.SOMETIMES RAW.

What are food additives and why are they used?

Food additives are chemicals added to our food. Reasons for use are to improve shelf life/storage time. To make food more available. To increase nutritional value. To improve the flavor of food. To make food easier to prepare. To improve customer acceptance. Scary fact: The average person may be eating up to 5 kg of artificial food additives per year!

Flavors- Artificial and “Natural: When “flavor” is listed as an ingredient, we have no idea what is in that product. The term refers to “flavor” but also covers any “incidental additives”, such as solvents, emulsifiers, and preservatives. It is sometimes a mix of up to 100 chemicals. An artificial flavor must be comprised of one of the nearly 700 FDA-allowed flavoring chemicals or food additives categorized as “genrally recognized as safe”, or any of 2000 other chemicals not directly regulated by FDA but sanctioned for use by an industry group, the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association of the United States.

Artificial colors: In Canada, eight artificial dyes are permitted in food, with the others for restricted use only, labeling only required to list “color”. Many are derived from coal-tar and petrochemicals. Studies have found links between artificial food additives and hyperactivity, allergies (eczema, asthma) and cancers. Many European countries ban them and brands make the same products free of these additives for their market.

Caramel: Caramel is derived from allergens (corn, soy, wheat, dairy) and source not listed in the ingredients list because it is used as a color. Found in Cola, brown bread, chocolate, vinegar, gravy, donuts etc. Has been linked to lowered immune function in rats. Four different processing methods, two of them use ammonia that caused cancer in rats. Ammonia-caramel coloring listed as a carcinogen under California’s Proposition 65.

Nitrates & Nitrites: Sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite are two food preservatives used to preserve meat, kill bacteria and give meat its characteristic pink color. These are compounds found naturally in some foods (like vegetables) but also added to processed foods (like bacon) as a preservative. Nitrates are relatively inert until they are turned into nitrites by bacteria in the mouth or enzymes in the body. Nitrites can either turn into Nitric Oxide (good) or nitrosamines (bad) depending on your microbiome. Nitric oxide is important to make blood vessels dilate and blood pressure lower. Nitrosamines are also more likely to form when exposed to high heat (meats). They are carcinogenic.

BHA & BHT (butylated hydroxyanisole and butylated bydroxytoluene): BHA and BHT are preservatives derived from petrochemicals used to prevent rancidity of fats in foods and cosmetics. BHA linked to cancer in animal studies, the European Union classifies it as an endocrine disrupter (hormones!). BHT causes developmental effects and thyroid change in animal studies. Commonly found in potato chips, gum, cereal, meats, and candy. Found in most processed foods. BHA banned in cosmetics in Europe and labeled in California as a suspected carcinogen.

Sulfites: Preservatives and antioxidants found in wine, dried fruit, fruit juice concentrate, and many pharmaceuticals to help preserve and prevent browning. Reduce levels of important nutrients, such as beta-carotene, B-complex and calcium. Can cause headache, nausea, diarrhea, irrigated membranes, abdominal pain, rashes, and trigger asthma. The average intake is 2-3 mg/day, wine & beer drinkers 10 mg/day, restaurant frequenters 150mg/day.

MSG (monosodium glutamate): Is a flavor enhancer. Sodium salt or glutamic acid found in many proteins. Can be labeled as “hydrolyzed protein”, “natural flavoring” or yeast extract. Acute reactions include headache, agitation, increased heart rate, numbness, tingling. Linked with obesity, diabetes, ADD, allergies, IBS and depression. Studies show varying results, however.

Brominated Vegetable Oil (BVO): Is an emulsifier and clouding agent in soft drinks. It helps to suspend flavors in citrus-flavored beverages. Bromates used in flour to condition dough (not always listed). BVO is very poorly tested and safety concerns have led to a ban in EU, Japan, and India; many soft drink companies replacing it. BVO is the same chemical family as flame-retardants. Early studies suggest that flame-retardant chemicals disrupt normal hormone function, leading to problems with brain development in children, fertility, thyroid function, and possibly cancer. Some people have acute reactions, including food poisoning symptoms, memory loss, and neurological symptoms.

Is there anything that I can still eat? What about salt?

Ingredient Order: Ingredients are shown in descending order, except spices, seasoning, herbs (except salt!), natural and artificial flavors, flavor enhancers, food additives (except ingredients of food additives preparations), vitamins, soalts and derivatives of vitamins, mineral nutrients, salts of mineral nutrients.

This is a lot of information, I know. But maybe you keep some of it in mind when you shop for food. Read the labels and if you are not sure about some ingredients the EWG’S Food Score App may be helpful.

Part 3 about toxic exposure in cleaning and personal care products will be published soon.

Stay Happy. Stay Healthy.

Big chapters in my life are closing while new ones open up. In the meantime, the summer approaches. I anticipate the best for me and my son to an unreasonable degree. My heart, body, and mind enjoy the idyllic weather every day, awesome music (Jazz festival) that makes me feel like being in a Chaka Khan video. If I were to reflect on memories and events of the past couple of months, there would only be one overwhelming theme: uncertainty.

