You Are What You Eat: Food Additives

There are some obviously unhealthy foods, but what about those that are less obvious?

Have you ever actually read the labels on the prepared foods that are produced for the majority of the population to pick up and to throw in the microwave or to eat straight out of the package? If you have, you’ve probably been bombarded with a long list of almost as long words, the pronunciation of which you can’t even begin to fathom. You probably throw things in the cart without a glance to avoid that brain-whirl from trying to read a novel on the back of a package. If you are one of those who try to read what is in each item, you know how confusing and time-consuming this can be.

Do you ever wonder what those ingredients are? Researching the strange items on a label is a task which accounts for hours and hours of time many of those looking for quick-to-prepare foods don’t have. Yet, they may still wonder if everything they are putting into their bodies is really safe. The answer is, no. There are some downright harmful additives put into our foods.

Take a look at these articles:

Common Food Additives and Chemicals Harmful to Children

5 Food Additives You Should Avoid

Worst Food Additives

These are only a few.

In the case of food dyes, there is plenty of commentary about what they can do to the health of the consumer. Has California gone mad with banning the food dyes, or are people just tired of the FDA pooh-pooh-ing them? Did you know that Europe has been taking stands against chemical food dyes? Are both California and Europe wrong? There are healthy, natural alternatives to chemical food dyes. With this in mind, isn’t it better to err on the side of caution?  Leave a comment below and share your thoughts on this issue.

Some people give a rule that if there are more than six ingredients, it shouldn’t be bought. In some cases, this might be a bit impractical. It might be reasonable for a soup to have more than six ingredients. Many recipes call for more than that, but consider basic foods, such as meats, breads, and dairy. With these, a reasonable person would only expect so many ingredients. If we clump anything that is an obvious seasoning/herb under the general heading of “seasonings” that should give us a lot more wiggle room.

Most bread recipes will contain these ingredients: water, yeast, salt (seasonings), sugar.

Meat: Well, it’s meat. The animal already did the work. The only reason humans need to add anything to this product is for seasoning and preserving.

Dairy: If you clump various cultures together as a unit, there really should be few ingredients besides the main ingredient; milk. Several lines worth of ingredients is probably not healthy, or even necessary.

The thing is that many of the chemicals used to ‘preserve’ the food, actually poison the human body. There are preservatives that the body cannot purge, and if there is enough buildup, they will block the blood vessels, causing all sorts of cardiac events. Some food additives break down into formaldehyde inside the body. Who in their right mind would ingest formaldehyde? It’s poison. Some years ago, in my adventures of label reading, I even found a chemical in a food product that, when I researched it, I found it to be a spermicide.

I’ll give you a moment to process what I just said and then you can recover from that eww factor. Once you do, I’d like to hear from you. What is the most surprising or eww worthy ingredient you found in food products? Leave a comment below.

The point is that many of the food additives are destroying our bodies. Why would we want to do that? No wonder the world population is getting sicker and sicker. We are being fed various toxins as a part of our regular diet. Brain fog, digestive difficulties, lack of energy, and the like are no mystery when your body is trying to recover from being slowly poisoned.

So, consider reading the labels and learning what brands of what products have less of these harmful additives. It will be time-consuming at first, but after a while, the time output will start leveling, and isn’t that a small price to pay for keeping poison out of your body? A stronger, healthier body makes it much easier to enjoy the wonder.


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