Into the Darkness

How do I start this post?Do I just lay it all out on the line with no apologies?

Do I tip toe around the issue and hope you get the point by the end?

Nope, I think I'll just jump right in.

You all know I'm a bit crazy anyway, and I'm sure after this post you'll think I've gone around the corner to the loony bin.

All that aside, I can't keep my mouth shut.

This is too important to just hope you understand what I'm saying.

So here it is.

I have been poising my children, and likely, so have you.

I have found out the truth about artificial food coloring and preservatives.

And once you know the truth, it's really hard to not live by it.

Do you want to know the truth too?

If not, stop reading this now, cuz here it is, the totally unabashed truth about food color and artificial preservatives, no apologies.

And it's not pretty.

I am still new to this, but already I see how bad this stuff is. Here are a few things I have read on the Internet, some things are even right on the FDA website.

"Those pretty colors that make the fruit punch red, the gelatin green and the oatmeal blue are made from petroleum (crude oil) which is also the source for gasoline."

And what about artificial preservatives?

Here is a quote from http://www.feingold.org/

"They are combinations of many chemicals, both natural and synthetic. An artificial flavoring may be composed of hundreds of separate chemicals, and there is no restriction on what a company can use to flavor food."

Here are some scary words being associated with all this artificialness,

Neuro toxins

ADD

ADHD

Autism

Dyslexia

Headaches

Irritability

Bed Wetting

Ear Infections

Hives

Learning Disorders

Asthma

Eczema

OCD

Bi Polar Disorder

Sadly, the list goes on and on.

What happens is that some people, especially children, are super sensitive to these toxins and they end up being stored in their brains. The result is undesirable behaviors such as bed wetting, ADD, Autism, etc.

In our society, too often when these symptom occur we don't realize what the cause is. Our doctors tell us we can manage the behavior with medication and we trust them.

After all, they are the experts.

Now, I am not a doctor and don't presume to say that every case of autism and ADD is caused by artificial food additives, but can it be sheer coincidence that the occurrences of these childhood disorders are growing exponentially as are the amounts of these items in the American diet?

I think not.

Here is a chart of how drastically our diet has changed in the last 60 years, again, from the feingold website.
What the child growing up in the U.S. in the 1940's got:
What the child growing up in the U.S. today gets:
White toothpaste
Multi-colored toothpaste, perhaps with sparkles
Oatmeal
Sea Treasures Instant Oatmeal (turns milk blue)
Corn flakes
Fruity Pebbles
Toast & butter, jam
Pop Tarts
Cocoa made with natural ingredients
Cocoa made with artificial flavoring, & some with dyes.
Whipped cream
Cool Whip
No vitamins (or perhaps cod liver oil)
Flintstone vitamins with coloring & flavoring
White powder or bad-tasting liquid medicine
Bright pink, bubble-gum flavored chewable or liquid medicine
Sample school lunch:Meat loaf, freshly made mashed potatoes, vegetable. Milk, cupcake made from scratch.
Sample school lunch: Highly processed foods loaded with synthetic additives, no vegetable. Chocolate milk with artificial flavor.
Sample school beverage: Water from the drinking fountain
Sample school beverage: Soft drink with artificial color, flavor, caffeine, aspartame, etc.
Candy in the classroom a few times a year at class parties.
Candy (with synthetic additives) given frequently.

So how is it that the FDA can allow all this poisonous stuff in our food, the food we feed our babies?

Here is the scariest part, and it's right on the FDA website for the whole world to see.

Manufacturers pay the FDA per pound of artificial crap they put in our food.

The bottom line, they are being paid to allow this crap in our food supply.

I do not apologize for my strong language, this really gets to me and makes me angry.

The manufacturers want to use this crap because it is cheaper than natural, healthy preservatives and coloring.

I could go on and on about this. The scary part is that these items are in practically EVERYTHING we consume.

Take one random item out of your pantry and read the label.

If that item was OK, take another.

I bet you can not look at 3 different items in your pantry and not find artificial something in at least one of them.

Scary, huh?

We are poisoning our children, and ourselves.

The good news?

The buck stops here.

I will no longer buy or consume foods with these ingredients in them.

I will not!

My kids will not eat them anymore.

If this means I need to make our food from scratch, so be it.

If this means we make a huge shift in the way our family eats, so be it.

If this means I spend 5 hours a day cooking instead of 2, so be it.

If this means saying goodbye to our favorite treats, so be it.

If this means we dye our Easter eggs this year with spinach and raspberries and blueberries, so be it.

If this means feeling better and having my 7 year old child stop wetting her bed every night, bring it on!

I am so ready for this.

I am excited to try new foods and to feel better.

I am excited to be healthy.

I am excited!

The best news?

Feingold has done tons of research on items sold in the US and they have a list that is pages and pages long of many foods maufactured in the US and Cananda and which ones are considered "safe" and which are not.

Surprisingly, there are some safe manufactured foods.

They key is to know the difference. Knowledge is power.

You have to visit http://www.feingold.org/ and read more about this. Read some of the studies done on lab rats and mice and find out which items they compare to alcohol and tobacco.

Sadly, these items are found in many of the foods we give our smallest children.

It really breaks my heart.

As parents we try everything we can to nurture and protect our babies.

How can we let these things be given to them without knowing?

We can't!

So who's with me?

In the next few weeks, and maybe forever, I will be posting yummy recipes I have found using no artificial anything. We have 2 birthdays coming up in the next 2 weeks. I'll show my ideas on how to still make cute cakes using blueberries and raspberries to make our homemade cakes look and taste just as fancy as ever!

Wish me luck, I'm entering uncharted territory!