This ingredient is responsible for 50,000 heart attacks every year (2023)

train and watchdaily calorie intakeGoes a long way toward helping you stay healthy, but to truly protect your health, you need to start actively avoiding the worst ingredients lurking in your food system. You need to know about the dangerous additives and enhancers that manufacturers inject into food to make us dependent and addicted to their products.

Flavor enhancers, preservatives, sweeteners, synthetic colors, and artificial fats and chemicals are often hidden inhighly processed foodWe are eating. If you want to avoid putting harmful chemicals on your dinner table, you need to learn to recognize the worst ingredients and find healthier alternatives. Let's see how to get started.

avoid the worst ingredients

1. Identify (and avoid) seriously hazardous additives

It's not easy to remember the most harmful ingredients to avoid, but if you learn to avoid the most toxic ingredients commonly found in foods, you can greatly improve your health. A common food additive is monosodium glutamate (information), which is very dangerous and affects the human body in many ways.

Headache, nausea, vomiting, neck pain, numbness and palpitations are common side effects of consuming MSG. MSG is aexcitotoxinThis irritates the cells in your body so much that they become so damaged that they die. Prolonged exposure to MSG can also lead to many neurological diseases. (1,2)

It's not easy to find processed foods that are completely MSG-free. Other food ingredients often mask the presence of MSG, including:

• autolyzed yeast
• Hydrolyzed protein
• Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein
• sodium caseinate
• Yeast Nutrients or Yeast Extract
• Torulo Yeast
• natural aroma
• glutamic acid

MSG is commonly found in soy sauce, spices, milk powder, broth, malt, maltodextrin, pectin and all proteins.

2. Avoid Toxic Cardiogenic Ingredients

CrossfitThey are very harmful. These artificial trans fats lower your levels of good cholesterol (HDL) and increase your levels of bad cholesterol (LDL). Trans fats are mainly used in processed foods and are created when food manufacturers add hydrogen to liquid oils to solidify them. (They do this to extend shelf life.)

Tragically, trans fats are blamed for as many as 50,000 premature deaths from heart attacks each year. (3)

During hydrogenation, the oil is heated to extremely high temperatures of around 500 to 1000 degrees Celsius. Hydrogenated oils are an excellent preservative because all natural enzymes are destroyed by heat and the end product becomes a harmful residue.

If you see words like hydrogenated, partially hydrogenated or fractionated oils on food labels, don't buy these products.

3. Avoid Metabolism-Shocking Sweeteners

artificial sweetenersIt may seem like a good choice if you're concerned about calories, but science tells us it's actually one of the worst ingredients when it comes to your metabolic health.High Fructose Corn Syrup(HFCS) is a sweetener that can lead to weight gain, heart complications and obesity.

Some artificial sweeteners can also cause headaches and mood swings.aspartame, Sakhalin ISucraloseIt is a widely used artificial sweetener that increases the metabolic burden more than traditional sugar. They also trick your brain into feeling less full, causing you to eat more, which can lead to weight gain. So, watch your artificial sweetener intake to stay in shape.

4. Be wary of these three-letter carcinogens

Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) are processed food preservatives that have been classified as carcinogenic by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. BHA has been declared safe by the FDA, but "reasonably considered a human carcinogen" by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (4,5)

BHA has been shown to act asendocrine disruptors, which can also interfere with healthy hormone production. (6) BHA and BHT preservatives are commonly found in cereal, potato chips, chewing gum, and granola snack mixes. (Also, read the labels on cosmetics. They're often hidden in personal care products.)

5. Don’t think soy is safer

Are soy bad for you?In most cases, especially when soy is used as an ingredient in processed foods, it is unhealthy. Although many of us think of soybeans and soy products as healthy and high in protein, that's not always the case.

Most soy used in processed foods is genetically modified. That means the crop has been genetically modified to accept glyphosate (the main ingredient in Roundup herbicide) without killing the plant.

This leads to "over" concentrationglyphosateShow up in the food we eat. (7) In 2015, the World Health Organization declared glyphosate "probably carcinogenic to humans." This makes common soy one of the worst ingredients.

Consumptiongenetically modified ingredientsLong-term heavy use is suspected to cause infertility, gluten disorders, allergies and even cancer. While the jury is still out on this controversial topic, and plenty of research shows that GMO ingredients are safe, I recommend applying the precautionary principle, which means it's best to eat processed foods with minimal GMOs and keep them natural. possible. (8)

6. Use modern technology when shopping for groceries

Food testing kits are now available so customers can test the food they eat for a range of toxins, including mycotoxins, histamines and algal toxins. These sticks can also be used to test food for toxins and other harmful ingredients.

You can also use apps to help you find out how high levels of pesticides are in the food you buy.what's on my gourmet appLink pesticide residue data to each chemical's toxicology. Environmental Working Group's barcode scanning appfood reviewHelps you track the nutritional value of the processed foods you buy.

Safe, authentic food is a basic human need. It keeps you fit, radiant and healthy. On top of that, it also helps protect you from disease and serious health problems. The best way to avoid harmful food additives is to cook from scratch and use whole and unprocessed foods whenever possible.

Since this isn't always possible, the next thing to do is educate yourself, read food labels carefully, and shop wisely. This ensures that dangerous toxins and the worst ingredients do not end up on your table.

Pratima Makanji is AIHT Education (American Institute of Public Health and Technology), a health training and educational institution based in the United States. She founded AIHT to provide the best training opportunities in the rapidly growing field of allied health.