Thinking Beyond The Wrapper

Back in the old days, food was preserved by salt, sugar, honey, wood smoke, and vinegar. Now chemicals are used to preserve food, many of them being detrimental to a person’s health. Why? Because when these chemicals come in contact with our digestive systems, our bodies don’t know what to do with them. The body reacts to these chemicals by eliminating or storing them somewhere. The results are then played out by disease: allergic reactions and breast cancer, to name a few.

Consider this true story of a lady who kept a McDonald’s cheeseburger sitting out for an entire year, unwrapped and unrefrigerated. By the end of a year, she observed that other than the bun getting a little stale, the hamburger was visibly unaltered. No mold. No maggots. Nothing. It should really make one wonder about what is actually in fast food burgers. What chemicals present deterred even the bacteria, mold, and maggots from eating it (Schmidt)?

Now let’s consider some examples of these preservatives, and what exactly they do to your body. Take nitrates, for example. This chemical is used to prolong the shelf life of many foods. Upon being ingested in the body, nitrates are converted to nitrites. These nitrites react with hemoglobin, a substance which carries oxygen in the red blood cells. This reaction produces methemoglobin, a substance which prevents the transportation of oxygen in the red blood cells. Think about how dangerous this can be. Lack of oxygen to the cells can lead to loss of consciousness and even death! (Traister).

Why is this allowed, you might wonder. Food manufactures argue that because these preservatives are consumed in such insignificant quantities, it is really not so dangerous. But when you think of the 3,000 types of additives out there and how many of those people consume daily, this is indeed a dangerous risk to take.

Now switch gears for a while as we cover the issue of trans fats. Let’s start with what they are, exactly. They are basically a man-made fat. Trans fats are produced when manufactures convert liquid oils into solid fat by the process of hydrogenation. This is accomplished by adding hydrogen atoms to oil. What is so bad about that?

Trans fats pose a dangerous threat to the heart. Think about how blood travels in the arteries to and from the heart, delivering oxygen and nutrients to every cell in you body. Trans fats raise the level of “bad” (LDL) cholesterol. This leads to a buildup of “fatty plaque” in the arteries. The arteries becoming clogged, blocking the flow of blood. Eventually, when the blood supply to the heart is cut off, this often leads to heart attacks and death. Studies have shown that trans fats have a greater affect on the heart than people realize. For example, a study conducted by Nurse’s Health Study, showed the women who consumed the highest amounts of trans fats were 50% more likely to have a heart attack than those who consumed the least amounts of this fatty substance (Mann).

According to an article written by Reader’s Digest, research is showing that trans fats are twice as harmful to the body as saturated fats, and they cause 30,000 to 100,000 premature heart disease deaths every single year! By replacing trans fats with good fats, you can reduce your risk of heart disease by up to an incredible 53 percent! Simply watch out for words such as “partially hydrogenated,” “fractionated,” or “hydrogenated” on the ingredients lists. (Reader’s Digest).

Foods containing trans fats are dangerous to eat, and should be avoided. Of course, not all fats are bad. Indeed, many are beneficial to the body. Healthy fat sources include olive oil, canola oil, and coconut oil. Also, the high content of fat found in avocados and nuts benefit the body in a number of ways.

***Stay tuned for the last part about artificial sweeteners! Until then, have a wonderful week! :)

Schmidt, Doug. “Zombie cheeseburger? McDonald’s patty, bun, cheese unchanged after one year sitting on kitchen counter.” nationalpost.com. 2011. Web. Accessed 16 Apr. from <http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/12/29/zombie-cheeseburger-mcdonalds-patty-bun-cheese-unchanged-after-one-year-sitting-on-kitchen-counter/?__lsa=d5d78f6e>

Traister, Jeffrey. “What Preservatives Cause Disease?” LiveStrong.com. 2010. Web .Accessed 16 Apr.  2012 from <http://www.livestrong.com/article/315306-what-preservatives-cause-diseases/>

Mann,Denise. “TransFats:TheScienceandtheRisks.” WebMD.Web.Accessed11Apr.2012from <http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/trans-fats-science-and-risks>

Reader’sDigest. “4MostHarmfulIngredientsinPackagedFoods.” Reader’sDigest(rd.com).2012. Web.Accessed6Apr.2012from <http://www.rd.com/health/4-most-harmful-ingredients-in-packaged-foods/3/>

Thinking Beyond The Wrapper

Have you ever wondered why those red delicious apples at the store are such a deep beautiful red? Is that really natural? The truth of the matter is that it’s not natural. Think about all those brightly colored foods that we find so attractive at the grocery store. They are most often colored with a dye that has been made from various chemicals.

