HEALTH ALERT
by Dr. James H. Martin
When we will stop and say enough is enough?
Notice the thousands of processed foods on the shelves of your grocery stores. Often the number of chemical ingredients exceeds the number of ingredients you’ll recognize as actual food substances.
What ARE these fake flavors and colors, anyway?
Are these fake foods with chemical flavorings helping create sickness? We think so. How much do they add to the body’s toxic burden? More and more people suffer from ‘brain fog’, anxiety, headaches, degenerative disease, diabetes, allergies, digestive problems, immune dysfunction and more. Isn’t it time we take a cold hard look at the body pollution we’re making happen?
When you read the article below, you’ll notice one of the chemicals in artificial strawberry flavor is ‘amyl acetate.’ This particular chemical is a solvent for lacquers and paints, with a ’strong banana-like odor’.
Another commonly used toxic chemical is “E129,” also known as “Allura Red.” Allura Red is a red synthetic azo dye that’s “not recommended for consumption by children,” by the United Kingdom Official Food Guide. It’s also been connected with cancer in mice.
Shouldn’t this be illegal in the USA?
Some countries take good health far more seriously than we do in the United States…..for instance, Allura Red Dye was banned in Denmark, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Austria and Norway. Why is it still legal in the United States? We believe it’s because corporate profit is put ahead of protecting your health. And guess what? Until we take a collective stand, by refusing to purchase toxic products, they’ll continue to be sold. The food chemists will invent more and more (perhaps even more dangerous) chemicals with which to ‘flavor’ and ‘color’ our food and beverages. It’s a matter of supply and demand; simple economics. When we stop buying fake foods; production will diminish.
What can we DO about all the ‘fake foods’?
We hope you’ll “Just Say No” to dangerous food chemicals at all possible opportunities. Read product labels. Shop smart. Learn and research ingredients. Care about what you put into your body. Together we CAN make a difference….a difference that may help keep you healthy for many years to come!
The 59 ingredients in a fast-food strawberry milkshake
During the past two decades the flavor industry’s role in food production has become so influential that many children now like man-made flavors more than the real thing. As marketing to children has become more and more important to processed food companies and fast food chains, flavourists have increased their efforts to discover what children like. The flavor companies constantly run “taste tests” for kids – focus groups in which new products are piloted.
Fresh fruit and vegetables often have complicated, unpredictable flavors that combine bitterness with sweetness. When flavourists create additives for adult foods, they try to imitate nature as closely as possible. When flavourists create additives for kids’ foods, they usually get rid of the bitterness and increase the sweetness. Children’s flavors are often twice as sweet as those made for adults.
“Children’s expectation of a strawberry is completely different,” says one flavourist. “They want something that is strong and that has something like bubblegum notes.”
The phrase “artificial strawberry flavor” offers little hint of the scientific wizardry that can make a highly processed food taste like a strawberry. For example, if you wanted to make a strawberry milkshake at home, here’s all you’d need: ice, cream, strawberries, sugar and a touch of vanilla.
Now take a look at the ingredients you might find in a fast-food strawberry milkshake: milkfat and nonfat milk, sugar, sweet whey, high-fructose corn syrup, guar gum, monoglycerides and diglycerides, cellulose gum, sodium phosphate, carrageenan, citric acid, E129 and artificial strawberry flavor.
And what does that “artificial strawberry flavor” contain?
Just these few yummy chemicals: amyl acetate, amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, anethol, anisyl formate, benzyl acetate, benzyl isobutyrate, butyric acid, cinnamyl isobutyrate, cinnamyl valerate, cognac essential oil, diacetyl, dipropyl ketone, ethyl butyrate, ethyl cinnamate, ethyl heptanoate, ethyl heptylate, ethyl lactate, ethyl methylphenylglycidate, ethyl nitrate, ethyl propionate, ethyl valerate, heliotropin, hydroxyphrenyl- 2-butanone (10% solution in alcohol), ionone, isobutyl anthranilate, isobutyl butyrate, lemon essential oil, maltol, 4-methylacetophenone, methyl anthranilate, methyl benzoate, methyl cinnamate, methyl heptine carbonate, methyl naphthyl ketone, methyl salicylate, mint essential oil, neroli essential oil, nerolin, neryl isobutyrate, orris butter, phenethyl alcohol, rose, rum ether, undecalactone, vanillin and solvent.
Source: The Guardian 4-24-06
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