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Food additives and how they affect Health
Health Topics on this page
Types of Food Additives What are food additives, and why are they used? Are they safe for our health? These and other questions are answered here so read on to find out!
Food manufacturers use flavourings, preservatives and colourings to restore or improve the taste, texture or colour of the foods they sell. In recent years there has been a lot of discussion about the safety to our health from these.
Altogether they use several thousand different additives. Since the average consumer eats about 5 and a half pounds of additives every year the problem to our health could be a massive one. Additives in food enable manufacturers to debase foods in order to increase their profits.
Nobody has any idea how safe food additives are, but I honestly don’t think anyone in power cares about this at all. You often read in newspapers and see on TV, government backed doctors and scientists reassuring us that these additives are tested and safe, but are you really reassured? No, I thought not.
And you are right to be skeptical. When explaining the fact that flavourings are not controlled as tightly as other additives, a government body boldly admits that this is because there are over 3,000 flavourings in use, in many different combinations. So there it is – there are too many in use to be able to monitor or control them properly.
In my view food additives are potential hazards. They are best avoided as much as possible as nobody knows the long term affects on our health of consuming artificial additives in foods. Types of Food AdditivesFlavourings : Monosodium Glutamate is often used to stimulate the taste buds and increase the sensation of flavour-despite the fact that it has been known to cause severe headaches.
Manufacturers who use flavourings well can make almost anything – even ground up cardboard-taste good!
Colourings
For example, companies making meat products will use a red dye to disguise the fat and other non-meat ingredients in pies and sausages. Sometimes there isn’t much logic in the way in which colourings are used. For example, ready made custard contains yellow dye despite the fact that the main product it’s made from – cornstarch - is completely white.
This is done because when custard was first introduced, customers were persuaded that it was made from eggs. Not many people still believe this now but the dye is still added anyway as it has become “normal” to do so.
Preservatives
Stabilizers
Acids are used to preserve food and give it a sharper taste. Anti-caking agents are added to stop food being lumpy Bulking agents are added to make you feel fuller and more satisfied after a meal. Sweeteners are added to make a food taste sweeter. Thickeners are used to make food thicker and improve its consistency. Glazing agents may help to preserve food but are also used to give food a shiny look. The rest of many of the available food additives are used to make foods easier to pack or process. Some are included to make a product easier to spread or to improve its consistency in other ways. Manufacturers sometimes add anti-spattering agents to stop oil splashing out when wet chips are added.
Additives can enable a manufacturer to make a food look or taste like virtually anything. Because meat tends to be expensive the most common use of additives is in the preparation of meat products (which sometimes contain very little genuine meat).
The Harm Additives Can DoAdditives included in food can kill healthy vitamins and cause a massive variety of symptoms and diseases, including: asthma, eczema, dermatitis, migraine, hyperactivity in children, dizziness, kidney problems, diarrhea, fits, palpitations, stomach pain, intestinal disorders and allergies.
Many of the most commonly used additives have never been tested to see if they are safe for human consumption. Those working in the food industry excuse this bizarre fact by pointing out that there are several thousand additives in use and that testing is lengthy, expensive, and time consuming. I doubt that many people will be taking comfort from this!
I have heard some company representatives defending the use of additives by saying that only 1 in 1000 people’s health are likely to be affected by a particular additive.I don’t find that particularly comforting for 1 in 1000 is not very good odds.
If 1,000,000 people eat a particular food then it means that 1000 people are going to suffer ill-health because of it. I am also worried about the fact that many different additives are often used together. It is widely known that chemicals often interact with each other. Therefore, if you use two different chemicals in one product then there’s a real risk that the two will combine and produce something quite different. Modern foods contain so many different additives that it is quite easy to eat a meal which contains 50 different chemicals. No one knows what all these additives are likely to do to our health. Nobody knows what the long term side effects may be building up. And no one knows how those additives are likely to interact with one another.
Tips to help you limit the number of additives you eat.Buy and eat as many healthy fresh foods as you possibly can
When you do buy processed or packaged foods, try to buy products with a short list of additives. It is worth remembering that the substance named first on the packet is usually the one that appears in the largest quantity inside the packet – other products should appear on the list in decreasing order of quantities.
Grow as much of your own food as you possibly can. Even if you only have a small garden you may be able to grow your own vegetables.
If you (or anyone in your family) develops new or unusual symptoms of ill health after eating a new product, try to avoid it in future.
Become a cynic when reading labels and food advertisements. Over the years the food industry has managed to devalue the word “natural” and "healthy" so that they become virtually meaningless. For example, “only natural ingredients” is the phrase sometimes used to describe foods which are stuffed with additives - if those additives are chemicals that occur naturally.
E Numbers to AvoidIn countries within the European Community, some food additives are given E numbers so that customers can tell what they are buying. The E numbers contained within each food are usually listed on the packet or tin. Although this list of troublesome additives is by no means complete, here are some E numbers which I think you should avoid whenever possible.
Make a copy of this list when you go food shopping. Try to find products that do not contain any of these additives, and try to avoid ALL additives as much as you can.
E102 (tartrazine)
Further Reading
Eat more of these foods How drug companies are trying to limit alternative health choices Its happening in the US already - we should be aware of this threat and preserve our rights to take vitamins and minerals for our health.
Doctors and experts are warning about the dangers of too much junk food in our diets The health problems are surprising - and getting worse.
Find out some worrying facts about how our meat is being produced
How farmers and governments mislead us over the dangers of meat production How do genetically modified (G.M) foods affect us? Are they safe? Find out here.
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