We are aware that toxins from paint, plastics and chemicals, inks and dyes, building materials, lead-based paint from walls and windowsills are not healthy. Even imported food has the potential for lead poisoning, but food processed in the U.S.?

I’m as tired as you are hearing about the list of processed foods, which are not healthy. Fifteen million pounds of SpagettiOs have recently been recalled because of possible under-processing. The latest news is that there are toxic metals in kids’ drinks and snacks.

Eighty-five percent of kids’ drinks and snacks that were tested were found to contain high levels of lead. Most scientists agree there is NO safe level of lead exposure, especially when it comes to babies and children.

Hannah is sipping home-made lemonade.

Children are especially vulnerable to toxins. Their brains, nervous systems, and organs are not mature and are rapidly developing.

Quantities of lead in bottled juice, juice boxes, and packaged fruit could exceed federal limits, according to the Environmental Law Foundation. The Bay Area-based environmental nonprofit tested nearly 400 samples from 150 branded products marketed to children, including apple juice, grape juice, packaged pears and peaches (including baby food), and fruit cocktail mixes. The results are alarming. More than 85 percent of the 146 products tested contained enough lead in a single serving to warrant a warning label under California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986.

In California’s Enforcement Act of 1986, the state publishes a list of chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive harm. The group said under the law, agencies were given 60 days to decide whether to launch prosecutions against the alleged violations. If, after this period, no such prosecutions had commenced, it pledged to file its own lawsuit.

The environmental group says it undertook the testing to see if the kid-friendly juice and food products complied with a California law requiring manufacturers to post safety warnings on products if they exceed lead levels set by state scientists. The group has sent notices of suspected violations of state law to California Attorney General Jerry Brown.

Many individual servings of apple juice, grape juice, packaged peaches and pears and fruit cocktail—all lunchbox staples—contained lead above the daily limit for young kids. Those limits were established by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

More troubling is that the results included both organic and conventional products: Earth’s Best Organic 365 Everyday Value Organic, Trader Joe’s, and Walnut Acres, Welch’s, Minute Maid, Gerber, Del Monte and Dole.

“If someone is making unfortunate choices in the brands that they’re buying and serving their children, this could be a cause of concern because they might be getting more lead than is healthy for them,” said David Schardt, a senior nutritionist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group which tracks food-safety issues.

The warning did not indicate where the lead was coming from. Why are some brands free from lead? Is the lead coming from the manufacturing process? Is it being leached from the container?

Kids will be healthier, when moms return to squeezing their own fruit for juice, have their kids chug plenty of fresh water (stead of sodas) and pack picnics with homemade foods.

