Dyes

 Think he nailed it.  Easy to remember. Easy to understand. Feed your kids fresh fruits and vegetables, grass-fed additive-free meats and fish, and whole grains.  Lean toward organic farming whenever possible as it  is natural farming minus the use of unnatural chemicals.  When you go to your local farmer’s markets or grocery store, remember Dr. Bob’s advice.  You’ll instinctively stay away from processed foods.  As you have heard before, shop the outer perimeter of the store and skip the inner isles as much as possible.  

… for the health of your family,
ellen

Sally and I have put together our official Family Food Experts 12 Worst Foods to feed your family, listed alphabetically:

Twelve Worst Foods
1. Candy artificially dyed, sweetened and flavored
(Examples: M&Ms, Smarties)
2. Candy Cereal
(Examples: Fruit Loops, Lucky Charms)
3. Doughnuts
4. Drinks: Artificially sweetened, artificially dyed, artificially flavored drinks
(Examples: Kool-Aid, Crystal Light, Gatorade, Powerade)
5. French Fries (all deep fried food)
6. Lunchables
7. Margarine
8. Pizza with extra cheese and pepperoni
9. Pop Tarts
10. Pork products (bacon, chops, tenderloin, hotdogs)
11. Soda – ALL
12. Sugars: Refined sugars and sugar substitutes
(Examples: high fructose corn syrup, Splenda, Nutri-Sweet)

Honorable Mentions … couldn’t help ourselves as these should be part of the twelve.
A. Bleached and bromated flours
(Examples: white flour, white breads/rolls, white pasta, cakes and pastries)
B. Lunch meats with nitrates
C. Milk, non-organic

For the health of your family, AVOID these foods.
ellen

Smarties have always been on our NO list – a combination of sugar, artificial dyes and flavors. The good news is that kids are wonderfully inventive. The bad news is that some invent bad ideas. Here is the latest one. First they smash Smarties in their wrapper. Then they suck the powder into their mouth, and exhale it out of their mouth and nose. The turn on – it looks like they are smoking. They love freaking everyone out by doing this. Needless to say, there have been no studies on how this may prove damaging to their nasal or respiratory passages. There are no studies saying this will lead to the habit of smoking of cigarettes. Do we need studies to prove this is not good for them? If you want to view this in action, kids have made You Tubes so you can learn how smoke Smarties. I can just see it now, Smarties Parties. Just not cool. I shudder to think what those artificial dyes and flavoring chemicals may do to the young as they pretend to smoke. Medical professionals warn against possible, coughing (lung irritation), infections and even the existence of maggots in the nose since they live on powdery sugar. Gross.

Parents, there is not one good reason to have Smarties in your house, your kids’ lunch boxes or pockets, as party or school favors. Take action now. Buy your kids Sun Drops (like M&Ms with naturally colored coatings) for treats instead. It is really hard to “smoke” real smooth chocolate.

… for the health of your family,
ellen

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that since 1997, 18 percent more kids have been diagnosed with allergies.  And, they say no one knows why?  I beg to differ with them.  There is lots of evidence pointing to why: consumption of artificial additives in processed products and the increase of farming chemicals found in foods (ie pesticides) are a couple.  There are enough warning signals for us to take note and focus on eating naturally sourced foods.  We recommend that everyone eats God-made foods for your God-made bodies – not lab-made foods.  This action would be a significant step in eliminating many causes of allergies.

… for the health of your family,
ellen

There are food companies who say their product is what it is not - it is  fake.

Out of the 575 million pounds of olive oil consumed last year, some was mostly made of soybean oil – actually  90% !  That leaves a mere 10 percent for olive oil.   This was discoved two years ago when testing began on extra-virgin olive oil.  Allergies to soy are on the increase which makes this fake reality a health concern. In addition, sixty to seventy percent of extra virgin olive oils tested to be a lower grade.

Fish is the most abused category for fake representation.  Red snapper may be tilapia. When tested, seventy-seven percent of the “red snapper” was something else…   Wild Salmon may actually be farmed-raised which is easy to spot when you cook.  The red dye begins to leak. 

Honey is counterfeited as well. Cane Sugar, high-fructose corn syrup and beet sugar are relatively inexpensive replacements.

Maple Syrup should come from sap collected from a maple tree and boiled down to create 100 percent syrup.  However, some products are diluted with sugar and water to assit the company’s bottom line.

There are more examples. These are ones most recently reported by USA Today. *

What is a consumer to do?  Read your labels carefully, buy trusted brands and qualify fish by asking your fish retailer to verify their products.  We have a list of trusted brands as we research all food companies.  Please go to www.BetterFoodChoices.com for more information.  Or, go to www.GoMillionMoms.com, “sign” the petition and get a Free download of our most recent edition of the Brand To Trust grocery list.

Be sure you get what you pay for.

… for the health of your family,
ellen

* Elizabeth Weise, “That label could be a costly lie”, USA Today, 1/20/09, pp. 1D, 2S.

Vanilla extract may be an aritificially flavored version.  It is supposed to be labeled as such. Watch for Vanillin,  which is banned from the US as it contain the drug, coumarin, a blood thinner.