12 Food Additives to Avoid

There are so many videos, slideshows, and lists out there like this about which basic additives are harmful and which are safe. Some, I've found, list monosodium glutamate as something to avoid, but use names for hidden MSG as foods that are safe, which totally discredits the information, I think. Also, I think a lot of lists out there on the web are just copies of each other. You see the same basic list over and over (like here's another good one).

1. Sodium Nitrate/Sodium Nitrite
2. BHA and BHT
3. Propyl Gallate
4. MSG
5. Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil
6. Aspartame
7. Acesulfame-K
8. Food Colorings: Blue 1, 2; Red 3; Green 3; Yellow 6
9. Olestra
10. Potassium Bromate
11. White Sugar/High Fructose Corn Syrup
12. Sodium Chloride (table salt)
    

I recommend reading the short article, with photos,
12 Food Additives to Avoid
found on the Healthy Reader: A Guide to a Healthy Lifestyle website.
Did you know there are (rough estimate on my part) over 300 different additives that can be put in our food? Yup. When I was first searching the answer to, "Is there anything else besides BPA, trans-fat, we should be avoiding?" I found a few websites that list the additives in categories of 1. ones to never eat 2. ones to sometimes eat and 3. ones that are safe to eat. I also find these websites rather questionable, because perhaps some had MSG contradictions, but also, what if they're totally be wrong about about an additive, and you're going the lazy way to have the website tell you what to eat and what not to eat and just believing them. Science is always changing, and who knows who's really been reading their literature. (Here's some of the sites: Center for Science in Public Interest (they were interviewed briefly before GMA on Supersize Me), Harmful Additives.com, Wikipedia)

I admit, with 300+ additives, what can you do but follow the websites? There's so much to research! But, the good news is, I'm not really seeing 300+ different additives in the food we have around our house. They are the same ones, over and over and over. There's a lot to remember, but far less than 300. They are common across all our food.

I guess Food Inc., was right. We think we see a wide variety of products stocked on the shelf in the grocery store, but its just clever reproductions of the same thing! (Food dye, high fructose corn syrup, carageenan, glycerin..........)

Pitfalls of cold cereal

We love cold cereal at our house. (Well, my husband reveals he never liked it, but...) Besides the taste, we like that

1. There's fewer dishes to do (Yeah!)
2. You don't have to go hungry while breakfast is cooking
3. No cooking effort
4. Its so fortified that (with a cup of O.J.) you don't even need a prenatal vitamin
5. Its a great way to get whole grains in the diet
   

But, now, eating cold cereal to me means choosing the lesser evils of the following:

	BHT	Malted barley	Modified corn starch	Dried yeast	Soy lecithin	fortified	phosphates
Cheerios			x			x	x
Chex	x					x	x
Grape-Nuts		x		x	x	x
Grape-Nuts Flakes		x				x
Kix						x	x
Shredded Wheat	x
Wheaties	x					x	x

BHT- a controversial cancer causing preservative
Malted barley, Modified corn starch, Soy lecithin, anything fortified, (dried yeast?) - ingredients which either contain MSG or may produce MSG in processing (See hidden MSG ingredients list)
Phosphates may produce MSG-type reactions

The great news is that Rolled Oats and Cream of the West (a whole-grain version of Cream of Wheat, made using the germ and bran), don't contain any of the above. I've actually avoided these in the past, especially when pregnant, in order to get the fortified vitamins and minerals from cold cereal, but maybe I'll have to re-evaluate how I get vitamins and minerals.

(Don't buy into the instant flavored oatmeal packets which may contain sulfites, guar gum, natural flavor, citric acid, acesulfame-K, and fortified vitamins and minerals.)

Another great thing about oatmeal, besides no additives or preservatives, is that it can be dry packed and stored for 30+ years. I'm trying to find ways to make it tasty, but I think the best tricks are to top it with flax seed, any fruit (bananas, berries, peaches, cooked-in apples) or applesauce and cinnamon (cinnamon is a natural sweetener).