Blog
Day 3 of "Back to School" blog....
Who knew that posting the picture below would cause such a stir on my Facebook page all within a matter of hours.
The intention behind my post was to inspire change while informing parents that food additives are rife within our children's lunchboxes. The comparison was made to allow parent to see how quick food additives can add up. The reason there is that much food in the above picture is because there are people out there that eat so much more. This is where people make choices to suit their own needs. If you eat more fruit, then pack more fruit. If you don't like carbs, don't eat carbs...simple, right?This is just one lunchbox, with thousands more out there just like it.
My website and facebook page are about my life and what I have learnt with my family while removing food additives. It is not sugar free, dairy free, nut free, gluten free or about amines and salicylates as these are not issues that my family face on a daily basis. We have no intolerances to those foods. There are plenty of brilliant websites and facebook pages that do have endless information and support on those lifestyles. While we may have no instant need to remove the above mentioned foods we do at times reduce them. This is solely because I choose too.
With any recipe I provide you are welcome to make it your own. Reduce, replace or remove. This choice is completely up to you. With recipes that I find I am always mixing it up to suit my family's need. I add chia seeds (to almost everything), change the oils for coconut, add nuts or take them out, use wholemeal flour or rice flour when baking or changing white rice to brown. The options are endless.
So back to my intention....
The lunchbox on the left is made up of Woolworths Homebrand Cheese Dips and Apple Fruit Bar, Robinsons Fruit Shoot in Apple, a Woolworths Select Rice Bar and finally a Vegemite Sandwich on white bread with margarine. A total of 44 additives.
The lunchbox on the right is made up of Nature Valley Oat & Honey Bar, Certified Organic Sunraysia Apple juice, a pear, Homemade Lunchbox Muffin (recipe found on this website) and a Burgen Bread sandwich with baby spinach, mustard and poached chicken. A total of 0 additives!
Some of the additives used through out the food in the left lunchbox are:
Yeast extract, 422, 211, 220, 420, flavour, 160b, 282, 202, hydrogenated oils, 223, 234, 242 and 150a.
Many of these additives are found in more than one product.
Some of the known reactions are:
- hyperactivity
- headaches
- asthma
- stomach upset
- damage to DNA cells
- skin irritation
- prohibited in foods for infants
- sleep disturbance
- restlessness
- head banging
- colic
- bowel problems
- nausea
- diarrhoea
- hypersensitivity
- anaphylaxis
- swelling
- toxic if inhaled
- dizziness
- heart palpitations
- pins & needles in upper limbs
- migraine
- numbness
- heart arrhythmia irritability
