Healthy eating: Encyclopedia II - Healthy eating - Toxins

Healthy eating - Toxins

Almost all foods contain tiny amounts of toxins. Normally these toxins do not pose a great danger to a healthy individual. This may be because healthy humans either don't metabolise the toxins in the first place, or if they do, their immune systems can deal with the damage caused.

As long as a person has a varied diet there is little danger of overloading the body's defences with any one particular toxin. However, a person may not be aware that their diet is unvaried in certain respects.

For example, people on calorie restricted diets often choose to buy products advertised as "reduced calorie" or "no sugar added". These products contain artificial sweeteners instead of naturally sweet substances like sugars or syrups. Just like ordinary foods and food additives, these artificial sweeteners are safe to consume in small quantities, because of their inherently low toxicity. Very often manufacturers publish the positive results of 'safety studies' where one product (for example a carbonated soft drink) containing the artificial sweetener was given daily to a group of people for a certain period of time, while a second group received the traditional version containing sugar or cane syrup. Invariably the first group would exhibit fewer health problems than the second, and no statistically significant adverse side effects. In this respect the artificial sweetener can be said to be a healthier choice. As a result, the product receives official approval for sale to the public.

Over a period of time, many different products from different manufacturers are similarly approved for sale, each one relying on a study done in isolation, and each one suggesting the artificially sweetened product has fewer associated health problems than equivalent all-natural products.

What happens next is that dieters start buying reduced calorie soft drinks, biscuits, cakes, flavoured water, yogurt, and so on. All of these contain combinations of the leading artificial sweeteners aspartame, acesulfame potassium or sucralose. In addition to these, the dieter may also spike several cups of tea or coffee a day with a tablet of the same. The dieter is thus exposed to cumulative doses of these toxins at much higher levels than those on which the safety studies were based.

The issue of sweetening is just one example. Other taste-enhancing additives (e.g. salt substitutes) or flavourants are also hidden in processed foods and drink, as are dyes and colourants.

Mandatory food labelling is one attempt to overcome the problem. This places the onus on the consumer to check the 'ingredients' of all foods before consumption. However, the average consumer has no training in organic chemistry and its nutritional effects. Neither is it practical for individuals to walk around with little score cards to record all the quantities of ingredients consumed each day.

The only practical advice is to consume as little processed foods and drink as possible. Pure water (preferably distilled) is the best drink available. Boil it before drinking if you suspect any living organisms to be present. Remember that wines (preferably red) and to a lesser extent, beer (preferably real ale) can be beneficial in small daily quantities (two units = 20ml of alcohol content). Eat fresh fruit and vegetables, cooked fresh meat or fish, egg whites, natural yogurt, seeds and nuts (but not salted or roasted), and so on.

Some would assert that research into the toxicity of many varied artificial ingredients has been inconclusive. The USA's Food and Drug Administration has very stringent requirements for the introduction of new food ingredients, and this includes rigorous testing on animals, where the animals are given exorbitant amounts of these chemicals - far more than humans ever would be likely to consume. Artificial ingredients are, one and all, things which are derived from natural foodstuffs. Unfortunately, in the past, the interests of intellectual property have prevented free and open publication of the sources from which various artificial additives are derived.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Toxins", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki