Fact sheet - Food Additives

6 June 2005
a MSN Article

The information on this fact sheet has been provided by nutritionist Sue Dengate.

The dirty dozen

1. 102 TARTRAZINE …colouring
FD&C Yellow No 5, CI 19140. Synthetic azo dye. Used in confectionery, soft drinks, packet desserts, fruit flavoured cordial, pickles; can provoke migraine, urticaria (skin rash), itching, rhinitis (runny nose), blurred vision, purple patches on the skin, irritability, restlessness, inattention and wakefulness in young children. Immunosuppressive effects.

2. 110 SUNSET YELLOW ... colouring
FD&C Yellow No 6, CI 15985. Synthetic azo dye. Used in cereals, bakery items, crumbed foods, sweets, snack foods, ice cream, drinks and canned fish; also in many medications including Ventolin syrup; can provoke hives, eczema, gastric upset, swelling of the blood vessels, nasal congestion, behavioural problems and wakefulness in children. Able to cross the placenta. Potentially dangerous to asthmatics.

3. 123 AMARANTH … colouring
FD&C Red No 2, CI 16186. Synthetic coal tar dye and azo dye. Used in jelly crystals, packet cake mixes, fruit flavoured fillings; can provoke urticaria, overactivity in children. Linked to malignant tumours in rats.
Immunosuppressive effects. Banned in the USA in 1976.

4. 127 ERYTHROSINE … colour
FD&C Red No 3, CI 45430. Synthetic coal tar dye. Used in glace and canned red cherries, strawberries and rhubarb, quick custard mix, biscuits, packet trifle mix. Can cause phototoxicity (sensitivity to light). Large dietary intakes of this additive could affect the thyroid. Should be consumed sparingly by children. Reduces sperm counts and increases sperm abnormalities in mice. Has oestrogen-like growth properties and could be a significant factor in human breast cancer. The US Food and Drug Administration has recommended that this dye should be banned as a carcinogen.

5. 160b ANNATTO EXTRACTS … colouring
Annatto, bixin, norbixin, CI 75120. A vegetable dye from the seed coat of the tropical Annatto tree. Used in cereals, biscuits, margarine, yoghurts, ice-cream; can provoke urticaria, gastrointestinal, airways and central nervous system reactions including behaviour problems and headache; possible role in the development of diabetes mellitus especially in the undernourished state.

6. E211 SODIUM BENZOATE ... preservative
Used in soft drinks, fruit drinks, fruit flavoured cordials, toppings, syrups, maple syrup and syrup medications including Phenergan. Can provoke asthma, urticaria and gastrointestinal symptoms, plus behaviour problems in children.

7. 220 SULPHUR DIOXIDE … preservative
Used in dried fruit, soft drinks, cordials, fruit drinks, beer, wine, sausages, other processed meats including pet meat, hot chips, instant mashed potato, prawns; can provoke asthma and skin rashes especially in young children; destroys Vitamin B1 (thiamine) and folic acid in the body, from both foods and supplements. Associated with an estimated 12 asthma deaths in the USA and thiamine deficiency in pet dogs and cats in Australia leading to vestibular dysfunction, irritability and occasionally death.
Banned in meat in the USA since 1959.

8. 282 CALCIUM PROPIONATE…preservative
Used in bread, hamburger buns, crumpets, English muffins, pita bread; can provoke irritability, restlessness, inattention and sleep disturbance in children, migraines, skin rashes, gastrointestinal upsets; found to cause forestomach tumours in rats, long lasting learning deficits and brain alteration when given to very young rats.

9. 320 BHA (BUYLATED HYDROXYANISOLE) … antioxidant
Used as a preservative in oils and fats, and products containing oils and fats including fried foods, softened butter, dairy blends, margarine, hot chips, frozen chips, crisps, biscuits, ice-cream cones. May be unlisted in products containing less than five percent vegetable oils. Can provoke eczema, irritable bowel symptoms, migraine, irritability, restlessness, inattention, wakefulness and depression. Frequent reports of toxicity at high doses, including promotion of forestomach cancers in rats. Not permitted in foods intended specifically for infants and young children.
Banned in Japan.

10. 621 MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE ... flavour enhancer (MSG)
Introduced into Western food in 1948. Added to savoury processed foods including snack foods, instant noodles, biscuits, takeaways, prepared meals, sauces, gravies, stocks and stock cubes, canned tuna, many frozen foods. In cigarettes and animal food. In over 10,000 foods in USA. Derived from the fermentation of molasses. Can provoke migraine, asthma, eczema, irritable bowel symptoms, heart palpitations, dizziness, nausea, heart attack-type symptoms, irritability, restlessness, inattention and wakefulness. Not permitted in foods intended specifically for infants and young children.

11. 635 RIBONUCLEOTIDES … flavour enhancer
A combination of disodium guanylate (627) and disodium inosinate (631). Used in the same foods as MSG, also rotisseried chicken, chicken flavoured salt, blended butter. Originally prepared from sardine, meat and yeast extract, now prepared synthetically. Reports of adverse effects include itchy skin rashes, angio-oedema (swelling of the lips, tongue or eyes, may constitute a medical emergency), and behavioural effects in children. Not permitted in foods intended specifically for infants and young children. Should be avoided by people with gout.

12. 951 ASPARTAME ... artificial sweetener
Artificial sweetener 200 times as sweet as sugar. Used in 9000 products including diet drinks, low joule or 'no added sugar' foods, confectionery, chewing gum and medications. The US Food and Drug Administration has received more complaints about this additive than any other. Reported effects include headache, mood alteration (anxiety, agitation, irritability and depression), insomnia, fatigue and dizziness, gastrointestinal symptoms and allergic reactions. US research suggests a link to brain tumours. Diet drinks containing it are banned for US Air Force pilots.

http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/factsheets/1887.asp

Food additives

6 June 2005 (a MSN Article)

Many food additives have long and complex names. Sometimes these are abbreviated, sometimes not. Some have more than one name and a few include letters from the Greek alphabet! As the food additives list can be confusing, each food additive is given a short code number.

Food Standards Australia and New Zealand believe adverse reactions to food additives occur in a small proportion of the population. More people are intolerant to common foods (such as peanuts, milk or eggs) than to food additives. Intolerance does not depend on whether the food additive is derived from a natural or synthetic source. The labelling of food products helps people who are sensitive to some food additives to avoid them.

All food additives must have a specific use and they must be assessed and approved by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). They must be used in the lowest possible quantity that will achieve their purpose. Food additives are given in the ingredient list according to their class, which is followed by a chemical name or number.

For most people, looking at the list of food additives on the side of a food package is like trying to decipher an alien language. Ribonucleotides, Buylated Hydroxyanisole, Sulphur Dioxide. The people who appeared on ACA discovered that some food additives can cause severe health dangers for you and your children.

More: http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/stories/1886.asp

Detoxifying Foot Spa - Some Say it is a Hoax???

Personally, I would rather not try this. When I saw my in-law's "toxin water" after a session, It looked so gross like there is curdled blood in it. The color is reddish brown and it sure looks creepy. I was wondering, if that really came from the feet's pores, my in-law must feel very faintindeed, losing all that blood/fluid/gunk/whatever?

But no, she is well enough as it is, and quite frankly does not believe that the water really contained toxins from her body :)

Here is what others are saying about this:
======
May 28, 2004
Dodgy detox
Clare asked me to check this out after something she heard at exercise class rang her BS alarm. Her instructor described an alternative therapy session that used an electric footbath whose water "turned brown with expelled toxins". Yeah, right, Clare thought. It turns out to be a description of a process whose names are legion: Aqua Detox aka Bio Detox aka Bio-Sync Detox aka Platinum Detox aka ionSpa aka Mary Staggs Ionic Spa aka Water Detox aka Bionic HydroTherapy aka Baby-D Foot Spa aka IonCleanse aka Hydra Detox aka Energy Balancer Detox Footbath aka Aqua-Chi (aka Emerald Detox and "endorsed by Roger Daltrey of The Who") aka Bio-Cleanse aka the Q2 Energy Spa aka Ionic Detox Box aka Pure-Charge Energetic Spa aka P.E.P. Body Purge aka PediTox. Though they come from several manufacturers, the scenario for their use is identical.

A typical explanation - picked at random from Holistic-Centre.Org - goes as follows: it involves "placing the feet in a 'foot spa' of warm water, which holds the detox unit. A highly sophisticated 'array' causes ionisation of the water and can help re-balance Electro-magnetic forces in the body. The unit causes electric dialysis by producing electromagnetic oscillations in the water. The water changes colour due to the release of toxic substances through the 2000 pores on the soles of each foot ... You will see the excreted toxins in the water. The water will change colour and consistency - from orange, brown through to black. There may be lymphatic fat or mucous [sic] floating on the water - do not be alarmed as this is normal". The water is salted; some descriptions say so explicitly. Some operators claim that the colour of the bath indicates what areas have allegedly been cleansed of toxins: black for liver, orange for joints, green for gall bladder, and so on. See, for example, this colour chart forionSpa. Others say nothing can be read into it. But despite widely differing descriptions of what it does and how it does it, both therapists and their clients like foot detox, I think for a simple reason that goes beyond its claimed effects. As this review by a buyer of a Platinum Detox describes it, it's "one of the most amazingly visual therapies [he has] ever seen". Its up-front appeal, I believe, is the age-old theatrical and magical element of therapies that appear to draw something tangible and disgusting from the body.

