INDEX PAGE

This is your port of call!

If you get stuck or want to find something – you should be able to find it in here.

I will be categorising my posts to make it a lot easier to find what you want to learn more about, so at the bottom of this post you will have each category, with the relevant posts linked under it. Obviously as the site gets bigger, I’ll change the layout a bit but the general idea will remain the same! If there is something you want to get to the bottom of that hasn’t been covered yet, just flick me an email and I’ll get onto it. This isn’t just a blog for me, it’s for everyone.

Chemical name and number

• (211) Sodium Benzoate 
• (250) Sodium Nitrite
• (621) Monosodium Glutamate

Individual product types (ie: yoghurt, and comparing the varieties available)

• Energy Drinks
• Tap Water

Brands (named and shamed, or glorified)

Non-branded perishables (fruits, veg, meats)

General need-to-know links and articles

•  Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) 1

In the garden

Sodium Nitrite (250)

This is going to be a hard one for me to write… as you know, if I post it here, it means I’ve applied it in my life. There is no use in preaching it and not living it.

This toxic, awful poison is found in nearly all deli meats – ham, bacon, sausages, pepperoni, beef jerky, hot dogs, sandwich meats, deli slices, salami, polony (devon), not to mention meat used in canned soups, on frozen pizza, kids' lunch products, in ravioli, spaghetti or other pre-prepared pasta products… – chances are it’ll have a little (250) somewhere on the label.

But let’s take a few steps back and figure out just what Sodium Nitrite is, then we’ll discover how it differs from naturally occurring nitrates found in many vegetables, and what it does to our precious bodies.

Sodium Nitrite has the chemical formula NaSO₂ , which probably doesn’t mean that much to most people, but it’s good to know. It has a variety of uses, from the formation of dyes, pharmaceutical products, pesticides, photography, and rubbers, but it is most commonly known for uses in food preserving – not only general preserving but also as a colour fixer, and to prevent the growth of a bacteria which causes botulism (A rare but serious paralytic condition, non-life threatening, and preventable when the meat is heated at 120C for at least 3 minutes. Spores accumulate in the small intestine, and only in cases where the immune system is inefficient to deal with it, bacteria is released into the body).

With me so far? It’s a preservative, a colour-fixer and a bacterial inhibitor.

When meat is preserved in Sodium Nitrite and then heated to high temperatures (which all of them are) – I’m talking cooked, charred and/or overcooked here, the nitrites convert into Nitrosamines. This also happens when nitrites react with secondary amines under acidic conditions (in your stomach acid) and during the meat curing process.

Get it? Cooking, preserving and/or eating meats with Sodium Nitrite produces Nitrosamines.

Now… nitrosamines… tsk tsk tsk… we don’t like these at all. They are PROVEN CARCINOGENS. That means, they are known to cause cancers.

In 1956 (that’s 56 years ago), John Barnes and Peter Magee (British Scientists) found that di-methyl-nitrosamine (sound it out…) produced liver tumours in rats. 90% of nitrosamine compounds were then deemed carcinogenic. Nitrosamines are also found in tobacco smoke, and are used in the manufacturing of some cosmetics (eeewww!!), pesticides and most rubber products.

Let’s get one thing perfectly straight here. I’m bound to get some negative nancy read this and preach to me about the levels of nitrates in many vegetables. Firstly, NITRITES and NITRATES are different. Secondly, this wonderful organic world of ours has created vegetables in such a way that they take care of themselves. So, when we eat a vegetable that is relatively high in NITRATES, a small amount of that is converted to NITRITES in the stomach (with your stomach acid, remember?). Then in come all of those WONDERFUL naturally occurring antioxidants from the piece of veg that you just ate, inhibiting the formation of nitrosamine (which is the real risk).

Still there?? Nitrosamines are known carcinogens, and nitrate levels in vegetables are controlled by the antioxidants present within that veggie.

