I will let you in on something I am not proud of.......many, many years ago, I was a pack-a-day smoker. I am not proud of it for a few reasons, but mostly because it showed my level of naivete` in my younger years. I knew on many levels smoking was bad for me, but it affected mostly me, and hey....that was my business, K??
But, then came the allegations of how 'Big Tobacco' was purposely using additives to addict us, and the men that sat on the boards of those companies also sat on the boards of the cancer hospitals, and were shareholders in the companies that produced the chemo drugs. Then, I got mad! Then, I quit! 20 years ago or so, but in the back of my mind is the fact that all of my younger years I smoked, and I have forever increased my risk of cancer.
So, now we are faced with information that is that huge once again....but this time it is 'Big Food'. If you haven't heard, the additives and flavorings are alleged to be there for the direct purpose of 'addicting' us to the food that is unhealthy for our bodies, and contributing to the childhood obesity epidemic. (Not to mention the rest of us)
You can 'google' this, but let me give you just one link I found on the subject:
So, please parents, educated yourself on this and fight back!!! I was never fed these foods as a child, I did/do not feed my kids this way (or even my dog), and unlike smoking, which affected 'mostly me', the food additives are something that are going to be in your kids bodies for a long time, if not ingrained forever. So, if you won't do it for you, do it for them! Tell 'Big Food' we don't want it! Shop the perimeter of the store, choose organic as much as possible, and a good rule is try to choose foods with just ONE ingredient as much as possible, ie ; apple, potato, orange, oatmeal, nuts.
And read the labels! Teach your kids how to read the labels. And refuse to buy foods with the additives you know you don't want to consume!
Posts
Can I be honest without offending you?
ReplyDeleteI am way too frightened to follow that link to discover more of what I already know: processed foods are dangerous. I commend you for all that you are doing to spread the word.
I’m visiting from the Blog Frog Mom Loop Community Comment Follow. I'm glad that I dropped by.
You're not offending me. I just believe that knowledge is power, and once you become aware, you can't 'undo' that. We have to be smart consumers.
ReplyDeleteOprah has started a thing she calls 'conscious eating', and this is along that line. Be conscious of what is going in your body. I became gluten intolerant when my lyme flared, and I was appalled at all of the ways they have found to add it to food- places it should never be.
Thanks for sharing this. Deep down, I've always known that processed food is bad but sometimes they do come in handy when you need to put food on the table pronto.
ReplyDeleteHi! Stopping by from MBC. Great blog.
Have a nice day.
Veronica,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words! I think what we can take away from this information is there are probably 5 on the 'worst offenders' list. If we can even target those for elimination, it will be huge. For several reasons, I cannot tolerate aspartame. It is no more effort for me to read the label and not purchase a product that has aspartame as say, the 5 on my 'hit list'.
I think that is a good way to start it, and add others to the list as time goes on. It would be unrealistic to think we will never again ingest these things, but we can certainly make the effort to reduce the occurrence :)
This is so true, but many people think you are lying or they really don't care.
ReplyDeleteStop on over...http://debbiellbriskincare.blogspot.com/