Reading Labels: What you Don’t Know Does Hurt

Reading Labels

What you Don’t Know Does Hurt

in·gre·di·ent

A part or element of something.

The dictionary also list words like piece and unit.

 Scientifically, we have to eat to live, and biblically we have been given a guide to follow on what to eat.  Reading labels is a great starting point to make BIG changes in your overall health. 

  If someone you know has a PEANUT ALLERGY you research and read all the ingredients because of fatal reactions. If you have Celiacs Disease, avoiding wheat is vital for your body to function.  We all need a little Sherlock Holmes in us.  We all need to know what we are putting in our bodies. Our food has been altered and contaminated on such a high level, humans are experiencing avoidable illness, disease, and stress on a daily basis.

 What you DON’T know does hurt you.  Start today at minimum avoiding the following list of ingredients, therefore, changing your families future. Processed food means that it has been altered from its “raw” state (i.e. packaged foods).  The John Hopkins Center states that there were $33 Billion spent on advertising and marketing for these types of food in 1999.  Today, $40 Billion!  Dr. Mercola lists on his website the 7 Worst Ingredients in Food.

The 7 Avoidable’s:

1.     Artificial Sweetners: Artificial Sweetners are synthetic and much sweeter than sugar alone.  Aspartame (Equal, Nutra Sweet), Acesulfame Potassium (Sunnet and Sweet One), Sucralose(Splenda) and Saccharin(Sweet N’ Low).     

  

a.     These chemicals confuse your body and actually store fat, aspartame attacks your brain cells.  Real sugar although having its own warnings would be better to consume than the artificial counter part.  If food is altered in an unhealthy way then it is NOT life giving, it is life taking.  Remember, it pays to read the labels.  Look on anything that says DIET or Light for example and anything that is SWEET (i.e. soda and candy).  Also, double check products like GUM and Energy Drinks.  You are your own advocate!  There is a long list of diseases connected to the use and over use of artificial sweeteners.  This is real life, you can’t make this stuff up.

2.     Synthetic Trans Fats:  The act of adding hydrogen to oils called hydrogenation, changes the make up of the oil in its original state. 

a.     Trans Fats are easily found in fried foods, doughnuts, cookies, pastries, crackers and many baked goods to name a few.  It’s a chemically processed oil, NOT God made.  These fats make your body go crazy and reek havoc on your immune system and reproductive system.

3.     Artificial Flavors:  This is an obvious NO GO, but we seem to pass go All the time.  It says artificial in the label, artificial means not real. How can your real body know how to decode something FAKE… your right, it can’t.  You can find this in your buttery microwave popcorn, Candy, tons of drinks and SO much more.  Artificial is an umbrella term and does not list ALL the different artificial flavors that are actually in the said product, sometimes as many as 50. WHAT?!??!

This is Nutella Spread, I bought it on a whim for an oatmeal bar and after writing the blog reread and reevaluated a few labels in my own home!  It now lives in the trash.

4.     Monosodium Glutamate (MSG): It is sneaky chemical additive that over excites your brain.  You will find it in numerous processed food products such as frozen foods, snacks, chips, meats, and salad dressing (Look at your bottle of ranch my TX friends).  MSG has many other names it can hide under, be advised.

I am usually the MSG spotting queen BUT really who whould think to look in their salsa.  Full jar down the drain and does anyone notice the advertising at the bottom of the picture, so fresh.

5.     Artificial Colors: Artificial color is listed in a variety of packaged foods.  The more you read about it, the more you will be reminded that color dyes like Red #40, Blue #2 and Yellow #5 really do present chemical reactions in our bodies.  Most studies were on children but I would imagine that if our children are affected, we are too. 

M&M's and many cherished candies we grew up with and serve our kids today are covered in artificial coloring and artificial flavors

6.     High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS):  I think I need a scientific college degree to explain this substance.  It is pretty much like sugar BUT so much worse.  The liver filters it in a similar way it filters alcohol and since the western diet is drenched in this chemical our livers are being over worked and under paid on a daily basis.  Obesity is a major link to HFCS. To put it into perspective a soda has 40 grams of sugar and half of that is fructose, a daily allotment on a generous day is 25 grams of fructose.

Many foods that are sweet contain HFCS because it is a very cheap to make.  There are usually other choices at the grocery store, sometimes sitting right next to what you are used to buying, easy switch. 

7.     Preservatives:  To infinity and beyond…expiration dates to 2019…YIKES!  When reading the ingredients label these are the main but not limited to chemical preservatives you are looking for, Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydrozyttoluene (BHT) andTertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ).

  Other countries have banned the use of many additives that the US still allows in our foods today.  I started with a list very similar to this one a few years ago and have experienced greater overall health in my family’s lives. I have attached a free 4x6 printable:  The Avoidables-7 Worst Ingredients

Be a great detective in the grocery store this week!

Enjoy,

Kirsi Ingram

John Hopkins

Articles written by Dr. Mercola

Rex Russell, M.D., What the Bible says about Healthy Living

Dictionary
Images from google and Kirsi Ingram Photography