Are you aware that there are hundreds of substances that are banned in other countries but are FDA approved for food items in the US? 

The FDA lists thousands of chemicals that are approved in our foods, some of them natural, but most are highly processed chemicals, which can have serious effects on our health.

Here’s a list of commonly found ingredients in snacks, drinks and bread, to name just a few:

High fructose corn syrup

Dextrose, sucrose, maltose

Artificial flavors / Natural flavors 

Preservatives

GMO (genetically modified substances)

Coloring

Hormone disrupters 

Insects (not so much just yet but the push is definitely on).

 

All of these can have serious, detrimental effects in your health and well-being. Most of them are also there to increase corporation and shareholder profits, not for the benefit of us, the ‘consumer’. 

 

What can I do to counteract these unhealthy substances?

 

Meet the LADY approach (that works for gentlemen too!)

 * Learn the facts

 * Avoid what you can

 * Detox - get rid of what you no longer need

 * YES to alternatives! Find what works better for you.

Here are some interesting articles if you want to know more:

https://www.distractify.com/p/difference-ingredients-us-foods-vs-europe

 

“The pastry you're thinking about buying may contain the preservative propyl paraben, linked to disruptions in hormone signaling.”(https://www.ewg.org/research/propyl-paraben)

 

Synthetic ingredients in Natural Flavors and Natural Flavors in Artificial flavors

by David Andrews, Senior Scientist

(https://www.ewg.org/foodscores/content/natural-vs-artificial-flavors/)

[…] “natural flavor” finds its way into more than a fifth of that roster of 80,000 foods, with only salt, water and sugar mentioned more frequently on food labels.

But what is “natural flavor” exactly? Are natural flavors really better than artificial flavors? The simple fact that McDonald’s says its “natural beef flavor” is derived from wheat and milk should make you wonder.

“Natural flavors” can actually contain synthetic chemicals, and - what’s worse - they may be derived from human embryo cell. 
(Research HEK293)

 

Why flavor food?

“The annual sales of the fragrance and flavor industry is estimated at $24 billion. It is controlled by a few large flavor houses, notably Givaudan, Firmenich, IFF etc

 

Besides the obvious reasons of making food products taste ‘good’, flavors are also used to mask the fact that the food is not fresh, they make you crave more by clever use of short ‘lingering’ taste and they can make you get downright addicted. 

 

“Flavors are complex mixtures that sometimes comprise more than 100 chemicals. In addition to flavors themselves, these mixtures contain chemicals that have other functions. Solvents, emulsifiers, flavor modifiers and preservatives often make up 80 to 90 percent of the mixture.”

 

 

Fenaroli's Handbook of Flavor Ingredients lists a large number of chemicals that can be used to approximate the taste of an apple.^[2]

 

“When you see the word “flavor” on a food label, you have no clue what chemicals, carrier solvents or preservatives have been added to the food.”

 

“Certain chemicals used in both natural and artificial flavors or in artificial flavors alone are very toxic at higher doses. These specific chemicals are not a higher health concern because very low concentrations occur in finished foods.

Overall, thousands of flavor chemicals are being added to foods without FDA oversight or review of the available safety information or the concentration used. The food additive review system is broken.“