It is becoming more and more common for foods to contain chemicals, additives and preservatives that are not listed on the ingredient list. The term “industry standard” is the device that offers a hiding place and makes this possible. When manufacturers use an “industry standard” ingredient in their product, they do not have to list it on the ingredient list.
These hidden ingredients lurk in many different foods. For those of us with sensitivities, or those who care about the food they eat, this poses a real problem because there is no way of knowing what is in the food. Undisclosed ingredients likely are to blame for causing health issues in countless people.
“INDUSTRY STANDARD” ALUMINUM
In 2018, the authors of a study in Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology wrote about aluminum as a known neurotoxicant, stating that it “contributes to cognitive dysfunction and may contribute to Alzheimer’s disease.”1 The study’s authors also pointed out that “Redistribution of aluminum out of the brain is slow, so aluminum can be deposited in the brain for a long time.”
Nonetheless, food manufacturers have relied on aluminum additives in processed foods for decades. An assessment of dietary aluminum published in Food Additives and Contaminants in 1988 reported the major sources, at the time, to be “grain products, processed cheese, and salt.” Aluminum in American cheese and processed cheese products is classified as industry standard, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) considers it GRAS (generally recognized as safe). Items that are classified as GRAS do not have to be added to food labels. Aluminum items that are secretly hiding in our food are also classified as “good manufacturing practice” (GMP).
Processed cheese manufacturers use aluminum in the form of sodium aluminum phosphate (SALP) to make cheese smooth and uniform so that it is spreadable or smoothable into individually wrapped slices. The NIH says, “Basic SALP is one of many ‘emulsifying salts’ added to process cheese, cheese food and cheese spread which react with and change the protein of cheese to produce a smooth, uniform film around each fat droplet to prevent separation and bleeding of fat from the cheese. This produces a soft texture, easy melting characteristics and desirable slicing properties.”
Other widely used aluminum additives include:
- ALUMINUM LAKE DYES: Used in cake and cookie decorating. Many times, there is so much metal in a brightly colored frosted cookie, with red and blue sprinkles, that if you put it in the microwave, it will sparkle and crackle just like tinfoil does.
- ALUMINUM SULFATE: Used in canned crab meat, lobster, salmon, shrimp, tuna, pickles and relishes.
- SODIUM ALUMINUM SULFATE: Also used in pickles, relishes, baking powder and flour, including whole wheat flour. In baking powder, it serves as a pH-adjusting agent. In liquid or frozen whole eggs, egg whites and egg yolks, it serves as a stabilizer.
- POTASSIUM ALUMINUM SULFATE: Used as a pH-adjusting agent in ale, baking powder, beer, light beer, malt liquor and annatto (which is often used to color cheese).
- MAGNESIUM ALUMINUM SILICATE: Used in chewing gum as a dusting powder.
- SODIUM ALUMINUM PHOSPHATE: Used as an emulsifying salt in cream cheese spread, processed cheese and processed cheese spread.
Adding aluminum to our food adds aluminum to our body. Aluminum is even more toxic if bound with mercury inside the body. Aluminum does not leave the body with a chelator but instead departs with silica. Aluminum is excreted through the urine. A pinch of food-grade diatomaceous earth in water throughout the day can furnish silica. You can get food grade diatomaceous earth at our office.
HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP. . .WITH HONEY FOR “FLAVOR”
Many people who consume honey assume they are getting local honey made by bees. In the honey industry, however, it is industry standard to label high fructose corn syrup as honey, with a small percentage of honey for flavor. It is cheaper this way.
Normally, stored nectar contains pollen; when the nectar turns into honey, the pollen remains as part of the final product. But according to Food Safety News, “The FDA isn’t checking honey sold here to see if it contains pollen.” They found that U.S. grocery stores are “flooded with Indian honey banned in Europe as unsafe because of contamination with antibiotics, heavy metal and a total lack of pollen. . . .” Ironically, many people who have life-threatening honey allergies can readily eat this mass-produced, store-bought “honey” because of the lack of actual honey and pollen in the product.
Local honey is a highly beneficial food, antibacterial and full of enzymes. If obtained from a reliable source, local honey is a superfood. Industrial honey, on the other hand, is a highly processed form of sugar mostly derived from corn. The easiest way to know whether you are getting real honey is to buy locally, directly from a reputable producer.
Article adapted from Weston Price.