(Believe me, I tried to make this as short as possible.)
I'm basically eating anything that is legally sold or served, because I am over 40 years old and living in Yokohama. But I try to eat balanced meals. I don't eat a large amount of one type of food from one farm for days.
Meanwhile, I try to watch out for what I feed to my 19 year old son, because being young he is supposed to be biologically more sensitive to radiation, and also because he says that it makes him feel less stressful. I don't pay attention to what he decides to eat outside his home, but when I cook, I buy most of his food from Aichi and southern and I look up official websites of his favorite bottled drinks and snacks to make sure the ingredients were harvested in the safer periods and regions.
If I feel that I am buying less from certain industries or regions, I donate money to the prefecture or union involved. I also try to maintain the amount I buy from certain farms. For example, the other day I hesitated to buy an artichoke (because I'm sure they don't test artichokes) from one farm but I bought cabbage and carrots from the same farm instead. I think financial fulfillness is extremely important for a physically healthy life.
I don't think the government is announcing false radiation levels, because when we compare the figures it all makes sense. But I feel that they very often try not to tell whatever they don't have to tell, as they need to protect certain industries. And they're not even hiding it.
For example, just by viewing official charts and major news, we can see that it takes at least 2 days to find contamination after a fresh sample is taken. In a way, this can't be helped, because technique and time is required to obtain a reliable figure of radiation, while manpower and kits are lacking due to the critical situation.
We can also see from official charts that not all food is being tested, and major news tells us that some types of radioactive materials such as strontium which takes a couple of months to be fully tested has only begun to be detected.
The good news is that at places far from Fukushima Daiichi, not one bit of iodine or cesium has been detected from most of the limited food that has been tested, and at farther areas, radiation level in the air had always been the same. This is quite different from the Fukushima Daiichi area where radiation in the air was always higher since 3.11 and where almost every kind of food has now been officially banned from the market due to the unfortunate detection results.
In other words, if a grown person ate a decent amount of fresh food from Greater Tokyo and finds out 2 days later that the food was contaminated, I don't think that the person is doomed. I think it's the same thing as finding out that the person has accidentally smoked some cigarettes. If the person tries to maintain a healthy life from then on, the person is likely to be okay. We've learned that from Chernobyl. Most people who were adults then have survived with no problem.
At the same time, I hope people know that most tea that is currently sold is not "shin-cha" (new tea), in other words,
what is sold now are mostly tea that was harvested last summer. And personally, I don't think it's worth staying away from "all" Japanese spinach. For example,
lettuce in Fukusima is officially dangerous while spinach in Kumamoto is officially safe having absolutely no iodine and cesium detected.http://www.worldvillage.org/fia/data/norin_e_0613ng.pdfhttp://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/uploaded/life/1049231_pdf1.pdfI would rather fear the lack of important nutrition. Plus, if you go to the market, the prefecture of production is all written on the product, often along with the name of the farm. All you have to do is to either learn the kanji or ask the clerk. And you don't have to be shy to ask about radiation. Shop clerks and manufacturer phone operators are very helpful on this issue.
I also try to buy food from organic food shops I personally trust. The anti-nuke-power-plant one I've been buying from since Chernobyl has finally managed to obtain a detecting instrument that allows them to test all vegetables and fruits they sell, and they will soon try to do the same for their soy, fish and meat.
Again, I don't think we can say the same for infants and toddlers. They require extra care on this issue. I really think the government should speed up on detection tests, financial support, and delivering simple detecting instruments so that people can see for themselves. And if the government needs to ask for help from overseas, they should. For consumers, if they don't want to buy Japan, they should at least buy imported food to maintain proper nutrition.
