You’ll Never Believe The Ingredients Hiding in Your Favourite Foods!

This CHFI feature is Part 1 of 8 of our “Wellness Wednesday” series, presented with aroma espresso bar.

You may never hear someone say “pass the carmine” at the dinner table, but it’s an ingredient you’ll find in many of the foods you eat every day.

Carmine is found in almost all foods that are artificially coloured red, including the fruit snacks you buy for your kids’ lunches. Believe it or not, Carmine is actually made from cochineal bugs. Treats like jelly beans get their glossy coats from shellac, which is formulated from Kerria Iacca, an insect mostly found in Thailand.

Eating packaged foods that have an unnaturally yellow hue? Chances are, it’s synthetically coloured. In fact, Tartrazine (a synthetic yellow food dye) is one of the most common chemical concoctions used by manufacturers to make yellow, orange and green colours for chips, sauces, cereals and candies …and also one of the ingredients frequently linked to allergic or adverse foods reactions.

Ammonia, bleach and borax may sound like cleaning agents that should be kept out of the reach of children, but they’re also food additives that are found in many of the foods we consume to preserve and modify their appearance.  Bleach is commonly used to whiten flour products, while borax is used as a preservative to prevent the growth of moulds and bacteria.  Ammonia is often used in processed foods including meats, cheeses and baked goods as a leavening agent and pH control.

If you’re not salivating right now, you’re not alone.

Although ingredient lists are easily accessible, a lot of labels hide ingredients by listing them with complex names that are unfamiliar to most consumers, or keep them hidden under an umbrella name. If you’re not paying attention and are reliant on packaged convenience foods, you are likely ingesting chemicals like these.

“People are becoming much more ingredient savvy,” says Holistic Nutritionist Kim D’Eon. “Thankfully, more of us understand the importance of reading labels are looking for ingredient lists that contain real foods that we would use in our own kitchens. Eating well is about much more than just tallying up the salt, fat and sugar. We also want to be aware of whether or not our food contains synthetic flavourings, colourings and other chemicals that don’t belong in our bodies.”

Of course it’s not just synthetic colouring, flavouring or preservatives you need to be aware of, says D’Eon. There are also a lot of added salts and sugars hiding in highly processed foods, which are quite commonly listed on ingredient labels under dozens of different names such as grape must, maltose, barley malt, dextrose or mannitol to name a few. It can be confusing.

Change however is on the horizon.

With social media and the internet at our fingertips, we now have access to lots of information about the food we’re eating. Conscious consumers have the ability to look up a product instantly, wherever they are, from their smartphone. As a result, the  demand for transparent and clean food labeling is steadily increasing as people demand to know exactly what they’re eating, where their food comes from and how it was produced. This increased education and awareness means consumers are affecting change by voting with their dollars.

So how can you ensure you and your family is avoiding unnecessary artificial ingredients?

D’Eon advises that when possible, it’s helpful to plan your meals ahead (a.k.a. “meal plan”) in order to ensure you have whole food ingredients on hand and ready to go. Look to  unprocessed snack options with little to no additives such as chopped veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds and bean dips like hummus.  And do your best to avoid foods that are overly-processed or contain synthetic chemicals such as pre-packaged, ready-to-go meals with long shelf-lives.

Photo by Allie Smith on Unsplash

Beware of “health-washing” marketing tactics that employ words like “natural” or “farm fresh” which are not well defined and don’t hold a lot of value if you’re trying to make informed decisions.

It never hurts to do some research on the products you commonly purchase and consume. Decide which ingredients and treatment processes matter to you, and then read labels and research those brands to see what they say about their priorities.

Cooking from scratch? The best part is YOU get to choose the natural ingredients you can feel good adding to your favourite recipes.

In an effort to empower Canadians to make informed decisions, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has implemented policies under their Transparency Agenda to make it easier for consumers to access information about the food they consume. To learn more about the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, click here.

No time to cook and need some nutritious and delicious options? Visit an aroma espresso bar near you and warm up with one of their hearty and healthy soups. (Made with ingredients you can pronounce).