At the outset I want to say to you, "Eat no food that contains any chemical food additive."
To me the word 'additive' is a nasty or contemptible word and here is what Webster's Dictionary says:
"Additive: a substance added to another in relatively small amounts to impart or improve desirable properties or suppress undesirable properties."
Dangers of food additives and preservatives: Actually this tells an important story and should be a general warning to all that additives of any kind or for any reason could be dangerous. It is my sincere belief and conviction that additives are the greatest danger on earth to civilization and to life itself. Lest you think I am overacting or exaggerating I wish to assure you with all the rhetoric at my command that I really am being truthful and very, very realistic.
Now a food additive is seldom if ever put into food for the consumer's benefit. No matter what the food processors or their advertising agents tell you, this statement is still true. The food processors use additives for many reasons but basically it is to further their own ends. No, they do not use them to deliberately do you harm .... yet the harm is just as great as if they did do it deliberately.
One of the things that the food processor worries about is that he might be sued if the additive causes harm or injury to the consumer .... but he has little to worry about because the additives are only used in minute quantities. However, those minute quantities of chemical additives used in food are cumulative and build up or accumulate in the human body. Then, when this build-up reaches specific proportions, sickness, disease and perhaps even death may be the result.
However, it can seldom be conclusively proven that any specific additive caused these health complications for the simple reason that no one eats a food containing an additive and then instantly drops dead .... so the Food and Drug Administration and the food processors assume that that additive is safe.
As part of my work, I study toxicology and thus I learn a little bit about the dangers of many chemicals and I assure you that the chemicals added to our food are definitely harmful. I maintain that they are much more dangerous and deadly than most people realize. Why do you think the food corporations hire the most famous food scientists and technologists in the world to be continually on the stump to defend them?
The sad part of the food additive affair is that in many or most cases the individual who consumes the food doesn't realize what he is ingesting. For example, in looking around, here are a few of the things I learned:
Cereal used to mean a bowl of something like oatmeal or wheat flakes. Today it means puffed wheat or some of the other processed cereals to which have been added butylated hydroxyanisole as an antioxidant, sodium acetate as a buffer, red No. 2 dye, yellow No. 5 dye and aluminum ammonium sulfate, which is an acid.
Bread used to be made of flour, water, salt and lard. Today it contains sodium diacetate to inhibit mold, monoglycerides as an emulsifier, potassium bromate as a maturing agent, aluminum phosphate as an improver, calcium phosphate monobasic to condition the dough, chloromine T as a bleach, to make the flour snowy white, and aluminum potassium sulfate.
Butter back in the good old days was churned cream with a little salt. Today it has hydrogen peroxide as a bleaching agent, yellow No. 3 coloring and nordihydroguaiaretic acid as an antioxidant.
Milk used to be the tasty white secretion from a healthy cow's udder. Now it is a concoction that has been composed in a dairy and contains hydrogen peroxide which functions as a bacteriacide, oat gum as an antioxidant, a wide variety of antibiotics, plus various fungicides, pesticides and various other chemicals that are used to kill germs in the milk cans and milking equipment and on the cow's udder when they wash it before every milking.
Cottage cheese in my day was the curds from the unpasteurized whole milk of a healthy cow. Now it contains dyes, diacetyl, to give it the flavor of butter, sodium hypochlorite used for curd washing and hydrogen peroxide as a preservative.
Cheese was usually just good old cheddar. Now it is usually processed and contains calcium propionate as a preservative, calcium citrate as a plasticizer, sodium citrate as an emulsifier, sodium phosphate as a texturizer, sodium alginate for stabilizing, aluminum potassium sulfate for firming, chloromine T as a deodorizer, hydrogen peroxide as a bacteriacide, acetic acid, pyroligneous acid to simulate smoke flavor, and various coloring agents.
Ice cream was once a delectable and nutritious dessert food, made from unpasteurized milk and cream. Most people still find it pleasant and believe it to be nutritious and healthful. However, in addition to pasteurized milk, now it contains agar-agar for thickening, mono- and di-glycerides for emulsifying, calcium carbonate for neutralizing, sodium citrate as a buffer, hydrogen peroxide as a bacteriacide, oat gum as an antioxidant, and various other chemicals for flavoring, such as amylacetate for banana and vanilidene kectone for vanilla.
Candy is loved by most children and most parents buy it for their offspring with the feeling that it is essential for their well-being. In the good old days gone by most families made their own candy such as fudge, taffy, peanut brittle and taffy apples. Well, it has often been said that sugar is the arch criminal destroying childrens' teeth and perhaps doing other damage but, besides sugar, take a look at some of the chemicals generally used in our candy today:
Sorbic acid (fungistate), Butylated hydroxyanisole (antioxidant), Mono- and di-glycerides (emulsifying agents), Poly oxye thylene (20) sorbitan monolaurate (flavor dispersant), Sodium alginate (stabilizer), Calcium carbonate (n e u t r a l i z e r), C inn amaldehyde (cinnamon flavoring), Titanimoxide (white pigment), Mannitol (anti-sticking agent), Petrolatum (candy polish), Propyleneglycol (mold inhibitor), Calcium oxide (alkali), Sodium citrate (buffer), Sodium benzoate (preservative).
When I was a lad fruit was a scarce item. Apples were our main fresh fruit and we would see an orange or two at Christmas time, if we were lucky. Today the variety is much broader in the fresh fruit line .... but who eats fresh fruit nowadays when canned is so easy to get and so easy to serve? Just slip a few cans of fruit into your shopping basket and have them in your larder for 'fresh' fruit at the push of a can opener. However, here is what you get along with your canned fruit today:
Calcium hypochlorite (germacide wash), Sodium chloride (anti-browning), Sodium hydroxide (peeling agent), Calcium hydroxide (firming agent), Sodium metasalicate (peeling solution for peaches), Sorbic acid (fungistat), Sulfur dioxide (preservative), FD & C red No. 3 (coloring agent for cherries).
To clinch my argument, all you need is a good book on toxicology to quickly learn what harm all those various chemical additives can do to your body. Of course, as mentioned earlier, these foods will have long since passed through your alimentary tract by the time your body is affected and, thus, no one will be blamed but God. People will wring their hands and weep and moan to heaven while the real criminals, the food processors and the chemical manufacturers, will go on their merry way manufacturing more and more of their goodies. It doesn't sound right to me that people should have their lives cut short while the government agencies just sit still, not wishing to disturb the 'status quo'. Dangers of food additives and preservatives are real!
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