10 Weird and Deadly Ingredients to Avoid

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10 Weird and Deadly Ingredients to Avoid

Claremont Colonc Center
When reading the ingredient lists of packaged, canned and frozen foods, many unpronounceable words, chemical compounds and abbreviations can be found. Most of us do not have time to google each unknown ingredient while in the middle of a busy grocery aisle.


As a general rule, if you can’t pronounce an ingredient, it is best to steer clear. Real, whole healthy foods will usually have no more than five ingredients on the label. However, knowledge is power, and the more you know about the scary ingredients hiding within some of our most common food items, the more educated your choice to stay away from them will be. It’s easier to say no to that tempting pastry or pre-packaged entree when you know exactly why.

The following are 10 common food additives that can wreak havoc on your health:


Monosodium glutamate (MSG): A ‘flavor enhancer’ derived and processed from seaweed, MSG was originally associated with take-out Chinese foods. Today, it is a prevalent ingredient in a wide variety of processed foods, such as salad dressings, flavored chips, gravies and many sandwich meats, to name only a few. MSG is linked to numerous side effects, including skin rashes, numbness, nausea, heart palpitations, migraines and seizures.

In his book Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills, Dr. Russell Blaylock classifies MSG as an excitotoxin that stimulates the cells to the point of damage or death, potentially triggering or worsening conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and learning disabilities.

Aspartame: Aspartame, an artificial sweetener used in many ‘sugar-free’ products, is composed of aspartic acid, phenylalanine and methanol. Aspartame is responsible for the greatest number of reported side effects of any food additive, including dizziness, headaches and fibromyalgia and multiple sclerosis symptoms. Individually, aspartic acid has been linked to reactions including nausea, abdominal pain, anxiety attacks, sleep disorders, and depression.

Phenylalanine, an isolated amino acid which comprises 50 percent of aspartame, has been linked to seizures, insomnia and severe mood swings in large doses, among other symptoms. Phenylalanine is especially dangerous to those with the genetic disorder phenylketonuria (PKU), and can cause mental retardation or death in people with this condition. Methanol is a neurotoxin and a known carcinogen, which breaks down into formic acid and formaldehyde, an embalming fluid, at 86 degrees Fahrenheit.

Carageenan: Carageenan is a thickening agent extracted from red seaweed and often used as a fat substitute in many food products, including processed meats, as well as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

In its processed form, manufactured via alkali chemical solvents, it can be hazardous to health. Some studies have linked carageenan to gastrointestinal disturbances including inflammatory bowel syndrome (IBS), intestinal ulcers and colorectal problems.

Bromiated vegetable oil (BVO): An emulsifier derived from corn or soy (usually genetically modified) combined with bromine, BVO is used in many citrus-flavored sodas. It also doubles as an industrial flame retardant. Banned from food use across Europe and in Japan, BVO has been linked to skin lesions, nerve disorders and memory loss.

Animal studies have found that it can cause behavioral and reproductive problems when consumed in large doses. Additionally, bromine is an endocrine disruptor, and inhibits the body’s ability to retain iodine, which is essential for tissue health.

Hydrogenated vegetable oil: Hydrogenated, and partially hydrogenated, oils are a fancy way of labeling trans fats. Trans fats appear in many fried, fast and processed snack foods, as well as some breakfast cereals and baked goods.

They are created by applying pressure and hydrogen to vegetable oils to create a semi-solid fat. Dieticians largely agree that there is no safe level of trans fats, and that they should be avoided entirely. Consuming them has been linked to heart disease, obesity, and multi-infarct dementia.

Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT): A preservative used in some breakfast cereals, as well as a variety of other foods and cosmetics, BHT is also used in jet fuel, petroleum products and embalming fluid. A National Toxicology Program report published in 2005 states that BHT is, “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.”

It can also cause liver damage, and harm aquatic organisms, according to the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). The MSDS also bluntly states that this chemical compound, “should not be allowed to enter the environment.”

Guar gum: Guar gum is a processed form of guar seed extract. It is used as a thickening agent in many foods, including gluten-free foods, and pharmaceutical bases. In large doses, guar gum has been linked to digestive blockages and other disturbances in digestive function.

According to a 2002 study published in the International Journal of Cancer, individuals who consume guar gum as a main source of fiber have a greater risk of developing colon cancer.

Caseinate: Caseinate is not to be confused with casein, a protein which naturally occurs in dairy products. Caseinate is the processed byproduct of casein, found in many commercial protein shakes and other protein supplements. To manufacture caseinate, the casein from skim milk is treated with calcium hydroxide and sodium hydroxide, which are chemical alkalies.

