Stop being a Pickle!

Stop being a Pickle!

What we don’t know is what we need to know and what we think we know has been twisted and turned around in so many ways to get us to think that what we know is the only way.

I am talking about the foods we put into our body. Many people have the desire to be healthy, few do something about it. I have been a student of health and nutrition for over a decade. It’s important to know that my studies have gone beyond college and have continued my Post-Graduate studies each year afterward with radical research.

Most practitioners give you a diet or a prescription during a certain event in your life and pertaining to specific challenges that you might be facing at that time. A lot of times they do this by just giving you the script and not informing you with adequate information as to why you need to follow their prescription and give you the research behind it. I for one am a person who likes to be informed about what I put into my body and what I do with my body for whatever reason I am told to do so. So basically I would like you to be a well informed consumer.

Proper Nutrition can be viewed upon in many different ways. The basic food Pyramid was a well acknowledged and reputable base for understanding BASIC principles in proper diets. Society has tried to follow this pyramid but consistently steered away from the path of this basic diet. We have now incorporated into this diet different forms of ingredients that are not even on this pyramid. In fact they are not even a food. We have also misled ourselves to think that a certain image should dictate to us what is healthy thus leading us to take a dangerous road to attaining a so called healthy image which is misconstrued by the media. Thus we have recently been introduced to harmful not healthy quick result diets. It’s true we have found diets that have been effective in weight loss, however very nutrient deficient. One on the most noted would have to be the Adkins diet which advises the subject to limit carbohydrates and to increase their fats and proteins. This diet in effect has worked for the sole purpose of losing weight however it has had many adverse side effects such as ketosis (acidic environment within the body). Another diet to look at would be the LA diet which is a liquid diet. Again it’s very effective for weight loss but also very dangerous. It is only meant for a quick loss of weight and not advised to be on the diet for more than a week.

Now back to the food pyramid. I have no problem with people using the basic food pyramid for their lifestyle if they really stick to the food balance of this pyramid. I find that the problem lies more in what we think we are eating to what we are really eating. It is important to understand and I STRESS this, products are put into our foods that are not foods in order to make are food stronger, have a longer shelf life, taste better, be resistant to bacterial infection, look better, resist parasites and insects, be able to satisfy the consumers stomach, the products also have addictive qualities. It sounds great that we have come so far as to make our foods have all these qualities however lets not by any means think that with these new qualities it has not sacrificed the true natural form of it. Or let’s not think for a second that the additives put in these foods do not have an affect on our bodies. They are commonly known as Preservatives.

Preservatives are natural or man-made chemicals that are added to foods to stop them from spoiling. Preservatives are used because many packaged foods need a preserving agent to keep them from going bad and to protect us against food-borne illnesses.

We are getting more and more distanced from the source of our food. Now food not only has to travel farther and farther but, for this very reason also needs to be stored longer. To keep this food from going bad new preservative methods have evolved without which bread would get moldy, and salad oil would go rancid before it's used up. Molds growing on decaying food have caused many epidemics in many parts of the world.

Chemical preservatives are harmful because our body’s digestive system doesn't know what to do with the stuff preservatives are made of and will either eliminate it or store it some where. And when it reacts in our body we suffer the consequences with illness.

Preservatives are subject of endless debate among academics and food science and toxicology specialists. It is argued that most products contain preservatives in minute dozes and, therefore, can’t kill. But the combined effect of the 3000 additives and toxins can easily be imagined. Some of the common preservatives used are:

Benzoates and sorbates- used in the preservation of many beverages, jams, pickled products, salads, cheese, meat and margarines.
Butylated hydroxytoluene/ hydroxyanisole; tert-butylhydroquinone; propyl gallate - used in oils and lipids to prevent it from becoming rancid.
Citric and ascorbic acids (vitamin C) - Used for cutting down the phenolase action in fresh cut vegetables and fruits.
EDTA (ethylenediamine tetra-acetic acid) – Also used to preserve freshly cut fruits and vegetables
Nitrites and nitrates – used mostly in packaged meat
Propionates – used for preserving bakery products
Sulfites - used as a preservative in dried fruits, wines (particularly red wines) and fruit juices.
Sulphur Dioxide - preservative in a wide range of food products.

Among the above preservatives, apart from sulfites and propionates, which cause allergic reactions to a small percentage of people, and Nitrites, which react with amino acids to form cancer-causing nitrosamines, all other preservatives are not known to have any harmful side effects.

To keep things simple just avoid the most questionable additives such as sodium nitrite, saccharin, caffeine, olestra, acesulfame K, and artificial coloring, used primarily in foods of low nutritional value. All of the chemical food coloring can be potentially harmful and are best avoided. Organic foods are not supposed to contain any chemical preservatives, but many natural products contain some natural and some synthetic additives. It is, therefore, advisable to check the labels for ingredients before using any such product.

It has long been known that preservatives like parabens cause allergic reactions. But it has recently been discovered that they can increase the risk of breast cancer and reproductive abnormalities. Young boys exposed to such chemicals either prior to puberty are likely to run the risk of testicular cancer, sperm abnormalities and prostate disorders.