For me, this spring and summer is just ripe with big hopes, changes, and set up with high expectations that won’t end with “if onlys” anymore. I was long overdue to release emotional pressure and uncertainty and these days it is clearly easier to find the light when the sun stays up past 8 p.m. I called this perfect summer into existence by checking off a couple of things on my to-do list. One was, to take my final exam at the Institute of Holistic Nutrition today, hand in the last assignment and become a Certified Nutritional Practitioner (CNP). Also, to just enjoy the simple things after a long harsh winter such as to sit outside at a fireplace until last at night, roast marshmallows, swim in the lake, enjoy Cottage-time, drink beer with a lime in it, endless conversations, read stories to my son and help him to learn to swim without his life vest.

Now that his school year and mine comes to an end, I feel like time is slipping through my fingers. This past year went by in a heartbeat. My birthday is around the corner, and I always expect that as I get older and wiser I become less interested in staying up past 1 a.m., but this won’t happen. I love my life. Every single second of it. All the ups and downs, sleepless nights spent with a good book, long conversations with friends, good and bad decisions were all part of the journey that got me where I am today. Reassessing the last year, I have to say that I truly made the most possible of every single month. All it sometimes takes is just a simple mindset-shift.

This morning, my son and I walked to school together. I dropped him off and realized that something new is around the corner for him, too. One last walk, one more time at his playground, one more time with his friends who accompanied him for one year. And he is excited about his new chapter of uncertainty while looking at it all with a playful approach. And so should we all. When I realized, I walked out of my school for the last time, it did it with a bit of emotions that made my heart heavy. But as my son says, “It is all good!”

I am excited for us and ready for it. And if I am being honest, I am not nervous because I have been working hard on my self and the future and what is best for us. As we walked across the street together he grabbed my hand. We walked into this new and foreign space full of uncertainty but as he grabbed my hand, the feeling that came over me what happiness. I know as long as I can hold his tiny hand, everything will be okay. We love each other unconditionally and give each other strength. Suddenly, he let go of my hand and I know that he will need me less and less by his side. He has grown up so much.

I am grateful for it all because I know I do not have much time left to hold his tiny hand. It is just a matter of time before his hand outgrows mine. It is inevitable. I cannot stop it. But I also would not want to if I could. So every feeling of surprise is matched with a feeling of gratitude. Watching him, by my side growing into his own independent, self-sufficient, amazing person is the sweetest gift I could have asked for. Regardless, now or later, if he needs my hand, is will be there.

Together we walk to new adventures. Time is too short and flies by. We might as well enjoy the sweet stuff while having a summer night of celebrations, putting our feet in the grass and having an impromptu ice cream. Because this is excatly what we need.

Stay happy. Stay healthy.

“There is a limit to the time assigned to you, and if you don’t use it to free yourself it will be gone and never return” – Marcus Aurelius

Maybe you have had many ups and downs in your life lately. For me, last week was rather overwhelming and packed with events, changes, and adjustments. I am strong. I can deal with it all. Until I just cannot. I was near tears the other day when I entered the Yoga studio for my morning class. It was absurd to cry, I knew that, and yet I felt it in my throat and eyes: the beginning of tears forming and a whimper, which I tried to let out undetectably and quietly but it then began to pace. I do not want to narrate too much about the cause of my state but in addition to my struggles, another 25 little things had gone wrong that day and it was not even 10 am. I just felt like crying and screaming.

My favourite Yoga instructor gave me a hug and said in her rather harsh voice, “Daniela, all this does not matter because don’t forget, you are going to die. We all will eventually. Now wipe away those tears!” I froze, sniffled and considered her point. I saw the days of my life and struggles stretched out in a long, looping sort of domino trail; some happy, some sad, but all lined up nicely in pursuit of a finite conclusion in the end: death. And guess what? My shoulders released. I exhaled. Who cares if X, Y, and Z happened and if A, B, and C will ever happen.

One thing I know about my life. I tend to get caught up in things that do not matter. I may get caught up in some angry thought, voice or in minutiae or in stress or in tons of things that ultimately are not that important. This reminder of my teacher made me take a deep breath and I realized that everything is and will be fine. I don’t have to engage in certain thoughts because I don’t have time for this. I just move on.

Yeah, but the problems are still there, you may say. Yep, you are right and it is not that being angry does not matter, or that bad luck is not important. It is just that death puts all those things that we think matter in perspective when they are pumping cortisol through my veins (which ironically can kill us) like there is no tomorrow.

When I got this reminder today that I am here for just a limited time it was startling and sobering. It also loosened the knot in my chest, dwarfed it with eternity, and made this moment at the Yoga studio just very even sweet. My Yoga instructor encouraged me to just soak it all in, to pause and consider whether what I am doing is in pursuit of something that matters to me. I guess it is somewhat a litmus test for internal alignment rather than Downward Facing Dog.

Life itself is our most unreliable narrator. No one knows where the story is going nor who the heroes in it are going to be; if there are too many or maybe just a few. This is life. And this is what it does. Sometimes, life brings you to your knees. It sometimes brings you lower than you can think you know. But if you stand back up and move forward, if you go just a little further, you will always find love. Life is full of surprises. Every single day and whatever worries us today, will too pass. Nothing really matters anyway.

Fun fact: If you don’t have a spiritual Yoga teacher as I do, there is actually an app you can download that reminds you that you are going to die, ha! It is called WeCroak. Get it here.

Stay happy. Stay healthy. And smile.