Bad Chemicals In Foods - Toxic Food Additives (No.6)

No. 1)  Major toxic food additives
No. 2)  What "catches" on food labels to watch out for

No. 3)  What food labels says - (1) Nutrition Facts   (2) Ingredients

No. 4)  Cancer Testing
No. 5)  How to avoid toxic food additives


This time, i'll focus on "how we can get rid of bad chemicals in food - toxic food additives - out of your body system". As our body generates new cells to keep itself in good health, it also has a natural detox system. This system comprises of various organs as well as supporting systems to facilitate our body to purge out toxins through the skin, lungs, kidneys, liver, and colon. The processes of expulsion of these toxins are either through urination, fecal excretion, breath, or these toxins can also be neutralized by your organ.

However, these organs and supporting systems are like rivers flowing toward the ocean. It can be smooth in its travel so long as there are no accumulation of riverbank debris and narrowing of the riverbank. How do we accumulate riverbank debris? More often than not, it is the human intervention into the natural habitat that resulted in this.

If one organ becomes congested, the others must work harder to keep the system balanced. What junks do choke up and narrows our elimination system and slows down its detox function? The body doesn't just have to deal with the toxins we consume (drug residues, chemicals, food additives, saturated fat, high sugar), but those from external sources, such as include environmental pollutants (fungi, pesticides, heavy metals), polluted air (excessive carbon monoxide) and water etc. Those junks were never available in old days. For recent decades, we are exposed to them significantly.

By adding to the "toxic overload" we are taking away resources needed to maintain our body in good condition, generating / repairing cells, maintaining vital bodily functions,  breaking down fats, etc. etc.
If the body has to constantly deal with the onslaught of chemicals we ingest, there will be times when the body can no longer fulfill all its other major functions. Our increasing exposure to them has led us to see more cancer cases, chronic diseases like cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, as well as inflammatory diseases like arthritis.

Isn't it too late you seriously start considering about those toxins till you finally get into direct contact with cancer in your life??  Recognizing and avoiding these harmful chemicals will definitely help you to keep your body in good condition. We must recognize not to abuse our natural detox system but allow them to function at their optimum. If they have been choked up for some time, it would require patience for your body to clear the debris accumulated over time and allow our detoxification organs to work their best again. This is the reason that we suffer from an initial stage of healing crisis (clearing up the debris) and then a strong feeling of rejuvenation and alertness (proper functioning of our natural detox function). It is through proper care of all these organs that they can expel toxins and neutralize them easily.

Solutions:

- Educate yourself and make wise and healthy choice for your food intake.
You are the one who make choices of what you consume. I've helped you to learn what you should look for and the reason why those are important for YOU. Read the food labels and avoid the foods that contain toxic food additives. Get fresh vegetables and fruits and cook at home. If you didn't demand the foods with toxic, the food manufactures have to supply something WE WANT TO BUY. Be smart. Take in charge of your health. You are the one who can make it happen!!

- Make more severe laws to ban using toxic food additives.
If we knew that those bad chemicals in foods make us sick, why don't we stop taking them? Although most governments ban the use of harmful chemicals in food, unfortunately all manufacturers don't oblige. Make the laws to enforce the food manufactures to ban the toxic food additives. Unless you take a initiative about your food intake, who does? Voicot the foods that contain those toxic food additives and give the food manufactures pressure. Without their economical damage, the food manufactures wouldn't do anything about it. We, the consumers, have to take charge of OUR healthy well being. You're the one who can make it happen!!

- Make laws requiring food labels to be EASY for anyone to read.
Do we need to have a chemical degree to read the labels?! How can we read such a tiny print? The label should state possible dangers in any of the ingredients, and/or make the names of ingredients easier to read.

- Use natural food preservatives.
Natural food preservatives include substances such as salt, sugar, rosemary extract and vinegar. Among these, salt, sugar and vinegar are used as an ingredient rather than additives or preservatives. They are preservatives that have been used in the recipe itself, hence they are also called as traditional preservatives.

- Pass laws the require fast food restaurants to use more natural ingredients
A great deal of the support for chemical laden, toxic food is the fast food industry. The fast food industry is thriving right now because of people looking for inexpensive and convenient food. Do you know how expensive your medical bill will cost you?  Do you really want to exchange your health over the convenience???? Wake up!