Some clients report a downside. A This is Mid Sussex feature, The easy way to detox your body, says: "One disadvantage is some patients complain of feeling sick afterwards, with some suffering flu-like symptoms for 24 hours after the treatment". Therapists consider this and similar malaises unimportant. When Leanne Simons, author of a Grantham Today piece cited below, "felt a bit light-headed" after the treatment, she was told that this wasn't uncommon and was "a reaction to the loss of toxins". Other vendors warn that some subjects may feel tired or lethargic afterward, "due to the body going into healing mode".

< ....> Snipped
As to the brown colour, a number of critics, such as WicklowLass cited below, argue that foot detox machines are simply AC-DC transformers attached to ferrous electrodes that corrode to generate rust when used to electrolyse the saline water in the footbath. Whether true or not, it's a matter of simple science that such a setup duplicates the observed phenomena. At the skeptical James Randi Educational Foundation site, the Commentary, October 3, 2003 has a photo showing the result of using iron nails to electrolyse salty water in a soup bowl. This theory is backed up by some observers who have found by experiment that their feet didn't need to be in the bath for the brown to appear. At the women's network iVenus in a thread called Big fat detox HOAX!!!, WicklowLass tells of her observation that "the brown stuff doesn't come out of your feet, it comes from the metal 'array' in the footbath itself! The girlie in the salon switched it on, left, and I immediately whipped the spawgs out of the water to have a good ol' gawk, and all the brown stuff started clouding out from the thing in the foot bath. When she came back, I quizzed her on it. She mumbled something about negative ions ... I didn't pay for the 'treatment'". In the Letters section of the current (July 7th?) New Scientist (see here), Galen Ives of Sheffield reports a similar test, alongside another letter postulating the same explanation, as well as one for the observed frothiness of the bath: sodium hydroxide (from the electrolysis) reacting with skin oils to produce soap.

(read more at ---
http://www.raygirvan.co.uk/apoth/2004_05_01_arc.html

===========

So you decide if you are willing to spend $30-50 for each 30-minute feet
soak.

Detoxifying Foot Spas

Has anyone heard of Detoxifying foot spas (Aqua Chi, Bio Detox, BIO-SYNC DETOX, Aqua Detox )

Here is one description from Aqua Chi:

====
What is Aqua Chi Body Purge Detoxification Foot Spa Body Cleansing?

It is a self-contained high-tech machine water detoxification system that enables the body to heal itself. It is very user friendly and requires no special training to perform. It is a detox water foot bath which uses brass and stainless steel electrodes. It is used as a foot bath to cleanse, balance and enhance the bio-energy [the vital energy force present in the breath of bodily fluids]. This energy is the electro-magnetic force that is stored within the body and utilized by our cells. Chinese medicine refers to this energy as the "chi". The complex energy fields permeate and realign the body's energy field while improving oxygen levels. While the foot bath is widely used to increase energy [both physical and mental energy], vitality, and stamina, at the same time, it purges [detoxifies] the body of toxins, chemicals, radiation, pollution, synthetics, and other foreign material trapped in the skin layers that have clogged up the body's systems of elimination. Its internal cleansing includes parasite cleansing and liver detoxification, which results in less body fluid retention, reduced inflammation, improved memory, greater bladder control, a more balanced pH, a stronger immune system and significant pain relief, including headaches, gout and arthritis pain. (read more----

http://www.doctorajadams.com/DetoxFootSpa.html)

=====
Now from BIO-SYNC DETOX

The Bio-Sync? Detox machine looks like a foot spa. It contains a double element that reacts with water and salt to ionise the water within the foot spa. When the machine is activated it generates a magnetic bio-field similar to that of a living being. When we come into contact with this via our hands or feet the magnetic field within the foot spa interacts with our own magnetic field to rebalance and re-energise our system.

read more---
http://www.camtherapy.co.uk/Bio-Sync%20Detox%20Information.htm

===
What do others say about it? See next article

Weight Loss Benefits of Eating Grapefruit

Eating grapefruit can benefit weight loss in many ways. They are low in calories, low in sodium, high in potassium and high in fat burning enzymes.

These can benefit weight loss in different ways. The low calories means we can eat grapefruit freely without consuming too many calories. A low sodium intake helps flush away excess water weight caused from high sodium foods.And, the enzymes present in grapefruit help increase fat burning.

Another positive benefit of eating grapefruit is the high water content. Grapefruits are almost 90 percent water. Eating any fruit with a high water content helps boost water ingestion and research has shown that increasing
water consumption can give more energy and help increase the metabolism.

Many people are discovering the benefits of eating high water foods like grapefruit and many other fruits for help in losing weight.

http://www.weightlossforall.com/benefits-eating-grapefruit.htm