Put additives in perspective

Press, 11 September 1986, Page 17

Put additives in perspective

YOUR FOOD STYLE

JANICE BREMER DIETITIAN

Don’t you feel cheated after buying mushroom gravy mix only to find when you get home that the label reveals it to be 80 per cent sugar (as dextrin), starch, and additives! And that the TVP cheese you bought doesn’t contain cheese at all. Did you avoid the Bolognaise Mince bought containing "no cholesterol” because it contains no mince? There would be no such foods as these if there were no additives. It is no wonder that people get upset about additives. The most real problem with food products overloaded with additives is that they lack a normal food substance. They also generally lack nutrients — unless these have been added back as vitamins and minerals in the form' of more additives. But our rising consciousness about additives has been prompted most by their association with “allergies,” sensitivities, behaviour, delinquency, and even violence. These suggestions are still under study, but the nutritional concerns do have sound foundation. The chemical additives in food may not be causing abnormal reactions in some people, but rather a

diet of highly processed foods may be leaving them with a low intake of vital nutrients. This nutritional deficiency situation itself may influence body immunity to even small amounts of extraneous substances. The anti-additive advocates are against chemicals in food. It’s a great misnomer that food can be free of chemicals. There are hundreds of chemicals in ordinary foods. But this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be wary of chemicals added to foods. There are poisonous chemicals in ordinary foods which in small doses our bodies seem to be able to handle. However, it is reasonable to suggest that our bodies may not readily adapt to new chemicals never before eaten in the human diet. Why additives? The most legitimate nutritional reason for having additives in food is to preserve it from deterioration, to protect it from microbiological contamination or to render it edible or digestible. The other reasons — for consumer convenience, palatability, availability, and marketability

— are secondary to nutrition and safety. The risk to long-term health from the introduction of chemical agents is unknown. So it must be wise to keep the amounts in check Our Health Department keeps check of those chemicals allowed; all are tested for safety at least in animal experiments. Overseas authorities have set definitive levels of a safe daily intake of many of the chemicals found in foods. However, the effect of eating many varieties of these chemicals up to the marginally “safe” level every day is rarely considered. Some people do eat out of packets or from the fast food store for every meal, every day. Perhaps we should be even more concerned about the quantities of salt, sugars (sucrose, glucose, liquid glucose, corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, maltose, lactose), fats (hydrogenated vegetable oils, hardened vegetable oils, palm oil, animal fat, butter ...) and refined starch (modified starch, com starch, wheat starch, potato starch) added to these foods. These ingredients are Additions not Additives in the strict sense of food regulations. While we need to be wary of overdoing condemnation of food containing minute amounts of additives that just might harm health, we must remember, and use most, the foods that we know always promote health. In my next column we look at what an additive is, and examine specific preservatives.