Today we are hearing more and more about the
side effects of the additives in the foods we eat. These are the same additives that the Food
and Drug Administration has easily deemed “safe” for us, the American public at
large, to ingest.
"Safe" is defined by Congress as “reasonable
certainty that no harm will result from use of an additive.” The list of safe additives is 700 items long and includes the
most common artificial sweeteners such as Aspartame, Splenda, NutraSweet, and
Equal. It also contains hydrogenated
oils and artificial colorings as well.
All of these additives are human made and the FDA either approves their use, or limits their use. In many cases, "limiting" the use means that companies can add 1/100th of what is
considered to be dangerous into any one portion of food. The FDA considers this amount safe, but you need to know that much of the
damage that comes from these additives is cumulative. That means it builds up with each and every
exposure!
So you say, “How does this affect me?” Well do you ever read the labels of candy, ice
cream, protein bars or any other pre-packaged foods? Most of them not only have preservatives for
a long shelf life, but have colorings to make you think the food is pretty and
artificial sweeteners which are many times sweeter than sugar!
Did
you know that the long term side effects
of such additives have been linked to
different cancers?
And short term side effects include the following;
hearing impairment, vision distortion,
tinnitus, headaches, dizziness, sleepiness, depression, irritability, inability
to maintain focus, breathing difficulty, bloating, aggression, diarrhea,
decreased fetal body and placental weights and brain development, etc. The list does not end there.
So if the list does not end there for the
short term, meaning you could experience any one of these things with one use,
and the long term gives way to a possibility of having a deadly disease, what
amount is worth it all?
Is a little okay?
Remember the real damage is
accumulative. So how much is okay?
Well the FDA knows many of these additives
are not healthy, hence the limitation of their use in single portions. But is the FDA going to tell you how many
portions over your lifetime that you can have?
Are they going to govern what you actually eat?
Just take one portion that you may eat on a
basis of 3 times a week. Multiply it by
52 weeks in a year and you have eaten 156% of the amount that is considered to
be dangerous, in just one year with just one food item of your diet!
Just think the average American drinks 55
gallons of soft drinks per year. Soft
drinks are also the biggest culprits of osteoporosis. Do you think this is a little amount?
You have to look at the big long term picture
on a daily basis! And you have to be the one to decide what is
safe for you to eat! Don’t leave it up
to the FDA.
Created by Kea Popovics, copyright 2004
