|
|||||
|
0
Read Introduction
Events
Buy
Book! |
Expert in Creating Green and Balanced Spaces |
 |
 |
||
|
Interview
with
Dr. Christine H. Farlow, D.C. is "The Ingredients Investigator." Dr. Christine H. Farlow, has been investigating and researching the safety of ingredients used in food, cosmetics and personal care products since 1991. She is committed to finding the truth about these chemicals, many not adequately tested and used far too often, by manufacturers in products we put in and on our bodies. Norma: Tell me about your book, Food Additives: A Shopper’s Guide to What’s Safe and What’s Not. Dr. Farlow: FOOD ADDITIVES: A Shopper's Guide To What's Safe & What's Not, Revised 2007 edition is a handy pocket sized book. It gives you the safety ratings on more than 1000 commonly used food additives. You can easily fit it in your pocket or purse and take it to the grocery store every time you shop. It’s a quick reference that allows you to identify the ingredients in foods that are harmful to you and your family. It will help you to choose safe and healthy foods and avoid those foods with ingredients that are unsafe or could cause allergic reactions. FOOD ADDITIVES: A Shopper’s Guide To What’s Safe & What’s Not gives you all the information you need to:
*
Read labels right to save your life Norma: Give me a few examples of the adverse effects of some additives. Dr. Farlow: Almost any symptom can be a result of a food additive. For example, aspartame has been associated with 92 different adverse reactions reported to the FDA, including headaches, dizziness, difficulty breathing, memory loss, blindness and even death. Symptoms caused by aspartame can mimic the symptoms present in various diseases like Alzheimer’s, epilepsy, severe depression, mental illness, Epstein Barr, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis and others. Aspartame has been shown to cause cancer in rats at levels approved for human consumption. Sugar alcohols, like sorbitol, mannitol and xylitol may have a laxative effect and cause bloating and diarrhea. MSG, can cause the same kind of symptoms as aspartame, most common is headaches. In addition, it is an excitotoxin and it excites brain cells to death. When I eat anything containing MSG, I feel like my tongue is disconnected from my brain and my speech is garbled. I have to concentrate very hard and speak very slowly to be able to speak and be understood. It's very scary. Norma: I know about MSG. During college, I worked at a kosher resort with a crazy chef who added buckets of MSG to everything. (Food was horrible to begin with and MSG just made it salty.) I noticed that the kid’s side effects were more pronounced than in the adults—they would either get lethargic or hyperactive. How do you feel about the job the FDA does on testing additives? Dr. farlow: The FDA doesn't test additives. They review the tests submitted to them by the chemical companies and food companies, who have an invested interest in the additives testing safe. These companies have been known to withhold information showing adverse effects for an additive they are trying to get approved. They did this with aspartame. In recent years, the rules have changed so that now a company submitting data for an additive they want approved, can tell the FDA that they have determined that the ingredient is Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) and the FDA will accept that. This is not good for the consumer since the chemical companies and food companies do not have as their main goal to produce foods that are safe and healthy, but their #1 goal is to make a profit, and often it's at the expense of your health! Norma: What about the effects of combining additives? Dr. Farlow: Nobody knows the effects of the many different additives used in the thousands of different combinations, the results that will occur from eating numerous different products together, or the consequences of consuming these ingredients or products over time. It just hasn't been tested. Norma: Give me a synopsis of Dying to Look Good. Dr. Farlow: DYING TO LOOK GOOD: The Disturbing Truth About What's Really In Your Cosmetics, Toiletries and Personal Care Products ... And What You Can Do About It gives you the most important information you need to know to quickly and easily determine if the cosmetic and personal care products you're buying are safe. It tells you:
*
Name of the ingredient (so you can look it up when reading the label) Hundreds of hours of research went into summarizing the most important information that you really need to know about if you want to protect your health. It's condensed in Dying To Look Good in a quick reference, easy-to-use format in clear, straightforward, easy-to-understand language. Norma: Do companies mislead the public with the words “organic” and “natural”? Dr. Farlow: The term organic is defined, but if you're not familiar with the definition and the distinction among the terms 100% organic, organic, made with organic ingredients and less than 70% organic ingredients, then it is possible to make a wrong assumption about how organic a product is. Natural, on the other hand, is not defined and manufacturers can use it to mean anything they want. A product that is called natural may contain all natural ingredients, a few natural ingredients or none at all. It's all at the whim of the manufacturer. Norma: How does the average consumer know what products are safe? Dr. Farlow: In order to know what products are safe, consumers must be able to read and understand the ingredients on the label so they can determine the truth about a product for themselves. You won't find the truth about the safety of a product from the pretty packaging or what the manufacturer says on the front of the label. You must be able to read the ingredients list and know which ingredients are safe and which are not. And on food packages, the ingredients listing is even far more important than the Nutrition Facts. Norma: Give me some examples of unsafe cosmetics and why. Dr. Farlow: Recent testing has found relatively high levels of lead in popular brands of lipstick. Lead is a neurotoxin. It is damaging to the nervous system. Mineral makeup is becoming very popular as a healthy choice for makeup. But not all mineral makeup is created equal. Although there are some that are pure crushed minerals, there are others on the market with ingredients like DMDM hydantoin, a formaldehyde releaser (formaldehyde causes cancer), propylene glycol, a penetration enhancer which increases the absorption of the ingredients in the product into the blood stream. A popular blush product contains the presevative, BHA, which is a possible carcinogen, benzophenone-3 and several parabens, which are endocrine disruptors, and multiple D&C colors, which are artificial colors. Most of the artificial colors are derived from coal tar, which is a known carcinogen. Norma: Is there anything else you would like to add? Dr. Farlow: If you value your health and that of your loved ones, it is vitally important to read the labels on all the products you buy to make sure that the ingredients in the product you're buying are safe and healthy. The majority of the products on the market contain some ingredients that are not healthy. This may sound like an overwhelming task, but I've made it easy for you with Food Addtiives: A Shopper's Guide... and Dying To Look Good. The little bit of extra time you take to learn how to choose products with healthy ingredients may well save your life or the life of a loved one. For more info on Food Additives, www.foodadditivesbook.com Dying To Look Good, www.dyingtolookgood.com
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
||||
|
Harmonious Environment |
|||||
