5 Common Ingredients in Processed Foods:
And How They’re Keeping Society Sick
The dawn of COVID-19 has caused a lot of financial strain and the first thing people tend to cut back is the grocery budget. Sometimes there just isn’t much left over. I totally get it but consider this. Half-hazard bargain shopping at the supermarket can be detrimental to your health in ways you never imagined. I know it sounds crazy, but we’ve been conditioned as a society to opt for convenience over whole foods. Big Brother has collected data using trial and error to refine their techniques over the years at our expense. They’ve studied us extensively and fooled most of society into reaching for processed food under the ruse of safety. It may have started innocently enough but food manufacturers have taken aim at your family in the name of profit.
I take personal offense to that, but I also take responsibility for my part. We’ve been raised to shop at the supermarket instead of the farmer’s market and very few people grow their own food anymore. We are barely one generation removed from the dawn of the mainstream grocery store. For most, it’s a matter of convenience. Think about this. The vast majority of people will spend more money on a monthly car payment than they will on their grocery budget. Somehow, we’ve been fooled into taking more pride in what we drive than what we ingest into our bodies. Technically, most people just don’t know any better. We’ve been conditioned to trust the FDA, thinking they have our best interest in mind. Well, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Let me elaborate. The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is an agency of the USDA. It is responsible for ensuring the safety of commercial meat, poultry and egg products. They have a table of ‘new technologies’ for the processing of poultry and livestock listed here on their website. Near the bottom of the list, you’ll see that anhydrous ammonia is used in ground beef as an antimicrobial. It’s actually added to the meat. So, what is anhydrous ammonia and why would they put it in beef? Well, according to OSHA anhydrous ammonia is pure ammonia — undiluted. To put this in perspective, household ammonia is diluted with water until it contains somewhere between five and ten percent ammonia. You see, meat packing facilities are prime breeding grounds for bacteria like E. coli and salmonella. The use of chemical products and carbon monoxide saves ‘costly handwashing time and extends shelf life.’ That’s enough to offend me but there’s more.
Cattle are fed grain and corn because its cheap, but they digest it poorly because they were meant to eat grass. Corn and grain get caught in the end of the intestinal tract and ferments where it produces resistant strains of E. Coli that contaminate the meat supply at slaughter. It's virtually unavoidable under the current system. A Cornell University study found that when they switched cows from grain to hay-based diets for five days before slaughter, resistant E. Coli strains were reduced to an undetectable amount. So, what’s the point? The point is that they won’t spend the money to feed livestock hay (like they were meant to eat) for a few days before slaughter. It's far cheaper to just mix pure ammonia into the beef. Could that really be any better for us? I think not. Here’s a little irony. The same organization actually discourages us from washing meat before cooking because we ‘could potentially contaminate it with chemicals.’ Funny, right?
The worst part is that meat is a whole food product and they aren’t even required to put that stuff on the label. That was part of what made me really start looking at food labels hard. Once I took the time to decipher the language and lookup the unpronounceable words, I was quite appalled. It became apparent that America’s health is being sacrificed in the name of profit. The worst part is that marketing and convenience are giving them the tools to do it. Here are some of the most common ingredients on food labels that could be affecting your health.
1. Artificial Flavors
These are synthetic chemicals artificially designed to mimic certain food flavors. They may taste good going down, but they can wreak havoc on your body. Most studies have been done on mice concerning with concerning health effects. Certain flavors were shown to be toxic to bone marrow while others unequivocally inhibited red blood cell production. Red blood cells are formed in the bone marrow and their job is to transport oxygen.
2. High Fructose Corn Syrup
This artificial sweetener seems like it's in everything these days, from soda and juice to snack foods and cereals. There are even commercials touting its ‘safety’ but it has been directly linked to weight gain, diabetes and inflammation. Some studies even show that the entire country who uses more of this artificial sweetener has seen a sharp rise in Type 2 diabetes specifically.
3. Sodium Nitrate
This is an alkali metal salt compound used as a preservative in processed meat, like bacon and hot dogs. Its also used as a coloring agent and preservative in fast food burgers. When exposed to heat in combination with amino acids (yes, most meat contain amino acids), these nitrates can morph into nitrosamine. Consumption of nitrates and nitrosamine have both been linked to multiple forms of cancer.
4. BHA & BHT
These are also food preservatives found in just about everything from chips and cereals to beer and butter. The state of California lists these agents as known carcinogens while the rest of the country lists them as probable carcinogens. Shouldn’t that be enough?
5. Potassium Bromate & Bromic Acid
Actually, these are one in the same. Potassium bromate is an oxidizing agent used as a food preservative. Its mainly found in breads, flours and rolls because it increases the volume of these products. When they advertise “enriched flour or bread,” here’s your culprit. They may put some good stuff in there, but the product has been enriched with potassium bromate as a preservative and a volumizer. This stuff is an endocrine disrupter that has been linked to cancer and banned from the food supply in several other countries.
I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture. Each one of these items is Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) by the FDA. Are you kidding me? I think their logic is GRAS in small amounts but here’s the thing. You get small amounts from this item and then that item, then another and so on. Think of how this builds up over the course of a week, much less a lifetime. This is where America’s health and obesity crisis came from. It’s not because we’re nutritiously irresponsible; it’s in the commercial food supply!
Even reading food labels and identifying ingredients can be terribly difficult. I don’t think this is done by accident. For instance, there are 61 different names for sugar on food labels. This is because each name is a different version of what is created from processing. While I find this a bit ridiculous, it’s quite common. Sodium has over 20 different names and any ingredient that may not appeal to patrons is simply disguised under another name.
As a rule of thumb, the shorter the ingredient list — the better. If you can’t pronounce it then you probably don’t really want to know what it is. Foods are best left in the whole form without additives. Buy organic whenever you can and consider growing at least some things yourself. Try the local farmers market or Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) club. Some CSA’s even include eggs, poultry or herbs and it’s a much safer option for your family.
Look at it this way. You’ll either pay a little more upfront buying organic unprocessed foods that you prepare at home or you’ll pay a lot more down the road when the doctor gives you (or someone you love) an unexpected diagnosis. Either way, you’re going to pay……. but at least now the choice is yours.