Let’s talk about what has been proven. There is a proven link to the triggering of migraines – especially to those who already suffer from them, when Nitrites are consumed. There is a positive association with gastric cancer, but apparently insufficient information to associate it with oesophageal cancer (Info from Wiki). There are links to colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) (www.marksdailyapple.com). We also go to social issues, headaches, irritable bowel symptoms, itchy rashes, asthma, children’s behaviour problems, difficulty falling asleep and frequent night waking. There are also reader reports on the Fed Up website associated with behavioural issues, growing pains, stuttering, headaches and asthma. Worth a look for sure. A study published by researchers at Rhode Island Hospital in the US reported a link between increased levels of nitrates and increased deaths from certain diseases including Alzheimer's, diabetes mellitus and Parkinson's, possibly through the damaging effect of nitrosamines on DNA. (www.fedup.com.au)

Nitrates and Nitrites can also leech into our water, due to over fertilisation. Which is why a water filter in your home is ESSENTIAL!!! (You just wait until I write about water!!)

Nitrosamines have also been detected in some beers (my favourite beverage!)!! Nooooo!! It is formed by direct-fire drying of barley malt. It is more common now to indirectly fire dry the barley malt, and the level of nitrosamines are greatly reduced. But it’s still there, and judging by how much beer I drink – the levels would creep up pretty quickly!

So… between your bacon and eggs for breakfast, your ham and salad roll for lunch, a few beers in the afternoon while the kids have a frozen pizza for a snack, and prepacked ravioli for dinner… how do we change our habits??

1.       Get a water filter. You must get one that filters out Fluoride and Chlorine, as well as trace chemicals. We love PSI Filters (get a reverse osmisis alkalising system - the people there are really helpful!), or at Nourished Life online, a 1.5L Filter jug also alkalises and de-fluoridates the water.
2.       Source nitrite free meats. You have to do this. Look on the back of the pack. If it has (250), put it back. Check out PasturePerfect Meats – they’re organic and Nitrite free. It might be expensive, but what price do you put on your health??

3.       Don’t think that because you’re eating veggies with your nitrite-rich meat that you can get away with it. There are only enough antioxidants in the vegetable to deal with processing the nitrites created from that veggie. Any left over ones will not be sufficient to deal with the nitrosamine influx in your system.

As the page gets bigger, I’ll have a favourites page – keep an eye out for it. There’ll be all my favourite suppliers for all of our natural and organic needs!

Monosodium Glutamate 621 (MSG)

Aahh good old MSG. We were outraged when we heard that Chinese Restaurant owners were adding it to their food as a flavour enhancer, because how dare they?! Compromise our health just to make their food taste good?

Way to create a scapegoat, then brush the issue under the table.

Before I go into any detail, the other pressing issue about MSG 621 is that you can have a product that happily advertises that it is free of the dreaded MSG, but it is laden with its equally toxic cousins (620, 622, 623, 624, 625, 627, 631, 635). So it’s advisable to read the ingredients list, closely.

Now, let’s figure out exactly what MSG is. I found this definition from www.msgmyth.com – “Glutamic acid is just one of many amino acids that are the building blocks of proteins. It occurs naturally in many foods such as tomatoes, milk, and mushrooms. It is also found in the cells of our bodies, including mothers’ milk, and involves a wide variety of brain functions since it acts as a neurotransmitter. This natural glutamate in plants and animals is known as L-glutamic acid. Our normal digestive process slowly breaks down this natural or bound glutamic acid and it is eventually delivered to glutamate receptors in our body and brain. Broken down this natural way, it is harmless.”

Does that make sense? In its purest form, our bodies need Glutamic Acid for a variety of important uses, AND it breaks down naturally too without harming us.

In the lab, the naturally occurring Glutamic Acid in certain foods (corn, wheat, yeast, etc) is broken down by any number of processes, including – hydrolyzing, autolyzing, or fermenting with strong chemicals, bacteria or enzymes. The breakdown process produces a free glutamic acid (as opposed to the bound glutamic acid found in nature) excreted from bacteria from whatever food it was first extracted from. That’s where the issues are.

Sodium is added to make a substance that is much more soluble, and therefore usable. And the finished product is MSG. This finished product is comprised of L-glutamic acid, D-glutamic acid, pyroglutamic acid, known carcinogens, as well as other chemicals and contaminants. “Keep in mind, D-glutamic acid is rarely found in nature, and never in the natural foods we eat.” (msgmyth.com)

Still with me? Bound glutamic acid is taken from foods, chemically altered, salt is added, and it’s ready to go as Monosodium Glutamate.