Useful websites for investigating food additives:
Food Additives – http://www.foodadditivesworld.com/
National Institute of Health – http://www.nih.gov/
FDA Consumer – http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/default.htm

We've learned so much about bad chemicals in foods. You got to eat everyday. You have a full control of what you consume. Avoid those toxic food additives that would make you sick. Take charge of your healthy life. It's too late to realize how great your life can be with great health when you get sick. YOU make choices. You have the power. Be wise for yourself and loved ones.

Bad Chemicals In Foods - Toxic Food Additives (No.5)

No. 1)  Major toxic food additives
No. 2)  What "catches" on food labels to watch out for
No. 3)  What food labels says - (1) Nutrition Facts   (2) Ingredients
No. 4)  Cancer Testing

Now we know many of these toxic food additives make us sick, so I'll focus on how to avoid the bad chemicals in foods this time. You'll check back blog No. 1 and No. 3 for which food additives to avoid.
The best bet is "get fresh wholesome foods and cook at home". You can skip reading the label part :) 
Not only you can have delicious and healthier foods, but also you can save your $.


Tip 1 Read labels.

You heard me so many times by now (lol), but it's really important!! Don't be fooled by catchy advertisement and complicated names. If you can’t say it or spell it, don’t eat it!! This is a sure way to avoid the toxins :) Check No. 2 and No. 3 for what to look for and how to read them. You need to read your food labels carefully and check them against the lists I provided for you. 

The worst offenders: Aspartame, Blue No.1 Dye, BHA, Olestra, Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, sodium nitrate, and propyl gallate. 

Tip 2 Go farmer's market. 

Most of the food in your grocery store comes from far places. Because of that, preservatives are added to last longer. Many processed meats, such as hot dogs and polish sausages, have a preservative called nitrate. This helps with the meat’s red color and preserves its flavor. But studies have linked nitrates to cancer. To avoid preservatives, buy food that isn’t meant to be stored. That means you’ll only have a few days or so to consume them. You can do this by shopping at a butcher’s who gets his meat from inside your state. Or go to a farmer’s market to buy fresh vegetables and fruits grown locally. If you want them for later you can pickle them yourself at home. We lived for centuries without preservatives - we can do without them now.

Tip 3       Stay in the grocery suburbs.
When you shop at the supermarket, stay in the grocery suburbs – the outskirts of the center of the store. You’ll find fresh fruits, vegetables and dairy products. These foods will be less likely to contain toxic food additives.


Tip 4       Eat home cooked meals.
Most of us enjoy fast foods or ready-to-eat packaged foods. It is the easiest and convenient way to prepare a meal. But eating out leads to more processed foods and more processed foods leads to more toxic food additives. But if you just follow tips like cutting up veggies in advance, using slow cookers to cook while you’re gone and buying meat and putting it into daily use bags and sticking it in the freezer, you can save time on meal preparation and eat real food without added toxins. Start slow for you busy bodies. Home cooking recipes usually contain real food. Try one day a week with nothing but real food. If it gets easy then jump to two. Pretty soon you’ll eat home cooked meals every day.

Tip 5     Don’t Swallow Your Nutrients. 

Vitamins became the rage in the 1970s and many people still swallow their nutrients. But vitamins can also contain unnatural substances such as Aristolochic acid, which the FDA issued a warning about. It has been associated with permanent kidney damage. Get your nutrients through real food. Experts say there is no research to prove that vitamins are helpful to your health.

Tip 6    Wash Your Produce. 
Many fresh vegetables and fruits, no matter how fresh and natural they look, often have residues of pesticides on them. Foods to be watch out for include grapes, celery, lettuce, cucumber, cabbage and green beans. Fruits like apples and pears are coated with paraffin wax to make them look shiny and delicious. Not to mention the fact that the food you are about to eat has been handled by produce clerks, shippers, pickers and other shoppers. E. Coli, Listeria, and Salmonella can live on fruits and vegetables whether they are organic or not. So wash them by gently rubbing them under cold running water without soap.

