I put together your TOP 5 list of ingredients that you want to avoid in your food.  These are all ingredients that do not meet my family’s real food rules.  Some of these ingredients I have already found to be harmful to my family and others are suspected to be harmful for long-term health.

As always, I ask that you do your own research and decide for yourself what ingredients you want to include in your family’s diet.  Before I get to the list, let me leave you with two of my favorite quotes from Michael Pollan.  I think of these quotes often as I walk through the grocery store making food decisions for my family.  “Eat food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants.” –In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto.  My other favorite quote is:  “Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.”

1.  Artificial Food Coloring:  I was just at the store with the kids and shouting at me from across the aisle was some very brightly colored cake mixes.  Wow!  The colors are getting brighter and brighter.  There is some research that indicates that artificial colors are not only carcinogens, but also cause behavior problems in children.  Cancer is an ugly word in my family and I am trying to guard my family against cancer as much as I can.  In the short term……….I’ve got little kids that I want to behave.  Without a shadow of a doubt, I can recognize when my youngest son eats artificial color.  He is my sweet, sweet boy, but when he is all messed up on artificial colors………..he is a handful!  I have sent him to school for the day and I pick him up and see that he just can’t sit still.  My question always is, “What did you eat today?”  I then find out that young friend brought a birthday treat or there was some other “special” colorful treat that day.  Cut the color and see if you notice a difference.

2. High Fructose Corn Syrup:  It’s in almost everything!  It’s insane where you find high fructose corn syrup.  Foods that you would consider to be junk food and foods that you would consider to be healthy.  Two problems that I see in high fructose corn syrup…….calories and GMOs.  Our families are getting heavier and heavier.  Why is that?  Food is not the same as it used to be.  Many of the foods that we ate as kids have changed their recipes.  Calories, calories, and more calories.  It is hard to maintain a healthy weight with all of these hidden calories.  And GMOs…………these are genetically modified foods.  GMOs are not hybrid foods which are an acceptable farming method.  Unless you buy organic, you are likely eating GMO corn.  This is corn with the pesticides actually part of the DNA of the corn.  Most developed countries do not consider GMOs to be safe.  Over 60 countries have banned them.  The United States is not one of those countries.

3.  BHA and BHT:  Although these additives may prevent your food from changing color, losing flavor, or going rancid,  it has been suggested that they can increase your chances of getting cancer.   Again, cancer is a bad word in my family, so I am more than willing to eat ugly food to reduce this risk.  I shop more often and use a variety of other methods to preserve my food like freezing and canning.

4.  Artificial Sweeteners:  Artificial sweeteners sound like a dream come true.  Eat all that you want with very little calories.  Oh right, baby!  Sounds too good to be true and you are right.  Artificial sweeteners are believed to cause a whole host of health concerns. Fibromyalgia, brain tumors, depression, anxiety, and headaches.  Chronic fatigue is also a common ailment with artificial sweeteners.  I used to drink diet soda non-stop.  It was my beverage of choice and you could always find one on my desk or in my hand.  When I was drinking my diet soda, it was also very common for me to feel like I was wiped out by 2:00 every afternoon.  It is amazing how drinking water has completely gotten rid of those feelings for me.

5.  Monosodium Glutamate (MSG):  MSG is a flavor enhancer that is commonly found in soups, salad dressings, chips, and frozen foods.  I used to eat frozen meals everyday for lunch.  Headaches were a daily occurrence for me.  Since switching to a real food diet, the number of days that I get headaches has been greatly reduced.  This is such a blessing in my life and it only took a small change in the food I eat.  Amazing!

Food can make you feel good or make you feel bad.  It can even affect your mood.  Small changes in your food can really affect your overall health.  Why wouldn’t you want to feel good?

Are these the food additives that you try to avoid?  Have you noticed a change in your health?  What advice would you offer others in avoiding these ingredients?

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