More alarming perhaps is the fact that there are preservatives used in cosmetics which actually release small amounts of formaldehyde - which is not only an irritant and skin sensitizer, but is cancer-causing and damaging to the nervous system.

Certain chemicals can penetrate the skin and enter the blood stream if cosmetics such as moisturizers, are applied and left for a long time. If you find cosmetics calling themselves organic yet containing hexachlorophene, methyl, propyl paraben and formaldehyde, then such cosmetics are not good for you.

Life was easy when most foods came from farms. Now, factory-made foods have made chemical additives a significant part of our diet. Flavor of lemon juice has been replaced with a tongue twister called 2-methyl-3-(pisopropylphenyl)-propionaldehyde. This is only one of the estimated 3000 chemical additives which we consume.

Preservatives are added to food during manufacturing to prevent spoilage during transit to their different destinations and then for storing in our kitchens. There are also economic reasons behind adding artificial preservatives - mass production and warehousing for a long period of time. For centuries traditional preservatives such as wood smoke, vinegar, and honey have been used to combat decay in foods. Sulphur dioxide, the most widely used preservative, has actually been in use since the Middle Ages.

Preservatives kill or stop the growth of microorganism. Synthetic preservatives also have side effects. If taken in excess natural preservatives too can be harmful. If natural preservatives did not kill they would not be doing their job properly.

Earlier preservative methods included pickling with vinegar, salting or sulphur dioxide common in wine. Presently additives such as acids, anti-caking and anti-foaming agents, antioxidant, bulking agents, food coloring, color retention agents, emulsifiers, preservatives, propellants, stabilizers, sweeteners etc. are being used. Stabilizers are added to give foods a good texture. Vinegar and citric acid are added to give food a sharper flavor and function as preservatives and antioxidants. Antioxidants by inhibiting the effects of oxygen on food act as preservatives. Anti foaming agents are used to reduce or prevent foaming in foods.

During processing natural food is crushed, heated and chemicals are added to it which kills all the nutritional value of the food. Additives are then added to restore the vitamins and nutrients that were lost during processing. Processed food is to be preserved, given color and flavor by addition of chemical additives.

Preservatives serve as either antimicrobials, which prevents the growth of molds, yeasts and bacteria, or antioxidants which keep foods from becoming rancid, browning, or developing black spots. Antioxidants suppress the reaction that occurs when foods combine with oxygen in the presence of light, heat, and some metals. Antioxidants also minimize the damage to some essential amino acids--the building blocks of proteins--and the loss of some vitamins.

A recent research financed by Britain’s Food Standards Agency has found that hyperactive behavior in a broad range of children was likely to increase because of common food additives and colorings. This leads to inattention and impulsivity among children and makes learning more difficult, at least into middle childhood.

The Agency advised parents to monitor any changes in their children’s activity following consumption of food containing additives and make efforts to avoid artificial colors and preservatives.

If you check the labels of the cosmetics and toiletry products you use you will find that most renowned brands use synthetic preservatives like parabens (including methylparaben, propylparaben, isoparaben, and butylparaben) in their products. They’re commonly used in shampoo, moisturizer, cleansing and shaving gels and toothpaste.

Most of the times labels on your cosmetic products will not mention the preservatives used. This is because of lack of proper regulations in the cosmetic and personal care product industry. Specially be careful of the term “and other ingredients”, which implies trade secrets the manufacturer does not want to reveal. Also avoid cosmetics with any mention of preservatives such as benzethonium chloride, BHA, BHT, diazolidinyl urea, imidazolidinyl urea, phenoxyethanol and methylisothiazolinone.

There are, however, some preservatives used in cosmetics which are both gentle on our systems and which have effective preservative qualities. They include grapefruit seed extract, potassium sorbate, sorbic acid, tocopherol (vitamin E), vitamin A (retinyl), Vitamin C (ascorbic acid).

The human body consists of billions of microscopic living cells, composed of perfectly, balanced quantities of water and organic substances. If you have eaten the standard North American Diet for years, without serious harm to your health, it is due to your body's outstanding resistance. Yet genetic weaknesses may be hidden by youth. The cumulative effect of toxins will increase the risk of becoming a host to disease or premature death. Unfortunately, resistance to disease diminishes as the abuse continues. Disease is like heating a pot of water. When the water becomes too hot, it quickly boils over. The biochemistry of the body will absorb toxins only to a point. There is a boiling point—illness!

We live like no other generation before us. A giant experiment of toxic ingestion. In this game, the stakes are high, it can cost your life. We may consider our way of eating as normal, but the modern diet is about as normal as a test tube of chemicals. The body’s chemistry is recreated by ingesting countless food additives and environmental contaminants.

I think it’s important to understand that we do have a choice in what foods we put in our body. Society had no choice but to use preservatives and other additives to sustain foods because our population is too big. Due to the enormous need for fast foods and quick results we had no alternate solution but to find ways to manufacture foods quickly and efficiently with minimal cost or effect. If you have the time and the money I would highly advise to stop pickling yourself and start taking the proper steps needed to cleanse your body and start eating more complete and balanced nutritious meals. There is help for you out there to get started. You too can eat clean and stop being a Pickle.