You don't need to study chemicals to avoid bad chemicals in foods. Just pay a little more attention to what you eat. If you follow these tips, you will avoid some of the toxic food additives. But you’ve already taken the first step - you’ve gotten educated. Now the rest is up to you :)

Calbee Potato Chips Usushio flavor - My Favorite Japanese Foods (No.6)

Yes, this is very standard potato chips for the Japanese in Japan - Calbee potato chips usushio flavor. This is my favorite Japanese foods :) As you know, I'm not so fond of junk foods. But I can't just ignore this very typical Japanese snack...

By the way, "Usushio" means "Lightly salted" in Japanese. This Calbee potato chips "Usushio" flavor is VERY lightly or LITTLE salted for you -even for me now, though I'm 100 % Japanese born in Japan. People who used to eat "Lay's" will be surprised how little they use salt for it... When I had it in Japan, I thought this was a bit salty. I've lived in US for a long while and am so used to eat VERY salty potato chips and foods here. ( I mean everything here is too salty or too sweet....) When I had this in US, I was so surprised how little salt I could taste and how much my taste bud can change by living here and changing diets... My taste palette used to be much more sensitive or delicate.... :(

This "Usushio" is the standard flavor among their potato chip lines. There are many other flavors: Consommé punch, Nori Shio, Shoyu & Mayo, pepper etc. They are all good. As other typical hit food products in Japan, there are many "area limited" flavors: Shoyu & Butter, Konbu (Kelp) & Shoyu, Kyushu (Southern part of Japan) Shoyu etc. Typical, typical, typical.... The Japanese love that "limited" stuff. They can't help trying new and different stuff... Those words tickle our curiosities... I don't know why... We just love something "SPECIAL" and "LIMITED"... lol

My friend's father (Osamu Harada), who is very famous illustrator in Japan,  designed this famous potato character. My friend told me about it one day and I remembered I thought WOW.... Because I believe ALL THE JAPANESE know this character and the chips.

Most of the Japanese care about dieting but do eat a junk food like this. They know it's all about moderation. Their foods are used obviously less salt than ones in US. This Calbee potato chips Usushio flavor always reminds me of it. The Japanese love to enjoy the tastes of the ingredients themselves. Subtle seasoning is almost always good for them. I thought "Usushio" is so "JAPANESE" stuff.... lol. My favorite Japanese foods will continue....

Bad Chemicals In Foods - Toxic Food Additives (No.4)

This time, I'll focus on "cancer testing" - how FDA or the researchers figure out which chemicals in foods  can be toxic food additives....

Scientists and researchers are looking for the answer. They look at the causes of the deteriorating health of the population and figure out some of the important triggers - the type of food we eat and bad chemicals in foods added by the food manufactures. With non-smoking related cancers representing 80 % of new cancer cases, many people are blaming on the toxic food additives for their health deterioration. Unfortunately or fortunately, there are evidences to suggest that food additives are making us sick...

FDA has a database listing over 3,000 substances which are added to our foods. Food additives have the purpose of adding taste and color to over processed food that has little (natural) flavor and color left. FDA claims they are all safe - including even "MSG" and "Aspartame". As I mentioned on my past posts, many of them are no better than poison. Even if all of the food additives were safe individually, rarely does any food have only one additive in it. Testing for additive safety has been done for individual additives, not for combinations of the additives. They could be harmful in certain combinations. No one knows the effects of the many different additives used in the hundreds of various combinations...

In general, food additives are tested - whether if it causes a cancer or not - by feeding large dosages to small numbers of rats and mice. Large dosages are used to compensate for the small number of animals that can be used (a few hundred is considered a big study... I'm not kidding...). Also, the large dosages can compensate for the possibility that rodents may be less sensitive than people to a particular chemical (as happened with thalidomide). Note: Humans are 5 times more sensitive to the toxic effects of certain food additives than rats and 20 times more sensitive than monkeys.

