What's lurking in lunchboxes across America...

Sodium nitrite & sodium nitrates, are used in food to preserve, add flavor and to maintain a red color in processed meats.  Most commonly we know it as a preservative that can be found in bacon, sausage, lunch meats, hot dogs, pepperoni, smoked fish, canned meats, jerky and some cheeses.  But interestingly it is also an ingredient in fertilizers, pyrotechnics, smoke bombs, glass & pottery enamels and solid rocket propellants.

Sodium nitrite is more commonly used over nitrates, since nitrates revert to nitrites when added to food. When used as a preservative, they form nitrosamines or human carcinogens known to cause DNA damage.  Studies have shown that nitrates & nitrites can cause prostate, breast & stomach cancer & nitrosamines have been linked to esophageal & colorectal cancer.  A 2007 study by Columbia University also suggests a link between eating cured meats and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.  Nitrates are associated with increased miscarriages, fetal death and birth defects in laboratory animals.  Sodium nitrite has also been linked as a trigger of migraines in individuals who already suffer from them.

Dr. Martha Gorgan, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic states that sodium nitrate may damage your blood vessels, making arteries more likely to harden & narrow, leading to heart disease.  They may also affect the way your body uses sugar, making you more likely to develop diabetes.  Here’s a link to article if you are interested in reading it yourself: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/sodium-nitrate/AN02119

That's all about the additive food manufacturers use, but did you know that most vegetables contain sodium nitrate?  Why? Because the fertilizers used on vegetable crops contain sodium nitrate.  This is true for both organic & non-organic vegetables. This sodium nitrate is broken down in your body differently then the food preservative.  The antioxidents in vegetables reduce the formation of nitrosamines & increase the amount of nitric oxide in the body.  Nitric oxide helps relax blood vessels, lowering blood pressure & helps to stop the formation of blood clots with it's anti-inflammatory properties.

So, now that we gotten the nasty information regarding side effects of sodium nitrite/nitrates out of the way, let’s take a look at some alternative products out there that don’t contain nitrites or nitrates.

Let’s start with what’s lurking in lunchboxes across America- delectable saltiness with nitrites/nitrates packaged to look like sandwich meat.  There are healthy alternatives.  Try Boars Head® All Natural which contains no nitrate, nitrite or MSG. Even Oscar Mayer’s Selects® brand contains no preservatives & Applegate Farms® has a complete line of preservative free sandwich meat.

 



www.boarshead.com



www.oscarmayer.com



www.applegatefarm.com

  

Other alternatives for bacon, sausage & hot dogs are Applegate Farms®, Oscar Mayer’s Selects® and Coleman Natural®.

www.applegatefarm.com

www.oscarmayer.com

www.oscarmayer.com



www.colemannatural.com



As always, the choice in what you eat is ultimately yours, but I hope this information will guide you in feeding your family a diet without sodium nitrate/nitrites.

Until the next post…..



 

Reviews, Reviews & More Reviews...

I want to start by thanking everyone for taking the time to review the products that I received from the generous folks at Nature's Path. It's always fun to read someone else take an a product that you may enjoy so much you think it's the best thing ever, or a product that you feel is the worst ever made. So let's get started with the first three below:

  

www.naturespath.com



Edith- I won the Love Crunch®- Dark Chocolate & Red Berries Premium Organic Granola - Let me start by saying that this has to be the best granola I have ever tasted. My family's not big on granola. In fact I couldn't even get my husband to try this, but my two boys (ages 19 & 10) were willing taste testers. We read the package & decided that we should try to eat it as a snack instead of cereal first. So when we sat down to start homework, I pulled out the granola & set it out for snacking. The boys reached in immediately & grabbed a handful. My 19yr old's first response was "I like it. The chocolate adds a great flavor & there isn't too much that it's over-powering the granola. The berries give a nice tang to the chocolate." My 10yr old said " It's good & fruity, but sweet too. I think it would be good in milk." I ate it sprinkled on the top of some Greek yogurt.  I think it's the perfect combination of granola/chocolate/tart berries.  I would recommend it to everyone.

I tried looking for it at my local grocery store & they don't stock it. Target didn't have it either, so I can't give you a price estimate but I will keep checking the store's, because I am definitely buying it when I find it.

www.naturespath.com



LeAnna- I had the pleasure of trying the Optimum Slim® Low Fat Vanilla Cereal- Upon first glance of the box I thought "this is going to be bland". I was pleasantly surprised when I ate it the next morning for breakfast. My first bowl was with vanilla soy milk & the flavors of the milk & cereal mixed together were great. It had just the right amount of sweet with the milk & it stayed crispy until the last bite. I hate cereal that gets soggy halfway through the bowl, so the fact that it stayed crispy was an immediate 5 stars for me. The second day I ate it with dried cranberries added. That just made it the cereal all the better. It was also pretty filling for a breakfast cereal. I will whole heartily recommend it. You will love the taste & feel great that you are eating such a healthy cereal to start you day.

