By: Dennys Passeto, CPT

You’re in the food store and get lost in all the claims about what is healthy and not for you. So you make your way to a vitamin shop or Whole Foods and try your luck there. But when you grab a bag of this, or a bar of that, and turn it to check out the label… you are just as lost. What IS all that stuff in there?

In today’s article I have chosen the top four unhealthy ingredients my clients ask me about most frequently. (The top healthy ingredients will be covered in (Part 2). I hope you will find this information helpful in your healthful shopping adventures!

MSG—These initials mean Monosodium Glutamate, and are the main flavor enhancer in your local Chinese take-out place. Like Mrs. Dash, MSG enhances flavor especially in frozen and processed foods… and causes people who are allergic to it to experience headaches, rashes and muscle pains. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics removed MSG from all products for infants under the age of one, after injections into lab animals showed nerve cell damage!

Despite the fact that MSG has been proven a poison substance, it is so widely used that you might not even think where it might be. Cans of tuna? You bet! Turkey breast cold cuts? Absolutely, in some brands! And the result: an increase in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, serious rise in cases of asthma, Parkinson’s disease, migraine headaches and heart trouble.

Bottom line: Stay away from MSG. Check the label of everything you buy and avoid the brands that include it. And when ordering food from a restaurant, they are obligated by law to NOT include MSG if you specifically tell them you are allergic. Sounds like a plan.

Maltodextrin—Maltodextrin is essentially a powder derived from potatoes or corn and when combined with other spices and things becomes a tasty coating for snack foods. This powder food additive is found in such things as flavored potato chips, pretzels and crackers.

While the FDA says this chemical is “safe,” it does not really count it as healthy or unhealthy. That is, the content amount found in food is so low that it barely counts. Yet, in large quantities it is not healthy. So what is “non toxic” in one bag of chips may not be so healthy when one eats several bags of chips, pretzels, crackers in the course of a week, month or year.

And while the maltodextrin processed in North America is derived from potato and corn, the Asian equivalent is manufactured from wheat and is thus not gluten free. This means that if you are prone to migraine headache, Candida or have Celiac disease… you should stay away from snacks imported from Asia.

Again, check the labels. If an item contains maltodextrin it will say so and if it contains the wheat-based form, this must also be noted on the package. In moderation, the sweet or savory aspect of this additive can be delightful. But over-consumption is unhealthy. Not just because it is a chemical, but because the foods it is used to flavor are, themselves, not on the diet plan of any serious fitness program!

High Fructose Corn Syrup—This sweetener has been called the main culprit in the rise in youth obesity in the United States… and later has been given a clean bill by the FDA. Talk about bi-polar! No wonder we don’t know what is going on with our health. Well, here’s the scoop…

High-fructose corn syrup is corn syrup that has undergone enzymatic processing to convert its glucose into fructose. This fructose has then been mixed with regular corn syrup, which is 100% glucose, and the result is a sweet liquid known as high-fructose.

This liquid is the sweetener found in just about every cold beverage in your local convenience store, including iced tea, sodas and energy drinks. Not only that, but it is also found in so-called healthy foods like tomato soup and yogurt, and less healthful items such as salad dressings and cookies.

Yes it’s true that the FDA did a 30 year study and found a correlation between HFCS and obesity, and that it is worse for your health than plain sugar. Yet the Corn Refiners Association has launched an aggressive advertising campaign to counter these criticisms, claiming that high fructose corn syrup “is natural” and “has the same natural sweeteners as table sugar

Well, if you have any question, just look to two of the largest-consumed beverages, Pepsi and Snapple. Both have ditched the nasty stuff and gone back to sweetening their drinks with plain old sugar. Stay away from the HFCS, it will make you fatter than sugar!

Partially Hydrogenated Oils—whatever you do, stay clear of hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils. They are unnatural and very unhealthy. You see the original oil is subjected to hydrogenation which changes its molecular structure. This allows the oil molecules to harden thus giving it a longer shelf life, which is why manufacturers like it. But the changed oils are actually closer to plastic than to oil, and the hydrogenation process kills the Omega 3 and 6 essential fatty acids, which are the healthy parts of the original oils!

What all this means is that the body does not get the desired anti-oxidant affect of consuming oils, and the new hydrogenated oils are then treated in the body as fatty foods that the bloodstream can’t process. The result is fat stored in the body. Excess storage of fat in the body and arterial plaque build-up, then, are the big issues with partially hydrogenated oils.

Avoid foods containing partially hydrogenated oils at all costs. Check the labels on spreads, crackers, cookies, cakes, and even some so-called fruit snacks.

The bottom line is to eat naturally, to eat fresh, and to always read the label. When in doubt, write down the ingredient and do an on-line search. You just might be surprised at what you find!

About the author:
Dennys Passeto is a Certified Personal Trainer and the owner of Achieve Fitness.  The top personal training company serving Maryland, Washington D.C. and Northern Virginia.  Mr. Passeto along with Achieve Fitness’ trainers have helped hundreds of clients reach their fitness goals.

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Tags: energy bars, energy drinks, food ingredients, High Fructose Corn Syrup, maltodextrin, monosodium glutamate, msg, Partially hydrogenated oil, unhealthy foods

This entry was posted on Friday, May 15th, 2009 at 3:01 pm and is filed under General News, Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.