(NaturalNews) Ever wonder what's
really in the food sold at grocery stores around the world? People keep asking me, "What ingredients should I avoid?" So I put together a short list that covers all the most toxic and disease-promoting ingredients in the food supply. These are the substances causing cancer, diabetes, heart disease and leading to tens of billions of dollars in unnecessary health care costs across America (and around the world).
If you want to stay healthy and out of the hospital,
read ingredients labels and make sure you avoid all these ingredients:
Acrylamides - Toxic, cancer-causing chemicals formed in foods when
carbohydrates are exposed to high heat (baking, frying, grilling). They're present in everything from bread crusts to snack chips, and because they aren't intentional ingredients, acrylamides do NOT have to be listed on labels.
Aspartame - Chemical sweetener that causes neurological disorders, seizures, blurred vision and migraine headaches. (
http://www.naturalnews.com/030918_aspartame_GM_bacteria.html)
Autolyzed Proteins - Highly processed form of protein containing
free glutamate and used to mimic the taste-enhancer chemical MSG.
BPA (Bisphenol-A) - A hormone mimicking chemical found in nearly all food packaging plastics. Active in just
parts per billion, BPA promotes cancer, infertility and hormone disorders. It also "feminizes" males, promoting male breast growth and hormone disruption (
http://www.naturalnews.com/032860_BPA_feminization.html).
Casein - Milk proteins. Hilariously, this is widely used in "soy cheese" products that claim to be alternatives to cow's milk. Nearly all of them are made with cow's milk proteins.
Corn Syrup - Just another name for High Fructose Corn Syrup (see below). Frequently used in
infant formula products (
http://www.naturalnews.com/029863_Similac_infant_formula.html).
Food Colors - FD&C Red #40, for example, is linked to behavioral disorders in children. Nearly all artificial
food colors are derived from
petroleum, and many are contaminated with
aluminum.
Genetically Modified Ingredients - Not currently listed on the label because the GMO industry (Monsanto and DuPont) absolutely does not want people to know which foods contain GMOs. Nearly all conventionally grown corn, soy and cotton are GMOs. They're linked to severe infertility problems and may even cause the bacteria in your body to produce and release a
pesticide in your own gut. If you're not eating organic corn, you're definitely eating GMO corn. (
http://www.naturalnews.com/026426_GMO_food_GMOs.html) Learn more at
www.ResponsibleTechnology.org or watch my
GMO music video (hilarious) at
www.NaturalNews.com/NoGMOHigh Fructose Corn Syrup - A highly processed liquid sugar extracted with the
chemical solvent
glutaraldehyde and frequently contaminated with mercury (
http://www.naturalnews.com/032948_high_fructose_corn_syrup_glutaralde...). It's also linked to diabetes, obesity and mood disorders. Used in thousands of grocery items, including things you wouldn't suspect like pizza sauce and salad dressings.
Homogenized Milk - The fats in the milk are artificially modified to change them into smaller molecules that stay
in suspension in the milk liquid (so the milk fat doesn't separate) (
http://www.naturalnews.com/022967_milk_pasteurization_dairy.html). While it makes milk look better on the shelf, it's also blamed for promoting heart disease and may contribute to milk allergies.
Raw milk is healthier, which is why the government had outlawed it (
http://www.naturalnews.com/029322_raw_milk_Amish.html).
Hydrochloride - When you see
anything hydrochloride, such as Pyridoxine Hydrochloride or Thiamin Hydrochloride, those are
chemical forms of B vitamins that companies add to their products to be able to claim higher RDA values of vitamins. But these are synthetic, chemical forms of vitamins, not real vitamins from foods or plants. Nutritionally, they are near-useless and may actually be bad for you. Also watch out for
niacinamide and
cyanocobalamin (synthetic vitamin B-12). (
http://www.naturalnews.com/032766_cyanocobalamin_vitamin_B-12.html)
Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein - A highly processed form of (usually) soy
protein that's processed to bring out the free glutamate (MSG). Use as a taste enhancer.