This averaged about $3.99 a box everywhere I looked. To me that's a great value for an organic, low sugar, good for you cereal.



www.naturespath.com



Shelley- My freebie trial item was the Honey Oat Crunch Flax Plus Granola Bar- Le me first say that I've tried many, many granola bars & although this is a great granola bar, I can't call it the best one I've ever had. I'm not a fan of chewy granola bars, so I always buy crispy or crunchy. Some bars out there are so "crunchy" that you feel you'll break your teeth if you eat them. These bars have just the right amount of crunchy & a fairly good amount of sweet. I do think they are just a little smaller then the other national brand (that's not organic), but these are organic & that makes up for the difference in my opinion.

When I was checking the prices at different stores, the prices ranged from $2.99 (on sale) to $6.99 (at a private natural food store near my apartment). I think the average price was $3.99 to $4.99, so overall for a healthy, organic snack, it's not a bad price to pay. Thanks Amber for giving me the chance to try these & give my opinion.

Yay!! Winners...

Here is the list of winners for this round of give aways and guest blogging:

Edith- Love Crunch
LeAnna- Optimum Slim Vanilla Cereal
Christi- Peanut Butter Granola
Shelley P.- Oat Crunch Granola Bars
Kim- Panda Puffs

Thanks everyone for entering.  Reviews will be posted soon...

Product Freebies from Nature's Path...

It's time to give away the wonderful products that the generous folks at Nature's Path sent.  Listed below are the products up for grabs this time around. Look at the list, read the ingredients, consider if this is something you or your family would like to try. Everyone can list up to 3 items that they would like to try. All entries will be listed in a data base & drawn by random.org. If you are picked, I will ship you one product to try. The only thing I ask in return, is that you write a small review on the product so that I can post it on the blog for others to read.  Sounds like fun right?  So let's get started....

Love Crunch- Dark Chocolate & Red Berries Premium Organic Granola-

http://www.naturespath.com/

Optimum Slim® Low Fat Vanilla Granola-


http://www.naturespath.com/

Panda Puffs™ Peanut Butter Cereal-
 

http://www.naturespath.com/

 Honey Oat Crunch Flax Plus Granola Bar-


http://www.naturespath.com/


Peanut Butter Organic Granola-



http://www.naturespath.com/

If you have any questions or want more information about the products above, please visit the Nature's Path website www.naturespath.com/products.

So how do you enter?  It's easy, comment on this post below by clicking on the word "comments" & list the products you would like to try the most (please make sure to leave your name or e-mail address so I know who to contact). If you want, you can list them in order of which you would like more. If your name is picked, you will get one of the products you listed to try. I'll shoot you an e-mail asking for your address & once you receive it, eat it, try it & then write your review. The drawings will take place on Wednesday 3/21. Simple & Fun!!

All soy milks are not created equal...

Carrageenan, is an emulsifier, stabilizer & thickener used to suspend & gel ingredients & keep them from separating. It is extracted from red seaweed using alkali solvents.  It’s used in drinks, food, cosmetics, pesticides, medications, cleaning products, hair products & toothpastes.  The non-food grade carrageenan is the main ingredient in plane de-icer.  The main food based use is as a substitute for fat, when combined with milk proteins it improves the texture & increased solubility.  Because it can be used as a fat substitute, it is widely used in soy milks, milk drinks, processed cheeses, non-dairy puddings, whipped creams, coffee creamers, yogurts, cottage cheese, ice cream, processed low-fat meats, prepared pie-fillings & frosting mixes.

Research has shown the when used in food, carrageenan coats the stomach like sticky honey, which in turn cause digestive problems & has been a suspected link to inflammatory bowel syndrome, colorectal malignancy, intestinal ulcers & growths.

Prior to 2004, carrageenan was used in infant formulas, but during the 26th session in Boon, Germany in November of 2004, the joint FAO/WHO expert committee on food additives decided, that “based on the information available, it is inadvisable to use carrageenan or processed eucheuma seaweed in infant formulas.” This is evidence from studies performed on rats, guinea pigs & monkeys that indicate that degraded carrageenan may cause ulcerations in the gastro-intestinal tract and gastro-intestinal cancers.

I think that if the World Health Organization (WHO) has an issue with carrageenan, then it seems to be a good idea to try & avoid it whenever possible.  With that in mind, let’s take a look as some products that contain carrageenan & some alternative products to try instead.

