What are artificial colours, flavours, & other additives?
Artificial colours, flavours, & other additives such as emulsifiers, stabilisers, thickeners, sweeteners, synthetic glazes, flavour enhancers, colours, humectants, antioxidants, packing gasses, and anti-caking agents are chemical, technical additives put in food. They offer zero nutritional value; stand-alone, they are not considered food.
Why are they used?
Artificial colours, flavours, & other additives are chemicals used in food to enhance the flavour, which improves taste, the colour to be more appealing to the consumer or other additives like preservatives to keep the food stable and increase its shelf life when sending it long distances to be consumed in other countries or at later dates, and acidity regulators to control the PH level in foods. The name usually indicates what role they may do however, some are unknown. They offer no nutritional value whatsoever and stand-alone, they are not considered food.
What categories are there?
▪ Food colours 100 – 199
▪ Preservatives E200 – E299
▪ Antioxidants and acidity regulators E300 – E399
▪ Thickeners, stabilisers, emulsifiers E400 – E499
▪ Sweeteners E420, E421, E950 – E970
▪ Acidity regulators and anti-caking agents E500 – E599
▪ Flavour enhancers E600 – E699
▪ Antibiotics E700 – E799 (mostly used in animal feed)
▪ Waxes, synthetic glazes, improving agents, packaging gasses, sweeteners, and foaming agents E900 – E999
▪ Additional and new chemical food additives incorporating most categories E1000 – E1999
Should I be worried about consuming them?
These additives have been known to cause side effects such as:
· ADHD-like symptoms
· Hyperactivity
· Mood swings
· Hormonal imbalances (which can lead to an array of problems in our body’s organs and cells)
· Cancer
· Irritability
· Depression
· Obesity
· Psychological disorders
What should I consume instead?
I recommend sticking to natural sweeteners in moderation such as:
· Maple syrup
· Rice malt syrup
· Molasses
· Date syrup
· Coconut sugar
And eating a wide variety of whole foods which are full of healthy (heal-thy) nutrients, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals & other natural healing compounds and avoiding processed foods as much as possible.
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