“All natural”,”No preservatives”,”No MSG” are often highlighted in bold letters on food packaging. But how true are they?

1. Food stabilizers

BHA (Butylated Hydroxyanisole) and BHT (Butylated Hydrozyttoluene) are commonly used as a preservative to increase shelf life. It preserves the food’s colors, odors and flavors. Pick up a bag of chips, a package of sausage or a box of cookies/cereals and chances are you will find BHA and/or BHT in the ingredient lists. It is known to be carcinogenic1 but yet it is considered safe for consumption. This same chemical is also used in cosmetics and petroleum products.

Health Can Be Fun suggestions:
Whipped up your own dish with raw ingredients so you don’t have to buy ready made products.

2. High fructose corn syrup (HFCS)

A man-made sweetener that found in a wide-range of processed food, from your kids favorite pasta sauce to the “healthy” salad dressing and fruit juices. The latest research of HFCS suggests that it can affect an area of the brain that cause one to ignore the sensation of satiety and potentially overeat. It may actually be the “not so sweet at all” culprit to obesity and its related disease! 3

Health Can Be Fun Suggestions:
You are already sweet enough, take less sugar! Ditch all the foods containing HFCS in their ingredient list.

3. Food colorants

Bugs are boiled to release enticing red and pink pigments that we see on your sweets, soda, gummy bears, cereals and even vitamin pills. It is inevitable bugs are in a lot of food we eat! Just to burst more happy bubbles, the other types of colorings are no better; they may have to be made of coal tar and petroleum. Many studies have strong association between artificial coloring and can lead to adverse behaviors especially causing hyperactivity in children 1.

Health Can Be Fun Suggestions:
Use pumpkin, beetroot, berries that contains natural pigments such as anthocyanin. They can be extracted as alternative to the artificial dyes.

4. Trans fat

Human bodies aren’t designed to process artificial man-made fat such as trans fat. Although many products are labeled trans fat free, do you really think that they are totally free of trans fat? They may contain an insignificant amount of it hence they are allowed to label as Trans Fat Free. However, this our body have zero tolerant of it! Watch out for them as they can be found in your low-fat, cholesterol free products.

Health Can Be Fun Suggestions:
Avoid products containing partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, palm oil or shortening.

5. Sodium nitrate

Nearly all processed meat (and some canned soup) contains sodium nitrate. Why? It aids in preserving and prolonging the shelf life of foods. Sodium nitrate increase blood pressure like any sodium like chemical would do.

Health Can Be Fun Suggestions:
Sodium nitrate is a dangerous, cancer-causing ingredient that have no place in human food supply chain

Choose wisely, you don’t want this harmful substances to be in your food, what more your kid’s!

• Kahl, R., and H. Kappus. “[Toxicology of the synthetic antioxidants BHA and BHT in comparison with the natural antioxidant vitamin E].” Zeitschrift fur Lebensmittel-untersuchung und-forschung 196.4 (1993): 329-338.
• Schab, David W., and Nhi-Ha T. Trinh. “Do artificial food colors promote hyperactivity in children with hyperactive syndromes? A meta-analysis of double-blind placebo-controlled trials.” Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics 25.6 (2004): 423-434.
• White, John S. “Straight talk about high-fructose corn syrup: what it is and what it ain’t.” The American journal of clinical nutrition 88.6 (2008): 1716S-1721S.