Harmful Food Preservatives and Additives - Essay Example

Modern techniques for the preservation of food involve canning, freeze-drying, vacuum packing, and many more. Recently it has been found that many of the modern chemical preservatives often cause health hazards like breathing problems, anaphylactic shock, or even cancer. Harmful preservatives include Aspartame, Acesulfame -K, monosodium glutamate, sodium nitrate, etc. The best way to deal with health risks related to food preservatives is to be aware as a buyer and avoid foods that contain them, as much as possible.

As Zand, Spreen, and LaValle very aptly summarize “your shopping habits have an important and powerful influence on your diet. After all, you will eat whatever you stock in your refrigerator and cupboards” (Zand, Spreen, and La Valle, p. 50). One can do this by reading the food content label and checking them before buying. Harmless food preservatives like sucrose permitted food coloring, maltodextrin, etc can be opted for and chosen over the harmful ones. For this one will have to know and be able to identify the harmful additives from the harmless ones.

Instead of going for the chemically treated type, one can go for the organic food variety. These are organically grown, safe and preferably one should choose from a brand that is reputed and certified by a regulatory body. However organic food varieties are quite expensive and may not be viable on a daily basis. In that case, vegetables and fruits bought from the market will have to be thoroughly washed with warm water mixed with vinegar. Fruits and vegetables like apples, pears, potatoes, carrots, peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes are best eaten after removing their skin.

Cabbages and lettuces are to be eaten after removing the outer leaves as they contain more percentage of harmful ingredients. This way though we cannot completely remove the ill effects of additives and preservatives, we can at least diminish them to lead a healthier life.