Chemical alkalies inhibit the body’s ability to absorb nutrients. Caseinate is processed at a high temperature, near boiling, which essentially changes the protein into an ultra thermolyzed protein, and creates MSG in the process. Caseinate has been linked to indigestion, allergies and heartburn, as well as an increased risk of colon cancer.

High fructose corn syrup: Contrary to popular belief, high fructose corn syrup is not the same as sugar. It is derived from corn (usually genetically modified), and because of its chemical structure is more rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream. High fructose corn syrup has been linked to heart disease, diabetes and tissue damage. It also usually contains levels of mercury, due to the way in which it is manufactured.

Propylene glycol alginate: A thickener, stabilizer and emulsifier used in a number of processed foods, propylene glycol alginate doubles as an industrial chemical found in airport runway de-icers and antifreezes.

Remember, when choosing your ingredients, stick to what you can pronounce. If it sounds suspicious and you don’t have time to look it up, trust your instincts and stay away.

Contributor: The Alternative Daily

Feeling Stressed? Ways to Improve Your Well-Being

by with No Comment HealthLifestyle

Feeling Stressed? Ways to Improve Your Well-Being

Claremont Colonic Stress Management
Have you been feeling more stressed than usual? Many people are during these challenging times. The COVID-19 pandemic has many people feeling overwhelmed.


Everyone feels stress sometimes. It’s a natural response to a challenge or demand. Stress can come from the day-to-day pressures of work and family.

But stress is much more than just being busy, explains Dr. Janice Kiecolt-Glaser of The Ohio State University, who studies the effects of stress on the body.

“It’s the feeling that you’re overloaded, out of control, and unable to cope,” she says.

Stress can also come from a sudden negative change in your life like a divorce or losing a job. Traumatic events like a major accident, assault, or natural disaster can cause severe stress.

It’s important for your health and well-being to learn how to cope with stress. Researchers are working to understand how stress affects health. They’re also studying ways to relieve stress. These techniques may help you to feel calmer and more relaxed.

Stress and the Body

Stress isn’t always bad. It’s actually a survival response. It helps you leap into action in the face of a threat. Your heart rate speeds up, and you breathe faster as you prepare to fight or run to safety.

Short-term stress can even help you perform—you’re more able to ace an interview or meet a project deadline. But when stress lasts a long time, it may also harm your health. Your body is constantly acting as if it were in immediate danger.

“There’s a really big body of research now that says that chronic stress promotes inflammation,” says Kiecolt-Glaser. Inflammation is associated with many diseases, including heart disease, cancer, arthritis, and some mental health conditions.

Stress may also affect your metabolism—the chemical changes in the body that release energy and produce the substances you need to grow, move, and stay healthy.

Kiecolt-Glaser’s research shows that stressful events can cause the body to burn fewer calories at rest. Stress can also cause changes in mood and increase irritability with those around us.

Ways to De-Stress

The first step is to recognize the signs that you’re stressed beyond a normal level. Trouble sleeping can be one. Some people get headaches or stomachaches. Stress can also cause changes in appetite that lead you to gain or lose weight.

Once you know you need to reduce stress, there are practical steps you can try. Getting regular exercise can be helpful. Doing an activity you enjoy can also help with stress. This can be anything—from dancing to making art or getting out into nature or having fun with friends.

Making sure to get enough sleep is important, too. “People are more sensitive to stress when they don’t have enough sleep,” says Kiecolt-Glaser.

Staying socially connected is important, too. Close personal relationships are key to reducing stress. Reaching out to friends and family by phone, video chat, and email can help you stay in touch even when you’re not able to see them in person.

“Make a conscious effort to reach out and to maintain contact,” says Kiecolt-Glaser. “Loneliness is really destructive.”

Eating regular, well-balanced meals and avoiding alcohol and other drugs also help reduce stress.

Mindfulness Approaches

Using mindfulness helps some people cope with stress. It teaches you to focus on being present in the moment. Research shows that simply being aware of what you’re doing can improve well-being.

One study showed that people spent nearly half of their waking life not paying attention to what they were doing, says Dr. Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an expert on mindfulness. “And when they were not paying attention to what they’re doing, they were significantly less happy.”

Davidson’s research is shedding light on how mindfulness affects the brain to improve mood. “Regular mindfulness practices can have an impact on specific circuitry in the brain that we know to be important in emotion regulation,” he explains.

For those starting to practice mindfulness: One size is not likely to fit all. Davidson recommends starting modestly with three to five minutes, a few times a day. That way you don’t get overwhelmed and stop. There are many mindfulness apps available that teach different techniques.

Just Breathe

The simple act of controlled breathing can bring stress relief.

