Slow day at work so I’ve spent a bit of time googling for food information, prompted by something I read over on kuro5hin.org
Food additives have always been something I kept one eye on as when I was a wee nipper my ma had a list of E numbers and there effects on the human body. E102 *shudder*.
As I’m trying to get into the whole paternal thing I decided I’d follow in her footsteps and start to compile a bad/healthy food list. These are the first steps; added to the blog because if I email these home they would be lost in the dervish.
More when I write some of this up.
Food Stuff
Thiamine Mononitrate is actually Vitamin B1
MSG is not allowed in foods designed for children, since large doses have been shown to destroy brain cells in young mice. It’s wise to be cautious when feeding table foods to children younger than three; avoiding all products containing MSG is prudent.
http://www.snopes.com/ – myth buster
http://www.rense.com/general7/whyy.htm – mcdonalds info
http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/safereating/additivesbranch/enumberlist – uk ‘safe’ list
http://www.organichealthandbeauty.com/foodadditives.html - e number effects list
http://www.eufic.org/pt/quickfacts/food_additives.htm - general info + pdf of
approved list
http://www.feingold.org/E-numbers.html - e number effects list
http://www.lactose.co.uk/milkallergy/foodadditives100.html - a ban list, by country
http://www.cargo-cult.com/scd/ecodes.html - e number effects list
http://www.bcma.info/behave_efect.html - e number effects list
http://www.dermnetnz.org/index.html - e number effects list
http://biorganic.ifrance.com/biorganic/additives.htm
Http://www.notmilk.com - Milk information
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_food_additives - wiki, chems used
http://www.bryngollie.freeserve.co.uk/Brochurep.htm - e number effects list
http://www.eande.va.com.au/food_additivesx.htm - e number effects list
http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/mediareleasespublications/publications/shoppersguide/
foodadditivesnumeric1680.cfm - e number effects list
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0963563548/002-5028036-7522445?v=glance – Books
Kuro5hin.org Stuff:
User: Fantastic Lad
1. Ethics –Free Range versus factory farmed animals. And “Do plants feel pain when you kill them?” (I think they do. So what does one do other than make peace with the fact that in order to live, one must kill. You can be thoughtless and cruel or you can be respectful and kind in so far as you are able.)
2. Toxic ingredients. –Including things like, Monsanto’s big bad artifical sweetener, Aapartame in all its many forms and guises. Coloring agents which can cause hyperactivity and ADD-like behavior in children. Sodium Benzoate, which virtually everybody will tell you is safe, but which I have read enough suspicious and fascinating things about to not be nearly so quick to write off as entirely harmless.
3. Foods nobody really suspected were toxic. –A big one here is Soy, which contains, among other things, Trypsin inhibitors, (prevents protein digestion), large quantities of Phytic Acid, (prevents dietary mineral uptake), and plant-derived oestrogen-like compounds (Isoflavones) which have been shown without question to have narcotic effects upon the body. You want to screw up your newborn son’s sexual identity and maybe even kill him? Feed him Soy milk during the first 12 months of his life. Seriously.
4. Food combining. –If you eat Meat and Potatoes together, how much food value does the body get from each, versus if you ate them separately? How much extra strain does throwing certain combinations of food together in your stomach put on your digestive and various bodily systems? There’s a lot here which people could benefit from knowing.
5. Disease. –BSE; how does Mad Cow work? What can one do to minimize the risk other than stop eating beef altogether? (There are a couple of big things you can do, actually. I was very surprised by what I discovered.)
6. Sugar — Sugar is an over-used sweetener which creates a whole series of imbalances in the body. Stop eating it in gross quantities, and you’ll quickly no longer want it in gross quantities.
7. Salt. –Sodium chloride, while it IS a salt, is just one of many that the body needs. On its own and used in the quantities it is for flavoring purposes, it is actually rather destructive. The best salt I came across was designed to mimic the mineral composition of mother’s amniotic fluid, which is comprised of about 70 different salts, all of which the body needs in order to function at its peek.
8. Caffeine –Caffeine in kids drinks, along with too much sugar and various coloring agents, is responsible for much of the ADD – related problems and very likely, the subsequent drugging of our youth with anti-depressants. Caffeine is a drug. It’s one I use regularly myself and think highly of; it’s one of the only drugs which enhances rather than dulls the mind and which has little negative effect if used responsibly. But it IS a drug, and it is not one which should be treated without respect.
9. Carbonated Drinks. –Fizzy drinks have been linked to the depletion of bone mass for a variety of reasons, from the carbonation to the acids in certain brands.
10. Fluoride –It’s in everything. If it’s in the water supply, then its in your fruit and vegetables, which means its in your meat, eggs and cookies. Is it good or bad? There are many who debate this. I do not. I am convinced that Fluoride is a real problem. The only way to properly combat Fluoride is to drink from a well or drink distilled water. (There is a big difference between naturally occurring fluoride in ground water and industrial fluoride in municipal water; one is bonded to carbon, the other is highly reactive.)
11. Chlorination –Let your water stand overnight to clear out this otherwise life-saving disinfectant. If you don’t let it absolve from your drinking water, then you can expect all manner of subtle health problems which you may not even be aware you are living with; everything from digestive issues to a decreased sex drive.
12. Cow Milk –The stuff was simply not meant to be consumed by humans, particularly adults. A whole raft of problems have been linked to the consumption of un-fermented Cow’s Milk. Cheese and Yoghurt? They’re fine so long as you can find them without crap ingredients. And you can! (They taste better, too, and they don’t cost much more, for the most part.)
It’s good to eat corn with black beans.
2 responses so far ↓
1 s|k // Feb 26, 2004 at 4:42 PM
I totally agree with you about the cow milk. We’re the only animal that consumes another animals milk. I drink soy milk (I found a brand that doesn’t taste terrible). When I was more active and ran a lot, I could tell the difference between when I was drinking milk and when I stopped. Apparently, according to an athletic friend of mine, that stuff just throws a wrench into your system and you body has to deal with it. Not good if you’re dealing with it while running in a race. Milk doesn’t do a body good, that’s just the Milk Industry spending money on a marketing campaign, and it’s so funny to see all these idiots believe that milk is a good thing because the dairy industry spent some money telling them it is. It’s like war propaganda. Anyways, sorry to spam up your blog.
2 Jackdaw // Feb 26, 2004 at 6:49 PM
It’s not spam when it’s a relevant post like that, after all this is the point of the comment system.
Comment away Bjorn.