I know how hard it can be to keep your kids away from junk food.
Between the birthday parties and friends bringing candy to school, holidays celebrated with sugar and fat (Halloween, Easter, Valentine’s Day, etc.) and the free dessert that comes with every restaurant kids meal, it can feel like an ongoing battle and some days are better than others.
I get it. I’m right there with ya.
So, as you continue to fight the good fight, here are five foods (or food-like products) that are arguably the worst for little growing bodies and brains:
1. Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) – Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a flavour enhancer most commonly thought of as turning up in Chinese food, but the fact is that it’s also used in many of the processed foods lining your grocery store shelves.
According to Discovery Health:
“MSG has been labeled an excitotoxin because it is thought to have the ability to overstimulate cells to death. Many people link headaches, flushing, poor attention and other symptoms, as well as diseases like fibromyalgia, to MSG intake.”
For decades, MSG has been used by medical researchers to cause brain damage, especially brain lesions, in young rats and mice, even in primates. Their work has shown that rats fed MSG from birth could not find their way through mazes as well as rats not fed MSG.
And for decades, MSG has been used by medical researchers to cause obesity in young laboratory animals.
It’s not something you want your kids eating. I wrote a longer post about MSG and what to look for on labels to avoid it. Check that out if you want to learn more.
2. Trans Fats – Trans fat is created by adding hydrogen to vegetable oil. I know, way more information that you needed.
The important thing is that numerous studies have suggested that trans fats increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and possibly Type 2 diabetes. Trans fats not only raise bad LDL cholesterol, they lower good HDL cholesterol.
What’s worse, children who develop a taste for foods made with trans fats may fall into a habit of consuming high-trans-fat foods for a lifetime.
Among the top offenders for trans fats are: anything battered and fried, cake mixes and frostings, cookies, pancake and waffles mixes, and microwave popcorn.
The good news is that, due to public demand (yay you!), many restaurants and food manufacturers have now stopped using hydrogenated vegetable oils. But you can’t tell unless you read the label, so check it out. Don’t buy anything that lists “hydrogenated” or “partially-hydrogenated” oil.
3. Luncheon Meats – Sliced meats that you buy at the grocery store contain tons of sodium as well as the chemical sodium nitrite which acts as a preservative and also gives the meat that pink colour. Without the nitrites, deli meats would all be grey.
Gross.
So what’s the problem with all that sodium and nitrites? Well, several studies now have drawn a link between sodium nitrite and increased cancer rates including colorectal and pancreatic cancers.
And I’m afraid the “natural” options aren’t any better. Instead of conventional sodium nitrite, so-called “natural” cold cuts and hot dogs use cultured celery extract to preserve these products. However, cerely extract is just a naturally occurring nitrite.
If you can manage it, the best option is to cook “real” meat (ham, chicken, etc.) ahead of time, keep it in the fridge, and then slice it as you need it in the following days for lunches.
4. Food Colouring – Research supporting the link between ADHD and other behavioural issues in kids, and foods containing chemical dyes, is becoming undeniable.
I know that the kids love colourful food (blue yogurt? seriously?) but it’s just not good for them.
When you read a label and you see “Blue No.1, Green No. 2, Yellow No. 7” or any other combination of colours and numbers – put it back.
These aren’t the cute little drops that we used to use to make our pancakes green when we were kids. These are heavy duty petrochemicals that are now being proven to have a significant effect on the growing brains of our kids.
Depression, anxiety and learning disorders in children are just a few of the things that are now being traced back to food dyes.
5. Diet Soda – Regular soda is bad enough because of the astronomical sugar content, but when you combine caffeine and asparatme as they do in diet soda, something evil happens.
Aspartame (like MSG) is as excitotoxin that causes brain cells to get over stimulated and then die—a process that is made much worse with caffeine which boosts the amount of asparatame in the bloodstream and reaching the brain.
Please don’t let your kids drink diet soda.
