Dr. Pragya Khanna
“It is simply impossible to predict the effects of lifetime exposure to chemical and physical agents that are not part of the biological experience of man.”
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
Since ages man has treated food to extend its edible life, drying, salting, smoking, freezing and heating represent some examples, and today both traditional and modern preservatives are used extensively to safeguard the satisfactory maintenance of quality and safety of foods. There has been considerable public concern about the use of food additives, including preservatives, resulting from an opinion that some of them may have deleterious effects on health. However, as eating habits of people around the globe have changed with a stress on what has been popularly termed a ‘healthy diet’, there is at the same time a concern that decrease in preservative usage could lead to loss of safety and protection from food poisoning.
Our ancestors preserved foods naturally, using salt, fermentation and sun drying. Today, food processing has evolved away from these simple practices into more complex and sceptical methods. Today, nearly six thousand additives and chemicals are used by food companies to process our food. Many of them can have a distressing effect on our health.
Preservatives are chemical ingredients added to processed foods to prevent growth of bacteria and mould, delay spoiling and make the product appear more tempting to consumers. However, the use of food preservatives may increase your risk for respiratory, immunologic and other metabolic complications.
When food is processed (transformed) by cooking and packaging for future use, it must be preserved. Otherwise, food is meant to be eaten immediately.
In a fast paced society, one cannot hang around on Mother Nature to take her sweet and valuable time to provide us with food. So man has stepped in and shown his disenchanted domination over Mother Nature to speed up the natural process of food production via hormonal injections and Genetic Engineering. However, an important aspect is, after the edible vegetation is picked and prepared or animals slaughtered to prepare the meats, one has to preserve them for freshness, especially if these things are going to sit on some shelf in a super market for months. And what do you preserve things with? Yes! PRESERVATIVES!
The preservatives besides protecting the foodstuff act as taste enhancers too. Haven’t you also noticed that cooking a meal at home tastes different from what comes from a frozen package? It’s not because of what you mix in; it is because the preservatives actually change the taste and texture of the food.
Also, while walking down the walkway in a supermarket, you see a glimmer out of the fringe of your vision. You quickly turn your head to find a stack of extraordinarily glossy apples! Do you know what is used to make them so glowing? A thick layer of paraffin wax is enough to make those apples look delicious and tempting.
We, in fact, are slowly killing ourselves by eating the foods we love without thinking. These preserved foods may have the advantage against organic foods when it comes to the expiry date. Foodstuffs available in boxes, jars and cans are dead, which is why they have to be preserved with chemical preservatives. You don’t preserve living things, only dead things. So, it is said, if the bulk of what you eat (albeit sauces, spices, etc.) is coming from a can, box, or jar, you are eating dead stuff.
Generally, most of the things processed in developed countries today have preservatives in them, so when you eat and drink these processed things, your body absorbs these preservatives. Preservatives make you stiff. They cause hardening of the blood vessels. And because we eat too many acidic foods today, our bodies are full of mucus.
A very threatening agent contained in over 1,200 food products is the chemical sweetening agent called Aspartame. At 86 degrees Fahrenheit, the chemical aspartame converts into formaldehyde which is a preserving fluid. The natural human body temperature is 98.6 degrees. Then anytime we consume anything with aspartame as an ingredient in it, it is automatically going to convert into formaldehyde. Inside the living body, formaldehyde is a neurotoxin (toxic to the brain).
Another stiffening agent in the debased Western diet is STARCH! Beware of consuming too much starch and starchy foods (i.e. rice, corn, potatoes, yams, etc.). Also, beware of dairy products like ice cream, milk, butter, cheese, yogurt, sour cream. A by-product of dairy is LACTIC ACID! Lactic acid is what your body naturally produces after you work out. When lactic acid dries, it turns hard like stone.
Although looking at the labels such foods may seem safe to eat, they most certainly should be avoided at all costs if they contain excess quantity of any of the below mentioned preservatives that more often than not they do contain them.
Salt: The use of salt for flavouring and preserving food dates back nearly 5,000 years. Today, several types of salt are used to preserve food and enhance flavour. The pervasiveness of processed foods in the American diet has led to unhealthy increases in salt consumption. Excess salt intake increases your risk of high blood pressure and weight gain, major risk factors for heart disease.
Gluten Reaction: Many preservatives are synthesized artificially, with some additives containing ingredients derived from gluten. Symptoms of a gluten reaction include gastrointestinal distress, abdominal cramping and fatigue.
