Do Additives and Preservatives Really Help, or Are They Bad For Us?
Posted: Friday, January 09, 2009
by Mike Fak
http://mikefak.com
This week I had the marvelous opportunity to interview a retired school teacher by the name of Mrs. Moore. She is 100 years old today, January 9 and the entire interview was a real hoot.
Her friends had told me she is just fine and has all her faculties but you never know for sure what people mean by fine until you personally meet with these centenarians.
I asked her if she watched much television and she said not if she can help it but that she did enjoy "Jeopardy" and other quiz shows and puzzle shows. Like I said she is still as sharp as a tack.
I had to ask what she attributed her being still sharp as well as alive after a full century and she had two thoughts. One is her bloodline that had a 102 year-old mother and a father who lived to the age of 92. The other reason she sincerely believed is that for years and today as much as she can, she doesn't eat foods with "all that stuff added to it,"
I have often wondered myself just how many of the "good things" we have shoved, planted and snuck into our foods are actually good for us. I know Iodine in salt and Fluoride in water are two most obvious beneficial additions. After all, scurvy and tooth decay are way down the list of modern problems but there are so many things added to our foods that we are told are safe but are they.
All these artificial colorings and preservatives are considered safe but they haven't stood the test of time yet. Sure they don't give us any problems now. But after decades of eating artificial colorings and MSG's and the like will we still find them safe.
History is filled with things our ancestors used and then realized they were bad or dangerous or in some cases fatal. I'm not sure. I just wonder is all.
I also worry that there are probably things out there that manufacturers know aren't good for us but won't tell us since that would take away their profits.
In the 50s for an example, there were all kinds of ads with doctors telling readers and viewers that smoking was good for us. The tobacco industry knew better but they didn't tell us did they.
Who is to say that some chemical that is used to make something prettier or last longer or not smell so bad isn't right now messing with our insides and crawling into our genetic pattern to be passed on to our progeny. Again, I don't know. I am only pondering.
I also wonder how many things we consume that are the end result of vanity. The medical profession always has an opinion on all these additives but then later on down the road we see them and the inept FDA ban one of these previously benign products because it really wasn't good for us at all. Maybe researchers should be more honest and just tell us, "We think this stuff is OK but who knows what fifty years of ingesting it might do to us."
I would like that more than being told something is safe and then later being told the same thing is dangerous. That makes me think our experts really don't know any more than you and I do about this stuff we eat.
Mrs. Moore said she always ate plenty of organic home grown veggies and fruits growing up and everyone, no matter how bizarre their diet plans are, all say that is a good idea. But a lot of those same items at a grocery store are far from being natural aren't they. Yes, there are more expensive organic veggies and fruits clearly marked now in stores, but are they. We don't get to watch them grow and who knows if some unscrupulous people aren't just slapping labels on things and shipping them off at a higher price to make more profits. I don't know, I just wonder.
I know on the whole we are living longer than ever before but is it possible; on the whole, that we could all actually live even longer if it wasn't for something we ingest every day? I wonder when my time comes if it will be just because my body said the heck with this or if it was something I ate.
I know there are people who say red meat is bad for us and there are others who say alcohol isn't meant to be consumed but I'm afraid I have to draw the personal line there, additives be damned.
The day I can't have a big steak and wash it down with a beer is the day I ask someone to shoot me. I wonder if the funeral home will tell my wife I have so many preservatives already in me that they don't have to use any Formaldehyde. At least then all that "stuff" I ingested over the years can save my wife a few bucks.
This Article has been viewed 2,310 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)Hi Mike.Personally, I think that artificial preservatives, artificial colors, artificial flavors and artificial sweeteners are all really bad for people and we just don't know it yet. I've always felt I am like the canary sent down the mine shaft ... I get migraine headaches if I consume even the smallest amount of the above mentioned stuff.As for the organic, I too wonder about the truth of the claims, but do buy organic when I can ... just in case.And I'm with you about the steak, but not so much about the beer. Alcohol is another migraine trigger for me.So, thanks for putting your thoughts "out there." Maybe others will read this and give it a little more thought.DianneThanks Dianne. I don't know the answers...only the questions.Mike
Mike,Great article, but did you and Mrs. Moore really grow up together? She seemed more with the times than you. Of course after your veg garden from last summer, are you really full of tomatoes or some thing else?Jim GriffinI tried the other stuff Jim but you keep stealing it.Mike
Mike. This is an issue I don't talk about mch, but have very firm opinions on. My advice to other/newer Mom's is to try to shop the peremiter of the grocery store. Nearly a third of the isles in there are stuff you should rarely or never pur into yours or your childrens bodies anyway. Recently half of my family stopped eating meat, so we do about three vegetarian dinners a week and then when we have chili or something I do half with and half without ground turkey. They are adding a lot of dyes and such to red meats now to keep it from browning under the lights, since the stores don't have butchers to ground and chop fresh meat daily. Plus with cloning and stuff, I don't know. We're going to far. People should learn about local vegitation and buy from the fresh markets when that is affordable. Although I accept death as part of life, I too would find it a shame that my MSG headaches were actually signs of a slow poisoning of my brain. Actually even Floride has its advantages and disadvantages. I think the answer to most everything is impowering the individual with honesty and the ability to explore their own common sense, but then that doesn't follow the new American Dream very well, "Consume based on ability and work based on need" How much can Americans consume, how little can we work. I guess we'll be finding out real soon. I just hope we can turn it around soon, because I'm really bothered that my children may not enjoy the same freedoms I do, just because our society has started tricking people into thinking freedom is the right to have whatever you want. The happiest parts of life for that one hundred year old woman are probably found in the things she has done, not in the things she avoided getting done. Many more happy years to come for her. Great article. Thanks for sharing.And thank you Laura for sharing your thoughts.Mike
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.