We Are What We Eat - Oh No!

Back in the fall, I was asked to give a community talk on diet and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. At the end of the talk, I decided to include some popular children’s foods and a description of their ingredients as listed on the labels.

Now, I am not militant about what my children eat by any means. I attempt to make most of our meals homemade from “real” and organic foods (meats, poultry, eggs, dairy, grains, vegetables and fruits). And I offer fruits and vegetables with meals and snacks.

But we do eat packaged foods and restaurant foods as well. I love convenience, and I love eating out. And I love snack foods. I grew up in a home with a huge organic garden and made-from-scratch meals, you can see my post here: Culture of Food. But we always had packaged snack foods, candies, and sodas in the house too. Maybe that is why I am able to self-regulate so well, I always had whatever foods I wanted, whenever I wanted, plus a constant supply of healthy options.

Anyway, I am well aware of the controversy surrounding the safety of food additives, specifically food dyes and artificial sweeteners, but I also try not to think about them too much since we don’t consume a lot of highly processed packaged foods. Besides, I have enough to worry about on a daily basis with trying to balance family needs, working part-time, homeschooling, and personal time.

But really looking at what is in these popular packaged foods and the safety questions surrounding them was eye-opening. I want to share some of what I discovered.

I looked at the ingredients listed on a number of popular food products, but the following list of concerning ingredients came specifically from Kellog’s Strawberry Pop Tarts (45 different ingredients), and General Mills Cinnamon Toast Crunch (about 14 listed ingredients).

• Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate – when I Googled this I found a long list of chemical manufacturers. And I found the OSHA required safety sheets (called the Material Safety Data Sheets, or MSDS) on this chemical. http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9924954

According to the Safety Sheets for sodium acid pyrophosphate:

Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate is “very hazardous in case of skin contact, of eye contact…is hazardous in case of ingestion and inhalation”.
Doesn't sound like something you want to be consuming does it?

• Caramel Color – this is not Grandma’s method of browning sugar. Caramel color is made by reacting sugars with ammonia and sulfites. The chemical reaction, besides producing the caramel color, also produces cancer-causing chemicals.
• The most widely used coloring in foods is the red # 40. According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the safety testing on this color has been poorly conducted.
• Yellow # 6 is the third most widely used coloring and studies have shown tumors of the adrenal glands and kidneys in laboratory animals.
• FD&C Yellow # 5, used in beverages, candy, ice cream, custards and other foods, may be more likely to cause reactions than other additives. In fact, the Food and Drug Administration has acknowledged this and requires that Yellow # 5 be clearly labeled on food packaging along with other ingredients.
• But many colorings and food additives don’t require labeling, so it can be difficult to tell whether a food contains artificial coloring or other additives.
• Blue 1 – poor safety testing
• Trisodium Phosphate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trisodium_phosphate

 – also known as sodium phosphate. This is a popular cleaning agent, degreaser, and stain remover. In the late 1960’s government regulators in 17 states determined overuse of this cleaning agent to have caused a series of ecological problems. This substance is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency as a hazard to water.

But we are allowed to eat it in our food?

• BHT – prevents oils from going rancid. Residues have been found in human fat tissue

These are just a few of the many ingredients that are not only being added to our foods, but permitted. Now I have some questions I would like you to consider.

Why are these ingredients in our foods? Why are they permitted to be in our foods? Why do we, the concerned parents and consumers allow these ingredients in our foods?


The food industry has huge sums of money and HUGE political influence thanks to their well-organized lobbying interests.


Here are two great resources for education and change:

The Center for Science in the Public Interest is an excellent resource for consumers, and helping to make changes to benefit all of us:

http://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm

Food Democracy Now is another great group, working to create change:

http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/

And here is a great little video about organic foods versus non-organic. Wonder if she is a homeschooler?
http://www.seventhgeneration.com/learn/video/debate-over-organic?source=email

Thanks for reading!
M