What Dangers Are On Your Menu Today?
You can’t sit down with your family to eat at the dinner table these days without worrying about or hearing about one toxic food trouble or another. To take a huge chunk out of the potential dangers on our dinner plates and avoid toxins in food, make an effort to read labels, understand where your food comes from, and then, keep your kitchen clear of the following undesirable ingredients. This is especially important for the vulnerable children in your life; pound for pound they take in more harmful toxins than adults do.
Here are some toxins to avoid:
1. Pesticides
Used to raise and treat produce and other products, these poisons inveriably leave behind residues. They've been linked to everything from cancer to birth defects.
Best Solution: Buy only Organic foods as they are required to be synthetic pesticide-free.
2. BHA (Butylated Hydroxyanisole) & BHT (Butylated Hydroxytoluene)
These chemicals are common processed food preservatives that have been declared carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. They’re also accused of disrupting hormones and contributing to male fertility.
Best Solution: Check ingredient labels to avoid.
3. Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH/rBST)
This drug is given to cows to increase milk production, rGBH produces elevated levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in dairy products. IGF-1 has been found by researchers to be a significant factor in breast, prostate and colon cancers.
Best Solution: Choose organic or rBGH-free dairy products.
4. Sodium Aluminum Sulphate and Potassium Aluminum Sulphate
These additives are used in processed cheese products, baked goods, and microwave popcorn, as well as other packaged goods. These ingredients are linked to adverse reproductive, neurological, behavioral, and developmental effects.
Best Solution: Read ingredient labels to avoid these toxins.
5. Bisphenol-A (BPA)
This chemical is found in food and beverage can linings, this hormone-mimicking additive is suspected of promoting breast and prostate cancer, reproductive and behavioral problems, obesity, and diabetes.
Best Solution: Avoid canned foods. Choose fresh, dried, or frozen foods instead.
6. Sodium Nitrite/Nitrate
These chemical additives have been used for many years in deli foods, especially in processed meats. These preservatives are linked to many types of cancer. Beware of “uncured” and “no added nitrites/nitrates” products. They often use celery juice instead, which is high in nitrates.
Best Solution: Read ingredient labels to avoid this toxin.
7. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
These carcinogens are caused and released when fat is burned—by flames or very high heat.
Best Solution: Pre-cook grillables and finish over a low flame.
8. Heterocyclic Amines
These carcinogens form when natural substances found in meats and fish react together in high temperatures like those found during grilling.
Best Solution: Pre-cook grillables and finish over a low flame.
9. Acrylamide
This carcinogenic chemical is formed by cooking or frying starchy foods like potatoes and grains at high temperatures, acrylamide is a known carcinogen.
Best Solution: Avoid fried foods, snack chips, crackers, toasted cereals, cookies, and bread crusts.
10. Brominated Vegetable Oil
This 'treated' form of oil is used in fruit-flavored drinks and sodas. In animal studies researchers found that high doses of this toxin led to reproductive and behavioral problems.
Best Solution: Check ingredient labels.
11. Artificial Food Coloring/Dyes
These ubiquitous chemicals have been linked to neurological disorders like ADHD.
Best Solution: Read ingredient lists to avoid.
12. Dioxins
These highly toxic pollutants accumulate in fatty foods and are linked to cancer, liver damage, birth defects, and endocrine and immune disruption.
Best Solution: Choose low- or no-fat foods.
13. Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)
GMOs are currently found in about 85 percent of processed foods prepared with corn-, soy-, cottonseed-, canola-, and sugar beet-based ingredients. GMOs may cause organ damage, gastrointestinal and immune disorders, accelerated aging, and infertility.
Best Solution: Go organic! GMOs aren’t allowed in certified organic foods. Since the FDA in the United States does not require that GMOs be labeled it makes them difficult to avoid in non-organic foods.
