Soy in your Food

If you eat packaged processed foods, you are most likely eating soy, whether you want to or not. That is, unless you're checking ingredients lists to make sure the packaged products are free of soy.

Why would you want to avoid soy?

Most soy these days is genetically engineered and soy is not health food that food manufacturers want you to believe it is. In fact, soy is listed in the FDA's Poisonous Plant Database.

There are a large number of soy ingredients that are added to your food - soy oil, soy protein, soy lecithin, soy isolates, soy concentrates, hydrolyzed soy protein - to name just a few.

To learn more about the dangers of soy, click here.

To learn about other dangerous chemicals added to your food, click here.

Artificial Flavors

Do you ever wonder what gives artificially flavored foods their orange, grape, cherry or pineapple flavoring?

These flavors may taste somewhat similar to the real thing, but in terms of safety, watch out!

You'll find some of these fake flavors in processed foods like beverages, baked goods, ice cream, candy, gelatin desserts, puddings, ices, chewing gum, icings and even in vitamins.

Most of these artificial flavors have not been adequately tested.

With the little bit that is known about their safety, many are "harmful if swallowed or absorbed through the skin." Some are "toxic if ingested." At least one that I know of "can be fatal if inhaled." It's also toxic when you eat it.

Because manufacturers are not required to disclose the chemicals used in creating their artificial flavors, you don't know which toxic chemicals are in the flavorings in the packaged foods you buy, or how toxic they are.

Make sure there are NO artificial flavors in the foods you buy for yourself or your famly.

Click here to get Free Food Additives Tips and learn more about the safety of the additives in your food.

Is Splenda a Healthy Sweetener?

Splenda is chlorinated sugar. It's an artificial sweetener that can actually be made totally from chemicals, without any sugar.

The manufacturer claims that it is not metabolized by the body. However, according to the FDA it is partially absorbed and metabolized by the body, 11-27%. And according to the Japanese Food Council it is 40% absorbed and metabolized.

It's promoted as a safe sweetener with zero calories. However, there have been no long-term human studies on the safety of Splenda, and no studies on its safety for children and pregnant women.

Animal studies have shown Splenda to cause shrunken thymus gland, enlarged liver and kidneys, miscarriage and diarrhea. Small amounts of dangerous contaminants have been detected, such as heavy metals, methanol, arsenic and more.

Those with chlorine allergies may suffer severe reactions to splenda.

Bottom line, although Splenda is not as harmful as aspartame, it is definitely NOT a safe sweetener.

Learn more about food additives and get FREE Food Additives Tips here.

Canola Oil

The industry would like you to think that canola oil is heart healthy and a good oil to use for cooking, baking and salads.

However, canola oil becomes rancid easily. Baked goods made with canola oil become moldy quickly.

Originally canola oil was hybridized rapeseed oil. Now most is genetically engineered (GE). You can't even say that organic canola oil is not GE because of all the cross contamination that occurs with GE crops growing near non-GE crops.

Canola oil is processed at extremely high temperatures - refined, bleached, degummed and deodorized. It may be contaminated with solvents used for extraction.

Much of the canola oil used in processed foods is partially hydrogenated. So it will contain trans fats.

Canola oil has been shown to

• deplete the body's stores of vitamin E
  
• cause heart problems
  
• cause abnormal changes in blood platelets
  
• retard growth
  
• shorten the life span of lab animals.

In addition, no long term studies have been done on humans to determine its safety.

Learn more about food additives and how they affect your health.