- The first one that was brought to my attention by my dear friend, Elaine, was partially hydogenated oil. This is found in almost every snack cracker, cookie, chip...you name it. It is quite a challenge to find good, tasty items that do not contain these dangerous trans fats. Two good snacks that I found today are Triscuit and Fiddle Faddle.
- The second additive that was brought to my attention was MSG or monosodium glutamate. This is another dangerous additive that is in SO many of our popular convenience foods. What really got me going about MSG was a piece done about it on CBN's The 700 Club a few months back. They called it "the cancer fertilizer". And with cancer in my family, I just wasn't going to take any MORE risks that I already unknowingly do. You can click the link above to read an interesting article about MSG. It also contains a helpful list of other names MSG is listed as...in disguise, if you will...in cognito. Not good. You will be surprised at the amount of foods that contain some form of MSG.
- Aspartame, found in diet drinks and fat free foods, among other things, is another additive I avoid. I figured this one out on my own when I was able to taste it every time I ate or drank something diet or fat-free. Yogurt, for example, would leave the worst taste in my mouth...all I could taste was chemicals. I was never able to get accustomed to diet sodas or drinks...again, all I could taste was, what I eventually figured out was, aspartame. So I stopped buying anything that contained aspartame. Luckily for my husband, who loves his diet soda, Coke and Pepsi both came out with a diet cola containing Splenda rather than aspartame. It's taken him some time to get used to it...but he's doing it without much complaining. You can read a list of symptoms and diseases linked, or possibly linked, to the ingestion of aspartame. Some people say that aspartame has to be consumed in large doses to do damage...but I figure if my body can't break it down, eventually it WILL be a large amount. So why take chances?
- This last ingredient was only brought to my attention over this past summer. I was lecturing my brother-in-law on the dangers of Aspartame when he came right back at me with the dangers of high-fructose corn syrup, telling me that it tells the brain it's not full. This is especially dangerous for children...and unfortunately, it is in SO many, TOO many foods we've all fed our children: cereals, juices, juice boxes, granola bars, fruit snacks, candy, I even saw it listed in the ingredients of a popular snack cracker just this morning while trying to find bargains at Big Lots (which I did, thank you!). It's everywhere...and in way more than we realize...and many times, unknowingly, we are pumping our children full of sugar...then sending them off to school without a proper, healthy meal and THEN wondering why they're having trouble staying focused. (Not to mention the awful school meals they are now feeding our kids...my kids won't even eat them) I know my kids would LOVE a big, fat bowl of Cap'n Crunch each morning...but I just can't do that to them. I may as well just send them off with a kiss and say, "Bye honey...love you...hope you fail today!" I know this may sound dramatic to some of you...but I can see the difference in my own children. Especially my younger son who seems to be more affected by what I allow him to put in his body. Sugar really affects him. Really. I can literally watch him be unable to focus, to remember, to stay on task, to sit still, he can't fall asleep if he's had a sugar-y snack too close to bedtime...it's sad, really. Not my older son so much...in that it doesn't necessarily make him hyper or unable to focus...he gets more lethargic and listless, which is just as detremental as the other.
I have to say that it does take more time at the store to do my shopping since I take the time to read the labels. But I find it to be worth every extra minute knowing that I am feeding my family as healthily as I possibly know how. This is not to say that we don't have the occasional treat that contains something that is less than good for us...we do. I have to admit, I haven't conquered my love of coffee creamer. But for the most part, we are careful. And my sons are even reading labels now, too! (And my husband, too!) My boys and I were at Big Lots earlier today and they were wanting a snack...they saw me reading labels and followed suit. After some complaining, "How come everything that tastes good is bad for you?!", they were finally able to agree on a sweet snack that didn't contain anything unsafe...that we know of anyway!
Sometimes it seems like I can't find anything that doesn't contain something that is bad for our health. And it seems like the only thing I could do to ensure total safety would be to move to some remote mountain region...build a cabin...grow my own food...water it with purified water...can it...freeze it...raise my own beef...and fowl...and do everything like they did back in the day.
But, since I don't see that happening anytime soon, I'll continue as I have been...something is better than nothing. Right? We can make a difference...one small change at a time.
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