In my previous post I wrote about how chemicals, chemical fertilizers, used by farmers around the world, affect negatively our land, health and wellbeing. Do you know that more than 12,000 manmade chemicals are added to our foods? If these chemical “devils” are added even in tiny quantities, the harm they cause is irreparable.  

Probably you are surprised, 12,000 chemicals! Quite a lot for our stomachs to digest!  Food manufacturers combine certain number of chemicals to make processed (“dead”) foods edible, colorful, tasteful, and to preserve them for a long time. The same happens with dairy products.

Our grandmothers will be in shock, if in their time they found raw milk for human comsumption with a shelf life of 6-8 weeks. Real, fresh milk after boiling can be good only for three days!!! So milk we can buy in “Whole Foods” or other supermarkets, even organic, but with so long shel life, definitely contains chemicals. You don’t need PhD or MD degrees to figure it out. Trust your instincts and common sense.

 There has been no conclusive research on the effects of these chemicals–the so-called  ”cocktail effect.” Of course, you can find some studies about “spices” and other additives on our food, but this research have been sponsored and ordered by food or additive manufacturers. As British naturopath, Max Tomlinson, N.D. wrotes in his book, “Clean Up Your Diet,’ “From a commonsense, “chemistry” point of view, chemicals act in synergy – react with each other – and create by-products, some of which could be potentially harmful.”  How can we know for sure?

Unfortunately, we cannot be sure, especially if research there has been research that it tends to have been by makers of these chemicals. The simple truth is to read food labels, understand them and do not eat what you can’t pronounce. Food manufacturers try “to help” us and list additives by “E numbers” rather than by their names. It makes us, consumers, even more confused and we don’t know what is right and what is wrong. We need to know how to indentify the E numbers thast you should try to avoid , especially if you are feeding your children. Their delicate immune system is more sensitive to all of these chemicals than those of most adults. What can you do?

  • Get to know what are these harmful chemicals.
  • In terms of E numbers, recognize the bad and the good.
  • Get an idea what some of E numbers can do fot you.
  • Keep yourself and your children chemicals – free.

Let’s we’ll look today at one of them, E239. Don’t even try to pronounce, it will break your tongue: E239 –hexamethylene tetramine. This preservative is a fungicide found in some cheeses, in herring and mackarel. Scientists  found in animal experiments it has shown to be mutagenic. What it means? It causes genetic mutation and it is cancinogenic or cancer-causing. It also changes to formaldehyde ( a type of acid) in the gut. It may cause cancer, kidney disease (or kidney failure), and it reduces fertility. No wonder so many married couples experience problems with having children and young women have difficulties to get pregnant!

About E numbers, good and bad, read in our next post.

Source:  Clean Up Your Diet by Max Tomlinson, Duncan Baird Publishers, Ltd., 2007