Some Safe Choices, And Key Words to Look For

  When you walk into a store, sometimes you have to wonder what hidden ingredients are lurking in your food and how these "secret" ingredients effect your health. I've come up with a very basic list of some commonly purchased foods, some of which are considered healthy choices. I realize that I haven't done much specifying this month as to which brands are good to buy from but I plan to make up for that here. I will list a common kitchen product, key words to look for when shopping, and an explanation of why something without the key words is bad.  

Flour 

1. Look for the key words, Unbleached and Unbromated. If it doesn't say those two words, they probably use both of these additives. To find out more about bleach and bromate check out this article. 
2. I have only been able to find two companies who sell unbleached and unbromated flour, which are: King Arthur Flour and Bob's Red Mill. 

Dried Fruit 

1. Dried fruit often contains Sulfur as a preservative specifically in apples, golden raisins, peaches, and apricots to preserve their color and flavor. Sulfur negatively effects anyone who has asthma, increasing asthma attacks. It also effects people who have a sensitivity to sulfur sometimes making existing asthma worse, or even causing it! Sulfur is also known to cause exercise induced asthma in athletes. 
2. Vitacost sells sulfur free dried fruit as does Bella Viva Orchards.  
3. At stores look for the key words "Sulfur Free" and look at the ingredients list to see if sulfur is added. 

Spices 

1.  If you don't buy organic chances are that pesticides banned in the EU, or even here in the US, are applied to the growing spices. Also chances are that the spices could be genetically modified, unsustainable agricultural practices were probably used, and 10 percent of spices are irradiated. Irradiation is when food is exposed to radiation, sometimes equivalent to getting one billion chest x-rays! This exposure to radiation damages the vitamins and enzymes in the food and can react with pesticide residues to create chemicals whose health effects has not been studied by scientists. Some spices also contain silicon dioxide so that spices won't stick, one of the health concerns of silicon dioxide in spices is that continued breathing in of it over time can cause lung damage and potentially lung cancer. 
2. Key words to look for are: "USDA certified organic" and "no additives or preservatives"
3. Some safe brands include: The Spicy Gourmet, TSP Spices, and Frontier (Just make sure to read the ingredients list). 

Honey

1. Commercial honeys are bad choices because they farm bees like they do pigs or cows in factory farms. To learn more read this on commercial bee keeping. Raw honey is much better than commercial honey, first off because it comes straight from the bees without further processing and secondly because it still contains the nutrients that processed honey has lost. Watch this video raw honey vs commercial honey. For interesting ways to check the purity of your honey watch these videos: How to Check Pure Honey In An Easy Way and How To Check Pure Honey At Home
2. Look for the key words "raw honey" and "USDA certified organic" 

This is a list I will add to, if you have any requests let me know and comment below.  

Resources 

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dried_fruit#Production 
• http://www.organicconsumers.org/Organic/spicesgood.cfm 
• http://www.organicconsumers.org/Irrad/irradfact.cfm 
• http://www.newhealthguide.org/Silicon-Dioxide.html