LEAD-TAINTED PRODUCTS:
1. 365 Everyday Value Organic 100% Juice Concord Grapes
2. Beech Nut 100% Apple Juice
3. Best Yet Bartlett Pear Halves in Heavy Syrup
4. Best Yet Chunky Mixed Fruit in Pear Juice
5. Best Yet Yellow Cling Peach Halves in Heavy Syrup
6. Chef’s Review Fruit Cocktail
7. Del Monte 100% Juice Fruit Cocktail
8. Del Monte Chunky Mixed Fruit in 100% Juice (peach, pear, grape, etc.)
9. Del Monte Diced Pears in Light Syrup
10. Del Monte Freestone Peach Slices in 100% Juice
11. Del Monte Fruit Cocktail in Heavy Syrup (peach, pear, grapes)
12. Del Monte Fruit Cocktail No Sugar Added
13. Del Monte Lite Fruit Cocktail in Extra Light Syrup
14. Del Monte Pear Halves in Heavy Syrup
15. Del Monte Pear Halves, Bartlett Pears in 100% real fruit juice from concentrate
16. Del Monte Sliced Yellow Cling Peaches in 100% Juice
17. Del Monte Sliced Yellow Cling Peaches in heavy syrup
18. Dole Diced Peaches, Yellow Cling in light syrup
19. Dole Mixed Fruit in Light Syrup
20. Dole Pear Halves in Juice
21. Earth’s Best Organics Apple Juice
22. Eating Right Fruit Cocktail packed in Sucralose
23. Eating Right No Sugar Fruit Cocktail
24. First Street 100% Apple Cider from concentrate
25. First Street Apple Juice from concentrate 100% juice
26. First Street Diced Pears
27. First Street Fruit Cocktail in heavy syrup
28. First Street Grape Juice from concentrate 100% juice
29. First Street Sliced Bartlett
30. First Street Yellow Cling Peaches in heavy syrup
31. Full Circle Organic Apple Juice
32. Full Circle Organic Bartlett Pear Slices
33. Gerber 100% Juice – White Grape Juice
34. Gerber 100% Juice Apple Juice
35. Gerber 3rd Foods Peaches
36. Gerber 3rd Foods Pears
37. Golden Star Mixed Fruit in Light Syrup (peach, pineapple, pears)
38. Golden Star Peach Halves in Heavy Syrup
39. Great Value 100% Grape Juice
40. Great Value 100% No Sugar Added Apple Juice
41. Great Value Bartlett Pear Halves in 100% Juice
42. Great Value Bartlett Sliced Pears in Heavy Syrup
43. Great Value No Sugar Added Fruit Cocktail
44. Great Value Yellow Cling Sliced Peaches
45. Hansen’s Natural Apple Juice
46. Kedem Concord Grape Juice 100% pure grape juice
47. Kroger 100% Juice Apple Juice
48. Kroger Fruit Cocktail in Heavy Syrup
49. Kroger Grape Juice 100% Juice
50. Kroger Lite Fruit Cocktail in Pear Juice
51. Kroger Value Fruit Mix (Peaches, pears, grapes)
52. Langers Apple Juice 100% Juice
53. Langers Grape Juice (Concord)
54. Langers Red Grape Juice
55. Libby’s Fruit Cocktail No Sugar Added (Sweetened with Splenda)
56. Libby’s Yellow Cling Peach Slices No Sugar Added (Sweetened with Splenda)
57. Market Pantry Diced Peaches in light syrup
58. Market Pantry Diced Pears in light syrup
59. Market Pantry Mixed Fruit in light syrup
60. Maxx Value Fruit Mix in Light Syrup (peach, pear, grape)
61. Maxx Value Pear Pieces in Light Syrup
62. Minute Maid Juice Apple – 100% Apple Juice
63. Motts 100% Apple Juice
64. Mrs. Brown’s Fruit Cocktail in Heavy Syrup (peaches, pears, grapes)
65. O Organics Organic Grape Juice from concentrate
66. O Organics Organic Unfiltered Apple Juice Not From Concentrate
67. Old Orchard 100% Apple Juice
68. Parade 100% Juice Apple
69. Polar Mixed Fruit
70. Polar Peach Slices
71. Polar Pear Halves in light syrup
72. R.W. Knudsen Just Concord Grape Juice
73. R.W. Knudsen Organic Just Concord
74. Raley’s 100% Grape Juice
75. Raley’s Fruit Cocktail in Heavy Syrup
76. Raley’s Premium 100% Apple Juice not from Concentrate
77. Raley’s Sliced Yellow Cling Peaches in Heavy Syrup
78. S&W Natural Style Fruit Cocktail in Lightly Sweetened Juice
79. S&W Natural Style Pear Slices in Juice
80. S&W Natural Style Yellow Cling Peach Slices in Lightly Sweetened Juice
81. S&W Premium Peach Halves Yellow Cling Peaches in light syrup
82. S&W Sun Pears Premium
83. Safeway 100% Juice Apple Cider
84. Safeway 100% Juice Apple Juice
85. Safeway 100% Juice Grape Juice
86. Safeway Diced Peaches in Light Syrup
87. Safeway Fruit Cocktail in Heavy Syrup
88. Safeway Light Sugar Fruit Cocktail
89. Safeway Lite Bartlett Pear Halves in Pear Juice
90. Safeway Lite Fruit Cocktail in Pear Juice
91. Safeway Organic Grape Juice
92. Safeway Pear Halves in Light Juice
93. Safeway Yellow Cling Peach Slices in Pear Juice
94. Santa Cruz Organic Concord Grape Juice
95. Simple Value Yellow Cling Peaches in light syrup
96. Stater Bros. 100% Juice Apple Juice
97. Stater Bros. 100% Juice Grape Juice
98. Stater Bros. 100% Juice White Grape Juice
99. Stater Bros. Fruit Cocktail in Heavy Syrup
100. Stater Bros. Yellow Cling Peach Halves
101. Stater Bros. Yellow Cling Sliced Peaches in heavy syrup
102. Sunny Select 100% Apple Juice
103. Sunny Select 100% Grape Juice
104. Sunny Select Fruit Cocktail in Juice
105. Sunny Select Pear Halves in Pear Juice
106. Sunny Select Yellow Cling Sliced Peaches in Pear Juice
107. Trader Joe’s Certified Organic Apple Juice, pasteurized
108. Trader Joe’s Concord Grape Juice made from fress pressed organic concord grapes
109. Trader Joe’s Pear Halves in white grape juice
110. Trader Joe’s Yellow Cling Peach Halves in while grape juice
111. Tree Top 100% Juice Apple Cider
112. Tree Top 100% Juice, Grape
113. Truitt Brothers Pacific NorthWest Bartlett Pear Halves, in pear juice from concentrate
114. Valu Time Grape Drink from Concentrate
115. Valu Time Irregular Bartlett Pear Slices
116. Valu Time Yellow Cling Peach Slices
117. Walgreens Apple Juice from concentrate 100% juice
118. Walgreens Grape Juice from concentrate 100% juice
119. Walnut Acres Organic Concord Grape
120. Walnut Grove Market 100% Apple Juice
121. Walnut Grove Market Grape Juice
122. Walnut Grove Market Natural Peaches Sliced Yellow Cling in Light Syrup
123. Walnut Grove Market Natural Pear Halves in Heavy Syrup
124. Welch’s 100% Grape Juice (from Welch’s Concord Grapes)
125. Welch’s 100% Red Grape Juice from Concentrate

Click Here for the Baby Bites Store.

