A Little Is Okay, Right?

Today we are hearing more and more about the side effects of the additives in the foods we eat. These are the same additives that the Food and Drug Administration has easily deemed “safe” for us, the American public at large, to ingest.

Safe is defined by Congress as “reasonable certainty that no harm will result from use of an additive.” The list is 700 items long and includes the most common artificial sweeteners such as Aspartame, Splenda, NutraSweet, and Equal. It also contains hydrogenated oils and artificial colorings as well. All of these additives are human made and the FDA has either Okayed them in full or is limiting their use.   But even this limitation is by only allowing 1/100^th of what is considered to be dangerous into any one portion of food. Which may have been okay, but much of the damage that comes from these additives is cumulative. That means it builds up with each and every exposure!

So you say, “How does this affect me?” Well do you ever read the labels of candy, ice cream, protein bars or any other pre-packaged foods? Most of them not only have preservatives for a long shelf life, but have colorings to make you think the food is pretty and artificial sweeteners which are many times sweeter than sugar!

Did you know that the long term side effects of such additives have been linked to different cancers?

And short term side effects include the following;

hearing impairment, vision distortion, tinnitus, headaches, dizziness, sleepiness, depression, irritability, inability to maintain focus, breathing difficulty, bloating, aggression, diarrhea, decreased fetal body and placental weights and brain development, etc. The list does not end there.

So if the list does not end there for the short term, meaning you could experience any one of these things with one use, and the long term gives way to a possibility of having a deadly disease, what amount is worth it all?

Is a little okay?

Remember the real damage is accumulative. So how much is okay?

Well the FDA knows many of these additives are not healthy, hence the limitation of their use in single portions. But is the FDA going to tell you how many portions over your lifetime that you can have? Are they going to govern what you actually eat?

Just take one portion that you may eat on a basis of 3 times a week. Multiply it by 52 weeks in a year and you have eaten 156% of the amount that is considered to be dangerous, in just one year with just one food item of your diet!

Just think the average American drinks 55 gallons of soft drinks per year. Soft drinks are also the biggest culprits of osteoporosis. Do you think this is a little amount?

You have to look at the big long term picture on a daily basis!

And you have to be the one to decide what is safe for you to eat! Don’t leave it up to the FDA.