I gots my ranty pants on
So a well meaning but overzealous person on my Facebook friend list keeps sending out all these pictures about natural food and how horrible things are for you and whatnot. I wonder often if they have done any research at all or are just passing on everything that sounds all scary. It’s really really easy to find nasty articles about just about everything. Anyone can put up a website. But it still amazes me how some people will put up these “sources” that are blatantly trying to sell something or spread yet another agenda. I know there’s a dearth of neutral news out there these days, but you can find some.
So here’s the graphic:
Let’s begin.
1. MSG
I’ve heard this one too. I know a few people who react badly to chinese food. I believe them, because who am I to tell them how their body feels? The studies say that MSG has been used for a hundred or so years and only recently have people started to claim to see reactions (which could also be from other factors in most cases.) Double blind studies (where neither the guinea pigs nor the scientists know which is MSG and which is placebo) have shown that MSG is no more likely to cause discomfort symptoms than just eating too much, and people with self-diagnosed sensitivities reacted the same to MSG and the placebo. Symptoms include everything you get from a blood pressure spike when you eat too much salty food. Because MSG is a salt. Actually it contains 40% less salts than table salt. Not telling you to go eat some MSG (yum, yum) just maybe we don’t need to tell everyone that it’ll kill you.
2. Aspartame
This one gets me. I mean that literally, since I get violently ill when I drink/eat anything with aspartame in it. I get a horrible headache, the worst I ever get. I have had the same reaction to drinks that don’t list aspartame in their ingredients, like flavored water drinks. But I use Splenda and stevia in my tea and for baking and do not get the same reaction. I’ve never gotten all scientific on myself to make sure that’s really it. Largely because aspartame tastes like shit to me anyway, so why bother. I’m not much of a soda drinker period because the carbonation upsets my stomach in a different way, and I’m not a fan of bottled/canned teas because they tend to be too sweet and not tea enough for me (so not a Nestea fan). Even I admit it could be something else (or a combination of things) in those drinks that make me sick.
And I complain often about the time a doctor told me to switch to diet drinks and when I told her how I get sick after drinking them she said that was not likely and I’d just have to get used to it. That was a crappy doctor. That doesn’t mean that aspartame does the same thing to everyone. There’s lots of evidence that it doesn’t. I know plenty of people who drink diet drinks and don’t get sick. Their body processes it. Mine doesn’t. We make our own decisions.
3. High Fructose Corn Syrup
It is a sugar, and it is dumped in large quantities in things we drink and eat too much of. It’s hard to eat enough apples to get the same sugar quantity as you get in a handful of Oreos because apples have a high fiber and water content. They fill you up faster. We aren’t supposed to be making a meal out of Oreos though. They’re a small-quantity treat. The studies show no higher percentage to health issues, including obesity, from HFCS than from other kinds of sugars.
4. Agave Nectar
Is a liquid sugar. See above.
5. Artificial Food Coloring
There were definitely some previous dyes that were dangerous. Many now are being studied. Sometimes we find out really surprising stuff, like how blue dyes can help repair spinal cord injuries. I think the fix here is us, as a society, to stop expecting everything to look like advertisements. Food, like science can be icky looking. Still no evidence it’s currently killing people.
6. BPA and BHT
Are antioxidants, you know those things that are supposed to make you look younger, feel better and prevent cancer. Funny how some of the same people swearing to their evils are also trying to push the same thing under different names.
(Also there is evidence that BHT helps prevent carcinogens from doing damage to you. Even though California lists BPA/BHT as a carcinogen.)
7. Sodium Nitrite and Sodium Nitrate
Sodium Nitrite inhibits microorganism growth, primarily Botulism. Yup, that’s definitely a deadly additive I want removed from my food! Down with NaNO2! Give me more Botulism! Actually, Nitrates can affect the health in large doses. Botulism (and other bacteria found in improperly canned foods or improperly cured meats) can kill you. Considering how even fifty years ago more people home cured and canned and more people had botulism I can see why this began to be added to foods. I’m sure some of us are alive today because it.
8. Potassium Bromate
Is a Carcinogen. However is largely not used voluntarily. Even though it bakes off completely in goods when used appropriately.
9. Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone
Many, many organizations have found that rBGH (which just means it was made in a lab, not taken from cows, and are chemically similar in the way sugar and sucralose are) does not translate to milk. But, even Monsano reported that it harms cows. Many many stores, including Walmart and Kroger have no-rBGH policies, so it’s easy to avoid anyway.
10. Refined Vegetable Oil
Is used to make “green” fuels, not used as a food additive.
So here’s my proposed list of the 10 Worst Food Ingrients
2. Rodents
3. Insects
4. Excrement
5. e. Coli
6. Parasites
7. Salmonella
8. Animals not raised specifically for human consumption
9. Drugs (specifically the “date rape” kind)
10. Fetuses*
*Considering a handful of the ingredients listed in the graphic aren’t used in food I thought the picture was about as reliable as Ralph Shortey’s claims that companies are using aborted fetuses in our food.