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Peer-reviewed studies don’t always tell the truth. We need to wake up and smell the coffee. Who do you think pays for many of the “studies”? The very industry that wants the public to believe the additive is safe. Experts assured us for 30 years trans fats were better for us than naturally saturated fats like butter. Boy, were they wrong!

Try telling a person, who gets a migraine after ingesting something with MSG, that MSG is “safe” (Chinese Restaurant Syndrome). It took 30 years for the government to admit trans fats were unhealthy. I believe MSG is the next additive to have required labeling/warning. It may take a while, but it will.

Mae is astonished that someone said Nonna quoted a ‘quack.’ (Photo by Frozen Exposure)

MSG is Naturally Occurring
MSG is a flavor enhancer commonly used in processed foods and restaurants, especially Chinese and fast food restaurants. MSG enhances your ability to taste a savory flavor called umami. This is the flavor found in protein-rich food.

My critic has drunk the Kool-aid, “MSG metabolizes in your body the same way foods with naturally occurring glutamates do – milk, tomatoes, mushrooms, seaweed… consuming either MSG or milk will cause you to digest the exact same glutamate. The only thing special about MSG is it’s just been stabilized with sodium so you can easily sprinkle it on foods.”

Oh really? Just because MSG is naturally occurring in food is a misleading statement. Cocaine and the poppy flower are naturally occurring. So are opium and heroin. For that matter, so is marijuana.

MSGTruth.org is a site with the latest independent research regarding the animo-acid based food additives, Monsodium Glutamate and Aspartame. Carol Hoernlein, a former food process engineer and food scientist says,  “MSG sellers argue that MSG is exactly like the glutamate in the human body, therefore it must always be good. It is not so simple.  There are contaminants in processed MSG…The food industry’s claim that free glutamate is as harmless as bound glutamate is disingenuous at best.”

MSG Dangers
The naysayer trusts the FDA’s recomendations, “It should also be mentioned that MSG appears on the FDA’s ‘Generally Recognized As Safe’ listing with a detailed explanation as to why it is considered safe for consumption.” I image being reminded that MSG is on the GRAS list was supposed to put me in my place. It only fired me up!  The FDA was wrong about trans fat, BPA safety and red dye #2 which was banned in 1976 after a link to cancer was found. ( Artificial food colorings are highly controversial as they have been linked to allergies, asthma, hives, and ADHD. They are often derived from petroleum.)

The FDA is wrong about MSG, too! Think for just a moment that MSG is able to pass from the mother to her unborn baby. Those most vulnerable are the elderly, children and infants. Studies in the 1970s found 25 percent (some say today it’s up to 40 percent) of the population react negatively to MSG.

Russell Blaylock, M.D. is a surgeon, author of Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills, lecturer and educator. This is the person the comment-writer referred to as a “quack” in my previous blog about MSG. Dr. Blaylock serves as the medical consultant for the Fluoride Toxicity Research Collaborative. He was recently awarded the Integrity in Science award by the Westin Price Foundation. The playground isn’t the only place that name-calling occurs.

My challenger’s conclusion, “The bottom line is that there’s little reason for adults to avoid foods with glutamates/glutamic acid.”

Come on, he can’t be serious! The Mayo Clinic warns that MSG may cause “headache, flushing, sweating, sense of facial pressure, numbness, tingling or burning in or around the mouth, rapid heartbeats, chest pain, brochospasm, shortness of breath, nausea and weakness.”

Check out these links for more information about MSG (for my critic a little do-diligence might be a good idea before you call someone a quack):

[1] The Silent Killer

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/21/MSG-Is-This-Silent-Killer-Lurking-in-Your-Kitchen-Cabinets.aspx

“The Shocking Dangers of MSG You Don’t Know,” video Part 1

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/08/28/dangers-of-msg.aspx?aid=CD12

[2] Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, Samuels, Jack “MSG Dangers and Deceptions”

http://www.mail-archive.com/sustainablelorgbiofuel@sustainablelists.org/msg69736.html

[3] MSGTruth.org “What Exactly is MSG?”

http://www.msgtruth.org/whatisit.htm

[4] eMediaWire “Athlete Alert: Renowned Neurosurgeon Identifies Aspartame & MSG in Sudden Cardiac Death” April 15, 2005

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/4/emw225071.htm

[5] TruthinLabeling.org “This is What the Data Say About Monosodium Glutamate Toxicity and Human Adverse Reactions”

http://www.truthinlabeling.org/Proof_AdverseReactions_AR.html

[6] Food Inc.

http://robertkennerfilms.com/films/files/detail_current.php

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Frying Food Is Unhealthy

We are in denial of the amount of fried food actually we eat. French fries are the number one fried food. Twenty-two percent of our potato crop ends up French-fried.

We regularly feed fried foods to our kids. If you don’t think children eat much fried food: 33 percent of kids eat fast food daily, much of it fried. The French fry is toddler’s first finger food and 21 percent of toddlers eat French fries every day. The number one first finger food for baby is a French fry!

Kaylee is shocked that so much food is fried!

