Are You What You Eat?

For the last 39 years I have been fighting the battle of the bulge; I have tried every low fat, fat free, sugar free diet; I drink diet soda(s); I use(d) Saccharine, Equal, Splenda, Truvia, Sweet’n Low; I even tried the popular 90’s diet pill Metabolife 356 and yet still to this day my weight goes up and down like a roller coaster. 

You know the saying, “you are what you eat”?  I am beginning to believe this statement goes further than my spare tire and I think it could be a very real possibility that my cereals, yogurt, chips, puddings, meats, drinks, etc. (containing hydrated and partially hydrated oils, color dyes and a slew of other ingredients that I am unable to pronounce) might have been a contributing factor to my body behaving like a petridish for tumors.  

I often wonder are my tumors a result of my chemically enhanced diet?  Did I do this to myself?

I am not a scientist and I do not work in the food industry, but my commonsense tells me that maybe just maybe “good” for you, color enhanced foods are a pivotal ingredient in the cancer epidemic that plagues us/me.  (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2034746/Global-cancer-cases-rise-20-cent-decade.html). 

In fact, my fellow Americans, did you know that the UK has banned or required food manufactures to include a warning label if the product includes food dyes, but not here in the good old U.S.A...NO, we put warning labels on the obvious like cigarettes.

Approved FDA List:  

Color Additives

Offset color loss due to exposure to light, air, temperature extremes, moisture and storage conditions; correct natural variations in color; enhance colors that occur naturally; provide color to colorless and "fun" foods

Many processed foods, (candies, snack foods margarine, cheese, soft drinks, jams/jellies, gelatins, pudding and pie fillings)

FD&C Blue Nos. 1 and 2, FD&C Green No. 3, FD&C Red Nos. 3 and 40, FD&C Yellow Nos. 5 and 6, Orange B, Citrus Red No. 2, annatto extract, beta-carotene, grape skin extract, cochineal extract or carmine, paprika oleoresin, caramel color, fruit and vegetable juices, saffron (Note: Exempt color additives are not required to be declared by name on labels but may be declared simply as colorings or color added)

(Source: FDA.com)

Did you read the first column? “Provide color to colorless and “fun” food".  Fun food has put my health at risk?  How does this make sense?  

The most delicious part!  Are you ready for this?  I can hardly wait to tell you.  Here goes:  these FDA approved dyes are produced from coal.  Yep, you are digesting coal.  Yummy!  How cool is that?  NOOOOOOOOOTTTTT! 

And the best part our health is being compromised because companies don’t have the courage to change (see:http://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelhennessey/2012/08/27/living-in-color-the-potential-dangers-of-artificial-dyes/).  Listen, I don’t live on a pink cloud I know bad things can happen with change, but more often than not CHANGE IS GOOD! 

So while I can not make the manufactures change, I certainly can and have already started with a trip to Whole Foods where I am guaranteed 'fun" foods that do not include chemically enhanced colors or hydrated and partially hydrated oils. 

Don't worry you do not have to buy only organic products to ensure these ingredients will not be going home with you, you just have to turn that can, bag, box around and read the label. 

Here are some new finds and some old favorites: 

So what do you think do you agree with me or do you think I am full of crap? 

Happy New Year!

Faith