…and I am a chemical girl, I mean boy, I mean man!

I want to talk about chemicals. Why? It’s funny the way people describe or talk about something, when in fact, they are actually talking about something else entirely. Like when your uncle said that he saw some monkeys at the zoo, when in fact, they were chimpanzees; something else entirely.

Chemicals are another great example. You may have heard someone talk about how they don’t like to have chemicals or added chemicals in their food or drink. They might explain they only eat organic food, that is grown or produced locally; along with no added chemicals. They only want to consume or drink healthy options; anything that is chemical free or not dangerous to novice dancers, like the latest Chemical Brothers or My Chemical Romance albums.

Sounds fair, right. I mean, what type of person, would actually like chemicals in that new berry flavoured sports drink or that delicious looking chocolate muffin? The answer would be you.

Wait a minute, so what is a chemical? Helmenstine (2011) describes a chemical as a substance that is made up of matter; which can mean a gas, solid or liquid. Helmenstine (2011) also adds that a chemical can be an element or a mixture like a gas, compound or solution.

So chemicals are everywhere and in everything. In the food you eat, the liquids you drink and the air you breathe. You swim in chemicals, you wear clothes containing chemicals and you use chemicals to maintain the ongoing function of your body, like testosterone, adrenaline and estrogen.

Basically, you can’t avoid chemicals. Whether it’s the gas Carbon dioxide (CO2) your body exhales; the Dihydrogen monoxide or water (H2O) you drink or the Sodium chloride or salt (NaCl) that you sprinkle on your food, chemicals help maintain life on this planet.

These chemicals fall under the branch of science known as Chemistry, which relates to the study of the periodic table of elements, atoms, molecules, reactions, their relationships and bonds to each other and everything else that goes with it.

I think that when someone says they don’t want to eat or drink chemicals, what they are really saying, is that they don’t want food or liquid that has been altered or created, by means of Genetically Modified Food or GMO; or at least ingesting or inhaling dangerous or harmful chemicals.

These harmful or dangerous chemicals can be made naturally or artificially, by humans for different reasons. Also, just because a chemical is created naturally, does not automatically make it good for you; just as an artificial chemical is not automatically bad.

Governments around the world have different departments and organisations, whose function is to regulate and administer the control of harmful and dangerous chemicals in food chains.

They include the Food and Drug Administration (FDA in the United States of America), Foods Standard Agency (FSA in the United Kingdom) European Food Safety Authority, World Health Organization (WHO) and many more.

So, the next time you hear some person complaining that they don’t want chemicals in their diet, please just politely remind them; that just like Wet Wet Wet’s 1994 cover about love…chemicals are all around.

Thanks for reading and see you in a fortnight!

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References:

Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph.D. (2020, February 11). What Is a Chemical and What Isn’t a Chemical? Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-a-chemical-604316