We Fry Everything
French fries are only part of the picture. Unsaturated oils, which have been heated for 30 minutes, forms a highly toxic compound. Restaurants offer kids menus loaded with fried foods. The standby favorite is fried chicken and French fries.

We eat fried food all the time. Fish sandwiches are fried. We fry turkeys. Some fry bananas, pickles and strawberries! Kids love donuts and potato chips — they are fried.

Even vegetables deep-fried are not good for you: Tempura is fried vegetables, we beer batter veggies and then fry them, we fry okra, eggplant and onions (onion rings).

Jamie Oliver in The Food Revolution buries a family’s deep fryer in their back yard. Good for him! Fried foods are associated with obesity, but that’s not all. No matter what kind of oil is used, oil essentially turns into a kind of glue when heated to a high temperature. Fried foods can damage every cell in the body.

Obesity Not The Only Problem
Fried foods have been associated with obesity, but that’s not the only problem. Chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, gallbladder disease, celiac disease, and cancer have been associated with fried foods.

A study published in the International Journal of Cancer by Dr. Miches discovered that early consumption of French fries linked to kids to adult breast cancer. The study observed children between the ages of three and five. The children were given a healthy diet plus French fries. The study concluded a regular consumption of French fires were associated with a cancer increase of 27 percent with one additional serving per week.

Thomas Anderson, Ph.D. writes concerning fried foods, “The problem is not just the acrolein, benzopyrenes and so forth created when vegetables oils are heated, nor the trans fats formed when they’re deodorized or hydrogenated. Excessive consumption is a problem in itself. At not time in history has anyone anywhere consumed so much vegetable oil.”

Problem Compounds With Reheating
Restaurants reuse oils for frying. University of Minnesota researchers A. Saari Csallany, a professor of food chemistry and nutritional biochemistry, and graduate student Christine Seppanen have shown that when highly unsaturated vegetable oils are heated at frying temperature (365 F) for extended periods—or even for half an hour—a highly toxic compound, HNE (4-hydroxy-trans-2-nonenal), forms in the oil. To make matters worse, HNE accumulates with each heating cycle. Restaurants filter their oils for deep-frying and reuse them until they are maple syrup colored.

No matter what oil a restaurant begins with after repeated heating you end up with some trans fat. Trans fat can’t be metabolized in the human body. In fact, trans fat has a half life of 51 days. That means nearly three months after consuming trans fat, you’re body is still dealing with it.

How To Limit Fried Foods
1) Eat fried food, occasionally. This is where we are in denial. Most people don’t realize how much fried food they consume, because it’s purchased out. Never order fried food in a restaurant. My family has a holiday food tradition. We make Italian Rice Balls made with white rice, butter, cheese, rolled in bread crumbs and deep fried. It’s the most unhealthy (yet delicious) food on the planet! We eat Rice Balls only two or three times a year. Be conscious of the food you eat that is fried.
2) Cook it at home with quality oils. An alternative to deep-frying is to brown food in a small amount of oil.
3) Use the oven instead of deep-frying. Click Here for a healthy choice try Oven Fried Potatoes.

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Do you know what percentage of food dollars is spent on processed foods, most, if not all, which have added chemicals to enhance flavor?

Kids are conditioned to these psychedelic flavors. The additives like food flavorings,  high fructose corn syrup, MSG and salt are almost always ingredients in processed foods, especially junk foods. Salt is added to processed foods for longer shelf life as well as taste.

Zachary and Angel love psychedelic colors… not chemical- altered flavors.

MSG is added to food to give it that indescribable taste-explosion that’s found in fast food. These additives become additive. That’s why MSG is found just about everything, including French fries. But you’ll be hard-pressed to find MSG on a food label as it has many aliases.

What about those yummy fruit flavors? Today, chemicals can give candy and gum a strawberry or an apple flavor, but it’s really petroleum. Do you really want your kids to eat petroleum?

Add sugar, especially High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) to the mix and it’s very hard for whole foods to compete with the psychedelic flavors. HFCS fools the brain. It interrupts the signal that your stomach has received enough, so you over eat. Once HFCS is no longer in your diet, you will find that you’re satiated with less food.

Your child’s body craves real food, even if you have a picky eater. Yes, even picky eaters, who refuse to eat whole foods, need them for health. To be successful in transforming a picky eater to a healthy eater, whole foods must replace fast foods and junk foods. ( Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater onto a Healthy Eater explains how you can accomplish this in about a week.) You’ll be fighting an uphill battle if cookies, crackers, chips, candy and sugar-filled drinks are found in your pantry and you regularly purchase fast foods.

Psychedelic flavors alter our perception of food. It changes our sensory expectation of what is tasty. Because of marketing highly processed foods, kids expect a taste-sensation when they eat.

Adjust Your Taste Thermostat
It will take a week or so for your kid’s taste buds to adjust to whole foods. Be assured, they will adjust. Yes, you need to be patient and hold the line.

Your thermostat adjusts your furnace or air conditioner when you change the temperature control. Once the new temperature is programmed in the thermostat the temperature in the room eventually alters.

