Eating healthy is “in” right now.  People are tired of not feeling well and realize that caffeine isn’t enough to keep them energized any more.  Questions are being asked and attention is focused on food more than I can ever remember.  As a little girl, mom would just come up with a menu and cook it.  Not much thought was put into whether it was healthy or what the label claimed, but then there were a lot fewer regulations on what needed to be on the label back then too.

Unfortunately, the food industry has started cutting so many corners to keep costs down that many unnatural ingredients have been added in foods to increase shelf life, make it look appetizing and then flavor enhanced so we are tricked into thinking it is real food and healthy.  Some of these food additives are not foods at all, but are chemicals that are generally recognized as safe (GRAS). Most of these additives cannot be found at your local grocery store, probably because they aren't food. But some can be found at your local hardware store, though in inedible products, like antifreeze, silicone caulk, soap, sunscreen, and play sand.  When people started getting sick from foods, FDA started mandating disclosure of ingredients.  Aren’t you grateful we have the FDA to protect us?  Think again.  They have many board members that still being paid from the food and drug industry that manipulate the whole process.  And of course, profits are still the biggest driving force, not the health of the American citizen paying their wages.  Many times it is weeks after a problem is identified until FDA recalls it, depending on whom the manufacturer is and whether it is a target, like natural supplements.

Big companies dictate industrial standards across the nation.  If you question this statement, I urge you to watch the documentary movie Food, INC.  I believe it should be watched by every person including children.  America has compromised so many standards for the almighty dollar, and then complains when small companies have to charge more to produce quality, healthy food.  Our foods have become so processed and our bodies bombarded with chemicals.  The sad thing is that even when people think they are buying good things,  it may still be loaded with ingredients that get through the cracks of the “truth  in labeling” as ultimately dictated by the FDA.

For example, Monosodium glutamate (MSG) has been found to be extremely toxic to many people and others just find themselves with headaches, nausea, weakness, difficulty breathing, drowsiness, rapid heartbeat, and chest pain, without knowing what is triggering it.  Under current FDA regulations, when MSG is added to a food, it must be identified as monosodium glutamate in the label's ingredient list.  But here’s where the trickiness comes in, if it is just part of another mix, it is excluded separately and listed as only flavorings or spices.  Of course the part of MSG that causes the adverse reactions is “processed free Glutamic acid” which is present in almost all acid hydrolyzed proteins (which also forms carcinogenic mono- and di-chloropropanols, according to the Truth in Labeling Campaign (TLC) lobbying with FDA for more accurate labels).  The TLC has been warning the FDA since 1993 of these dangers and yet they continue allowing food manufacturers to hide the presence of MSG from the label.  You may be thinking that MSG is not affecting you or that you really aren’t getting much but its most important usage is for flavor enhancing and tenderizing.  I have often said that it is frustrating sometimes when prepared foods sometimes taste better than homemade, well MSG is many times the ingredient that enhances that flavor to trick our senses.  It is most widely used in bouillon products, dressing and dressing mixes, flavoring bases and seasoning products, frozen foods, gravy mixes, prepared salad products (some salad bars actually spray a solution containing MSG on the salad to make it look better longer), ready to eat meals, marinades, snack mixes, soup and soup mixes, dips, spreads and stuffing products.  Pretty much everything that has added flavorings, unless it says “No MSG”, has it.

Every person’s tolerance of MSG is different.  Many of my customers have this sensitivity to the extreme and they tell me all the time of another hidden source MSG that looks like a perfectly harmless ingredient on the label.  Instead of FDA cracking down on this one item alone, it continues allowing food companies to use this process and chemical for flavoring instead of mandating they go to the expense of using high quality, healthy ingredients  and then MSG would not be a problem for 25%-43 % of Americans.

Another major ingredient shift being pounded on us by the media and food producer giants like Kraft and Nestle` that could cause many problems is lowering the salt content of processed foods (which FDA has not issued any regulations associated with this yet).     Of course, this big marketing blitz is on the heels of the announcement of a new salt substitute, Senomyx.  This is being marketed as simply  a “change in the shape of salt crystals” (that sounds harmless), but is truly a chemical that works as a neurological agent causing one to sense the sensation of being salty with much less actual salt.  Basically it is a neurological drug, but the producers are calling it a food, hence no extensive testing is being done.  This chemical is so potent that the amount needed is also below the amount requiring FDA approval anyway.  It will probably never appear on any labels other than “artificial flavor”.   Naturally occurring Celtic Sea Salt is balanced with other minerals and can actually be used to treat cardiac problems, but we are taught salt is bad…well, sodium chloride (table salt) is bad when it is not balanced with other minerals as it occurs in nature.  (We continually see God’s wisdom in His creation!)  Of course food producers using Celtic Sea Salt would be more expensive and people would still see it as plain “salt”.  Once again, the public is being blinded within our own FDA regulations, or lack of, and I wonder how many will be plagued by this new additive in disguise of a making a more healthy, lower salt “food”? 

The bottom line is you need to take the responsibility of your family’s food back in your own hands.  Get quality staple ingredients, go to your local farmers’ market and then get out your mother’s cookbook and start making your own food again.  America has become such an instant society that we don’t even take the time to think about the long term cost of our decisions.  Our schedules are full and we’re hungry.  Keep good foods on hand and have list of things you will not eat and a list of items that you want to eat.  Know your food and you’ll have a fully disclosed ingredient label that you can trust!