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Discussion of potentially harmful food ingredients and additives

chrissie

chrissie

Bluelight Crew
Joined
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(Split thread from the body products thread.)

As fairnymph says below:
A place to discuss common ingredients and additives (such as preservatives and artificial colours/flavours) in food that may be harmful.

When mentioning an ingredient, please describe why it is harmful if possible.

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DarthMom said:
Although with foods, without thinking deeply about it, it is kinda "simple" I mean, all natural. No frozen, no canned, organically grown only. And with those simple rules you can be assured. Correct??
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no frozen? ive been living on frozen pasta meals lately.
 
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Well, chrissie, anything you don't prepare on your own can be sketchy. Being a militant label reader can fix that, and I was surprised to see that frozen foods DO retain their nutrients very well. But things like MSG can be found in many of them.

I wasn't really implying they are all bad, since I don't know that lol Just meant I try to cook EVERYTHING from scratch so I KNOW it is healthy.
 
is msg actually bad for you? i heard it can cause headaches and stuff, and can cover up if theyre using poor quality ingredients, but its it physically harmful?

julia, let me know if you want me to rename the thread to be a harmful ingredient discussion or if you want me to split this off into its own. dont want to hijack your thread :D
 
food additives I know about that I steer clear from

I don't really know Chrissie. I did some research a while back and was really surprised just how bad it may be.

http://www.msgtruth.org/foodfor.htm

I was using splenda for a while. Until I found this.

"In a simple word you would just as soon have DDT in your food as Splenda, because sucralose is a chlorocarbon. The chlorocarbons have long been famous for causing organ, genetic, and reproductive damage. It should be no surprise, therefore, that the testing of sucralose, even at less than the level demanded by FDA rules, reveals that it has been shown to cause up to 40%shrinkage of the thymus: A gland that is the very foundation of our immune system. It also causes swelling of the liver and kidneys, and CALCIFICATION of the kidney."

http://www.wnho.net/splenda.htm

You never know what to believe. I know there are many people who totally think people like me are idiots and overreacting to information like this. But I don't want to take a chance. Will my family be harmed by eating well? No. Will they POSSIBLY be harmed by eating crap? Yeah, possibly. Cancer runs in my family tree, and I will do anything to reduce that risk.


Does anyone know anything about the instances of cancer and other diseases in this "modern" times, compared to 100 years ago, when processed foods and chemicals in the environment weren't commonplace?

I would think that is a major flashing warning sign, if so.

eidt, i dont wanna be hijackin either :) I will wait for julias response before moving this to a new thread.
 
A place to discuss common ingredients and additives (such as preservatives and artificial colours/flavours) in food that may be harmful.

When mentioning an ingredient, please describe why it is harmful if possible.
 
What I avoid in food:

Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils/trans fatty acids/ trans fats -- these are hands down the most toxic, and most common ingredients. They are harmful in many ways -- they attack the lining of arteries, they clog arteries worse than anything else (worse than natural saturated fats such as butter, animal fat), and worst, they cannot be broken down by the body, so you accumulate them over time. All of your previous fat will get broken down as the body uses it and moves it around, but once all your good fat has been replaced by hydrogenated fat, you can no longer lose any fat. That means you will have this fat PERMANENTLY. The only 'cure' is liposuction -- mechanical removal of the fat.

Sulfur dioxide (in lots of dried fruits, as a preservative and colour preserver) I avoid because I don't like how it makes fruit taste. Sulfites are also common allergens.

I get bad headaches from MSG so I have been avoiding it since I was a small child. Apparently it has been linked to brain damage and hormonal disorders, which is certainly very disturbing.
 
But I don't want to take a chance.
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I think this is really the bottom line. As much as some of us might sound like wacky health nut freaks, most of this stuff has NOT been well researched, has NOT been in use for a long period of time, and do WE want to be the guinea pigs...because we will be if we aren't careful. :(
 
Re: splenda -- that stuff scares me too. I was also eating it before I read similar things. I'm not too convinced by the whole chlorocarbon thing, because chlorine is in lots of things that are perfectly safe...however, the fact that there has been really no good research on splenda is what disturbs me. Especially considering there was no good research on aspartame, saccharin etc and now, years later, the bad news is coming to light.

Frozen foods are good, actually. Not AS good as fresh, but they do retain the vast majority of their nutrients. And, depending on what fresh produce you are buying and when, frozen produce can have more nutrients because it is generally picked and frozen at its peak prime/ripeness. Another thing is that frozen veggies are easy to prepare and cheaper in general. I eat a lot of organic frozen veggies in the wintertime.
 
ew that hydrogenated fats thing freaks me out. im definitely going to have to check for that when shopping.
 
I'd like to point out another obvious additive I try to avoid: FD and C red dye No. 40 (e.g. allura red)

Health Effects of Different Dyes

Just scrolling through the above list of various dyes and their effects^, it is frightening to see how much damage they're capable of doing to the human body. Things like lymphoma, brain tumors, as well as hyperactivity --you would never think from a simple dye, yet many of these dyes are made from coal tar, yuck! In this hour alone of research I've read of many people with small children who have reported incidences of extreme over-aggressive behavior linked to Red#40 alone.

