kscoblick@sbcglobal.net
This month I am continuing my ¡§Avoid These Additives¡¨ and enjoy real foods as the kick off to a healthy summer. There are small changes we can all make to have a healthier diet and the three additives I want you to try to avoid are:
1. High Fructose Corn Syrup
2. Hydrogenated Oils
3. Food Coloring (especially Red 40)
Last month I discussed both science based and common sense reasons for avoiding high fructose corn syrup. If you are reading ingredients panels and avoiding processed foods such as sweets, crackers and all or most foods with these ingredients, you are off to a healthier summer. Through your own awareness you will buy less processed foods and more whole foods. Changing our idea of what a snack is in this food manufactured world is crucial.
Hydrogenated oils and food colorings are additives to avoid. Thinking of these additives as chemicals may help you eliminate them from your and your child¡¦s diet. Hydrogenated oils and/or partially hydrogenated oils are chemically changed fats. Here is the science:
Hydrogenated oil: The reason hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils (trans fats) are in many snack foods is because they increase the shelf life and stability of the foods. To make a trans fat, the oil undergoes hydrogenation "partial hydrogenation" in which hydrogen is added to the oil that reconfigures the molecules making a chemically created "trans". Trans fat is formed when liquid vegetable oils are made into solid fats. Trans fat is the most harmful fat you can put in your body. It clogs arteries and contributes significantly to heart disease. It raises the bad cholesterol (LDL) and lowers the good cholesterol (HDL) and we are seeing evidence of children with early signs of heart disease and trans fat is also associated with a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. You will find trans fats mostly in snack foods such as crackers, cookies, cakes, pastries, margarines snack foods¡Kbasically your processed foods. Keep in mind that trans fat is also naturally occurring in some animal foods such as meat and dairy but that these NATURALLY occurring trans fats have a limited impact on health¡Kbut choose skim or lowfat (1%) dairy and lean cuts of meats. Keep a balanced diet and avoid the processed foods.
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.
So scientifically we understand that trans fat is a road to heart disease, but how much is too much? The American Heart Association recommends limiting daily intake of trans fat to less than 2 grams per day. They make a point is saying ¡§you should try to limit your intake of artificially, chemically modified trans fat.¡¨
Common sense tells us anything chemically modified isn¡¦t the best choice. Keep your common sense when MARKETING sounds too good. The example I will leave you with is one that just happened in our home. My mother came for a visit and she brought this "butter" spread that her friend¡¦s doctor highly recommended. The package looked promising with omega-3 fatty acids (great!) and olive oil (great!). So I read the INGREDIENT panel FIRST and showed her "partially hydrogenated soybean oil" and told my mother the marketing looks great and this stuff will go straight to her arteries. Don¡¦t be fooled and now you know to read the ingredients. In the case of hydrogenated oil, you will see the word "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated" in the ingredients.
Food Coloring: The science on food coloring is linked mostly to misbehavior in children; however, you can find some controversial studies linking red 40 to cancer. Sticking with the most recent findings from the American Academy of Pediatrics should be persuasive enough to understand that food coloring is not food, but chemicals. When we introduce chemicals into our bodies reactions occur that are not the most healthful of processes. Thinking of food additives as "chemicals" and real food (fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean meats, nuts, seeds, legumes, lean meats and dairy) as the way we are made to eat, may help you resist the marketing that food advertisers use toward us and our children.
I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me Philippians 4:13.
The American Academy of Pediatrics -- the organization that sets practice parameters for pediatricians to follow -- has finally acknowledged that dietary intervention is a valid treatment for children with ADHD in the February 2008 issue of its publication, AAP Grand Rounds [full report attached]. We encourage parents to print this page and share it with their pediatricians, in case they have not seen the AAP's article.
After reviewing the British study published in the September 2007 Lancet, in which researchers found that food colorings and/or sodium benzoate increase hyperactive behavior in children, the AAP concludes with an Editors' Note and a commentary by Alison Schonwald, MD, FAAP, of the Developmental Medicine Center at Children’s Hospital in Boston. Dr. Schonwald writes:
Despite increasing data supporting the efficacy of stimulants in preschoolers with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) parents and providers understandably seek safe and effective interventions that require no prescription. A recent meta-analysis of 15 trials concludes that there is "accumulating evidence that neurobehavioral toxicity may characterize a variety of widely distributed chemicals." [Schab DW, et al. J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2004;25:423–434] Some children may be more sensitive to the effects of these chemicals, and the authors suggest there is a need to better identify responders. In real life, practitioners faced with hyperactive preschoolers have a reasonable option to offer parents. For the child without a medical, emotional, or environmental etiology of ADHD behaviors, a trial of a preservative-free, food coloring–free diet is a reasonable intervention. (emphasis added)
And the Editors' Note which follows states:
Although quite complicated, this was a carefully conducted study in which the investigators went to great lengths to eliminate bias and to rigorously measure outcomes. The results are hard to follow and somewhat inconsistent. For many of the assessments there were small but statistically significant differences of measured behaviors in children who consumed the food additives compared with those who did not. In each case increased hyperactive behaviors were associated with consuming the additives. For those comparisons in which no statistically significant differences were found, there was a trend for more hyperactive behaviors associated with the food additive drink in virtually every assessment. Thus, the overall findings of the study are clear and require that even we skeptics, who have long doubted parental claims of the effects of various foods on the behavior of their children, admit we might have been wrong. (emphasis added)
~ The following are PDF files. If you need a PDF reader, get it here.
Copyright by Kathryn Scoblick
HealthyFUNday, INC