The same is true for taste buds. Once they’re programmed to whole foods, the sweetness of an orange or a ripe peach will be unbelievable. A sip of soda pop will become excruciatingly sugary. The craving for salty chips will be replaced with desiring the crunch of julienne veggies and dip. Canned soups will become too salty. Boxed macaroni and cheese will loose its appeal. (By the way, the processed dried cheese in mac and cheese is loaded with colorings and MSG.)

Do your children have psychedelic taste expectations? We spend 90 percent of our food dollars on processed foods. Not until you change that statistic for your family will your children begin to appreciate the taste of whole foods.

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Our food supply has become so polluted that it’s difficult to discern what’s a whole food and what’s not. I’ve divided my ‘Top 10 Worst Foods of the Decade’ in half. Today’s blog contains the second half: 5 through 1. Click Here to see Part One. I’ve listed them in descending order. The most obvious foods, which we regularly eat, are mentioned in my previous blog. The not-so-obvious unhealthy foods we often believe are healthy are covered in today’s blog, ending with the one food parents really believe is a health food, but it’s full of sugar.

#5 — Fried Chicken (A popular kids’ menu item.)
Fried chicken comes in many forms for kids: chicken fingers, chicken nuggets, chicken sandwiches, etc. Parents often think this is a better choice than a hamburger. There’s six to ten grams of trans fat in each order of onion rings or chicken fingers.  KFC Original Recipe Chicken Dinner has seven grams of trans fat, mostly from the chicken and biscuit.

#4 — Microwave Popcorn
A report from the FDA indicates that a chemical coating used in microwave popcorn bags breaks down when heated into a substance called perfluorooctanoic (PFOA). The Environmental Protection Agency has identified PFOA as a “likely carcinogen.” Another study has found an acid that can be extracted from the chemical causes cancer in animals and is “likely to cause cancer in humans.”

Why is cereal on ‘Nonna’s Top 10 Worst Foods’ list? Madison’s not sure.

A second potential danger in microwave popcorn is diacetyl, an FDA-approved chemical found in the fake butter flavoring. There’s even a debilitating respiratory disease called “popcorn workers lung,” (the medical name of the condition is bronchiolitis obliterans) suffered by microwave popcorn factory workers caused by extended inhalation of the chemical’s fumes. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, (NIOSH) concluded that diacetyl needs further study so that workers in the flavorings and snack industry are no longer at risk. Do your family a favor and purchase a hot-air popper! It’s just as fast as the microwave variety and when you use organic popcorn and real butter, it’s a healthy snack.

#3 — Processed Lunch Meats
Hot dogs are considered “kid food.” You’ll find them on many children’s menus and are considered a summer staple. Most cured meats, expecially breakfast and other sausage, bacon, luncheon meats, and hot dogs, contain nitrites and nitrates. They’re added to processed meats to prevent botulism and enhance the taste and color of the meat. Without nitrates processed meats would be brown, just like cooked hamburger. Once inside the body, they can form nitrosamines, a cancer-causing chemical. These carcinogenic compounds have been associated with cancer. They have also been linked with leukemia and ADD/ADHD in children.

#2 — Boxed Cereal (including instant oatmeal)
More than 2.7 billion packages of cereal are sold in grocery stores each year. It’s the third most popular supermarket product (behind soda pop and bread). This translates to an average of 10 pounds, or 160 bowls, of cereal per American each year.

Extruded grains are industrially processed foods, including “healthy” breakfast cereals, which really aren’t so healthy. For all boxed breakfast cereals, grains are extruded — forced out of a hole at high temperature with pressure in order to make them into the various shapes typically found in breakfast cereals. The extrusion process destroys most of the nutrients in the grains, including fatty acids. Boxed cereals end up being empty calories. Cereals marketed to children are even worse as they are loaded with added sugars. Even the organic oatmeal pictured has 3 teaspoons of sugar per serving. Make your own hot oatmeal, it’ll cost less, taste better, and have less sugars.

#1 — Fruited Yogurt
The number one food parents believe is a healthy food and it’s NOT…is fruited yogurt. Yogurt is full of probiotics. Probiotics live in the tube that runs right through the middle of us. It includes our nose, sinuses, mouth, upper airways, lungs, esophagus, stomach, small and large intestines, rectum and anus. We no longer eat a healthy diet with natural foods containing good bacteria, so the bad bacteria proliferate. We think we’re eating healthy foods with probiotics, such as fruited yogurts. But fruited yogurts have up to 7 teaspoons of sugar in a serving. The sugar feeds the bad bacteria, so we’re not better off than when we started. The solution is to eat PLAIN yogurt with active ingredients and add fruit-only jams for flavor. (Vanilla flavored yogurt is not the answer, either. There’s more added sugar in the vanilla yogurt!)

Click Here for The Decades Top 10 Worst Foods…items 10 through 6.

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I must admit this list was harder to put together than I first thought. Our food supply is mostly processed and when you’re talking about processed anything, well, it’s just not healthy. I decided to pick the most common horrible foods I could think of. Ones we regularly eat and many times think of as healthy food choices.

