Have you ever really read the ingredients list of the food you buy in the supermarket?
I am not talking about looking for the calorie or sugar amount in diet products but about the additional ingredients such as flavourings, stabilizers, preservatives and colourings. Of course I know that some of the added ingredients are natural and actually don’t do any harm. However a lot of them are not natural at all and they are put into foods where we don’t expect or want them. For more information on what E-Numbers stand for look up a full list online. It is important to say, that not every E–Number is bad, it is just a way of labelling additives. For example E 300 is actually Vitamin C. So it is important to know which E-Number to look out for if you want to avoid putting chemicals into your body.
A very good list of the different additives can be found here:
http://www.food.gov.uk/policy-advice/additivesbranch/enumberlist
Some very common foods that are labelled as healthy and/or natural but actually contain a lot of additives are:
Tinned or package soups
Cereals
Low calorie foods
Low sugar products
“no added sugar” products
Fruit juices
Margarine
Olives
Chewing gum
And many more…. So check the label before you buy a product if you want to know what you are eating.
Here is one example of a “healthy, no-fat” breakfast milk drink that you apparently should have once a day. See below the ingredients list:
Ingredients:
Yogurt, Water, Skimmed Milk, Dextrose, Stabiliser (pectin), Milk mineral concentrate, Sweetners (aspartame, acesulfame K), L.casei cultures (Lactobacillus casei CNCM I-1518 also called DN 114 001), Vitamin B6, Natural Flavouring,
Here are the two sweeteners from the ingredients list and their side effects:
1.Aspartame
What is in it: Phenylalanine, aspartic acid and methanol.
Reported side effects: Headaches, fibromyalgia, anxiety, memory loss, arthritis, abdominal pain, nausea, depression, heart palpitations, irritable bowel syndrome, seizures, neurological disorders, vision problems, brain tumours and weight gain.
Concerns: Phenylalanine and aspartic acid directly impact brain and central nervous system functions; evidence shows they play a role in mood disorders, memory problems and other neurological illnesses.
Methanol is converted into formaldehyde when metabolized. Makers of aspartame say methanol and its by-products are quickly excreted. But research has found measurable amounts of formaldehyde in the livers, kidneys and brains of test subjects after ingestion of aspartame.
2. Acesulfame-K
What’s in it: Acesulfame-K is a potassium salt containing methylene chloride, a known carcinogen.
Reported side effects: Long term exposure to methylene chloride can cause nausea, headaches, mood problems, impairment of the liver and kidneys, problems with eyesight and possibly cancer. Acesulfame-K may contribute to hypoglemica.
Concerns: Of all artificial sweeteners, acesulfame-K has undergone the least scientific scrutiny. Early studies showed a potential link between the sweetener and development of multiple cancers in laboratory animals.
So check before you buy a product!! A good list of how bad certain E-numbers are can be found here:
http://www.earthways.co.uk/enumbers.html
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