Since I spent yesterday attacking food and product synthetic colorings, I’ll hit the next largest culprit this morning: preservatives. I dare say they are as dangerous as the synthetic colors in our foods. According to one of my favorite sources, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the common food preservative BHA is “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.” Isn’t that just lovely?
I gotta hand it to the preservatives, though, specifically BHA, BHT and TBHQ. They are tricky little suckers. Cleverly touting their “antioxidant” properties, consumers naturally file them under the mental “safe” list and move on. But while those antioxidant properties are good at keeping the oils from going rancid, one of my sources says they are also responsible for behavioral issues such as insomnia, depression, and learning disabilities.
They require more of my time. As I prepared to give my two-minute-blog on the dangers of these butyl- preservatives, I decided to refresh my knowledge on them. I learned about them six weeks ago, filed them under “Don’t Go There” and have avoided them ever since. So, as I perused my web haunts for more factual details that I could pass on to you, I uncovered so much more than I remembered. Apparently, because they are antioxidants, they fall under a 5% labeling loophole. Which means that even though I have fought to avoid them, I may have unknowingly purchased products containing them, rendering my efforts – my six weeks’ worth of strip-my-pantry, read-every-label, toss-my-cosmetics and change-my-friggin-shampoo – sabotaged.
Wanna guess how I feel about that?
So now I am left wondering: are the products that sport the “high in antioxidants” claim really just saying, “Hey, look. We have more bad preservatives than the next product on the shelf!” ?? Let's see, taking something bad and making it look good so someone will make a profit...isn’t that in some way, oh I don’t know, fraud?!!
I will continue my research. I will delve into learning about the dangers of certain ingredients and the steps we can take to avoid them and I will report back every last ounce of findings that I possibly can right here.
Listen up, FDA. I am a mamma bear, and you're messin' with my cubs' food supply.
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