I’ve divided my ‘Top 10 Worst Foods’.  Today’s blog contains the first half of my Worst Foods List: 10 through 6. I’ve listed them in descending order. The most obvious foods, which we regularly eat, are mentioned in today’s blog. The not-so-obvious unhealthy foods we believe are healthy will be covered in my next blog, ending with the one food parents really believe is a health food, but it’s full of sugar.

“According to a recent report, due to the recession, Americans are eating cheap, unhealthy, fatty foods. So apparently, the recession started in 1957.”
…Conan O’Brian

Angel’s tongue is blue from the dyes in birthday cake frosting. You can’t readily see the effects of trans fat in the icing.

#10 — French Fries
French fries come in at number ten, because we really know this is an unhealthy food. Still, 21 percent of toddlers eat French fries EVERY DAY! French fries are potatoes, so what could be bad about that? Most French fries are purchased out. They are cooked in altered fats and seasoned with salt and many times with MSG (a hidden toxin). There is between 4 and 7 grams of trans fat in a single serving of fries.

#9 — Soda Pop
More than 15 billion gallons of soda pop were sold in 2000. That’s least one 12-ounce can per day for every man, woman, and child in America. But, kids drink more soda pop than their parents. In the past 10 years, soft drink consumption among children has almost doubled in the United States.  Most parents are in denial about the amount of soda pop their children regularly drink. Studies have found over half, 56 percent, of 8-year-olds down soft drinks daily. Soda has been dubbed, “liquid candy” and rightly so, as soda pop is the number one source of sugar in our kids’ diets. A single can of soda pop has between 14 17 teaspoons of sugar!

#8 — Birthday Cake
Kids go to parties all the time. Birthday cake is made from white flour, sugar and altered fats. The icing is primarily trans fat and food coloring. Trans fat has a half-life of 51 days, so if your child goes to a party every 2 months, then trans fat is continually in his body!

#7 — Non-Dairy Whipped Topping (like Cool Whip)
Cool Whip is made of water corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated coconut and palm kernel oils (“hydrogenated” IS trans fat). Trans fat molecules are absorbed into your cells, compromising the cell’s metabolism. Trans fat lowers the HDL (good cholesterol) and increases the LDL (bad cholesterol), leading to heart disease. In pregnant women, trans fat, like alcohol, drugs, carbon monoxide from cigarette smoke, and pesticides, pass through the placenta to the baby, affecting the baby’s metabolism in direct proportion to the amount ingested by the mother. In addition, there’s a correlation between trans fat and Type 2 Diabetes. To make matters worse, trans fat inhibits the absorption of vitamin K (vital for bone growth). Trans fat is a toxin interfering with all membrane function.

#6 — Store-Bought Cookies and Crackers
Cookies and crackers range from 30 to 50 percent trans fat. Many baked goods are moving away from trans fats and using interesterifed fats. Interesterified fats are like trans fats raising the blood levels of the “bad” LDL cholesterol. At the same time, lowering the “good” HDL cholesterol levels. Just because the package boasts, “No trans fats” doesn’t mean that it’s a healthy product. Look for interesterifed fat on the nutrition label.

Click Here for The Decade’s Top 10 Worst Foods…items 5 through 1.

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The latest food experiment began in the mid-90s. New crops were derived from genetically modified organisms, called GMOs. The genetic modifications produce living organisms, which are not possible through natural means. We have no idea what the eventual outcome will be for people eating these foods. So, the nickname “Frankenfoods” stuck.

Franken Foods scare Kaylee.

Genetically Modified foods often resists pests. Now, the bugs just don’t stay away from the GMO, not the plant “resists” the bugs with it’s own built-in pesticide. Yes, pesticide. When a bug eats a GM plant, the toxin splits open their stomach and kills them. Now what happens when people (babies and children) consume modified plants. We don’t know, but your ingesting pesticides.

The most common Franken crops are soy, corn, cotton, and canola. They’re used in hundreds of processed foods. The introduction of Frankenfoods has caused concern around the world. Some believe they might pose a danger to human health. They’re banned in Europe.

Most of the scientific community says there’s no evidence that Frankenfoods poses a threat. They’re right. There have been no long-term studies on humans, so there’s no evidence. The only evidence is antidotal. Although, Frankenfoods have been linked to food allergies, low fertility and birth weight, increase in autoimmune diseases, heart disease, respiratory illness, anemia, and cancer.

There is no telling what the consequences of using these genetically modified foods will be. Already, investigators have found that rats fed genetically modified potatoes had an increased thickening in the lining of their stomach and intestine and a weakening of their immune system.

You can do three things to limit your exposure to GMOs:

*Read food labels.

*Reduce the amount of processed food you purchase.

*Buy organic

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Rita left this comment on my Summer Food Fun blog, ”That’s sad. Are we really so health concerned that we’d deprive a kid of cotton candy or ice cream during the summer? I’m not saying you have to eat that every day, but come on.”

Rita has a point. Happy memories are tied to special summer foods, like cotton candy and ice cream. So what’s the harm?