“It’s well known that slow breathing techniques have a positive effect on emotional state,” says Dr. Jack Feldman of UCLA, an expert on the neuroscience of breathing.

His research has identified the brain circuits responsible for breathing and sighing. Now he’s working to understand how breathing techniques affect the brain to improve mood.

Breathing techniques can be used to help people who are depressed or anxious. Controlled breathing may disrupt the brain circuits involved in depression; he explains.

There are many different breathing techniques you can try. Practicing a few minutes a day can help you get started.

“People who start up a breathing practice may find that it reduces their stress and anxiety considerably,” he says. If you want to try controlled breathing, “belly breathing” is a simple form. Sit or lie down in a comfortable position. Place one hand on your upper chest and the other on your belly. Take a slow, deep breath in through your nose, taking air into your lower belly. The hand on your stomach should rise, while the hand on your chest remains still. Slowly exhale through your mouth.


Contributor: NIH, News in Health

‘Fat but fit’ is a myth when it comes to heart health, new study shows

by with No Comment HealthLifestyleNews and InformationNutrition

'Fat But Fit' is a Myth When it Comes to Heart Health, New Study Shows.

Being overweight has negative effects on heart health even if an individual is physically active.

The negative effects of excess body fat on heart health can’t be canceled out by maintaining an active lifestyle, according to new research.

Previous studies had suggested that being physically fit could mitigate the negative effects of being overweight on heart health, but this is not the case, according to a new study in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), published Thursday.

“One cannot be ‘fat but healthy.’ This was the first nationwide analysis to show that being regularly active is not likely to eliminate the detrimental health effects of excess body fat,” said study author Alejandro Lucia, a professor of exercise physiology at the European University of Madrid.

“Our findings refute the notion that a physically active lifestyle can completely negate the deleterious effects of overweight and obesity.”

Previous research provided some evidence that people who were “fat but fit” could have similar cardiovascular health to those who were “thin but unfit,” but Lucia said this has had unintended consequences.

“This has led to controversial proposals for health policies to prioritise physical activity and fitness above weight loss,” he said. “Our study sought to clarify the links between activity, body weight, and heart health.”

Researchers used data from 527,662 working adults from Spain insured by an occupational risk prevention company, with an average age of 42.

They were put into groups according to activity level and groups by body weight: 42% of participants were normal weight, with a body mass index (BMI) of 20-24.9; 41% were overweight, BMI 25-29.9; and 18% were obese, BMI 30 or above.

Then researchers looked at their cardiovascular health by categorizing them for diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure, all of which are major risk factors for stroke and heart attack.

After investigating the associations between BMI, activity level and risk factors, researchers concluded that any level of activity meant it was less likely that an individual would have any of the three risk factors compared with no exercise, with the risk of high blood pressure and diabetes decreasing with increased activity levels.

“This tells us that everyone, irrespective of their body weight, should be physically active to safeguard their health,” Lucia said.

However, the study showed greater cardiovascular risk for overweight and obese participants compared with those of a normal weight, regardless of how much exercise they did.

Participants who were obese and active were twice as likely to have high cholesterol, four times as likely to have diabetes and five times as likely to have high blood pressure as those who were normal weight but inactive.

“Exercise does not seem to compensate for the negative effects of excess weight,” Lucia said. “This finding was also observed overall in both men and women when they were analyzed separately.” Lucia underlined that it is “equally important” to fight obesity and inactivity.

“Weight loss should remain a primary target for health policies together with promoting active lifestyles,” he said.

‘We don’t know what came first’

Questions remain, however, around the circumstances of those involved in the study. 

“This is a cross sectional study — all we can talk about is associations, we cannot talk about causality,” Michael Pencina, vice dean for data science and information technology at Duke University School of Medicine, told CNN.

“Because it’s a cross sectional study, we don’t know what came first — what this study is not telling us is, did the person who is obese and active, did they become active when they realized they were obese, and their risk factors were high? Or were they active, and despite that, they became obese and their risk factors went up?” Pencina, who was not involved with the study, added.

“What we see is that the risk factor burden increases by weight category. Obese people have the highest burden of associated risk factors. That remains true according to the activity level,” he added.

The study adds to an extensive body of research on the topic.

Scientists at the University of Oxford released results of a large study on January 12. Physical exercise may be even more important for the prevention of cardiovascular disease than previously known — and the more activity the better, the report revealed.

And researchers at the Cleveland Clinic published a study in January 2019 showing a sedentary lifestyle is worse for your health than smoking, diabetes or heart disease.

“While the controversy about the precise contribution of weight versus exercise to cardiovascular health will likely continue, to optimize health and minimize the risk of cardiovascular disease, patients should pay attention to both: maintaining a healthy weight and being physically active,” said Dr. Anthony Rosenzweig, chief of the cardiology division at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.


