Choosing and analyzing food

Do you ever wondered, in a supermarket, If the product that you were to buy was loaded with additives, If it was good for health or ?

The packaging promises mislead us on often as long as one does not throw a glance to ingredients. One of the entries to the mode is «ingredient of natural origin. that can be found on many packages to the ecological and eco-friendly aspect (use of the color green, recycled paper and cardboard, etc.). The lambda customer will quickly make amalgam and think that the product is of natural origin while this ingredient will be a selling point car will only represent a very small percentage of the finished product and will not prevent other less costly chemical ingredients to compose it.

During this period where, After the highly publicized scandals (outbreak of e. coli among others), We hear more too about the dangers which truffent our plates and fill the shelves of supermarkets, Food Alerts proposes to give a few tracks and key to help you avoid products « traps ».

Analysis of licorice candy « At the acacia gum »

The example is, We give it to you, easy, but is a good subject for study.

On the back of the product we can read the following description : « […] a candy consisting of gum acacia, an ingredient of natural origin […] ». At first glance one can say :'Super '., Finally treats where it has replaced the classic pork for a material and vegetable gelatin ! ». Serious error !

See why the infallible list of ingredients :

• The sugar and gelatin :

As we we doubt, these sweets are made primarily of sugar which is not really an issue because we buy this knowingly. On the other hand, We see that the acacia gum represents that 9% product and does not prevent the "Gelatin". to be present in the product. In this regard it is (almost) ever noticed the origin of gelatin which is most often based on skin and pork rinds (or otherwise of cattle).

Here is an excerpt from a story on the manufacture of gelatine :

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = 8A_mTOhOotM[/youtube]

• Aromas :

Before focus on the colours we see at the end of list 'Aroma '.. We can be virtually certain that this aroma is chemical. Indeed, manufacturers put it well in front when a flavouring is natural, If they do not it is chemical. The advantage for them is to have an aroma much cheaper than its equivalent in natural.

Attention : This is not because the package prominently mentions 'natural flavours' prevent the manufacturer to add chemical aromas (for example 95% chemical aromas against only 5% natural aromas).

• Dyes :

I come to dyes : There are in total 7 different dyes ! Recall that our example candies are only black and multiple colors like the majority of the «classical» candy.

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Method to quickly search the toxicity of food additives :

When you are at home with your package and you're wondering what are the references to E… You can follow the following method :

1) Go to your favorite Web site : www.dangersalimentaires.com

2) Type "additives" in the box "search". (at the top right of the screen) to more quickly find the article which lists all additives.

3) On article «» Food additives » Press «Ctrl». + « F » (or 'Apple '. + 'F' on Mac) to open a search window in your browser.

4) Type the additive that you want to search and find it so instantly without having to manually find it in this long list.

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Return now to our list of dyes and see whether or not they are toxic :

• E153 : Charcoal, Carbo medicinalis vegetalis : Avoid
• E140i : Chlorophylls : Do not abuse
• E120 : Carmins, Cochineal, Carminic acid : Avoid
• E163 : Anthocyanins, Anthocyanins : Do not abuse
• E161b : Luteins (xanthophylls) : Do not abuse
• E160c : Paprika Oleoresin, Paprika extract, Capsanthin, Capsorubin : Do not abuse
• E133 : Brilliant blue FCF : Avoid

We see that this cocktail of dyes is far from what's best for health.

We can therefore, After a little research, conclude that this product is not specifically recommended for consumption. It is wiser to avoid simply.

The final word…

You will not have your computer on hand when you shopping or the time to look in detail the composition of each product. Instead, you can take a quick glance at the ingredients for a product that you do not know in order to quickly compare it to others.

Note finally that, Although often, plus the list of ingredients is long and more it contains additives less it is recommendable. In addition, It should be remembered that the order of ingredients is descending (the first ingredient is present in greater quantities than the second, etc.).

We hope this article was helpful to you and we wish you good discernment in your next races !