Consumption of processed meats was linked with a 19 percent higher risk of diabetes. Unless you slaughter your own meat, raise your own chickens and grow your own fruits and vegetables, nearly everything you eat contains some type of preservative. The three main types of preservatives include antimicrobials, which slow bacterial growth; antioxidants, which slow oxidation in fats that causes food to become rancid; and substances that slow the natural ripening process that occurs after picking a fruit or vegetable.
Canned and Boxed Foods: Antioxidants like butylated hydroxytoluene, or BHT, and butylated hydroxyanisole, or BHA, keep oil from going rancid. Both are found in cereals, potato chips, oils and chewing gum and both have increased cancer risk in small animal studies. Propyl gallate, another antioxidant, is often used with BHA and BHT. Sulphites are added to some processed potatoes, while sodium benzoate, another preservative, is added to soft drinks, pickles and fruit juices.
Baked Goods: Fresh baked goods often have preservatives added to retard mould growth. Antimicrobials such as propionic acid and antioxidants such as lecithin prevent oils from going rancid. Emulsifiers such as monoglycerides and diglycerides keep oils in baked goods from separating from other ingredients. Fruit pies and pastries may contain sodium benzoate.
Salad Ingredients: Salad ingredients sold in supermarkets and restaurants often have sulphites added to keep them looking fresh. Sulphites cause severe allergic reactions in some people, particularly in asthmatics.
Dairy Products: Dairy products such as milk, cheese, sour cream, ice cream and yogurt have a number of added preservatives, including potassium sorbate, natamycin, used to prevent mould growth on cheese and tartaric acid.
A number of commonly used preservatives are:
1. Benzoates
Commonly used in preserving: Fruit juices, margarine, pickles, purees, beer and flour.
Harmful effects: Causes allergies and may damage brain.
2. BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole)
Commonly used in preserving: Fresh Meat, pork, steak sausages, pork sausages, snack foods like potato chips and crackers, baked foods, beer, cake mix, drink powders, frozen pizza and dry cereals to name a few.
Harmful effects: It is carcinogenic in nature and may cause liver diseases.
3. Bromates
Commonly used in preserving: Breads and flours mainly white ones.
Harmful effects: May lead to diarrhoea and destroy nutrients.
4. Mono- and Di-glycerides
Commonly used in preserving: Cookies, bread, roasted nuts, pies, margarine, cakes, peanut butter and many more.
Harmful effects: Causes cancer and birth defects like abnormalities.
5. Nitrates and Nitrites
Commonly used in preserving: Meat and meat products.
Harmful effects: These particular preservatives are cancerous and an overdose of these can lead to death.
6. Propyl gallate
Commonly used in preserving: Oils, pickles, chewing gums, sauces and vegetable shortening.
Harmful effects: Can cause cancer and birth related defects.
7. Coal Tar AZO Dyes
Commonly used in preserving: Sweets, jams, smoked fish, smoked meat, packet soups, and salad creams.
Harmful effects: Allergies, hyperactivity, upset stomach and birth defects are some of the effects of coal tar azo dyes.
8. Glutamates
Commonly used in preserving: In almost all convenient food.
Harmful effects: Headaches, palpitation, chest pain, neck pain, dizziness and cancer are common symptoms.
9. Sulfites
Commonly used in preserving: Fruits, corn soup, wine, jarred pepper and olives, dried fruits, corn starch, and wine vinegar.
Harmful effects: Headaches, heart palpitation, cancer, joint pain and cancer.
Completely eliminating every culpable delight in life is not the end goal here, nor is it a particularly realistic approach to making changes...we all enjoy the occasional cheeseburger, order of fries, or bag of chips.
When it comes to avoiding many of the problematic and possibly toxic additives contained in processed foods, we are only human after all, so taking baby steps toward change is usually the best approach.
Taking a few precautions would help, don’t eat partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated Trans fats, don’t eat products containing sugar substitutes such as saccharine and aspartame, avoid products with a long shelf life, avoid products that have been enriched since they have been completely devitalized during processing, avoid food that have been genetically modified or engineered, avoid products made with ingredients described as ‘natural flavouring’ or ‘natural colouring’, avoid products with added sugar.
In addition add a multi-vitamin into your health regimen. If you’ve had a history of eating products high in sugar and are concerned about diabetes, incorporate disease-fighting products such as garlic, vitamin E, and aloevera into your diet. Vitamin E supplements can also protect your body from the harmful effects of eating refined products that have been bleached with chloride oxide.
As you begin to eliminate processed food from your diet, and start to enjoy eating real food that has not been processed to death, you will be on your way to optimizing your health, making an investment in your body’s future and, ultimately, feeling better.
After all ‘You are what you eat’!!!!! |
