by Long Van, D. C.
Eat naked. No, I don’t mean sitting at the dinner table bare naked. What I mean is eating natural food devoid of food additives, which include natural flavors and artificial flavors.
Many of modern-day diseases are caused by these lifestyles: 1) a sedentary mode of living, or lack of exercise, 2) drugs, alcohol, and smoking, and 3) un-healthy diet.
Let’s talk about un-healthy diet. In this time and age, there’s so much stuff added to our food that we we can barely tell which is truly natural, and which is a concoction of artificial products. We have probably forgotten what is real food now. So let’s try to remember, and attempt to differentiate.
Natural Food is food as we remember it decades (or centuries) ago. Remember the fruits and vegetables we picked from our gardens? Remember the chickens and the pigs we raised at home or in our farms? Or the food we bought from our neighbors, or off the streets from peddling farmers, or from the “wet markets?” THAT is natural food.
Food Additives
Nowadays, almost every kind of food sold in the supermarket has some kind of food additive. “Food additives are substances added to food to preserve flavor or enhance its taste, appearance, or other qualities.”1 Among these additives are “natural flavors” and “artificial flavors.”
Ninety percent (90%) of Americans’ grocery purchases contain natural and artificial flavors.2 “These flavors are used to amplify or modulate the sensory experience associated with existing qualities of a product.3” They were created in order to heighten our desire for those food products, to make otherwise bland healthy foods taste more appealing, and to simulate the taste of real, natural food. So, a can of chicken soup might contain very little chicken, and an orange juice cocktail might contain very little or no real oranges. Yet we keep buying those food products because they taste so good!
Natural flavor is an extract or a derivative of edible sources like plants and animals that are usually processed in laboratories to create the tastes and essences of natural foods, whose “significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional (Code of Federal Regulations).” This flavor is then added onto packaged stuff we call food, to make us think that what we are eating is “natural,” as in “natural food” as described above.
However, over 2,000 chemicals are combined to make 500 “natural flavors.”4
It might seem like any food flavoring that comes from “edible” sources is more desirable and healthier. However, it has been proven that not everything that is extracted from nature is healthy or desirable.
Cyanide, for example, can be extracted from bitter almonds. Not healthy. Castoreum, a secretion that comes from a beaver’s castor sacs located right next to its anal glands is the secret behind vanilla flavor. Certainly not desirable.
“…It would seem as though ‘natural flavors’ are the way to go. But they may not be so innocent… Natural flavors are largely unregulated, and their sources and processing can vary far and wide,” says nutritionist and founder of Nutritious Life and The Nutrition School, Keri Glassman MS, RD, and CDN. 5
Artificial flavor, on the other hand, is derived from inedible sources, like petroleum. And are made from the comforts of chemical laboratories by chemical scientists.
Amazingly, however, “artificial” is barely distinguishable from “natural” in its final product, even as sources and the processes involved in producing the final flavor product are vastly different.
Take the flavor of butter, for example. Diacetyl and acetoin create the butter flavor we so love. They are natural when certain bacteria and yeast are cultured, and then subjected to the process of (sugar) fermentation. They are artificial if they are produced through a chemical synthesis and then subjected to a purification process. 6
Taste-wise, we can no longer distinguish “natural” from “artificial.” Or the real natural food from “natural”-ly flavored food. But eventually, our bodies will. Many food additives are known to cause serious health problems.
Health Problems Caused by Food Additives
Two-time New York Times bestselling author Dr. Joseph Mercola wrote about the top 10 food additives to avoid.7 The list included artificial sweeteners, high fructose corn syrup, monosodium glutamate (MSG/E621), trans fat, common food dyes, sodium sulfite (E221), sodium nitrate/sodium nitrite, BHA and BHT(E320), sulfur dioxide (E220), and potassium bromate. Individually, these additives cause one or several of the following health problems: brain tumor, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, depression, anxiety attacks, dizziness, headaches & migraines, nausea, mental confusion, disorientation, lymphoma, diabetes, obesity multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, tissue damage, eye damage, rashes, heart diseases, seizures, inflammation, cancer, kidney and adrenal gland tumors, hypotension, flushing, tingling sensations or anaphylactic shock, breathing and bronchial problems.
Food Choices
1. Eat natural food. It is very simple. For example, create your own salad dressing by using salt, pepper, olive oil, and organic herbal condiments to spice up your salad instead of buying bottled salad dressing. Minimize the consumption of processed and/or packed foods—stick to the wet market or produce section of the supermarket—real fruits, vegetables, meat.
2. Read labels. Because a lot of our supermarket foods now contain heavy amounts of additives, it all boils down to us conscientiously reading the labels on the food products. Be aware of which additives cause serious health problems. Here is a downloadable PDF of Dr. Mercola’s list of 10 dangerous food additives. Print it out and bring it each time you go to the grocery. Be constantly aware of all the toxic food additives out there. Here is huge list of “jaw-droppingly toxic food ingredients and artificial additives” to start memorizing.
FOOTNOTES
1 Food Additive; Wikipedia, last accessed 6/28/2018
2 The Flavor Rundown: Natural vs. Artificial Flavors By C. Rose Kennedy; Science in the News, Harvard University The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, last accessed 6/28/2018
3 Ditto
4 Natural vs Artificial Flavors by Organics, last accessed 6/28/2018
5 The Truth About “Natural Flavors”: A Cautionary Tale of a Food Label Mainstay By Noah Lehava; Coveteur, last accessed 6/28/2018
6 The Flavor Rundown: Natural vs. Artificial Flavors By C. Rose Kennedy; Science in the News, Harvard University The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, last accessed 6/28/2018
7 Top 10 Food Additives to Avoid By Dr. Joseph Mercola; Food Matters, last accessed 6/28/2018
REFERENCES
1 Advantages and Disadvantages of Artificial Food Preservatives By Jessica Bruso; Live Strong, last accessed 6/28/2018
2 Food Additive; Wikipedia, last accessed 6/28/2018
3 Natural vs Artificial Flavors by Organics, last accessed 6/28/2018
4 The Flavor Rundown: Natural vs. Artificial Flavors By C. Rose Kennedy; Science in the News, Harvard University The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, last accessed 6/28/2018
5 The Truth About “Natural Flavors”: A Cautionary Tale of a Food Label Mainstay By Noah Lehava; Coveteur, last accessed 6/28/2018
6 Top 10 Food Additives to Avoid By Dr. Joseph Mercola; Food Matters, last accessed 6/28/2018
7 What’s the Deal With Natural and Artificial Flavors? By Daniel Gritzer, last accessed 6/28/2018
Long Van, D.C. joined the team at Absolute Injury and Pain Physicians in 2008. He has experience in helping the human body function properly through the natural approach, and enjoys reading up on new information concerning medical conditions and associated treatments available.