Now, this free glutamic acid is tricky, because it can be added to different things and appear on our ingredients labels in many, many ways: hydrolysed protein, autolysed yeast, yeast extract, calcium caseinate, maltodextrin, citric acid, whey protein, soy protein, etc. Natural yeast is being chemically processed in order to isolate more free glutamic acid. Your label may say “NO MSG”, but it will say yeast extract, or autolysed yeast. We think we’re doing the right thing, and companies are sitting back and laughing.

How are you going? Ready to keep reading? Let’s try to understand what free glutamic acid does to our precious bodies…

The list of symptoms is practically endless. You would think you had any number of illnesses or diseases before you pinned it on a simple dietary issue.

The big one for me, being a mother, is that it creates hyperactivity, attention and learning difficulties in children – which can often end in an ADD or ADHD diagnosis. Sue Dengate, from Fed Up With Food Additives, has written extensively about the effects of additives on people (especially children) and the remarkable turnaround in behaviour once the offending “foods” are omitted. Her followers have said first hand that their children have no longer needed their medication after following her advice. I’m not saying it’ll definitely work, but it’s definately worth checking out.

Symptoms of a reaction to free glutamic acid can be anything ranging from migranes, sleeping disorders, and lethargy, to chest pains, irritable bowl, and rashes/lesions.  And everything in between. Ever wondered why you’re feeling so tired and moody all the time when you’re a relatively healthy person? You might walk each day, drink plenty of water, eat relatively healthy foods, then consider giving up because you’re still exhausted… msgmyth.com has a HUGE list of possible symptoms.

I am going to make a downloadable list of as many hidden names I can find that contain free glutamic acid, so bear with me there J

And now, I will start a list of regular everyday products that contain MSG and all his friends. Every time I add something to the list, I’ll let you know on our facebook page.

THE NAUGHTY LIST

Bear in mind, this is just listing the free glutamic acid related ingredients. I'm not even mentioning the added colours and preservatives!! I best be making a master list...

• Vegemite (you heard!!) - yeast extract, malt extract.
• Continental chicken powdered stock - milk derivative, maltodextrin, yeast extract, 635, wheat starch, spice extract... yuk!
• Cotinental beef powedered stock - maltodextrin, yeast extract, wheat derivative, 635, 627.
• Captains Table Water Crackers - wheat gluten.

Stay tuned, I will defintely post more as I investigate!!

Genetically Modified Organisms (1)

You’ll find that there will be a lot of posts on this subject as I learn more about it, but for now I’ll give you a basic understanding of Genetically Modified Organisms, and why I believe they should be completely and totally avoided.

GMO’s 101

A Genetically Modified Organism is an organism whose genetic material has been altered through the genetic engineering process (Thanks Wikipedia for that definition). On one hand you have natural evolution – a species that changes in order to survive, and on the other hand there is forced change in a laboratory.

The first issue is that GMO’s have become so common (especially in the US) and widespread, without proper research into the effects these alterations have on the consumers, especially generational effects. Genetically modified staple crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat, canola, maize, etc, as well as cotton are grown in many areas and are used in most processed foods that we buy today.

Let’s just understand how GMO’s are created, first, although depending on the crop and what effect you want to produce, each process is different. So let’s start with corn. The largest seed and chemical company in the world, Monsanto (the makers of Roundup), have produced a corn strain that is weed resistant, disease resistant, and insect resistant. Corn is also commonly altered to increase yield per hectare.

Want to know how they do it? They inject the genes of the corn with Roundup Ready 2-weed control technology, YieldGard Corn Borer, and YieldGard Rootworm insect control. Hang on a second, isn’t Roundup the stuff I spray on my weeds at home? The poison? Yep.

What’s starting to happen now is an increase in crop failures. GM Maize (corn) planted in South Africa (where 3 different altered varieties were sown) saw anywhere between 25% and 80% (depending on who you believe – the lower value is Monsanto’s prediction and the higher is an independent reviewer) produce no corn seeds within the husk! A healthy outer shell with no actual corn! Read the article here: http://digitaljournal.com/article/270101

You’d get a much better result with organic heirloom corn…

As I research more, I will provide much more information on what is happening right now with GM crops around the world, as well as new research articles and reports.

