Why Avoid Food Additives?

November 02nd, 2009 | Category: Organic Food and Wine

Food additives are chemicals or other substances that are added to food by food companies in order to give their foods a longer shelf life. The longer the food will last on the shelf, the more a company will make off of it, so pretty much all companies use some kind of food additives to preserve their food for as long as possible. Now, not all food additives are dangerous, but there are a lot of them out there that could be… and that is where the danger lies.

Back in the old days, food was preserved using salt, vinegar, wine, and other natural commodities. But nowadays, companies have found better ways to make food last for even longer, which is why, in the past 50 years, the usage of artificial food additives has skyrocketed. Even in Australia, where you would think that the food is basically organic, there are a lot of food additives!

If you have never done so, you might want to try doing this. Go into your cupboards, your freezer, and your refrigerator, and read the ingredient labels on all of them. Now, not to throw an alarm out there, but does a chocolate chip cookie really need all of the ingredients on the list? Come on, you make them at home with eggs, flour, sugar, and chocolate chips, right? Well, all of those ingredients that you do not recognise, or at least a good part of them, are probably artificial additives. They are put in the food to make it last longer, and it is not always a good thing.

Why Avoid Food Additives?

The problem with artificial food additives is that they are still a relatively new idea, and so they have not all been thoroughly tested. So, in a way, we are all guinea pigs… if we all have serious health complications from a particular additive, then the government will probably ban them later on, but for now, there is no long-standing proof that any of these additives are of a serious health risk.

There is short term evidence, though, that suggests many of these additives are in fact hazardous and should be avoided. Some have been reported to give people problems ranging anywhere from headaches, to nausea, to even breathing problems. Some additives, if combined in the wrong proportions, can cause nerve damage! This is just too much danger for us to ignore.

Therefore, a lot of people are recommending shopping for organic foods that do not contain harmful additives. Organic foods might cost a little bit more, but they are better for our planet, and they are better for you!