Partially Hydrogenated Oils - Oils that are modified using a chemical catalyst to make them stable at room temperature. This creates
trans fatty acids and greatly increases the risk of blocked arteries (
http://www.naturalnews.com/027445_fat_fats_trans.html). It also promotes what I call "sludge blood," which is thick, viscous blood that's hard to pump. This is usually diagnosed by doctors as "high blood pressure" and (stupidly) treated with blood-thinning medications that are technically the same
chemicals as
rat poison (warfarin) (
http://www.naturalnews.com/023149_drug_drugs_pharmas.html).
Phosphoric Acid - The acid used in sodas to dissolve the carbon dioxide and add to the overall fizzy-ness of the soda. Phosphoric acid will eat steel nails. It's also used by stone masons to etch rocks. The military uses it to clean the rust off battleships. In absolutely destroys tooth enamel (
http://www.naturalnews.com/021774.html). Search Google Images for "Mountain Dew Mouth" to see photos of teeth rotted out by phosphoric acid:
http://www.google.com/search?q=mountain+dew+mouth&hl=en&prmd=ivns&tbm...Propylene Glycol - A liquid used in the automotive industry to winterize RVs. It's also used to make the
fake blueberries you see in blueberry muffins, bagels and breads. (Combined with artificial colors and corn syrup.) See shocking "Fake Blueberries" video at:
http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=7EC06D27B1A945BE85E7DA8483025962Sodium (Salt) - The processed white salt lacking in trace minerals. In the holistic nutrition industry, we call it "death salt" because it promotes disease and death. Real salt, on the other hand, such as "dirty"
sea salt or pink Himalayan salt, is loaded with the trace minerals that prevent disease, such as selenium (cancer), chromium (diabetes) and zinc (infectious disease). Much like with bread and sugar,
white salt is terrible for your health. And don't be fooled by claims of "sea salt" in grocery stores. All salt came from the sea if you go far back enough in geologic time, so they can slap the "sea salt" claim on ANY salt!
Sodium Nitrite - A cancer-causing red coloring chemical added to bacon, hot dogs, sausage, beef jerky, ham, lunch meats, pepperoni and nearly all processed meats. Strongly linked to brain tumors, pancreatic cancers and colon cancers (
http://www.naturalnews.com/007024.html). The USDA once tried to ban it from the food supply but was out-maneuvered by the meat industry, which now dominates USDA regulations. Sodium nitrite is a complete poison used to make meats look fresh. Countless children die of cancer each year from sodium nitrite-induced cancers.
Soy Protein - The No. 1 protein source used in "protein bars," including many bars widely consumed by bodybuilders. Soy protein is the "junk protein" of the food industry. It's made from genetically modified soybeans (often grown in China) and then subjected to
hexane, a chemical solvent (
http://www.naturalnews.com/026303_soy_protein_hexane.html) that can literally explode.
Sucralose - An artificial chemical sweetener sold as
Splenda. The sucralose molecule contains a
chlorine atom (
http://www.naturalnews.com/027491_aspartame_sweeteners_health.html). Researchers have repeatedly found that artificial sweeteners
make people fat by actually promoting weight gain (
http://www.naturalnews.com/024543_health_Splenda_weight.html).
Sugar - The bleached, nutritionally-deficient byproduct of cane processing. During sugar cane processing, nearly all the minerals and vitamins end up in the
blackstrap molasses that's usually fed to farm animals. (Blackstrap molasses is actually the "good" part of sugar cane juice.) Molasses is often fed to farm animals because every rancher knows that farm animals need good nutrition to stay alive. Amazingly, conventional doctors don't yet realize this about humans, and they continue to claim that eating sugar is perfectly fine for you. Sugar promotes diabetes, obesity, mood disorders and nutritional deficiencies.
