Looking at the Labels | Jefferson City Magazine

Finding out what’s in your food and how to avoid the additives you don’t want.

Wandering up and down grocery store aisles, strolling through farmers markets, visiting specialty shops, and ordering electronically offers all of us multiple choices of items we can prepare in our kitchen. In our current age of information, one would think that it’s easy to choose great foods without compromised ingredients. Surprisingly, it’s not! Not only are certain ingredients difficult to pronounce, like butylated hydroxyanisole, but others, like artificial flavoring, are not listed transparently at all. We need to be savvy shoppers if we care about the food we put into our bodies.

Ractopamine is another feed additive that is used to help promote weight gain in livestock. This additive is banned in more than 160 countries, but it’s allowed in the U.S.

In the U.S., we have allowed additives like food dyes, hormones, and preservatives that are banned in other countries. In allowable amounts, we let food dyes and colorings (most of which are petroleum-based), antibiotics, hormones, and preservatives enter our foods. These additives, in the allowable levels, are not supposed to cause hyperactivity, cancer, nervous system harm, allergies, or hormone irregularities, but one may wonder if these allowances take into account a person who may eat a lot of these foods. The amounts tend to add up, and they do take a toll.

Food dyes are the easiest “bad guy” to pick apart and learn about. According to “Toxicology of Foods Dyes” by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, there are red dyes and yellow dyes that contain carcinogens, which cause cancer. Blue 1, red 40, yellow 5, and yellow 6 have been proven to cause hypersensitivity reactions (an exaggerated reaction by the immune system that can exhibit hives, heart palpitations, rashes, headaches, etc.).

There has been evidence of the effects of these food dyes for many years. In a British study, “Food Colourings, Preservatives, and Hyperactivity” published by The Lancet in 2007, they found that children who consumed dyes displayed hyperactive behavior within an hour and none of them had been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. Also, in a 2010 U.S. study by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and published by Science, it was found that children who ate food with dyes performed worse on tests that measured their ability to recall images compared to children who had no dyes.

These dyes are banned in Norway, Finland, France, Austria, and the U.K. So what happens when a company that has a product containing food dye wants to sell it in a country that bans dyes? They find a natural way to make it. Both Fanta orange soda and Kraft macaroni and cheese used to contain toxic dyes, but when countries ban the dyes (like the U.K.), and when there is enough public pressure (like here in the U.S.), companies responded by producing their colorful mixes with more natural options, like pumpkin and carrot extracts.

And while we know to look for dyes in candies, chewing gum, cereals, beverages, and desserts, some other items you may want to look at are cereal bars, salad dressings, wasabi, seafood, and even vitamins!

The other group of unwanted additions to our foods is hormones. This mostly affects beef. Unlike the European Union, the U.S. does allow hormones to be used in the production of beef. Natural and synthetic versions of estrogen and testosterone are allowed to be injected into the livestock, and this allows them to gain weight faster, which means more meat. Hormones also increase milk in dairy cows. Recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) is one of these hormones. As we ingest any dairy product, we are consuming what they have eaten and what they have been injected with. These hormones, at unhealthy levels, can lead to an increased risk of cancers and have had substantial effects on growing children.

If you look around at the meat selection, you’ll find that poultry and pork are labeled hormone-free. This is because the FDA doesn’t allow their producers to inject hormones. So, can we assume that pork and poultry are safer and cleaner to eat? Unfortunately, no. We need to look at what the animals eat as well as how they are processed. It is very common for ranchers and farmers to feed antibiotics in low doses to livestock in order to prevent illness as well as to help them gain weight.

A 2001 report by the New England Journal of Medicine, “The Isolation of Antibiotic-Resistant Salmonella from Retail Ground Meats,” showed that the use of antibiotics in animal feed can cause bacteria strains to become resistant to antibiotic treatment. This study concluded that 84% of the Salmonella bacteria in supermarket ground beef were resistant to some antibiotics. On that same note, fish that are farm-raised can also be fed antibiotics.

The more whole foods you find, the less chance that additives and other surprises can sneak in.

Ractopamine is another feed additive that is used to help promote weight gain in livestock. This additive is banned in more than 160 countries, but it’s allowed in the U.S., as it has been deemed safe to be consumed by humans by the FDA. But ractopamine can cause high stress levels, lameness, hyperactivity, and other negative effects on animals. In addition, meat can be tastier, more tender, and healthier when livestock is treated properly with care and has minimal stress.

Cereals, snacks, and baked goods can also contain other potentially harmful ingredients like butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). There are strict limits to how much of these preservatives can be used in any given batch, but these preservatives are considered to be carcinogenic.

More than a decade ago, the European Union banned the use of parabens as preservatives in food, but the U.S. still allows them. Parabens are commonly found in trail mixes, desserts, tortillas, and other processed foods, even though they can have negative effects on our endocrine and reproductive systems.

With all this in mind, how can we stay savvy? The more whole foods you find, the less chance that additives and other surprises can sneak in. First, try sticking with fresh fruits and vegetables. This group of foods is the best to buy because they are highly unlikely to have any additives at all, and the only thing to be aware of are pesticides and herbicides. If you’d like to avoid pesticides and herbicides, buy organically grown fruits and vegetables. If you buy frozen, it is likely the same case. But read the ingredient label, as there could be preservatives. Canned fruit and vegetables can also contain preservatives as well as food dyes.

When food is listed as organic, it means that it was grown, raised, or produced without the use of any pesticides or herbicides. It also means, according to the USDA, that no antibiotics or hormones were used, there are no genetically modified ingredients, and the food cannot contain artificial preservatives, colors, or flavors. Additionally, if meat is labeled as organic, it means that the livestock can only be fed organic, vegetarian feed, cannot be treated with radiation, and must be raised under conditions that allow access to the outdoors and room for exercise.

An organic seal takes the guesswork out of whether or not a food item is as safe to eat as we think! But sometimes buying organic is cost-prohibitive. If you can’t buy organic, read the labels. Avoid products that have a very long list of ingredients and ones that say artificial flavorings. An organic seal in the U.S. means that what you are purchasing is at least 95% organic. The remaining 5% can be ingredients like water, salt, and baking soda — items that do not need to be deemed organic. However, you’ll want to read carefully. Some labels may say it is made with organic ingredients or may call out a specific ingredient, like shampoo made with organic lavender (the lavender is organic, not the other ingredients).

So the next time you’re running to the store or jotting down your shopping list, make sure to have these nutritional facts in mind. After all, choosing an organic label is a simplified way to shop healthy.

The more whole foods you find, the less chance that additives and other surprises can An organic seal takes the guesswork out of whether or not a food item is as safe to eat as we think!

First, try sticking with fresh fruits and vegetables. This group of foods is the best to buy because they are highly unlikely to have any additives at all, and the only thing to be aware of are pesticides and herbicides. If you’d like to avoid pesticides and herbicides, buy organically grown fruits and vegetables. If you buy frozen, it is likely the same case. But read the ingredient label, as there could be preservatives. Canned fruit and vegetables can also contain preservatives as well as food dyes.