The food dyes used today in processed foods are completely unfit to eat. Many common food dyes, including Red 40, are made of petroleum! In fact, the chemical name of red #40 (found in ketchup, apples, cherries, salad dressings, popsicles, and so much more) is [6-hydroxy-5-[(2-methoxy-5-methyl-4-sulfophenyl)azo]-2-naphthalenesulfonic acid] (Red40.com). Whew! That does not sound natural at all! Studies have shown that food dyes pose a series of health risks when eaten, including cancer, allergic reactions, and hyperactivity in children.

In fact, a study conducted in Great Britain, showed that food colorings can have a significantly negative effect on the behavior of children. For two weeks 277 perfectly normal children were given fruit juice with no added ingredients. Later on, for two more weeks, they were given fruit juice which contained a blend of four food dyes and a preservatives. The study concluded that during the two weeks when the children consumed dyed fruit juice, nearly one in every four children showed clearly disturbed behavior, included temper tantrums and poor concentration (Thompson).

While natural colors (such as beets and paprika) could easily replace chemical dyes, they are found by manufactures to be more expensive than chemical dyes, and so chemicals continue to be used today in abundance. To give you an idea of just how widely they’re consumed, consider this: during the study mention earlier, the children were given just 20 milligrams of dye in their juice (about equal to the amount of dye found in two teaspoons of colored frosting). Now when you think of what American children eat on a daily basis – candy, soda, ice cream, popcicles, frostings – even a child could easily consume several hundred milligrams of dye each day!

If that’s not sickening enough, according to the CPSI, 6,800 TONS of dye was eaten in the year 2009 by the U.S. Public! (Kobylewski and Jacobson) No wonder that “over 5 million children ages four to 17 have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the United States”. This number continues to grow, according to the Centers for Disease Control. So the next time you’re hungry for an apple, don’t choose the brilliant red ones. Before you buy a package of brightly colored food, make sure to check the ingredients list for the types of colorings listed. Names such as Red #40, Yellow #5, and Blue #1 should be avoided.

(I’m including my sources in case you’d like to see where I got this information from.)

Thompson, Denise. “Artificial (Chemical) Food Dyes.” BANTpractitioners. 2012. Web. Accessed 16 Apr. 2012 from <http://www.bantpractitioners.com/PDFs/Food%20Dyes.pdf>

Kobylewski, Sarah, and Jacobson, Michael. “Food Dyes: A Rainbow of Risks.” Center for Science in Public Interest. 2010.Web. Accessed 16 Apr. 2012 from <http://www.dyediet.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/food-dyes-rainbow-of-risks1.pdf>

Red40.com. “The Chemistry of Red 40.” Red40.com. 2003. Web. Accessed 30 Apr. 2012 from <http://www.red40.com/pages/chemistry.html>

I have been working on a lengthy research paper for my English final. I chose to write on the dangers of the chemicals in processed foods. My research turned out to be fascinating to me, and I thought it would be neat to post sections of my paper over the next couple of weeks. I’ll divide it into a four-part series, and I hope you’re interested and enlightened as I was about processed foods!

Before you read the introduction, take a look at the picture below. This is a picture of my brothers and I eating our first Twinkie ever. :) And, let me tell you, it will probably be the last Twinkie I ever eat. Now don’t get me wrong – I have a huge sweet tooth. But this is just about as unwholesome as sweet things can get. You’ll see why in the posts to follow.

“Would you rather eat a slightly brown, mushy apple picked from your aunt’s apple tree or a Twinkie?” Ask anyone that, and they’ll think you’re joking. When Twinkies come wrapped so nicely in little packages and taste like “a little bite of heaven” why would you even ask such a question? Besides, a mushy brown apple is, well, gross! I encourage you to think again. In reality, it’s the Twinkie that is gross. I won’t just make that claim without backing it up. In the next few sections, I’ll prove to you why Twinkies and other processed foods are harmful to the body. I hope that by the end of this paper you will agree with me, and be inspired to eat more foods in their natural state as you “think beyond the wrapper.”

Chemicals are rampant among processed foods today. Hiding under the name of “additives”, their harmful effects are underestimated. Most people are not aware of what goes into the processed foods they eat. The awareness of the dangers of chemicals in processed foods must be increased. There are an estimated 3,000 types of chemicals or “additives” put in processed foods today (SixWise.com). They are used as bleaches, coloring, flavorings, preservatives, and sweeteners.

This paper will be covering four of the most harmful man-made ingredients found in processed foods: coloring, preservatives, trans fats, and and artificial sweeteners. It will expose the truth of how dangerous these chemicals can be: what they are and how they affect the body. Although food manufactures argue that such a small amount of these chemicals are consumed in processed foods, add up all those “small amounts” over a year, a decade, or a lifetime, and the results are shockingly harmful.

Stay tuned for part #1 about artificial coloring!