Diabetes InfoHealth

Hidden Toxins In Your Food!

Healthy Living With Type 1 Diabetes Hidden Toxins In Your FoodEveryday we chow down on chemically produced food that carry deadly poisons. Today, the food we eat…meat, poultry and dairy, we eat the residue of everything the animal ate, including growth hormones, pesticides and contaminants and the primary reason why I chose to start living an organic lifestyle when it comes to food choices as well as daily use personal care products for me and my family.

Below I discuss some of the harmful chemicals commonly found in our food and personal products, along with descriptions of what they are, where they’re found and why they’re bad.  Lets take a closer look!

GMOs and Food:

Monsanto  is an American multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation responsible for hazards such as Agent Orange.  They are currently well known for Genetically Modified agriculture, owning nearly 90% of staple GMO food crops such as corn, soy, and cotton. In independent studies GMO food has been linked to organ failure, and a recent Russian study has concluded near-total sterility in GMO-soy-fed hamsters by the third generation.

The question of whether or not genetically modified foods (GMO’s) are safe for human consumption is an ongoing debate that does not seem to see any resolution except in the arena of public opinion.  Due to lack of labeling, Americans are still left at a loss as to whether or not what is on the table is genetically modified.  This lack of information makes the avoiding and tracking of GM foods, very difficult. The top 10 worst GMO foods for your “do not eat” GMO foods list include corn, sugar, aspartame, papayas, canola oil, cotton oil, dairy, zucchini, and yellow squash.

Sodium Nitrate:

Sodium nitrite (or sodium nitrate) is used as a preservative, coloring and flavoring in bacon, ham, hot dogs, luncheon meats, corned beef, smoked fish and other processed meats. These food additives can lead to the formation of cancer-causing chemicals called nitrosamines.

Some studies have found a link between consuming cured meats and nitrite and cancer in humans.  The process used to make hydrogenated vegetable oil (or partially hydrogenated vegetable oil) creates trans fats, which promote heart disease and diabetes.  The Institute of Medicine has advised that consumers should eat as little trans fat as possible.  You should avoid anything with these ingredients on the label, which includes some margarine, vegetable shortening, crackers, cookies, baked goods, salad dressings, bread and more.  It’s used because it reduces cost and increases the shelf life and flavor stability of food.

Aspartame In Food:

This artificial sweetener is found in Equal and NutraSweet, along with products that contain them (diet sodas and other low-cal and diet food).  This sweetener has been found to cause brain tumors in rats as far back as the 1970s, however a more recent study in 2005 found that even small doses increase the incidence of lymphomas and leukemia in rats, along with brain tumors.

People who are sensitive to aspartame may also suffer from headaches, dizziness and hallucinations after consuming it.  If you do use aspartame in your food, you may want to more closely research the negative side effects of this product before you decide to put it into your body.

 MSG:

There was much hue and cry years ago when the public learned Chinese restaurants commonly added MSG to Chinese food as a flavor enhancer.  We then learned MSG could be found in many other processed products, such as salad dressings, condiments, seasonings, bouillons and snack chips.  Some reported side effects in food indicate MSG causes tightening in the chest, headaches and a burning sensation in the neck and forearms.  While MSG is made of components found in our bodies _ water, sodium and glutamate (a common amino acid) _ ingesting it is an entirely different matter.

Partially Hydrongenated Oils in Food:

Hydrogenation is the process of heating an oil and passing hydrogen bubbles through it.  The fatty acids in the oil then acquire some of the hydrogen, which makes it more dense.  If you fully hydrogenate, you create a solid (a fat) out of the oil.  But if you stop part way, you create a semi-solid, partially hydrogenated oil with the consistency of butter.  Because this process is so much cheaper than using butter, partially-hydrogenated oils are found in many of today’s food products.  Their addictive properties have linked partially-
hydrogenated oils to weight problems caused by a slowed metabolism and the Healthy Living With Type 1 Diabetes Hidden Toxins In Your Fooddevelopment of diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

If you are really serious about avoiding nasty chemicals especially in your food, it does no good using toxin-free personal care products if you then go ahead and eat foods that contain the very same toxins!  Avoiding these harmful ingredients means taking action, taking responsibility and paying attention. You need to know what to look for in the food you purchase and, where to look for it as well as what foods are most likely to contain the worst chemicals.

This needn’t be a big deal and quickly becomes a new (and very positive) habit, which will make a massive difference to your health and the health of those you care about. Given that many modern diseases are directly caused by what we put IN and ON our bodies, avoiding those things gives our bodies a chance not only to stop the progress of existing diseases, but to begin to recover and, in many cases completely get rid of otherwise debilitating and unpleasant problems, such as allergies, diabetes, arthritis and so on.  Isn’t it time to be more aware of the food that we put into our bodies, without our health we have nothing.

If this article on the hidden toxins in food was helpful, please leave a comment below or hit the share button to share with your family and friends 😀

Thanks for Reading!

Chris

Chris - The Organic Diabetic

As a type 1 diabetic, I made the switch to an organic lifestyle several years ago after being diagnosed with Diabetes in 2006. Living with diabetes is hard enough, why make it more difficult by consuming products with chemicals, toxins and other harmful, unhealthy ingredients. To me, the choice was easy and just made sense. We hope you enjoy our blog! Feel free to look around and check out all of our products by clicking through the tabs above! Thanks for stopping by and also please be sure to check us out on Facebook and Twitter by liking our pages below! You never know what freebies we will be giving away!! Don't forget to check out the website as well at www.theorganicdiabetic.org

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