food additives

If someone from 50 years ago were to travel through time to the present day, they wouldn't recognize most of the foods in our modern-day grocery stores. We've been busy tweaking our foods to comply with the whims, trends and science of the moment and in the process, we didn't notice the deterioration of our collective health. With much of our health "knowledge" coming from market-driven big-food companies, the difference between "functional", "Franken" and fraudulent foods has become blurry.

I'm going to try and offer some tips on how to differentiate and give some examples of each (based largely on opinion - I'm open to suggestions as always).

As soon as the word "additives" is used, the knee-jerk response tends to be "just avoid them...period". While choosing a diet that is devoid of most additives is a good way to go, we mustn't paint all additives with the same broad stroke. Here is a partial list of the safe, the potentially unsafe and the proven to be unsafe. Note that there are many unresolved safety issues with a great number of additives, and thus it is difficult to categorize items as either safe or unsafe.

A full guide (which differs slightly from mine) is available in the May issue of Nutrition Action Healthletter.

A carefully controlled study (funded by the British Food Standards Agency) has found that food colorings and preservatives affect a child's ability to learn and concentrate.

In the confusing world of nutrition - things are never what they seem. Two new pieces of research show how "diet" foods may not be particularly helpful for children.

The US FDA has approved a new food additive... a virus that eats bacteria (called a bacteriophage). It's called LMP 102 and it specifically targets Listeria monocytogenes - the bacteria that causes Listeriosis.

An article published in the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) consumer magazine clearly advocates artificial sweeteners and lays to rest any of the negative rumors surrounding aspartame and sucralose.