A lot of the crops grown as GMO’s are used as animal feed for mass meat production. The effects of GMO’s can be seen more in animals than in humans because their lifespan is shorter. In the US, cattle industries are reporting an escalating frequency of infertility and spontaneous abortions over the past few years to coincide with feeding their animals GM crops and allowing for generational effects to take place. Infertility has increased over 20% and spontaneous abortions are as high as 45% (sourced from Acres USA, May 2011).

This will then inevitably flow onto humans, not only through direct consumption of GM products, but through our meat and dairy industries as well! When you drink a glass of milk, what else is in it? Toxins produced by GM insect resistant crops are being identified in blood samples of humans, especially women, and are also being passed through into foetal blood (I speak of the Bt toxin particularly, a Canadian research has found that that toxin does not get destroyed in the gut, as pro-GM scientists have led us to believe. These toxins were clearly seen to cross the placenta into the foetus.). What is lacking is long term and generational studies as to the effects of GMO’s.

FYI… the Bt toxin (according to my mate Wiki): Bacillus thuringiensis is a Gram-positive, soil-dwelling bacterium, commonly used as a biological pesticide; alternatively, the Cry toxin may be extracted and used as a pesticide. B. thuringiensis also occurs naturally in the gut of caterpillars of various types of moths and butterflies, as well as on the dark surfaces of plants. Get it?

You can extract parts of it and make pesticide. Or inject it into a seed. Whatever.

This is just scratching the surface. Not even denting it, there is just so much more to know. To learn. To be outraged about. Here is an article written by a woman who attempted to go without buying Monsanto by-products.

http://www.alternet.org/health/147996/a_month_without_monsanto:_what_does_it_take_to_cut_out_the_gmo_giant?page=entire

She gives sound advice, although it may seem a bit far-fetched when you first read it… but what price do you put on your body? On your health? On yourself?

Here's what you CAN do: Be aware of what you are buying. Some companies go out of their way to mention they are GM free, and proud. Buy them instead. Eat fresh and local wherever you can. Most cities and towns have farmers markets, do they not? Your veggies will last a whole week in the fridge, because they were picked just the week before - not kept in cold storage for ages. Buy certified organic products where you can (but more on that in another post!). Don't spray chemicals needlessly in your garden! Research alternative ways (or better yet, wait for me to do it for you!)...

Hello!!

A warm and wonderful welcome to you!!

This blog is something that is very close to my heart.

It’s about food. It’s about drinks. It’s about cosmetics, creams, and cleaning. It’s about growing food. It’s about our right to know what is REALLY in our day to day products – and more importantly what it is doing to our bodies. It’s about profits, the easy way vs the right way, big business, and how all these things work against us.

I will be providing easy to read information on additives, individual products, brands, chemicals, organic gardening (my hobby!), comparing products, and trying to find alternatives to all our old favourites.

This isn’t an extremism blog. I’m not a hippie. I am just me. I am a part of the collective whole that is humanity and we all live on this planet. And all I want is to live this life the best way I can.

I called this blog Apples aint Apples, because apples continually top the list of EWG’s (the Environmental Working Group) Dirty Dozen – a list measuring the amount of pesticide residue on produce after it is washed and cleaned. Apples that used to grow in Great Nan’s yard 100 years ago are in no way comparable to apples today. Apples just aint apples. You can check out their website and get the full list of the Dirty Dozen, and well as the Clean Fifteen here: http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/

Wherever possible, I will provide links to other websites where you can get more information on what you’re reading about. None of the information I put on here will be new – it’s all been said before. This is simply about spreading the knowledge that’s already available (sometimes, though, not readily!).

Now for the big fat disclaimer. I’m NOT a “professional”. I’m not a doctor, dietician, scientist, or any other label you want to give me. I don’t have any qualifications on pieces of paper from big institutions. Read the info, take it or leave it. No one is forcing you to follow anything said on here, and I hereby reject any responsibility of your actions. I will, however, be following my own advice. You, on the other hand, need to make your own choices.

From here, you should probably go to the START HERE tab, located up the top somewhere, I think. It will break down where everything is, and how to navigate successfully to find what you want.

I hope all this info helps, and I hope we can share this with as many people as possible.
It is my goal to get this blog going first, and eventually transfer it to a proper website when i figure out how it all works!
I really believe that the answer to a lot of our problems lies in the products we use and consume. I hope you’ll all join me on this journey of health and discovery!

Em xx