Many sweets and chocolates sold in the UK, especially children's sweets, contain harmful chemicals.

Never mind the sugar! Are our children being poisoned by their sweets?
article by Alex Renton in the Daily Mail

I've only just come across this interesting article, which was published on Jan 1st this year, but better late than never...(o:

I do hope you will read all of the original article because it contains such a lot of information important in safeguarding children's health. - Here is an extract:

"During my investigation, I found dangerous colourings and preservatives in famous names such as Cadbury Roses chocolates, Maynards, Wrigley's gum, Jawbreakers, Jelly Babies, Kiddies Mix, Refreshers, Lovehearts, Hubba Bubba bubble gum and Fizz Bombs, as well as a huge range of corner-shop sweets sold as Nisha's or Family Favourites.

Novelty sweets branded on Bratz dolls and cartoon character Scooby-Doo had them too. A build-it-yourself gingerbread house from the John Lewis toy department had more bad dyes than any other item I found.

If it's cheaply made and highly coloured, it seems, it's more likely than not to have an 'azo-dye' (a synthetic nitrogen-based compound dye) in it - and that includes all the children's favourites: the snakes, marshmallows and bootlaces sold loose in corner shops.

The chief villains - the ones everyone agrees are dangerous - are mainly colours derived from coal tar. These are known as the 'Dirty Six' and go under the names sunset yellow (or E number 110), carmoisine (E122), tartrazine (E102), ponceau 4R (E124), quinoline yellow (E104) and allura red (E129).

They're reds and yellows, and commonly found in sweets, jellies, ice lollies, fizzy drinks and many obviously coloured foods, such as icing on cakes. Three of them have been linked with asthma and other allergies. Many of them are banned in medicines, or must carry warnings.

All of them, government scientists now agree, can cause or exacerbate hyperactivity or attention disorder.

For my daughter - who's pretty busy, not hyperactive - the worry is what's known as the cocktail effect: these colourings combined with commonly used benzoate preservatives (which go under E numbers 210 to 219) may exacerbate other allergic conditions as well as hyperactivity.

The benzoates, according to the FSA, are thought to worsen symptoms of asthma and eczema in children who have these conditions - and they're banned in food products for the under-threes."

You may like also to visit http://www.actiononadditives.com/Home/

Kathy Sinnott, MEP, says fluoride, hexafluorosilicic acid, in our water is a menace.

MEP says additive in our water is a menace
Every day, Irish sanitary authorities add hexafluorosilicic acid to public water supplies under the terms of the 1960 Fluoridation Act. Unlike the naturally occurring, poorly absorbed and therefore safer calcium fluoride found in toothpaste and mouthwash, hexafluorosilicic acid is an industrial waste by-product which is an active and highly absorbed molecule when swallowed. Over a lifetime of drinking small quantities of this fluoride, substantial amounts accumulate in the body, especially in hard tissue such as teeth and bone.
Read article by Kathy Sinnott, MEP, in The Times (UK)

Sausages, bacon, ham and other processed meats increase the risk of developing bowel cancer.

Sausage a day can increase bowel cancer risk

Extract from the Telegraph:

"Eating one sausage or three rashers of bacon a day can increase the risk of bowel cancer by a fifth, a medical expert has said.

The warning involved only 1.8oz (50g) of processed meat daily.

Researchers found that almost half of cancers could be prevented with lifestyle changes such as a healthier diet, using sunscreen, not smoking and limiting alcohol intake.

The charity World Fund Cancer Research (WCRF) said more needed to be done to get across the message that people who eat processed meat regularly are putting their health at risk.

The Government has introduced a bowel cancer screening programme to offer tests every two years to all men and women aged between 60 and 69. Older people could ask for testing.

But experts believe it is more effective to prevent bowel cancer, the second most lethal form of the disease after lung cancer.

Prof Martin Wiseman, the medical and scientific adviser for the WCRF, said there was convincing evidence of a link between processed meats and cancer.

Processed meat is preserved by smoking, curing, salting or the addition of preservatives.

Examples include ham, bacon, pastrami, salami, hot dogs and processed sausages.

This includes hamburgers and minced meat if it has been preserved with salt or chemical additives.

One in 20 people develops bowel cancer and 16,000 people die from it each year.

Prof Wiseman said: "We are more sure now than ever before that eating processed meat increases your risk of bowel cancer.

"Whether it is bacon or ham, the safest amount to eat is none at all.""

It is advisable to cut down on all salted food, particularly if you are overweight/obese, because all overweight and obese people are sensitive to salt, and it is this salt sensitivity that has caused them to become overweight with fluid retention.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

See FAT RETENTION

Children and Obesity