Somebody posed a question to me after reading my entry "My New Anti-Diet", so this is in response to that question. In "My New Anti-Diet", I described the ingredient contents of Coffeemate Coffee Creamer in French Vanilla, which is below:

Water, Sugar, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and/or Cottonseed Oil, Sodium Caseinate, Dipotassium Phosphate, Color Added, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Sodium Stearoyl, Lactylate, Mono and Diglycerides, Polysorbate 60,Carrageenan, Beta-Carotene Color

This person asked a very legitimate question as to why those faux ingredients are bad for our bodies and what exactly they do. Well, here is an explanation of what some of those ingredients are and what they can do to us in the long haul. The definitions and information I got from the book The French Don’t Diet Plan by Dr. Will Clower. He includes a very interesting appendix at the end which explains what many of these chemicals are. If you’re interested in this concept in any way, you should check out the book!

Hydrogenated Oils:
What they are? Hydrogenation is a chemical hardening process where the oils are cooked at a very high temperature with reactive metals such as nickel, zinc or copper. Compare this to the process of getting olive oil – squeeze olives, out comes the oil.
What is it doing in my food? The food industry chemically modifies ordinary oils to extend the shelf life, and in the process making the oils more like saturated fats.
What is it doing in my body? Hydrogenated oils contain the trans fatty acids that is associated with heart and coronary disease. That is why the FDA recently required food companies to list the amount of trans fatty acids found in every product. High amounts of trans fat increase the amount of LDL (bad) cholesterol, decreases the HDL (good) cholesterol. According to the School of Public Health, replacement of partially hydrogenated fat in the U.S. diet with natural unhydrogenated vegetable oils would prevent approximately 30,000 premature coronary deaths per year.

Color and Artificial Flavors:
What are they? A nice way of telling you that your food is dyed to look like whatever it’s supposed to be. For example, Red No. 40 is a common color used in various candies, sodas, puddings and ketchup. It’s real name would be “2-Naphthalenesulfonic Acid, 6-Hydroxy-5-(2-Methoxy-5-Methyl-4-Sulfophenyl)Azo), Disodium Salt”. Sounds appetizing, doesn’t it?
What is it doing in my food? Coloring in food has been around for over a century, however before the mid-1850’s, all dyes were naturally derived. Red No. 40 was introduced in the 1960’s and approved for use in the mid 1970’s. It is now one of only nine colors accepted by the FDA. Which means that whatever “color” was added to this creamer has a chemical makeup similar to the Red No. 40.
What is it doing to my body? A study in the journal Toxicology reported that Red No. 40 reduced reproductive success and decreased normal vaginal development. Another Toxicology study reported DNA damage, particularly in the colon, which can lead to cancer. None of these studies are definitive, but would you really want to risk it?

If I did enough research, I could probably find similar studies and explanations for everything on that list. The point is that chemically created ingredients are almost always going to be worse for you than ingredients you can find in nature. In today’s world, I realize it’s not realistic to ALWAYS eat natural. However we can all certainly cut back on what faux foods we choose to put into our bodies. I recently gave up a lot that I thought I would miss (ie: soda!!!), but to be honest, I don’t miss it at all. And on the rare occasion that I do have a sip, it’s too sweet and sugary for me. Soda is another ball of wax to tackle….don’t get me started on the ingredients in there!! Maybe I will in another post to discourage all of those six-cans-a-day people out there, but in the meantime, GO GET THE BOOK!! It’s completely eye-opening!