[cloudswinger]

Is there a list of ingredients that are supposedly bad for you - for the average people that aren't known to be sensitive to anything(yet!)

I know about:
High Fructose Corn syrup
MSG
Aluminum-containing stuff
BHT

What else?

 

[artemis33]

Hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated oils are really bad

Dyes

I avoid things that have REALLY long lists of hard to pronounce chemical sounding names (like heavily processed foods)!

 

[ashleyhaugh]

anything that says its "enriched"- it usually means they took all the good stuff out, but then added a little back in

 

[2sweetboysmom]

non nutritive sweeteners like aspartamine, splenda, phenalalanine. Also Sugar alchohols like sorbatol and manatol.

 

[kallyn]

If there's more than 1 or 2 words in the ingredients that aren't actual food, I usually don't buy it.

Instant no's are partially hydrogenated anything, HFCS (or even just regular corn syrup), MSG.

I'm also convinced that sodium benzoate is no good. I went for about 3 months one time where I did not eat one single processed food item, and when I had some food with preservative in it (sodium benzoate in particular) it made me feel pretty crummy.

Oh, I also try to not buy anything with ester of wood rosin or brominated vegetable oil. These ingredients are found mainly in citrus-flavored drinks, as they make the citrus oils disperse evenly in the water. They sound creepy to me, though.

 

[VikingKvinna]

I steer clear of PHOs and HFCS. Doing that eliminates most of the other hard-to-pronounce stuff, too...not always, but usually.

HTH.

 

[JaneS]

Anything in a brightly colored box that needs an ingredient listing.

 

[MyLittleWonders]

Keep in mind too that MSG has a myriad of names, so even if it's not specifically listed by name, it still could be in there.

 

[treemom2]

We try to stay away from all partially hydrogenated oils, artificial colors, artificial flavors, vanillin (artificial), high fructose corn syrup, all artificial sugars (aspartame, splenda, etc. . .), anything that says enriched (like pp said they have removed all the good stuff then added it back in artificially), like a pp said anything I can't pronounce or I don't know what it is I try to stay away from it because I feel it can't be natural or good for my body. We also try to stay away from soy products that don't say they are GMO free.

 

[LiLStar]

Ooh I've always been curious about this one. What about "crystalline fructose" or just plain "fructose". is that as bad as HFCS?

 

[PeacefulSeams]

aspartame....they use it in anti-freeze...and food...