What you Need to Know about Food Additives

1 Aug

As you know my philosophy here at Natural Spoonfuls is “Nature knows Best”, my approach to nutrition is based on eating real food. Because of this, I opt for eating as minimal food additives possible, all my recipes are additive free and focused on real food ingredients that have nutritional properties.

As the years go on, our foods are becoming increasingly more manipulated. Don’t get me started on trends like fake meat and beyond burgers... But even in most everyday products that line our supermarket shelves, these are containing many food additives, which are essentially chemicals manipulated in a lab.

What you need to know about food additives

Unfortunately, the food that we eat today is not the same food that our grandparents or ancestors ate, and as such is having some serious repercussions.

It’s estimated that there are more than 40,000 man-made chemicals that exist in our environment. This has led to them being in our water, air, environments and of course food.

Some of these chemicals are designed to kill bugs from the inside out.. literally ripping apart their insides. Hmmm… Just a tad bit concerning….

It has also been said that 5% of the world have a sensitivity to one or more food additive. But I believe it would be much much more than this!

I honestly believe that introducing these chemicals to our food chain is risky with no long term data on health affects. It is in food companies interests to use food additives to cut costs and preserve food for as long as possible. Due to this scientific research is lacking as it’s not in their interest to find issues… I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be a part of this experimiental behaviour.

Types of Additives

Classes of chemicals that are commonly found in foods include

Preservatives (prolong shelf life by preventing the growth of microbes)
Sweeteners (alternatives to sugars and reduce calories, more here)
Emulsifiers (mixtures of liquids that don’t naturally mix such as oil & water)
Flavourings (replace or enhance flavours. Many flavours also have smell components, more here)
Colours (add or enhance colours to make foods look more ‘appealing’)
Nutrients (replace vitamins/minerals lost during processing, or are added to fortify products that don’t naturally contain those nutrients)
Stabilisers (prevent emulsions from separating to produce consistent texture)
Antioxidants (inhibit oxidation which delays browning and decay for example ascorbic acid/vitamin C)
Acidity Regulators (control acid-alkaline (pH) balance for taste, also inhibit the growth of microbes for long shelf life products)
Anti-Caking Agents (help prevent powdered or granulated food like flour and salt from absorbing moisture and clumping together)
Leavening Agents (added to dough/batters to assist them in rising through the promotion of gas usually carbon dioxide, like baking soda)

I’m not saying that all additives are bad.. there are ancient natural additives that are still used today. For example, sodium chloride (or salt) can be used as a natural preservative. Another example is vinegar when pickling. If you think about it, we are all made of naturally occurring chemicals, all we have to decipher is what is good for us and what is going against nature.

Artificial vs Natural

There are artificial additives and ‘natural’ additives.. however, these ‘natural’ additives are not always as natural as you’d assume. There is a lot of grey area and I think that food scientists/manufacturers work this to their advantage. In fact, I know they do.

Direct & Indirect Chemicals

Direct additives are those purposely added during processing. For all the various reasons listed above.

For example, bread is required to be fortified with folic acid and iodine here in Australia & NZ, I’m sure you have noticed it. Of course, they add and promote a bunch of other additives. But the sad thing is, that due to the heavy processing as well as over harvesting, it has lost its natural vitamin and mineral profile, so they add it back in to make it ‘healthier’ and more ‘appealing’.

Indirect additives come in contact with or end up in food throughout its processing, packaging and storing journey. They are not intended to be added but end up being in there. These are obviously minimal and can be very difficult to completely avoid. However, there are simple things you can do. For instance, making sure your canned goods are always stored in BPA free tins to avoid leeching of the toxic chemical… which is incredibly harmful.

Discrepancies

Certain chemicals are approved in some countries, however other countries deem them as unsafe & illegal.
Here is a US list which shows you just some of the discrepancies.

Another example:
Subway removed the toxic ingredient azodicarbonamide (an ingredient found in yoga mats and shoes) from its bread after receiving massive backlash as to why it was in US sub’s and not in other countries. I know this example is US based, but these kinds of discrepancies are found all throughout the world and something we need to be conscious of. Just because a big food brand or chain uses certain ingredients in one country doesn’t mean that it will worldwide.

This baffles me, I mean c’mon just take the additive out altogether, clearly it can be formulated without them!

Many of these above additives can be hidden in food labels under numerous names. Food manufacturers are trying their best to hide these in our foods and trick us. Make sure you’re not getting caught out by green labelling here.

I urge you start reading food labels and keep an eye out for additives, majority of them are completely unnecessary.
It’s literally a matter of buying one brand compared to the next on a supermarket shelf!

I hope this has made you think twice and be less trusting…
Stay tuned for a blog post coming soon on my top food additives for you to avoid and why! If you want to hit the supermarket confidently, check out my Grocery Guide here.

Want more?

My Low Tox Food Program is my signature program and honestly my true passion. It will help you get back in touch with REAL food. I go through every food product imaginable, giving you the confidence that what you are adding to your shopping trolley is free of nasties, additives and is actually going to nourish your body.