Preservatives are a daily food for most Americans. Even the most natural-looking foods we buy can have preservatives in them. Today, check into all your food that you eat, and list the different preservatives that you consume.
The goal of course is to limit preservative intake as much as possible. It is a lot to ask in our fast-pased world to be completely preservative free, but it is a noble goal to get there. I am not suggesting that we become paranoid about preservatives (after all, salt is a preservative, so is citric acid which is found naturally in fruit) but the chemical compounds in artificial preservatives are potentially dangerous. Why take the risk? The intended effects of additives are not worth the risk. The foods that are best for you don't need chemicals to achieve their purpose. The goal here is to take a look at what you are eating that you are assuming is whole and healthful, and double check. I have already begun compiling my list of preservatives found in my food today, and I am appalled. I will be posting my list later in the day.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest has an easy-to-use, measured, and hype-free list of food additives, with a list of uses and scientific findings. They break it down into groups of safe, questionable, and those to avoid and cut completely: CSPI: Chemical Cuisine
Well, today was a simply day of eating mostly organic foods. I ate a breakfast of a homemade simple quiche, with pre-cooked turkey sausage patties. For lunch I had a sandwich with veggies and a little prosciutto and feta, a snack of toast and peanut butter, and a dinner out at a vietnamese restaurant. Sounds pretty simple, right? Well, here is the list of preservatives I found in just breakfast through lunch!:
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Sodium Metabisulfite
Yellow 5 and 6
Niacin, Thiamin Mononitrate, Robiflavin (in wheat flour in crust)
Milk (organic): vitamin A palmitate
Sausage:
Tetrapotassium Pyrophosphate - not in this database but based on a study I found, much like other chemicals in high doses it will hurt you.
BHA
Citric acid
propyl gallate
LUNCH - a sandwich
Nature's Own sandwich Rounds (so surprised how long this ingredient list is!!!)
Sodium stearoyl, lactylate, calcium stearoyl, mono/diglycerides, datem, calcium peroxide, ethoxylated mono/diglycerides, azodicarbonamide, calcium propionate
Capocollo
Erythorbate, Lactic Acid, Sodium Nitrate, Sodium Nitrite
Pepper rings
sodium metabisulfate, sodium benzoate
Red Wine Vinegar
potassium metabisulfite
Most of the items in this list are considered safe, though a few of them are popularly and scientifically recognized as dangerous. I am not going to go so far as to clean out my cupboards (can't really afford that!) but I will be more careful when purchasing food in the future. One thing is for certain! No more frozen pie crusts for this cowgirl without carefully checking the ingredients list!