Cotton candy and shaved ice are purchased at carnivals, fair grounds, and amusement parks. They’re synonymous with fun. Their very essence is sugar, artificial colors and flavors. These treats are eaten a few times a year, but they aren’t the only foods our kids eat containing artificial colors and flavors.

Artificial colors aren’t reserved for special summer treats, but are continuously consumed throughout the day.

Many children begin their morning with artificially colored breakfast cereals and synthetic vitamins made just for kids. They snack on orange colored cheese puffs, gulp down colored pop, kids’ drinks, and powdered lemonade.

Medicines are artificially colored bright pink and have an artificial flavor like bubblegum.

Roxy is afraid I’ll take her cotton candy!
Now, why would I do that?

Kids brush their teeth with tri-colored toothpaste. Jell-O^TM, is often served as a summer salad, but in reality it’s sugar and chemicals. Bread and bakery products may have yellow coloring added so they look buttery. Lunches, picnics, and barbeques are often nitrate-filled. Nitrates are added to preserve luncheon meats; they give hot dogs and bologna their pink color. Even boxed macaroni and cheese usually include artificial colors. Our kids are eating a steady stream of chemicals.

Food coloring not what it used to be
Natural plant and vegetable compounds were used to add color to foods until the 1950s. Red colors were derived from beets, green from chlorophyll, yellow and orange from extracts from plants and spices like saffron. After WWII, man-made chemicals were created. They have brighter colors. They are more convenient, cheaper to use, and have an unlimited shelf life.

The majority of artificial food coloring ingredients today are made from crude oil. Any artificial food color which is followed by a number, such as Blue 1, Yellow 5, or Red 40 is derived from, yikes…PETROLEUM. They’re mostly made in China and may even contain heavy metals such as lead and mercury.

These chemicals should under no circumstances be ingested by humans or even pets. They have been linked to cancers, tumors, asthma, headaches, kidney damage, skin problems like eczema, and hyperactivity (ADHD & ADD) and other behavioral and learning problems in children. The FDA and EPA do not require detailed testing of these chemicals to determine the effects they might have on adults or children.

What can you do?
Don’t give your children anything containing artificial food coloring! Today, you can easily avoid purchasing products with artificial colors, by reading labels. There are alternatives to processed snack foods in the grocery store which are free from artificial colors and flavors. Of course the healthiest choice for your family will be organic, natural foods which don’t contain man-made disease-causing chemicals. Watermelon and cherries are natural, healthy summer memory-makers.

Many fun foods can still be occasionally enjoyed and not be detrimental to health. Often it’s just a matter of choosing a more healthful alternative. Today, grocery stores carry ice creams made with real milk and eggs, which do not have any artificial colors or flavors added. Even highly processed chips and cookies can be purchased without artificial colors and flavors.

You can make gelatin deserts and salads, without Jell-O’s^TM package of chemicals, by using unflavored gelatin and adding real fruit and fruit juices for color and flavor. You can purchase or make real fruit juice Popsicles. There are natural sodas in the grocery store and you can even make your own with fruit juice and carbonated water. You can enjoy shaved ice made at home with real fruit juice.

Would I take cotton candy from a baby?
Sorry Roxy, you can be sure that I would…or rather she’d never get it in the first place! There is no a way around this one. Cotton candy contains only sugar, corn syrup, and petroleum (artificial colors and flavors). I never purchased cotton candy for my kids. They didn’t feel deprived and grew up loving healthy foods. The amount of fun you have and memories you make this summer are not determined by the amount of sugar and chemicals ingested.

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Part 2: Phosphoric Acid

Picky eaters love soda pop! Don’t think toddlers and preschoolers drink much pop? Soft drinks provide more added sugar in a typical 2-year-old’s diet than cookies, candies, and ice cream combined. Yikes!

More than 15 billion gallons of soda pop were sold in 2000. That’s least one 12-ounce can per day for every man, woman, and child in America. But, kids drink more soda pop than their parents. In the past 10 years, soft drink consumption among children has almost doubled in the United States.

Sugar, primarily high fructose corn syrup, is only one of the many health concerns with soda pop. Phosphoric acid is an additive in most soft drinks and we never hear about it.

It’s the active ingredient giving soft drinks a sharper flavor and it helps to keep the carbonated bubbles from going flat. Phosphoric acid slows the growth of molds and bacteria, which would otherwise rapidly multiply in the sugary liquid.

Improved flavor and keeping bacteria in check are good enough, but phosphoric acid robs the body of vital nutrients, as it increases the loss of magnesium and calcium in the urine. It also dissolves the calcium in enamel. Obviously, weakened enamel makes it easier for bacteria to enter the teeth, causing cavities in children.

Avah knows healthy drinks like water, milk, and fruit juice are yummy, too.

While parents may believe that sugar is the primary culprit of soft drink’s adverse effects on tooth decay, enamel erosion occurs whether the soft drink is sweetened with sugar or artificial sweeteners. According to a report published in General Dentistry, phosphoric acid in soft drinks causes tooth enamel erosion, even when occasionally consumed.