Contributors: Jack Guy and Amy Woodyatt, CNN

The Ongoing Challenge of Pandemic Fatigue is Hitting People Hard

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The Ongoing Challenge of Pandemic Fatigue is Hitting People Hard

Nearly a year of ever-changing public safety guidelines with long days cooped up at home are wearing on many people.


People have been social distancing, wearing masks and skipping gatherings with friends and family in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

The pandemic, however, didn’t stop many from traveling for the holidays despite guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to keep up with social distancing. At least 1,327,289 people passed through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints on January 3, the highest since March 15 of last year.

Dr. Neelima Denduluri says pandemic fatigue has negatively impacted her everyday life, whether it’s worrying that she’s an asymptomatic carrier when seeing her patients or struggling to facilitate online learning for her children.

“By the time I got home late, I wasn’t necessarily the most mentally alert, nor were (my children), to help them make sure that their stuff got done,” said Denduluri, a medical oncologist at Virginia Cancer Specialists in Arlington.

Pandemic fatigue also can make people feel isolated, which is how Sarah Tallent, a pediatric critical care nurse practitioner in North Carolina, felt after giving birth in July. There is an added challenge to giving birth during a pandemic, she said, and Tallent felt the most alone in the weeks after giving birth.

“I was on maternity leave with the newborn, which is normally a time where your family is coming and your friends are coming to meet your new baby, and it was such an isolating and alone time because we couldn’t do any of those things,” Tallent said.

Most visitors had to wait until six weeks after her daughter was born until Tallent felt comfortable enough for them to visit, and all visitors had to isolate themselves for two weeks prior to their visits.

The challenge of pandemic fatigue

Pandemic fatigue happens when people are asked to make behavior changes over a long period of time, which is much harder than short-term changes, said Dr. Itai Danovitch, chair of the department of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

It’s similar to other lifestyle changes people try to make, like eating healthier and working out to lose weight, Danovitch said. Most people can follow the new rules for a short period of time, but sustaining the new behaviors can be tough.

“We get tired and we resort to our usual behaviors, and when the requirements are coming from sources outside themselves, it adds a whole other layer of complexity,” Danovitch said.

Young adults are especially susceptible to pandemic fatigue, according to a news release published by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

The fatigue could be explained by taking a peek inside their brains. The frontal lobe, which is in charge of decision-making, Danovitch said, is not fully developed until age 25.

He attributes it as one of the main reasons why young adults make impulsive decisions and are “less inclined to weigh the risks and consequences over the long term of a given behavior.”

Research psychologist Jeffrey Arnett of Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, is skeptical of that theory, mainly because young adults throughout history have had to make important decisions at young ages.

One hundred years ago, people were “married by the time they’re in their late teens, maybe early 20s, and having children of their own and doing adult work,” Arnett said.

Instead, he describes the brain as being shaped by a person’s circumstances. In the United States, many young adults are not required to exercise much mature thinking where they are responsible for others, he said.

Because these young adults are less likely to have people to answer to or take care of, their independent thinking doesn’t always look at how their actions affect others. In the case of the virus, Arnett said, young people might not be thinking how their actions could make others ill.

Vaccine rollout

Despite the steep rise in coronavirus cases in recent months, people are optimistic that with the Covid vaccine rolling out, there are better times ahead in sight.

Tallent has taken the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine and believes it will take at least a year for life to start looking normal again.

In recent months, she noticed that there have been issues with vaccine distribution, so she signed up to administer the vaccine so she could “pull us together and help get everyone immune to this thing.”

Others are hoping herd immunity ends Covid-19, but no one knows exactly how many people would need to be immune to the virus, said Dr. Leana Wen, CNN medical analyst, in an earlier story. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, most recently estimated that 85% of Americans would need to be vaccinated.

So far, getting to 85% has been a challenge. Some people are hesitant to receive the vaccine, and those that do want it have trouble getting it due to distribution issues.

The Trump administration is hoping to solve this by releasing the second vaccine dose immediately instead of reserving it. The new strategy, which mimics President-elect Joe Biden’s proposed plan, would also allow anyone 65 years and older to receive the vaccine. The Department of Health and Human Services announced the new plan Tuesday, according to earlier CNN reporting.

Denduluri has received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine and believes that by the fall of 2021, people will mostly be able to return to their normal lives — while still wearing masks.

Whether people are at the grocery store, a physician’s office or a dentist’s office, she hopes they “feel more comfortable to do what they need to do and carry on with their lives.”


Contributor: Megan Marples, CNN