Red#40 linked to hyperactivity in small children

FD & C Red Dyes & Sickness

Some foods you'll find different dyes in
 
this thread just made me attatch sticky notes to everything in my fridge that had hydrogenated fats/oils in them... they say "LIZ: DO NOT TOUCH"

now im going to have to go back and do that with everything that has dyes in it. i don't think its much... because almost everything we have is organic... but grr. i hate that tofutti isnt hydrogenated-stuffs-free.
 
the fact that its not processed the body makes me wonder.... my husband eats lots of fast food/crappy food but he has no fat on his body whatsoever. is it hiding somewhere or do you think it just passes right through him?
 
The hydrogenated fats thing is sort of a trade off.

Fats and oils that are not completely hydrogenated are reactive, and will spoil much, much faster. By sticking hydrogen atoms in the open spots on the fat chain, you prevent them from reacting with something in the environment, so that the foods keep longer.

Sometimes its done to change the consistency of a food as well. You can take an oil, and fully hydrogenate it.. and its usually a solid consistency afterwards.

If you don't like the idea, don't buy anything with trans fat in it. If its not already required to be on the label (in the US, anyway), it soon will be. The regulations go into effect either this year or the next, but many companies are getting a head start. This means you probably will have to stop eating many kinds of chips, candy... most 'junk foods' though.

You're still going to be eating food flavored with synthesized flavoring agents and stuff anyway. As long the chemical occurs naturally, you can make it in a lab and still list it as a 'natural flavor'.

And 'certified organic' foods frequently have disturbing amounts of heavy metals in them. You can be certified organic and still fertilize your crops with the ground up waste products/remains of cows/other animals that are engineered/pumped full of hormone and biochemicals as well.

My advice:
Grow all your own food indoors where you control everything, or stop worrying so much. You can shop at health food stores, etc,.. but you are still eating much of the same stuff or other harmful things.
 
If you eat fresh food, rancid oils are not a problem. Plus, most people can taste rancidity.

There is no need to hydrogenate for consistency, as plenty of fats are naturally soilid at room temperature.

fizzacyst, please link any info on organic foods having higher levesl of heavy metals in them than conventional ones. That just seems crazy to me.
 
They are metabolized normally in the sense that they produce the same amount of energy as any other fats. The problem is that they both raise low density lipoprotein (which is bad) levels AND lower high density lipoprotein (which is good) levels in the blood.

Regular saturated fats raise LDL but don't impact HDL levels much.

The good news, though, is that trans-fatty acids are not a guaranteed product of vegetable hydrogenation, and since the FDA is forcing companies to start labeling how much trans fatty acids (now known as "the worst fat") their foods contain, some of the finest minds in chemistry are working to produce deliciousness without them -- with much success already.

That bad news, though, is that excessive saturated fat still will eventually lead to arterial plaque, whether animal, vegetable or the product of hydrogenation (even if no trans fatty acids are present.)

And too much of any fat, even "good" fat, can cause problems. So stop chugging that olive oil for God's sake.

PS: Calling trans fatty acids THE most toxic ingredient found in foods is stretching it a tad.
 
Which is too bad, because tap water is better regulated and more healthy than bottled water.
 
Anarchofascist said:
And too much of any fat, even "good" fat, can cause problems. So stop chugging that olive oil for God's sake.
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silly comparison! olive oil is good for your heart, and possibly reduces breast cancer.

hell too much water can kill ya, we are talking moderate servings that can pose dangers.
 
Sorry, I meant they have just as much as regular foods, not more.

Some places require more soil testing for that sort of thing, especially for metals... but coming from a family that has long been in the farming business... I can honestly say they mean little.

Most organic farms are fairly small and family owned, and tend to be in smaller areas. They jsut aren't as profitable as a regular farm. And in small towns the folk that farm have usually been doing so for a long time, in big families, with deep ties to everyone in the town (such as officials). Not that thats always the case, but its common, espcially in the south.

All I'm saying is that I've known a lot of people that run organic farms, and I've seen how well the regulations are enforced. And even when its all done by the book, I think very few actaully know what the 'organic' label really means legally, as far what can be used.

ex: You can feed genetically altered feed, sprayed with pesticide/fungicide/herbicides to cows that are treated with all sorts of antibiotics, hormones, and growth stimulators and take their poo, blood, and crushed bones and put it on your organic crops. You're still eating the chemicals, organic or not.
 
fairnymph said:
..
There is no need to hydrogenate for consistency, as plenty of fats are naturally soilid at room temperature...
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Fats are solid at room temperature, yes, but oils are not. And since oils are cheaper, and a byproduct of all kinds of agricultural processes.. its more cost-effective to hydrogenate the oils so that they are solid than it is to get more fat.

Also, its nice if you have the money to spend on fresh food all the time.. or if you live in a place where you can reliably get fresh food at any time, but all cannot. Some need to store food, or send it off to people who are in need.

Not that I'm defending the industry or anything, but there are more reasons than profit that are considered.
 
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