Let’s start with the largest selling soy milk in America- SILK® (all flavors) contains carrageenan.  Instead, try 8^th Continent® or VitaSoy® if you want a refrigerated soy milk, or Soy Dream®, Eden Soy® or Rice Dream® for a self-stable soy milk.



http://www.8thcontinent.com/

All regular flavors of Coffee Mate® liquid creamer contain carrageenan, but their new Bliss Naturals® do not.  So switch to these instead.

http://www.coffeemate.com/

Most yogurts on the grocery self contain carrageenan, read the labels before you buy, but Chobani® & Fage® are both good alternatives.

http://www.chobani.com/

Ice Cream- a lot of different brands & flavors contain carrageenan, but Breyers® All Natural is a tasty treat that has no carrageenan.



http://www.breyers.com/



As always, it’s best to read the ingredients before you buy. Just make note, that if you want to steer clear of carrageenan, then always read the ingredients in soy milks, rice milks, coconut milks, almond milks, milk drinks (Nesquik® & Hershey’s® Real Chocolate- not real), processed cheeses, ice creams, processed meats, yogurts, cottage cheeses & almost anything that is milk or dairy like.

Ultimately, the decision is yours.  Until the next post….

Why Cool Whip® really isn't cool...

Polysorbate 80, also known as polyoxyethylene sorbitan monooleate or Tween® 80, & it’s lesser studied sister Polysorbate 60 are used as an emulsifier (a binding agent to bind ingredients together & keep them from separating like oil & water) & a surfactant (reduces the surface tension of a liquid making it easier to spread) used in foods, cosmetics, vitamins, medicines & vaccines.  They are most commonly used in ice cream & frozen desserts to help them resist melting & in shortening, condiments like barbecue sauce, chewing gum, dietary foods & whipped dessert toppings.  They are also used as a solubilizer, which means it aids in dissolving ingredients that would not normally dissolve or that would not fully dissolve & can be found in pickled food, gelatin desserts, liquid soaps & bath gels.  It is also used in some cottage cheese & yeast based products as a defoamer.

The most common side effects from Polysorbate 80 in foods are allergic reactions, some leading to anaphylactic shock, as well as flu-like symptoms, diarrhea, dizziness, headache, blurred vision, fainting & persistent tiredness.  Polysorbate 80 is also found in vaccines like the flu vaccine & HPV (Gardasil®) vaccine & has been linked to severe allergic reactions after the vaccine has been administered.  The studies have linked these allergic reactions to Polysorbate 80.

The controversy over the potential health risks of the injection of Polysorbate 80 into the body revolves around a 1993 study that showed when the chemical was injected into baby female rats it resulted in malformed reproductive organs.  In the late 1990’s the University of Georgia Research Foundation submitted a patent application for a “fertility impairing vaccine” for animals with the “preferred” ingredient being Polysorbate 80.  Polysorbate 60, which has been studied less, has been proven to cause damage to reproductive organs.

There was a class action lawsuit filed in 2003 regarding the drug E-Ferol®. E-Ferol® was used between 1983 & 1984 on premature infants as form of vitamin E to help combat RLF (a disease that affects to retina of the eye & can cause vision impairment & blindness in premature infants). The FDA recalled E-Ferol® in 1984 after it was found to cause liver and/or kidney failure, respiratory distress & cardiopulmonary deterioration in the infants. Expert’s labeled this “E-Ferol Syndrome”.  Following the recall, Dr. Robert Brown from Fort Worth Children’s Hospital undertook a study on E-Ferol® & determined that Polysorbate 80 caused the “E-Ferol Syndrome”. 

WOW! That’s some pretty profound “side-effects” to Polysorbate 80.  I only listed a few of the research cases that I found when researching these additives.  These two are disturbing enough that I can’t imagine anyone would need more information on this additive before removing it completely from their food choices.

Listed below are the most common food type items that Polysorbate 80 or 60 is added to. When you shop, if you want to avoid this ingredient, make sure you read the label & go for the product marked “natural” whenever possible.

·      Ice cream, frozen custards, fruit sherbert

·      Whipped dessert toppings

·      Shortenings

·      Milk/Cream based salad dressings

·      Coffee creamers

·      Cake mix & cake icings

·      Sugar & artificially sweetened gelatin & pudding desserts

·      Condiments (chocolate flavored syrups, barbecue sauce)

·      Canned & jarred pickles, sauerkraut & other pickled items

·      Yeast-leavened bakery products

·      Mixed into the protective wax coating on some fruits & vegetables

I hope that this gives you a starting point on what products you need to be vigilant about when reading the labels.  As always, the choice is ultimately yours, but I hope that this information has been informative for you.

Until the next post...