Some of you might claim that such tests are improper and that large amounts of any chemical would cause cancer. That is not true. Large amounts of most chemicals don't cause cancer. When a large dosage causes cancer, most scientists believe that a smaller amount would also cause cancer, but less frequently. But some toxins might be reasonably safe at tested levels. However, unsafe levels can also be reached if toxins accumulate in human bodies (toxic over-load, some chemicals bioaccumulate - which means that they increase in concentration over time, potentially to generally accepted toxic levels.

It would be nice if lower, more realistic dosages could be used, but a test using low dosages and a small number of animals would be extraordinarily insensitive. It would also be nice if test-tube tests not using any animals were developed that could cheaply and accurately identify cancer-causing chemicals. While some progress has been made in that direction, those tests have not proven reliable. Thus, the standard high-dosage cancer test on small numbers of animals is currently the only practical, reasonably reliable way to identify food additives (and other chemicals) that might cause cancer. Remember, food manufacturers are presenting one-sided and questionable research results to support their use of chemicals without telling us the whole truth. 

Another problem at cancer testing is that poorly calibrated production equipment may mix in more of those chemicals than even the FDA would consider safe.... Bad news keep coming up, huh... :(

The Pesticide Action Network North America and Commonweal  reported that Americans can experience up to 70 daily exposures to residues of a class of toxic chemicals known as "persistent organic pollutants" (POPs), including such chemicals as DDT and dioxin, through their diets. The report, "Nowhere to Hide: Persistent Toxic Chemicals in the U.S. Food Supply," analyzes chemical residue data collected by the FDA and finds persistent chemical contaminants in ALL food groups. 

The Delaney Clause is an important part of the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. That important consumer-protection clause specifically bans any additive that "is found to induce cancer when ingested by man or animal." The food and chemical industries are seeking to weaken or repeal that law. I do want to talk about "Codex alimentarius" soon... Stand up for your own safety. Make a healthy choice. Read the food labels carefully. You already know there are tons of bad chemicals in foods - toxic food additives. 

Bad Chemicals In Foods - Toxic Food Additives (No.3)

I'm feeding you tons of information about bad chemicals in foods. Are you full with the information of toxic food additive???? This time, I'll show you how to read food labels and how to use the information.

No. 1)  Major toxic food additives
No. 2)  What "catches" on food labels to watch out for

No. 3)  What food labels says - (1) Nutrition Facts   (2) Ingredients

1) Nutrition Facts 
This is good and useful, but not the most important information you need to get from food labels about the item. It gives you information on calories, grams of fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates, dietary fiber, sugars, and protein in each serving plus some percentages of a few nutrients. What they don't tell you is that:

 1 gram of fat = approximately 9 calories.
 1 gram of protein = approximately 4 calories.            
 1 gram of carbohydrate = approximately 4 calories.
 4 grams of sugar = 1 teaspoon of sugar

Ex: a 123 calorie snack with 7 g of fat, 2 g of protein and 13 g of carbohydrate of which 12 g of the carbohydrate is sugar.

- To get fat calories, multiply calories from fat.(9x7=63). To get % of fat, divide 63 fat calories by 123 snack calories to get 51% fat.
- To get protein calories, multiply calories from protein.(4x2=8) To get % of protein, divide 8 protein calories by 123 snack calories to get 7% protein.
- To get carbohydrate calories, multiply 4x13=52 calories from carbohydrate. To get % of carbohydrate, divide 52 carbohydrate calories by 123 snack calories to get 42% carbohydrate.
- To get the number of teaspoons of sugar in the snack, divide 12g of sugar in the snack by 4, to get 3 teaspoons of sugar.

• Start here:  Note the size of a single serving and how many servings are in the package.

• Check total calories per serving:  Look at the serving size and how many servings you’re really consuming.  If you double the servings you eat, you double the calories and nutrients, including the Percent Daily Value (% DV).
  
  
• Limit these nutrients :  Limit your total fat to no more than 56~78g per day — including no more than 16g of saturated fat, less than 2g of trans fat, and less than 300 mg cholesterol (for a 2,000 calorie diet).

• Get enough of these nutrients :  Make sure you get 100 % of the fiber, vitamins and other nutrients you need everyday.

