Food Additives to Avoid
October 13, 2014
Regular exercise is critical to maintaining a healthy lifestyle, but it's only one of the ingredients. To reap the full benefits of exercise we must also make healthy food choices by avoiding the kinds of food additives and preservatives that hinder the body's ability to properly absorb nutrients, minerals and remove waste.
Health experts agree that in addition to cutting back on sugar and salt, you should avoid sodium nitrite, artificial sweeteners, caffeine, olestra, monosodium glutamate, sulfites, and food dyes.
These substances are part of a long list that often are added to foods during processing to make them more appealing in taste or texture, and make them last longer on the shelf or in your refrigerator.
Natural additives such as herbs and spices are fine. It's the man-made ingredients that you should be scrutinizing on the food labels.
Studies have shown that artificial coloring and preservatives can increase hyperactivity in children, and aggravate asthma symptoms. Several food dyes have even been banned after they were found to cause cancerous tumors in rats.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has produced a list of 700 food additives that are considered safe, although not all have been fully tested. Check out the link below to learn the names of different additives that should used in moderation, or avoided all together.