hold, radionuclides. It has been used in water purification, remediation of soil, and most commonly in laundry detergent and as horse stall freshener.
One very famous body product recipe which includes Almond Meal is Rosemary Gladstar's Miracle Grains Recipe. It is often used as a gentle soap alternative, and it can be modified with other herbs. We found that coarse Zeolite powder is similar in texture to coarsely ground Almonds and makes a great 1:1 substitute in Rosemary's recipe.
Modified Miracle Grains Recipe with Zeolite
- 1/8 cup Zeolite - moderately coarse powder
- 1/8 cup ground Organic Lavender Flower Buds
- 1/8 c ground Organic Rose petals
- 1 c ground oatmeal
- 2 cups white kaolin clay
- A few drops of essential oil, we used Rose Geranium
This also makes a nice scrub which can be used as a natural microdermabrasion, when you modify this recipe to use a high concentration of Zeolite and a lower concentration of clay,
