The Scary Truth: Legal Toxins in Our Food

The Scary Truth: Legal Toxins in Our Food

detoxing your bodyDetoxing Your Body From FDA Approved Ingredients

Besides pesticides and chemicals leaching into our foods from plastic packaging, there are a slew of scary and unappetizing sounding toxic additives that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows into our food. That includes ingredients that have been banned in other countries and ingredients that we may not realize are less than desirable to put into our bodies. This makes any trip to the grocery store a time-consuming minefield to navigate. While our intake of toxic ingredients may be unavoidable, here are some simple strategies that you can take with you to the food aisles.

Artificial Sweeteners are Too Artificial

People who follow natural health news have long been tuned in to the debate about whether artificial sweeteners are safe. Or more accurately, the FDA and food producer’s insistence that there be “direct” evidence that an ingredient is bad for humans before they are banned from our food supply. Artificial sweeteners (see list here) are the most obvious of the chemical substances that have been linked to disease, but are still allowed on the market. Even more ironic, despite being tied to the rise in obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and heart disease.

Still, scientists have found links tying artificial sweeteners to metabolic syndrome, diabetes, heart disease, and the increase in obesity has been statistically tied to the rise in obesity. The fact that each year new studies come out contradicting prior ones is enough to tell us that, perhaps, the risk outweighs the potential harm to our bodies. Still, artificial sweeteners are touted as required as part of a weight-loss diet for an increasingly obese America and are added to more and more foods labeled as “healthy.” The fact that Americans live shorter lives and are more obese than the rest of the world while artificial sweetener intake increases says that we might be heading in the wrong direction.

If you want to avoid sugar cane and corn syrup (also recently termed “corn sweetener”), which come with their own health issues, Oprah recommends chemical free sweeteners such as stevia, honey, and blackstrap molasses. As with any sweet, use in moderation.

You Put What In My Food?

It’s not just artificial sweeteners that we should avoid. No perusal of the ingredients that the FDA allows in our food can be quick, so here’s a much abbreviated list of some of the more scary ingredients that are legally allowed in our food:

Brominated Vegetable Oil – it sounds harmless enough, but this ingredient was actually developed as a flame retardant for children’s clothes and mattresses. It’s commonly used in sports and other drinks to bind ingredients together, but, as Dr. Oz warns, elevated levels in our body can lead to thyroid issues, schizophrenia, birth defects, and cancer. It’s been banned in more than 100 countries, but not the U.S.

Arsenic – Yes, that same poison that is used in murder mysteries and labeled as a carcinogen by another U.S. agency, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Though the EPA doesn’t like it, the FDA allows it to be added to chicken feed to promote growth and make them look pinker and fresher. It’s been banned in the European Union since 1999.

Food Dyes – They make our food look more appetizing, but are suspected to be linked to hyperactivity and ADHD (according to a 2007 United Kingdom Study) and autism. They may be called “artificial color” or be labeled with a number and they are in many of the best-selling processed foods out there. This site, for instance, lists foods that contain Red Dye #40.

BHA and BHT– These puzzling ingredients are made from the fossil fuel petroleum and are slathered on our food as a preservative. You’ll find it in or on mixed nuts, cereal, beer, meat, and chewing gum. The U.S. National Institute of Health found this ingredient to be a carcinogen, meaning it causes cancer.  It’s still allowed by the FDA, even though similar preservative results can be achieved using natural ingredients such as rosemary and sage.

Detoxing Your Body  and Your Healthy Living Plan

Even diligent efforts to select wholesome foods may not be enough because there are so many ingredients in or on our foods that are toxic to humans. Some of them may not even be on the food labels (for example, wheat gluten added to nuts to make them shiny). So in addition to educating yourself, reading food labels, choosing organic foods when you can, drinking lots of (clean) water, having a natural and safe detoxification regimen should be part of your healthy living plan.

Try Jadience Herbal Formula’s DETOX SOAK as a start to your natural detoxification today…

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