Food Colorings & Ingredients To Avoid In Processed Foods

Busy lifestyles make it difficult to always eat fresh and healthy foods. Of course, the freshest food is always the best, but we all indulge in processed foods once in a while. As a result, we could be consuming some of the most potentially dangerous ingredients that can be found in processed foods. The more technical chemical terminology you find on a product's label, the more processed it is, and the more likely it is to contain harmful ingredients. Nevertheless, there are a few artificial additives common and potentially harmful enough that you should avoid at all costs. Discover the top harmful ingredients in processed foods now.

Monosodium Glutamate

Monosodium glutamate (or MSG) is commonly used for flavor enhancement and can be found in a lot of Chinese food, processed meats, canned soups, snack foods and canned vegetables. The adverse effects of MSG can include sudden sweats with a flushed face, headaches, numbness, chest pains, heart palpitations, weakness, and nausea. While all of these negative effects are short-lived and require no treatment, the current research on MSG indicates that thepotential for long-term health problems may have been overlooked in the past. Due to the limitations of past studies, present researchers are looking for connections between MSG and diseases that may have been missed. As of now, however, the evidence is still inconclusive. We know for certain that MSGs can cause mild adverse reactions for certain people whose bodies reject it, but unfortunately, we do not know the lengths or the long-term damage or lack thereof that MSG can cause. MSG can also go by different names, so when reading labels to avoid MSG, also look for monopotassium glutamate and vegetable protein extract.

Artificial Colors And Dyes

Many different dyes were once used to color foods, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has banned most of them due to the recurrence of many adverse health effects that they have caused. Only seven artificial colors remain legal to use in the production of food: Blue 1, Blue 2, Red 3, Red 40, Citrus Red 2, Green 3, Yellow 5 and Yellow 6. Among these seven, Red 40 has been the subject of the most research. Through that research, Red 40 is believed to be related to ADHD in children who have food allergies and learning disabilities. While it is likely that the other six legal artificial colors and dyes may contribute to some of the same problems, no studies have made such a link conclusive yet. As for Red 40, however, the studies conducted indicate that it appears to mimic ADHD symptoms. It is being studied further in an attempt to discover if it may even be a cause of ADHD in some children.