Should we ban artificial dyes in drugs and dietary supplements?
I invite you to go to my Facebook page (link below) and answer this question. Thank you.
I have known for a long time that certain food additives can have a detrimental effect on your health, but until recently I haven’t put much attention on this issue, as I thought that there are more important things to focus on. However, in the past few months I have had some negative experiences that I can attribute to various food additives with great certainty. I don’t think anymore that food additives are only a minor issue.
To be clear, I do believe that sometimes food additives are necessary: for example, preservatives must be added into some food products, to prevent them to spoil, as food poisoning can be lethal. In such cases, it is necessary to consider both benefits and possible risks of a particular food additive and choose the safest additive that will do the job.
However, a lot of additives are totally unnecessary as far as safety is considered, and their only purpose is to make food more appealing in some way, so it sells more. Artificial sweeteners, flavorings and colors can make some junk, which you would otherwise not even consider eating, look and taste good. But, there is a price to pay, as many of these additives can have negative effect on your health. Sure, they are present only in very small quantities, but consuming them year after year, from various foods, their combined effect can be too much for your body, especially if you have other health issues as well.
Which brings me to drugs and dietary supplements. Believe it or not, they can also be jam-packed with various food additives, which makes me furious. People that take drugs and supplements are usually the people who are already sick and the last thing they need is to be gobbling down even more harmful substances!
Personally, I had a bad experience with a red artificial color best known as “Ponceau 4R”, which has a code E124 (“E number”). This is a food color additive that is commonly used in the European Union (EU), but it is not approved in the United States. Ponceau 4R is considered carcinogenic in some countries and has other harmful effects as well. I am very disappointed that EU, where I live, allows this additive in food. I am pretty sure that this artificial food coloring caused me irregular heartbeats on two different occasions: two years ago I was taking dietary supplement in the form of red capsules (dyed with E124). Irregular heartbeats started after a few months of taking the supplement and stopped within a week after I stopped taking it. Three months ago the problem repeated with a different product: I had sore throat and was taking red throat lozenges for a few days and I developed exactly the same symptoms, which also went away soon after I stopped taking the medication. Not surprisingly, the one (and only) substance that both products have in common is red colorant E124.
I also developed eczema a month ago on one of my fingers. The culprit is less obvious, but I suspect it was caused by sodium benzoate (E211), a preservative that was in a juice that I was consuming for about two weeks every day before this happened. Sodium benzoate was present also in my toothpaste.
Since then I became super cautious and I read all labels on food, drugs and dietary supplements, and even on cosmetics. If possible, I choose products that have no artificial sweeteners, flavorings, colorings or preservatives. I changed my multivitamin brand because the old one contained blue artificial colorant indigo carmine (E132), which can also be problematic according to some sources on the internet, and might had contributed to eczema on my finger. I could care less if my vitamin pill has a nice blue color. But I sure want it to be non-toxic!
Avoiding certain food additives is not an answer to every problem related to food, but it is a good start. I think the following link offers a fairly good introduction to the dangers of certain food additives: Your print out guide to the dirty dozen food additives. For more in-depth reading have a look at this link: Chemical Cuisine – Learn about Food Additives.
Do your own research on food additives. However, beware that food can be unhealthy even if it contains no additives whatsoever. It can contain pesticide residues, unhealthy fats, loads of refined sugar and so on. Moreover, food flavorings are generally not regarded as food additives – typically they do not need to be listed on the label by name as they are considered to be a trade secret.
So, the best advice of all is to eat as much unprocessed and organic food as possible.
I haven’t been posting much lately, because I have had some health issues. I intend to write more frequently when I get better. I will definitely not quit writing for this blog, but I may have longer periods without posting anything.
I have written already that I have problems with stress and anxiety, and even a mild OCD. These psychological issues certainly had a toll on my physical health as well. (One of the main reasons for starting a blog on personal development was, that I am in search for solutions for myself!)
However, now it seems likely that I have a deeper issue – deeper even than psychology. There are some indications that I might have gluten sensitivity, and possibly some other food allergies, though not much has been proven yet.
One of my relatives has celiac disease (which is genetically predisposed disorder) and since I am very skinny and have had some digestive problems, I suspected that gluten is a problem for me too. I wanted to test it for myself and went on a gluten-free diet, but unfortunately I got even sicker. The problem was that instead of bread and pasta, I started to eat more dairy and nuts (almonds, walnuts, etc.) and after a few weeks my health deteriorated. I developed heart palpitations and felt very tired. First, I suspected that dairy is the problem, so I cut it out of my diet, but it didn’t help. In fact it probably even made it worse as I lost some weight. Only after I stopped eating nuts did palpitations decreased. I have gone to the allergy specialist and done the skin prick test – it showed a mild reaction to peanuts, so allergy to nuts in general seems plausible. Or it might be that I just ate too much nuts, for whatever reason.
In addition, it is possible that my symptoms were worsened because of the use of prescription ointment (containing a corticosteroid betamethasone and an antibiotic), that I used occasionally in the past four years, because I had recurring inflammation/infection of the ear canal. Even though it is a prescription medication I never thought that it could be a problem, because I used very small quantities of it, and only occasionally. However, I searched on the internet and I found that topical corticosteroids are not so innocent, especially if applied on the areas where the skin is thinner, like in the ear, and for prolonged periods. Even though I had no proof that this medication had a negative effect on my health, I stopped using it immediately after learning that it is potentially very problematic.
