A recent article in the Wall Street Journal (October 18, 2010) was titled “What’s in All the Stuff We Buy?”
I was intrigued: the article mentioned a number of hazardous or toxic chemicals that are used in food containers, vinyl tiles, medical devices, toys, paints, adhesives, food conveyer belts, plastic foams and artificial leathers, swimming pool liners, furniture, textiles, enamels, and humidity indicators, among other things — in short, the stuff that we use all the time, and really never think about.
Except we should think about them.
We are constantly surrounded with “stuff” that isn’t good for us. There is enough of that kind of stuff that we do know about, and of course that needs to be avoided deliberately. But the fancy chemical names like “dibutyl phthalate” or “hexabromocyclododecane” can be indicators that these concoctions that touch our food or our clothes or affect the air we breathe could have a damaging effect upon us. So much for safety!
Let’s transfer that idea to the food we eat. The foods that we consume can be simple and natural and wholesome, grown in fertile soil with clean water and air, and eaten fresh from the garden. Or they can come from a box, tinted red with colors that come from crushed beetle shells, flavors intensified with monosodium glutamate, preservatives added to increase the shelf-life, trans-fats added by bubbling hydrogen gas through oils to keep the “food” from growing rancid.
When we eat stuff that isn’t grown and prepared in a natural, healthy way, it is a matter of course that our bodies are unable to recognize and process what they are consuming as food.
So our bodies get confused with the “nonfood” messages coming from strange “nonfood foods.”
“Our lives are frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.” Henry David Thoreau
I’d like to paraphrase that in medical terms, from a nutritionist’s standpoint: Our bodies are inflamed from “nonfoods,” that we consume because of convenience, that are toxic. Simplify, simplify.
A photographer has recorded a McDonald’s Happy Meal each day for over 6 months, and it has not yet decomposed at all (https://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20101012/bs_yblog_upshot/mcdonalds-happy-meal-resists-decomposition-for-six-months ). As I followed up on that bit of news, I learned that another woman purchased a McDonald’s hamburger in 1996, 14 years ago. It still looks pretty much the same as a burger you would pick up from a fast food place today. Click here to see it.
When you’re shopping in the store, look for — and avoid please! — any foods that contain the following food additives:
1. Aspartame (also known as NutraSweet or Equal). Yikes! How’s that for a misnomer?
2. Sulfites
3. Food colorants Blue #1 and Blue #2
4. BVO (Brominated Vegetable Oil)
5. Citrus Red #2
6. MSG (monosodium glutamate)
7. Red dye #3
8. Caffeine
9. Sodium nitrate
10. Yellow #6
There are, of course, others. As you read about food additives, you’ll start to make a list of your own to avoid. Pay careful attention to how you feel when you have eaten foods that contain harmful additives.
I also have issues with Splenda, which contains a chlorine group.
Folks, it’s just plain better and smarter to eat simpler.
When you begin eating whole, delicious vegetables and fruits, as close to nature as you can, you will begin to feel more alive inside, more energy flowing through your bloodstream. You’ll think more clearly, feel better, and you’ll notice that you will be able to move more freely.
My counsel to you is to carefully read the labels on every packaged or canned item you are thinking of purchasing. Most so-called convenience foods really don’t save us a lot of time. In fact, you can generally prepare a healthier meal more quickly than you can drive to a fast food joint, order, pick up your order, pay for it (more expensive), bring it home, and eat it. A little planning ahead will do wonders for your time use and your health.
Avoiding those unhealthy “nonfoods” can save us a lot of misery later on.
For more information about our food, our health, and how to feel better, please visit my website at www.stangardnermd.com. On that site you can also subscribe for free to my Daily Health Secret, full of healthy ideas, questions, and answers.
To your dynamic health and energy!
Dr. Stan
