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Matthew Bland, flickr
I'm a big fan of cheat sheets. People seem to think of writers as people who become experts in their fields of specialty, soaked in all those interviews and explanations and facts and figures. While it's true that we do soak up a lot when we're immersed in one field or topic for any length of time, I tend to think of us more as librarians. It's our job to put our fingers on the facts our readers need. For me, if I move on write about similar material, it's all good—but if I shift to a different topic altogether, it may not be long before I can no longer rattle off those top 10 lists from memory.
Enter cheat sheets. Cheat sheets help you make savvy choices even if you can't remember all the details. It's like being a librarian: you don't have to know all the information in the world, just how and where to find it. And with cheat sheets—wallet and cell phone tips for buying eco-safe fish, pocket guides for which produce to buy organic and which is safe to buy conventional, even the best green books for kids—you're not stuck flopping about in front of store displays, desperately trying to remember which product is the healthy choice and which one is made with the nasty stuff.
If you're like me, you need something fairly global for the grocery store, something that steers you around the vicious labeling tricks. Here's some ammunition: Super Eco's list of the Top 20 food additives to avoid.
- acesulfame-K
- artificial colors Blue 1,2; Red 3; Green 3; Yellow 6
- artificial flavorings
- Aspartame
- BHA
- BHT
- brominated vegetable oil (BVO)
- high fructose corn syrup
- hydrogenated oils and trans fats
- monosodium glutamate (MSG)
- Olestra
- potassium bromate
- propyl gallate
- propylene glycol
- saccharin
- sodium nitrate and nitrite
- sulfites
- sulfur dioxide
- THBQ
- Xylitol
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Thanks Lisa! this is Great!
A great and useful list. I am reminded of Michael Pollan's suggestion that if you can't pronounce or if you don't know what it is, it is probably something to be avoided. Real food does not have additives!
I can pronounce all of them, the drawback to being a chemist I suppose. I also know the chemical structure of most of them. Very sad. I'm curious why HFCS and KBr are on the list, though?
Pavlina, you'll find info on HFCS at http://www.supereco.com/glossary/high-fructose-corn-syrup/.
Potassium bromate has been banned from use in food products in Europe, as well as the United Kingdom in 1990, and Canada in 1994, and most other countries. It was banned in Sri Lanka in 2001and China in 2005. It is also banned in Nigeria, Brazil and Peru. MSN Fitness has summarized it this way: "Potassium bromate is rare, but still legal in the U.S., and used as an additive to increase volume in white flour, breads, and rolls. Most bromate rapidly breaks down to an innocuous form, but it is known to cause cancer in animals-and even small amounts in bread can create a risk for humans. California requires a cancer warning on the product label if potassium bromate is an ingredient." (http://health.msn.com/nutrition/slideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=100204508&imageindex=10)
Stupid question - why's xylitol on the list? It's a natural extract and AFAIK studies have only found positive health effects from it's consumption (such as increased bone density on osteoporosis patients and reducing dental plaque if ingested after eating). The only apparent reason it's not used more widely is that it's expensive to manufacture compared to artificial sweeteners and that there's too little public demand for healthier food.
Xylitol is frequently dodged by parents of young children because it can cause diarrhea in children. It's one of those things that parents who are watching what their children eat find helpful to steer clear of, to keep everything else clear-cut!