Turn over the back of the box and read the ingredients. This is so important. I fell into the trap of blindly picking up items at the grocery store and assumed they were good for me and my family because they were labeled “Organic” or “no artificial ingredients.” There are so many marketing schemes and while choosing organic, I believe, is the healthier option, there can be so many other added ingredients that are bad for our health.
HARD NO’S:
Anything with dyes or anything artificial. We are in the middle of a food revolution as we are seeing the dyes starting to get banned State by State. This is a great start.
SOFT NO’S (AKA SOMETIMES)
I sometimes allow these as boxed foods can be very hard to find without some of these ingredients. Let’s just apply the 90/10 rule here. 90% of the time say no to them and allow them 10% of the time. This makes me feel better anyways.
- Natural Flavors
- Seed oils
- Gums
I’m sure there are more but let’s take a closer look at why we should be avoiding these particular ingredients most of the time. Natural Flavors in food remind me a lot of ‘Fragrance’ in cosmetics, cleaning products, etc. Essentially, a company can put ‘fragrance’ on their ingredient list without listing the actual ingredients that were used to formulate that fragrance. There could be hundreds to thousands of chemicals hiding behind that “fragrance” or “parfum”. Some of the chemicals used to make the fragrance are known to be allergens, hormone disruptors, neurotoxins and carcinogens. Yikes. Avoid fragrance at all costs. I do think this has become more common knowledge but what’s less widely known are the “Natural Flavors” in so many of the food products you’re buying today.
Natural Flavors can be put on an ingredient label allowing companies to hide a wide range of potentially processed chemicals and additives without disclosing exactly what they are. I do believe that some brands have integrity and may actually be using natural flavors that are organic, no additives or chemicals but I also believe that there are many brands that will formulate with the natural flavors to appear “natural & clean” while still being able to hide the junk that is making their product more shelf stable, more addictive, and altering the taste & texture from a chemical standpoint.
Seeds oils—again, becoming more widely known to have harmful effects on the body like increasing inflammation. They contain high amounts of Omega-6 fatty acids, when these are not balanced with Omega 3 fatty acids (think chia/flax seeds) is when the body can become overly inflamed and lead to more serious, chronic diseases. The standard American diet is made up of 60-90% ultra-processed foods. The ultra-processed foods (UPF’s) are high in omega-6’s because of all the seed oils that are used in these UPF’s. Over 40% of kids in the United States have a chronic health condition and the UPF’s are making up a lot of these kid’s diets. I’m no scientist or doctor but just using common sense, this has to play a role.
Lastly, GUMS. There are so many different types of “gums” you see on the market—guar gum, xanthan gum, carrageenan. These can be natural or synthetic and they’re used to thicken, stabilize and emulsify food products. These can have a harmful effect on the gut.
The final issue I have with all of these ingredients is that if you look them up individually it will show these are fine in small doses. Well, because it’s so hard to find food products without one let alone all of these ingredients, there becomes a compounding effect overtime so they really are best to avoid most of the time.
Some of the brands I’ve come to know and love that DO NOT have these ingredients:
- Mary’s Gone Crackers
- Lesser Evil
- Siete
It takes a little bit of extra time but could have lasting effects on your health to just turn over the food package and take a moment to read the ingredient label.