• Quick guide to % DV :  The % DV section tells you the percent of each nutrient in a single serving, in terms of the daily recommended amount.  As a guide, if you want to consume less of a nutrient (such as saturated fat, cholesterol or sodium), choose foods with a lower % DV — 5 % or less is low.  If you want to consume more of a nutrient (such as fiber), seek foods with a higher % DV — 20 % or more is high.

Tip 1:  Remember that the information shown in these panels is based on 2,000 calories per day.  You may need to consume less or more than 2,000 calories depending upon your age, gender, activity level, and whether you’re trying to lose, gain or maintain your weight.  Find out your personal daily limits.

     - Low            40 calories per serving
     - Moderate   100 calories per serving
     - High           400 calories or more per serving

Tip 2:  When the Nutrition Facts panel says the food contains “0 g” of trans fat, it means the food contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving. When the Nutrition Facts label says a food contains “0 g” of trans  fat, but includes “partially hydrogenated oil” in the ingredient list, it means the food contains trans fat, but less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving. So, if you eat more than one serving, you could quickly reach your daily limit of trans fat.

Tip 3:  There is no % DV shown for trans fat on the panel because FDA doesn't have enough scientific information to set this value. I recommend eating less than 20 calories or (less than 2g of trans fat) a day – that’s less than 1 % of your total daily calories (for a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet).


  2) Ingredients

These bad chemicals in foods are widely used in the more industrialized countries. These toxic food additives are normally defined as non nutritive substances (intentionally added to food), generally in small quantities, to improve its appearance destroyed by processing, flavor, texture or preservation. Even though it were only tiny amount, they might rise to harm your health and we should avoid.

Food scientist, toxicologists and control officials mention food problems in the following decreasing order: microbial contamination of food, natural toxic in food, environmental contamination of food and food additives. Food additives serve the interests of both the consumer and the producer of foodstuffs since they inhibit the spoilage of food, thus reducing the losses and enabling greater production at a lower cost. They increase the viability of the diet, make preparation of food more convenient and help stabilize the quality of food. Many countries require a toxicological analysis of any food additive which determines, in most cases, the average amount of a substance expressed in mg/kg of body weight which can be taken daily in the diet over a lifetime without risk considering all known factors.

Note: food flavouring substances are different from food additives as there are several thousand flavoring substances which occur naturally. Most flavouring substances are identical substances to the tens of thousands which have been detected in the flavouring component of natural foods such as fruits, spices, vegetables, milk and meat products. The natural flavouring component of foods is invariably an extremely complicated mixture comprising a few dozen to several thousand different chemicals of natural origin.

A Good Rule of Thumb
- If the list of ingredients is long, there's probably a lot of chemical additives in the product. It’s best to avoid these foods because of the unknown health effects of combinations of food additives.

- If the list of ingredients is short, it may or may not have harmful additives in it.

- Ingredients are listed on the label in order of predominance by weight...the ingredient that weighs the most is listed first, the ingredient that weighs the least is listed last. If there’s a questionable additive on the list, the closer it is to the front of the list, the more you put yourself at risk.

- Generally only those ingredients that are required by law to be listed on the label are listed. So, you never really know if there are any other ingredients in the product that are not listed on the label.

- Cut Back : Not toxic, but large amounts may be unsafe or promote bad nutrition -
Caffeine, corn syrup, dextrose (Corn Sugar, Glucose), fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenatated starch hydrolysate, invert sugar, lactitol, maltitol, mannitol, polydextrose, salatrim, salt, sorbitol, sugar, tagatose, xylitol

- Caution : May pose a risk and needs to be better tested. Try to avoid -
Artificial colorings (Citrus red 2, Red 40), brominated vegetable oil (BVO), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), diacetyl, heptyl paraben, quinine, stevia/rebiana

- Avoid : Unsafe in amounts consumed or is very poorly tested and not worth any risk -
Acesulfame potassium, artificial colorings (blue 2, green 3, orange B, red 3, yellow 5, yellow 6), aspartame (Nutrasweet), butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), cyclamate (Not legal in US), hydrogenated vegetable oil, olestra (olean) , partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propyl gallate, saccharin, sodium nitrate, sodium nitrite.

Now you know what the food label says about bad chemicals in foods and how to read the information about the toxic food additives. Read the label carefully before you buy it.