Safe Food Coloring Alternatives to Artificial Food Coloring

 
Artificial food coloring is in everything. From baked goods to packaged products, artificial food coloring has made its way into everything in our food supply chain. What’s scary is that artificial food coloring causes serious health problems in adults and children. The regulations around artificial food color labeling on foods is also very weak, which makes it difficult for any of us to decipher what is natural/safe and what’s unnatural/detrimental to our health.
 
Artificial food coloring (or artificial food dyes) is prevalent in many things that we eat and drink. The synthetic or unnatural ingredients used in food coloring is often unsafe for both children and adults. These artificial food dyes have been linked directly to multiple forms of cancer in adults in addition to behavioural problems and hyperactivity disorder in children.
 

 
In addition, the typical consumer, like you and I, are not properly educated on the health risks associated with artificial food coloring. In most cases, the names of the artificial dyes are meaningless (like yellow 5 which is derived for the tar of coal and blue 2). In other cases, packaged and processed foods just list colors without telling the consumer whether they are artificial or natural (in most cases, they are artificial). Blue 1 and 2 dyes are linked to cancer in many new studies and Red 3 dye causes thyroid tumors in rats. As well, it’s been proven that Green 3 dye causes bladder cancer and Yellow 6 dye causes kidney and adrenal gland tumors. All of these artificial food dyes are typical in both children and adult processed/packaged foods.
 

Artificial food coloring is found in so many things including:

 

Concentrated fruit juice
Condiments/sauces
Candy
Cheese
Fast food
Baked goods like bread, muffins, cookies
Gelatin esserts
Soft drinks
Low nutrient foods

 
 

How to make Natural Food Coloring Safe for Ourselves

 
We’ve got great news! If you are looking to ‘color’ your food, there are many natural alternatives to artificial dyes and artificial food coloring. All of these natural food colors come from plant based fruits and vegetables, so they are completely healthy, nutritious and organic (if possible). The natural food colors are safe for both children and adults, and likely, will not alter the taste of your food or dish (unless you want it to). The safe and natural food colors can be mixed to create new colors and in most cases, should not cause any allergies. These food coloring alternatives can be easily prepared at home too!
 

 

Here are some of the natural food colors from organic vegetables and fruits that you can experiment with:

 

Natural YELLOW Food Coloring > turmeric powder, yellow carrots, lemon zest, saffron flowers, bee pollen

Natural ORANGE Food Coloring > orange carrots, orange zest, carrot juice, pumpkin, papaya, cumin powder

Natural RED Food Coloring > red beets, chilli powder, strawberries and pomegranate

Natural PINK Food Coloring > beetroot, pomegranate powder and raspberries

Natural PURPLE Food Coloring > red grapes, organic red wine, red cabbage, purple carrots, purple potatoes, acai berry powder

Natural GREEN Food Coloring > spinach juice, wheatgrass, kale, swiss chard leaves, lime zest

Natural BLUE Food Coloring > blueberries and blackberries

 
* Images from Food Matters. Thank you!

CONSUMER ALERT! 75% of Honey from Supermarkets Are NOT Real Honey!

Experts from the World Health Organization and the Food Safety News have released their latest large scale tests and analysis on US supermarket honey and the figures are scary! According to the latest studies by the Food Safety News, approximately seventy five per cent (yes, that’s 3/4) of ALL HONEY sold at US Supermarkets isn’t real honey after all.

The official definition of ‘real honey’ from the World Health Organization is: real honey MUST contain true microscopic particles of pollen (of course), to be considered real, with an identifiable source. Honey that is void of pollen is therefore, ‘artificial’ or not real honey at all. This artificial honey that is being sold at US grocery stores is watered down and void of most nutrients. According to the Food Safety News study, about 75% of all honey sold in US Supermarkets is ‘artificial’ and is ridiculously over processed, devoid of any nutritional value and sometimes imported and laundered from China and overseas! In many of these cases, the natural and real honey is over heated to high temperatures and high pressure. The real pollen and nutrients are thereby completely forced out of the honey before it is bottled for export to US supermarkets. This technique has been used for decades and is now of great concern. In some cases, the Chinese artificial honey has dangerous amounts of chemicals, antibiotics, preservatives, heavy metals and artificial sweeteners to make it look and taste like honey. However, it’s all artificial honey. If you would like to read more about the Food Safety News study on artificial honey in US grocery stores, please continue reading.

 

 

The Honey Investigation by The Food Safety News

Just Add Good Stuff is alarmed by the findings from The Food Safety news in regards to the artificial honey problem in US Supermarkets. The supply chain of honey has been contaminated forever, and it is up to us to make important and educated decisions on what types of honey are safe, and which are not for our families. The Food Safety News started investigating US grocery stores and ended up buying 60 different containers of honey from 10 US states. In addition, to further enlarge their scope of study, they also bought from a wide range of US supermarket chains. All of the containers of so called ‘natural honey’ were sent to Vaughn Bryant, a professor and melissopalynologist specialist at Texas A&M University.

The scary findings by Vaughn Bryant include these and many more:

Fact #1 > 100% (one hundred per cent) of Winnie the Pooh honey sold at Walmart stores had ALL POLLEN REMOVED. There was no trace of natural, nutrient pollen in this container of honey whatsoever. Be careful and eat at your own risk!

Fact #2 > 77% (seventy seven per cent) of various types of honey bought from Target, Sam’s Club and Costco (often referred to as ‘big box stores’) contained ZERO POLLEN. Again, just like the Walmart Winnie the Pooh honey, this product is ‘artificial’ and contains none of the natural nutrients that honey is known for.

Fact #3 > 100% (one hundred per cent) of McDonald’s and KFC honey packets contain NO POLLEN. Just like the above, these are all artificially manufactured honey, which means that the added chemicals, antibiotics and heavy metals are used to mimic what real honey should taste and look like. It’s not real honey whatsoever.

Fact #4 > 100% (one hundred per cent) of honey purchased from CVS Pharmacy and Walgreen’s (two trusted drug stores in the US) contained ZERO POLLEN yet again. All of the natural pollen had been filtered out and heated at extreme temperatures.

However, there was so glimpse of good news in the Vaughn Bryant/The Food Safety study:

Fact #5 > Local honey from Farmer’s Markets, Co-Ops and even Trader Joes contained the FULL AMOUNT OF ORIGINAL POLLEN. These were healthy, natural and organic honey that contained the full amount of nutritional value.

 

Add fuel to the fire, but we believe that the only reason why natural honey is filtered and heated is to hide where it came from. Both heating and filtering of natural honey costs a lot of money. Plus it diminishes the quality and nutrients of the honey.

Other interesting facts is that the United States as imported over 208 million pounds of honey from overseas in the past 18 months alone. The majority (over 60%) came from Asia… the most of that coming from China. However, the rest of the honey from Asia probably also came through China on its way to our shores and supermarkets. Further studies have shown that many of the imported honey is watered down and contains obscene levels of high fructose corn syrup in addition to lots of other heavy metals, chemicals and illegal sweeteners.

Not only are consumers misinformed about the origins of the artificial honey, but it is also detrimental to your health!

Therefore, in our conclusion, it is of utmost importance that you only purchase locally produced, non-GMO/organic honey. Natural honey in its unaltered, unheated and unfiltered state has many health benefits and is a great option to refined sugars.

 

 

Here are some of the sources for the facts and figures described in this article: The Food Safety News (www.foodsafetynews.com), Mother Earth News (www.motherearthnews.com) and Food Renegade (www.foodrenegade.com). Just Add Good Stuff originally learned about this honey problem through Natural News (www.naturalnews.com).