Ever wonder what's really in the food sold at grocery stores around the world? People keep asking me, "What ingredients should I avoid?" So I put together a short list that covers all the most toxic and disease-promoting ingredients in the food supply. These are the substances causing cancer, diabetes, heart disease and leading to tens of billions of dollars in unnecessary health care costs across America (and around the world).
If you want to stay healthy and out of the hospital, read ingredients labels and make sure you avoid all these ingredients:
Acrylamides - Toxic, cancer-causing chemicals formed in foods when carbohydrates are exposed to high heat (baking, frying, grilling). They're present in everything from bread crusts to snack chips, and because they aren't intentional ingredients, acrylamides do NOT have to be listed on labels.
Aspartame - Chemical sweetener that causes neurological disorders, seizures, blurred vision and migraine headaches.
Autolyzed Proteins - Highly processed form of protein containing free glutamate and used to mimic the taste-enhancer chemical MSG.
BPA (Bisphenol-A) - A hormone mimicking chemical found in nearly all food packaging plastics. Active in just parts per billion, BPA promotes cancer, infertility and hormone disorders. It also "feminizes" males, promoting male breast growth and hormone disruption
Casein - Milk proteins. Hilariously, this is widely used in "soy cheese" products that claim to be alternatives to cow's milk. Nearly all of them are made with cow's milk proteins.
Corn Syrup - Just another name for High Fructose Corn Syrup (see below). Frequently used in infant formula products
Food Colors - FD&C Red #40, for example, is linked to behavioral disorders in children. Nearly all artificial food colors are derived from petroleum, and many are contaminated with aluminum.
Genetically Modified Ingredients - Not currently listed on the label because the GMO industry (Monsanto and DuPont) absolutely does not want people to know which foods contain GMOs. Nearly all conventionally grown corn, soy and cotton are GMOs. They're linked to severe infertility problems and may even cause the bacteria in your body to produce and release a pesticide in your own gut. If you're not eating organic corn, you're definitely eating GMO corn.
High Fructose Corn Syrup - A highly processed liquid sugar extracted with the chemical solvent glutaraldehyde and frequently contaminated with mercury . It's also linked to diabetes, obesity and mood disorders. Used in thousands of grocery items, including things you wouldn't suspect like pizza sauce and salad dressings.
Homogenized Milk - The fats in the milk are artificially modified to change them into smaller molecules that stay in suspension in the milk liquid (so the milk fat doesn't separate)
While it makes milk look better on the shelf, it's also blamed for promoting heart disease and may contribute to milk allergies. Raw milk is healthier, which is why the government had outlawed it
Hydrochloride - When you see anything hydrochloride, such as Pyridoxine Hydrochloride or Thiamin Hydrochloride, those are chemical forms of B vitamins that companies add to their products to be able to claim higher RDA values of vitamins. But these are synthetic, chemical forms of vitamins, not real vitamins from foods or plants. Nutritionally, they are near-useless and may actually be bad for you. Also watch out for niacinamide and cyanocobalamin (synthetic vitamin B-12).
Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein - A highly processed form of (usually) soy protein that's processed to bring out the free glutamate (MSG). Use as a taste enhancer.
Partially Hydrogenated Oils - Oils that are modified using a chemical catalyst to make them stable at room temperature. This creates trans fatty acids and greatly increases the risk of blocked arteries. It also promotes what I call "sludge blood," which is thick, viscous blood that's hard to pump. This is usually diagnosed by doctors as "high blood pressure" and (stupidly) treated with blood-thinning medications that are technically the same chemicals as rat poison (warfarin)
Phosphoric Acid - The acid used in sodas to dissolve the carbon dioxide and add to the overall fizzy-ness of the soda. Phosphoric acid will eat steel nails. It's also used by stone masons to etch rocks. The military uses it to clean the rust off battleships. In absolutely destroys tooth enamel. Search Google Images for "Mountain Dew Mouth" to see photos of teeth rotted out by phosphoric acid:
http://www.google.com/search?q=mountain+dew Propylene Glycol - A liquid used in the automotive industry to winterize RVs. It's also used to make the fake blueberries you see in blueberry muffins, bagels and breads. (Combined with artificial colors and corn syrup.)