These developments are going to change the orientation of this blog a bit. In the past I have been writing mostly about personal development in the sense of psychological balance – like staying motivated, focusing on your priorities, living in the now. However, there can be no personal development without physical health. Health is a complex issue and different factors are interconnected – body and mind affect each other in ways that even modern medicine does not understand fully. Stress can affect your physical well-being, but biochemical processes in your body have effect on your nerves as well, and consequently affect your psychology.
Health requires a holistic approach: from food and physical exercise, to stress management and personal happiness. So, in the future I will focus on other issues as well, not just on personal development in the narrow sense.
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Announcement: I have made a Facebook page for this blog. You are welcome to join – follow this link: The Changing Ways on Facebook
The power of a habit is enormous. It can propel you forward incredibly or it can block any change for the better, depending on whether it as a good or a bad habit.
The one habit that counts the most, I think, is not a specific thing that you do, but rather the way in which you respond to the world. Some of it is a part of your temperament, of course. You can’t do much about the temperament you were born with. But a great part of the way you react is actually a habit, an acquired pattern of behavior, that was shaped by your past experiences.
If, for whatever reason, you were conditioned to react strongly to certain people or situations in the past, you may have to deal with a lot of stress throughout your entire life, whenever you encounter similar situations. Your acquired pattern of behavior will make you overreact even to a normal, everyday situation, because some tiny aspect of it is perhaps similar to the original bad situation and therefore triggers the same reaction.
If this becomes your primary mode of living, it can make your life full of stress, mess up your relationships and health, and decrease your productivity. Going on vacations or becoming a recluse on a desert island will only partially and temporarily solve some of the problems. Sometimes running away is necessary, but you will have to return eventually or some other problem will pop in.
The only permanent way of solving the problem is to unwire the triggers and the learned response. One of the best ways you can do this is to pay attention to your breathing whenever you detect your old unwanted patterns to emerge. Just put your attention on your breath and observe it. If this doesn’t help, then go a step further and intentionally make your breathing deeper and slower and also make sure you inhale and exhale at a regular pace. This will automatically calm you down and divert your attention away from the problematic situation.
However, you will not want to divert your attention away unless you first – at least to some extent – accept the present moment and the situation at hand, because otherwise you will have a feeling that by not reacting the usual way, you are capitulating and letting the other person take advantage of you. Of course, you are not. All you are doing is breaking the chain of automated reaction that you habituated in the past. By focusing your attention on your breathing for a few seconds you are allowing yourself some time before you can intentionally respond to the situation. It may be that the situation demands a fierce response, but you will do it on purpose, and not because you are reacting blindly. (Some emergency situations may be exempt from what I just described).
Of course, this is easier said than done. Old habits are really, really persistent, and before you have had a chance to think about it you are already reacting. Therefore, I have chosen my own personal mantra (inspired by Eckhart Tolle) that I repeat over and over again, and it helps me remind myself about what needs to be done:
Breathe. Allow this moment to be
I have written this on a piece of paper and I usually carry it in my pocket, looking at it many times a day, so that I will really internalize it. When some difficult situation presents itself I try to repeat this mantra in my mind and then actually live it. By allowing the present moment to be as it is (and not as I wish it would have been) I undermine the need to react immediately, which gives me some time to focus on my breathing instead, and this enables me to respond to the situation calmly.
It doesn’t always work, but then again I only recently put this into practice. Years of habitual agitated reactions to certain situations, people and events cannot be changed overnight. I stay optimistic that in a year or so, my new mantra will fully become part of my life, and I won’t even have to think about it anymore.
This too shall pass.
- proverb
This phrase (or a variant of it), which can also be attached to a story of a king and/or a ring that has this words inscribed on it, is a sentence that is always true – in times that are good, and in times that are bad. First found in the writings of the medieval Persian Sufi poets, this simple proverb reminds us of the transient nature of everything that is, including our own existence. Nothing lasts forever. I try not to see this as either good or bad. It is what it is.
The comprehension of the “law of impermanence” leaves little ground for arrogance or desperation. Knowing that nothing is eternal, life’s achievements and drama lose its seriousness and can be accepted for what they are: a mere chapter in a life of a person, a nation, a planet. Nothing matters that much in a big scheme of things.
Of course, animals and humans, we have a natural survival instinct that serves the purpose of evading death for as long as possible. Pain and fear are parts of this self-preservation strategy, for they guide us away from danger. So, I am not suggesting at all, that you should ever ignore pain and fear, even though they are also impermanent.
However, unlike animals, humans have an added capacity to form an identity out of their life situations, be it good or bad. Even this ability probably has some benefit for the individual, but it can also grow out of proportion, into a delusion of grandeur or, conversely, into a victim identity. When this happens, suffering is a guarantee. If you identify yourself as a victim, your whole life will be miserable; and if you have a big ego, you will suffer when things don’t go your way or when your world starts falling apart, as it will eventually. If nothing else, you will grow old and helpless.
It is only when you truly accept impermanence of everything, including your own, that you can really start living your life with ease. If nothing lasts, then it doesn’t matter much if things go one way or the other. It can make a difference now, but in the long run it will make no difference. With that burden taken off of your life, you can start looking at the world as a light place. You can still strive for achievements and success, but you do it as a game, a play, and not because you want to build your self-importance, or because you want to run away from something (provided that you already have your most basic needs taken care of).
You live your life like a kid who is building a sand castle on the beach. You know that it will be washed back into the sea tomorrow – yet, you are doing it anyway, simply for the fun of it.
