Grocery Shopping 101 - Be "Free"

I have a few more AVOID-at-all-cost items to add to the list we started. I also want to offer a simple starting point for products to look for when you are shopping and don't have the time or bandwidth to look into all the ingredients. "No Artificial ...." or "Free of ..." are great indicators on a package that it will be at least somewhat "good for you".

So here's the AVOID it list in total:

• ALL ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS (Click here for the post on why)
• MSG and it Aliases (Click her for the post on why)
• HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP - I will do a whole article about "Sugar" soon but this is one form you want to avoid for two reasons:  1) It's a corn product and therefore is likely to come from GMO Corn (Click here for why GMO is bad) and its processed in a way that it can become contaminated with Mercury.  There are plenty of products that do not use it, therefore its easy to avoid and best to do so.
• ARTIFICIAL PRESERVATIVES BHT, BHA, and TBHQ - These ingredients are totally unnecessary and there are much better alternatives, but these are the cheapest for the manufactures so they use them.  In addition to being a petroleum product, they are a carcinogen and are documented to cause hyper-activity.  Kids have plenty of energy and don't need any more.  There are many people out there who believe that ADHD and ADD are frequently caused by a poor diet which are high in chemicals and sugar.  These are ingredients that are easy to avoid and alternative products are widely available.
• ARTIFICIAL COLORS AND FLAVORS - These products are linked to a variety of health issues - tumors in the digestive track and sometimes cancer.  In addition, these products have long been known to cause behavioral issues, including hyper-activity.  These are also easy to avoid, as the European Union's push to eliminate them has caused manufacturers to be creative in how to dye foods naturally.  For instance, "Goldfish" have been dyed with beets and other natural ingredients for awhile. Colorful food can be had naturally in the house, it just takes a little time to read the labels and make sure it comes from natural sources, not Yellow 5 & 6 (especially when combined with Sodium Benzoate), Blue 1, Red 40 etc.

There is enormous evidence linking these five categories of food additives to autism, allergies, asthma and a wide variety of other health issues.  By eliminating these five things, the path to eating a much healthier diet will be easier.  Best part is it's not too difficult, as the alternatives are many and easy to find, it just takes a little label reading. So just BE FREE!