Sodium (Salt) - The processed white salt lacking in trace minerals. In the holistic nutrition industry, we call it "death salt" because it promotes disease and death. Real salt, on the other hand, such as "dirty" sea salt or pink Himalayan salt, is loaded with the trace minerals that prevent disease, such as selenium (cancer), chromium (diabetes) and zinc (infectious disease). Much like with bread and sugar, white salt is terrible for your health. And don't be fooled by claims of "sea salt" in grocery stores. All salt came from the sea if you go far back enough in geologic time, so they can slap the "sea salt" claim on ANY salt!
Sodium Nitrite - A cancer-causing red coloring chemical added to bacon, hot dogs, sausage, beef jerky, ham, lunch meats, pepperoni and nearly all processed meats. Strongly linked to brain tumors, pancreatic cancers and colon cancers. The USDA once tried to ban it from the food supply but was out-maneuvered by the meat industry, which now dominates USDA regulations. Sodium nitrite is a complete poison used to make meats look fresh. Countless children die of cancer each year from sodium nitrite-induced cancers.
Soy Protein - The No. 1 protein source used in "protein bars," including many bars widely consumed by bodybuilders. Soy protein is the "junk protein" of the food industry. It's made from genetically modified soybeans (often grown in China) and then subjected to hexane, a chemical solvent that can literally explode.
Sucralose - An artificial chemical sweetener sold as Splenda. The sucralose molecule contains a chlorine atom Researchers have repeatedly found that artificial sweeteners make people fat by actually promoting weight gain
Sugar - The bleached, nutritionally-deficient byproduct of cane processing. During sugar cane processing, nearly all the minerals and vitamins end up in the blackstrap molasses that's usually fed to farm animals. (Blackstrap molasses is actually the "good" part of sugar cane juice.) Molasses is often fed to farm animals because every rancher knows that farm animals need good nutrition to stay alive. Amazingly, conventional doctors don't yet realize this about humans, and they continue to claim that eating sugar is perfectly fine for you. Sugar promotes diabetes, obesity, mood disorders and nutritional deficiencies.
Textured Vegetable Protein - Usually made of soy protein which is extracted from genetically modified soybeans and then processed using hexane, an explosive chemical solvent (see Soy Protein, above). Widely used in vegetarian foods such as "veggie burgers" (most of which also contain MSG or Yeast Extract, by the way).
Yeast Extract - Hidden form of MSG that contains free glutamate and is used in many "natural" food products to claim "No MSG!" Yeast extract contains up to 14% free glutamate. You'll find it in thousands of grocery store products, from soups to snack chips. I even once spotted it used on fresh meat!
Food label tricks Here's a trick food companies frequently used to pack more sugar into their products without making sugar look like the first ingredient:
Ingredient labels, you see, must list the most prominent ingredients first, and some consumers might freak out of they saw a box of cereal that said, "Sugar, whole grain wheat, corn" and so on. Instead, the company uses 3 or 4 different forms of sugar to distribute them farther down the label, like this:
"Whole grain wheat, sugar, corn syrup, corn syrup solids..."
This way, the first ingredients looks like "whole grain wheat" when, in reality, the cereal might be over fifty percent sugars!
How to buy honest food • Shop are your local farmer's market, food co-op or CSA.
• In the USA, look for the USDA Organic label on foods. This is a legitimate claim to being certified organic. It's one of the few programs run by the USDA that actually has integrity.
• Read the ingredients labels! If you see names of chemicals you can't pronounce, don't buy it.
• Buy more unprocessed food ingredients and make your own meals rather than buying ready-to-eat, processed foods, which are almost universally formulated with disease-promoting ingredients.
• GROW some of your own food! The best food you can ever eat is food from your own garden.
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