Today’s scoop is ammo on two ubiquitous additives to processed and refined foods: BHA and BHT. Don’t even worry about what those letters stand for, you’ll never see them on a package because it’s too long. But you will see BHA and BHT on lots and lots of common food products, makeup, and skin care.
BHA and BHT are synthetic preservatives that keep fat from going rancid. Look on cereals, breads, meats, microwave dinners, vegetables oils, margarine’s chewing gum, any and all chips, cookies, cakes, skin lotions, face make-up,… the list is endless. Literally. If you buy and consume processed, refined foods (and lots of restaurants use processed refined foods), you’re consuming these chemicals.
What’s so bad about them? Well, the FDA reviewed them in the 1970s and gave then a “GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status, but acknowledged additional review was needed. In 1986, they reviewed and just repeated that dictum. No further review – by the FDA – has happened.
However, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Agency for Cancer Research, and The National Toxicology Program, have all declared BHA and BHT as Carcinogenic. There’s very strong links between these products and hyperactivity in children, it’s highly suspected they cause liver damage, and it takes the average male adult TEN days to eliminate BHA from the system.
I could seriously go on and on reporting scary, negative findings on these preservatives. But I don’t need to, right?
Here’s the take-away: it doesn’t matter how innocent the packaging looks, or if there’s an “AHA APPROVED” stamp on it, or if it contains trigger words like “Low Fat!”; processed, refined foods are not good for you, and cause both immediate and long term damage.
Moms, scary cancer info aside, BHA and BHT absolutely cause hyperactivity. Why would you feed that to your children? It’s already hard enough for a kid to sit still.
Oh the other hand, RWFs like meats, healthy fats, vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, SINGLE INGREDIENT foods, are loaded with nutrients that fight disease and degeneration and encourage healthy cell turnover. You want that healthy cell turnover.
***************About 60% of your daily metabolism /your daily calorie burn, happens in the LIVER!! Not the muscles. The next biggest user of calories are your heart and brain combined. THEN your muscles. If your liver – which has hundreds of jobs to do every day, is busy breaking down and trying to deal with additives, preservatives, colors, scents, dyes, etc etc, then it’s not doing it’s real jobs. If your organs are being compromised by additives, preservatives, and other chemicals, they’re not doing their jobs. Not only is your HEALTH very adversely affected, but your WEIGHT suffers because your METABOLISM is compromised. *******************
I don’t know which is your bigger motivating factor, health or weight.
I want you to see how INTIMITATELY tied together those things are. Our health and our weight and our moods are all completely a result of the foods we eat day in and day out.
Check your food labels – it matters!