“Drinking any type of soft drink poses risk to the health of your teeth,” said Kenton Ross, a dentist and spokesman for the Academy of General Dentistry. “My patients are shocked to hear that many of the soft drinks they consume contain nine to 12 teaspoons of sugar, and have an acidity that approaches the level of battery acid,” Ross said.

With less calcium available, the bones become more porous and prone to fracture. Phosphorus is a major contributor to the rising increase in osteoporosis. Recent human studies suggest that girls who drink more soda pop are more prone to broken bones. Even a few cans of soda pop per day can be damaging, especially when they are consumed during the critical bone-building years of adolescence and childhood.

Dr. Bess Dawson-Huges, a bone-disease expert at the Tufts University in Boston, said, she’s especially concerned about teenage girls. “Most girls have inadequate calcium intakes, which makes them candidates for osteoporosis when they’re older and may increase their risk for broken bones today.”

The pH of most soda pop is very acidic 2.8. As I discuss in Healthy Kids and pH Levels, for health people need to eat more alkaline foods. Soda pop is a highly acidic drink which does the opposite. There is an easy solution: replace soft drinks with healthful drinks, like water, milk, and fruit juices.

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Carbonated Soft Drinks
Soda Pop Part 1: High Fructose Corn Syrup

To beat the heat, we often reach for an ice-cold can of soda pop! Today, more than a quarter of ALL drinks consumed in the U.S. are carbonated drinks.

Most parents are in denial about the amount of soda pop their children regularly drink. Studies have found over half, 56 percent, of 8-year-olds down soft drinks daily. Even picky eaters love sodas.

Would you allow your child to eat 17 teaspoons of sugar? Never!… unless your child drinks a soda. During summer it’s easy to let down our guard, because a can of pop is so refreshing (and easy). Soda has been dubbed, “liquid candy” and rightly so, as soda pop is the number one source of sugar in our kids’ diets.

Ethan and John beat the heat in the sprinklers.

According to government data, carbonated drinks contribute about 10 percent of the calories in the American diet. Carbonated drinks have replaced fruit juice, milk, and even water in our daily routine. Studies have linked soda to obesity, tooth decay, osteoporosis, and even heart disease. Carbonated drinks contain High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). There are so many problems with HFCS that it’s hard to know where to begin. Yes, there’s a huge campaign to try to undo the negative aspects of the High Fructose Corn Syrup, but don’t be fooled.

According to the Corn Refiners Association, there has been a misunderstanding about HFCS. They say, “High fructose corn syrup meets the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s requirements for use of the term natural. It is made from corn, a natural grain product and contains no artificial or synthetic ingredients or color additives.” They also say that HFCS has the same number of calories as sugar, so it’s okay to eat.

Sounds like HFCS is really a health food! Not so fast. According to physicians Mehmet Oz and Michael Roisen, high-fructose corn syrup is the worst sweetener added to our food supply. In their book, You: The Owner’s Manual, they state: “One of the biggest evil influences on our diet is the presence of high-fructose corn syrup, a sugar substitute that itself is a sugar found in soft drinks and many other sweet, processed foods. The problem is that HCFS inhibits leptin secretion, so you never get the message that you’re full. And it never shuts off gherin, so, even though you have food in your stomach, you constantly get the message that you’re hungry.”

Other studies by researchers at UC Davis and the University of Michigan have shown that consuming fructose, which is more readily converted to fat by the liver, increases the levels of fat in the bloodstream in the form of triglycerides. And unlike other types of carbohydrate made up of glucose, fructose does not stimulate the pancreas to produce insulin.

Peter Havel, a nutrition researcher at UC Davis, who studies the metabolic effects of fructose, has also shown that fructose fails to increase the production of leptin a hormone produced by the body’s fat cells. Both insulin and leptin act as signals to the brain to turn down the appetite and control body weight. And in another metabolic twist, Havel’s research shows that fructose does not appear to suppress the production of ghrelin, a hormone that increases hunger and appetite. “Because fructose in isolation doesn’t activate the hormones that regulate body weight as do other types of carbohydrate composed of glucose, consuming a diet high in fructose could lead to taking in more calories and, over time, to weight gain,” he says.

Researchers are finding new problems with high fructose corn syrup. A study in Journal of the National Cancer Institutesuggests that women whose diet was high in total carbohydrate and fructose intake had an increased risk of colorectal cancer.

Dr. Mel Heyman, chief of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition at UCSF, is seeing sick children whose bodies have been overloaded with fructose from naturally occurring fructose in fruit juice combined with soda and processed food.

“The way the body handles glucose is different than fructose, Heyman says, “It can overload the intestines’ ability to absorb carbohydrate by giving it too much fructose. That can cause cramps, bloating, and loose stools.”

If you were to avoid only one sugar, HFCS would be the one! Replace sodas in your family’s diet with healthful alternatives: water, milk, 100 percent fruit juice (then dilute), homemade lemonade and fizzy drinks (half fruit juice and half carbonated seltzer water with no added sugars).

Look for Thursday’s blog: Part 2 Soda Pop: Phosphoric Acid

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, Click Here.

For a synopsis of Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater, Click Here.