Textured Vegetable Protein - Usually made of
soy protein which is extracted from genetically modified soybeans and then processed using
hexane, an explosive chemical solvent (see Soy Protein, above). Widely used in vegetarian foods such as "veggie burgers" (most of which also contain MSG or Yeast Extract, by the way).
Yeast Extract - Hidden form of MSG that contains
free glutamate and is used in many "natural" food products to claim "No MSG!" Yeast extract contains up to 14% free glutamate. You'll find it in thousands of grocery store products, from soups to snack chips. I even once spotted it used on fresh meat!
Food label tricks
Here's a trick food companies frequently used to pack more sugar into their products without making sugar look like the first ingredient:
Ingredient labels, you see, must list the most prominent ingredients first, and some consumers might freak out of they saw a box of cereal that said, "Sugar, whole grain wheat, corn" and so on. Instead, the company uses 3 or 4 different forms of sugar to distribute them farther down the label, like this:
"Whole grain wheat, sugar, corn syrup, corn syrup solids..."
This way, the first ingredients looks like "whole grain wheat" when, in reality, the cereal might be
over fifty percent sugars!How to buy honest food
• Shop are your local farmer's market, food co-op or CSA.
• In the USA, look for the
USDA Organic label on foods. This is a legitimate claim to being certified organic. It's one of the few programs run by the USDA that actually has integrity.
• Read the ingredients labels! If you see names of chemicals you can't pronounce, don't buy it.
• Buy more unprocessed
food ingredients and make your own meals rather than buying ready-to-eat, processed foods, which are almost universally formulated with disease-promoting ingredients.
• GROW some of your own food! The best food you can ever eat is food from your own garden.
How to learn more about what's really in your food
Read NaturalNews. I'm the editor of NaturalNews, and I cured my own borderline diabetes, high cholesterol and near-obesity using nothing but healing foods.
The more you read
NaturalNews, the more you'll learn about what to avoid in your foods and
what to BUY that's loaded with nutrition! We cover
natural cures, superfoods nutrition, juicing, raw foods, nutritional supplements, healing herbs and much more. You can subscribe to our free email newsletter using the form below.
We teach you what the mainstream food industry doesn't want you to know (and what the mainstream media won't dare report).
If you want to learn the truth about food, read NaturalNews. Lots more to come...
Some of my favorite nutrient-rich superfoods include...
(No, these are not sponsored links. Just stuff I personally enjoy and purchase on a regular basis to blend into superfood smoothies!)
• Boku Superfood (
www.BokuSuperfood.com)
• LivingFuel (
www.LivingFuel.com)
• Enerfood (
www.EnerHealthBotanicals.com)
• Pure Synergy (
www.TheSynergyCompany.com)
• Rejuvenate! (
www.IntegratedHealth.com)
• Healthforce Nutritionals (
www.HealthForce.com)
• X-Balance (
www.SGNNutrition.com)
About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate and award-winning journalist with a mission to teach personal and planetary health to the public He has authored more than 1,800 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, and he has authored and published several downloadable personal preparedness courses including a downloadable course focused on safety and self defense. Adams is a trusted, independent journalist who receives no money or promotional fees whatsoever to write about other companies' products. In 2010, Adams co-founded NaturalNews.com, a natural health video sharing site that has now grown in popularity. He also launched an online retailer of environmentally-friendly products (BetterLifeGoods.com) and uses a portion of its profits to help fund non-profit endeavors. He's also a noted technology pioneer and founded a software company in 1993 that developed the HTML email newsletter software currently powering the NaturalNews subscriptions. Adams also serves as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a non-profit consumer protection group, and regularly pursues cycling, nature photography, Capoeira and Pilates. He's also author a large number of health books offered by Truth Publishing and is the creator of numerous reference website including NaturalPedia.com and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. His websites also include the free reference sites HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the innate healing ability of the human body. Known as the 'Health Ranger,' Adams' personal health statistics and mission statements are located at www.HealthRanger.org
Have comments on this article? Post them here:
people have commented on this article.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Email this article to a friend
Now Available from 
