Welcome to My World – What’s in that Mac N Cheese?
Hello World! Did you eat mac and cheese when you were in college? I did. Cheap, quick, processed food that you could make easily on a hotplate, if necessary, when you were hungry and too lazy to go get some real food to eat. If you had to study, it was such an easy solution to grabbing something to eat. Do you ever wonder what’s in that mac ‘n cheese you buy in the store? It really isn’t pretty…
Do you ever wonder what’s in this stuff that you buy from the store?
The Shocking Ingredients in Your Mac and Cheese
Almost every one of us, especially kids and college students, can attest
Do you still eat packaged macaroni & cheese? I stopped some time ago, not just for the chemicals it contains, but also for the extremely high sodium content it has.
that they’ve lived on mac and cheese at some time in their life. This seemingly harmless food choice (and I use the word food here quite loosely as it barely resembles food) may be a lot more harmful to you than you might think, according to new independent laboratory research conducted by the Coalition for Safer Food Processing and Packaging.
The laboratory tested 30 different cheese products, ranging from cheese powder to processed cheese, as well as hard, shredded, string and cottage cheese. They found excessively high levels of phthalates in 29 of the 30 types tested. Cheese powders, like those used in packaged boxes of macaroni and cheese, had the highest levels of phthalates of all the different cheese products tested, more than doubling processed cheese which also had high levels of this toxin, and quadrupling so-called natural cheeses.
Even processed cheese slices
had 3 times more phthalates than the products described as natural
Do you eat processed cheese?
cheeses, which also had excessive amounts of phthalates. Considering that approximately 2 million boxes of mac and cheese were sold in 2013 alone, the damage these chemicals may be causing all of us is clearly widespread. Some products had up to 6 different kinds of phthalates present. Kraft manufactured 9 of the 30 products tested; officials at the company gave no statement on these test results, according to news reports by the New York Times. A search on phthalates on Kraft’s website at the time of writing this yielded no results.
Phthalates (pronounced “thallets”) are petrochemical
-derived chemicals that are typically added to plastics to soften them and
What’s in your nail polish! Have you ever read the ingredients on the bottle? I know I haven’t as the print is too small to read it.
make them more pliable. Sadly, they are commonly found in plastic toys, your shower curtains, vinyl floors, plastic food containers, air fresheners, pharmaceutical drugs, your cosmetics, insecticides, nail polish, hair spray and even in your baby care products. Do you see a trend here? We use these products on a daily basis.
According to the science-based policy and advocacy group Breast Cancer Prevention Partners, phthalates are linked to breast cancer, asthma, decreased fertility, obesity and developmental disorders.
Some medications are coated in a type of phthalate
known as di-n-butyl-phthalate. I have described them as part of the “dirty dozen toxins” found in most of your skincare products. While slathering phthalates on your skin or popping pills coated in them is certainly not appealing, eating them in your food is potentially worse, particularly when these foods are eaten in high volumes by your children, whose developing bodies and brains are even more vulnerable than your adult bodies.
Eleven health and environmental advocacy groups
petitioned the FDA to ban phthalates from food, food packaging,
Our doing the research is great, but we need to do something with the results…
processing and manufacturing equipment to no avail. While the United States government assessed the potential harm of phthalates more than 3 years ago, recognizing the threat they pose to us, particularly from exposures in our food (among others), the Food and Drug Administration has done nothing to ban their use. There is no value in a report that merely collects dust on our shelves, desks and even minds of bureaucrats.
I’ve been jokingly telling people for years that phthalates and other chemicals are derived from petrochemicals that cannot be used in powering our vehicles. Instead, they find their way into our food, our personal care products and our kids’ toys, which is no laughing matter.
A study published in the medical journal Environmental Research
showed that your prenatal phthalate exposure negatively impacted the reproductive function of men. Additional research published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism estimates that phthalate-caused male infertility results in 618,000 extra medical fertility interventions per year at an additional cost of $5.4 billion US dollars. But, men are not the only ones whose reproductive functions are negatively impacted by phthalates. In an animal study published in the medical journal Reproductive Toxicology scientists found that even short-term exposure to a type of phthalate known as di-n-butyl phthalate significantly disrupted ovarian functions in female animals.
Now, does this sound like something you want to eat? And we wonder why
Healthy food should Not have pesticides or other chemicals on them. Did you know that you can keep salads fresh with lemon juice…
our cancer rates are so high today. Well, maybe what we eat has something to do with it. Years ago when people made most of their own food from scratch, they were healthier; cancer wasn’t so prevalent, nor were many other disorders and illnesses that we hear about today on a regular basis.
Why do we wonder about why we get sick more now? It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? It is to me and I bet many of you think so too. If it weren’t for these huge companies, that worship the almighty dollar, we might be a healthier species. It’s time for us to wake up and start eating healthier, fresher foods…
I am trying to live a healthier life.
Are you? If you’re reading this, you’ll see products on the right that I believe in. They are affiliate links and I use many of these products.
If you have pets, both the Nature’s Miracle (natural pet stain remover) and Orange Guard (kills bugs naturally) are both products I believe in. I have pets and I use them regularly. I just ordered both of these. I order the gallon sizes, and then I refill a smaller spray bottle that I save for each product. Great products! And, best of all, I’m not harming the environment with either of these…
Have a great healthy day!
Enhance Your Life with Mother Nature! Great for your Mind, Body & Spirit!