Cuidado com os Conservantes Tóxicos: Não Seja Enganado, Leia os Rótulos!

Diariamente somos "bombardeados" por substâncias nocivas tóxicas, tais como conservantes, corantes artificiais, edulcorantes (adoçantes),  realçadores de sabor (Glutamato Monossódico), alimentos transgênicos, que geram alergias, dores de cabeça, disfunção de órgãos reprodutivos, irritação gástrica ou cutânea, eczema, náuseas, diarreia, hiperatividade, neuro toxicidade e até mesmo câncer. A fim de evitarmos todos estes males, temos que conhecer o que é prejudicial à nossa saúde, e após isto, temos que tentar evitá-los. Leia os rótulos dos alimentos antes de comprá-los. Uma sugestão prática é consumir predominantemente alimentos orgânicos "in natura"  e mesmo os alimentos industrializados orgânicos devem ter seus rótulos avaliados.
Segue abaixo uma lista de conservantes alimentícios:

- ÁCIDO BENZOICO
Características: Formação de compostos suspeitos com outras substâncias dos alimentos. Pode provocar reações alérgicas, principalmente em pessoas que sofram de asma, urticária, ou intolerância ao ácido acetilsalicílico. Pode conter resíduos de substâncias organocloradas neurotóxicas. Doses elevadas podem causar irritações gástricas. Associado a hiperatividade.
Principais Alimentos: Refrigerantes, cervejas, refrescos, doces e geleias, produtos de frutas, queijo, molhos, margarina e creme vegetal, produtos de confeitaria.
Potencial Alérgico: Sim
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 210
DDA JECFA: 5
DDA Brasil: NE

- ÁCIDO SÓRBICO
Características: Possível reação alérgica (urticária). É metabolizada com alguns ácidos graxos, o que reduz a probabilidade de ter efeitos nocivos.
Principais Alimentos: Vinho, frutas desidratadas, vegetais em conservas, azeitonas, queijos, produtos de pastelaria e panificação, molhos prontos, carnes prontas para consumo, produtos lácteos aromatizados, e produtos de confeitaria.
Potencial Alérgico: Sim
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 200
DDA JECFA: 25
DDA Brasil: NE

- BENZOATO DE CÁLCIO
Características: Formação de compostos suspeitos com outras substâncias dos alimentos. Pode provocar reações alérgicas, principalmente em pessoas que sofram de asma, urticária, ou intolerância ao ácido acetilsalicílico. Pode conter resíduos de substâncias organocloradas neurotóxicas. Doses elevadas podem causar irritações gástricas. Associado à hiperatividade.
Principais Alimentos: Refrigerantes, cervejas, refrescos, doces e geleias, produtos de frutas, queijo, molhos, margarina e creme vegetal, produtos de confeitaria.
Potencial Alérgico: Sim
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 213
DDA JECFA: 5
DDA Brasil: NE

- BENZOATO DE POTÁSSIO
Características: Formação de compostos suspeitos com outras substâncias dos alimentos. Pode provocar reações alérgicas, principalmente em pessoas que sofram de asma, urticária, ou intolerância ao ácido acetilsalicílico. Pode conter resíduos de substâncias organocloradas neurotóxicas. Doses elevadas podem causar irritações gástricas. Associado a hiperatividade.
Principais Alimentos: Refrigerantes, cervejas, refrescos, doces e geleias, produtos de frutas, queijo, molhos, margarina e creme vegetal, produtos de confeitaria.
Potencial Alérgico: Sim
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 212
DDA JECFA: 5
DDA Brasil: NE

- BISSULFITO DE CÁLCIO
Características: Pode causar reações alérgicas em pessoas sensíveis (asma, dores de cabeça, irritação gástrica ou cutânea, eczema, náuseas, diarreia). Perdas de vitamina B1. Deve ser evitado por pessoas com doenças no fígado ou rins.
Principais Alimentos: Açúcar refinado, batatas congeladas, bebidas alcoólicas, frutas dessecadas, geleias artificiais, legumes e verduras desidratadas, sucos, refrigerantes e refrescos, picles, vinhos e vinagres, frutos do mar.
Potencial Alérgico: Sim
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 227
DDA JECFA: 0,7
DDA Brasil: NE

- BISSULFITO DE POTÁSSIO
Características: Pode causar reações alérgicas em pessoas sensíveis (asma, dores de cabeça, irritação gástrica ou cutânea, eczema, náuseas, diarreia). Perdas de vitamina B1. Deve ser evitado por pessoas com doenças no fígado ou rins.
Principais Alimentos: Açúcar refinado, batatas congeladas, bebidas alcoólicas, frutas dessecadas, geleias artificiais, legumes e verduras desidratadas, sucos, refrigerantes e refrescos, picles, vinhos e vinagres, frutos do mar.
Potencial Alérgico: Sim
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 228
DDA JECFA: 0,7
DDA Brasil: NE

- BISSULFITO DE SÓDIO
Características: Pode causar reações alérgicas em pessoas sensíveis (asma, dores de cabeça, irritação gástrica ou cutânea, eczema, náuseas, diarreia). Perdas de vitamina B1. Deve ser evitado por pessoas com doenças no fígado ou rins.
Principais Alimentos: Açúcar refinado, batatas congeladas, bebidas alcoólicas, frutas dessecadas, geleias artificiais, legumes e verduras desidratadas, sucos, refrigerantes e refrescos, picles, vinhos e vinagres, frutos do mar.
Potencial Alérgico: Sim
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 222
DDA JECFA: 0,7
DDA Brasil: NE

- DIÓXIDO DE ENXOFRE
Características: Pode causar reações alérgicas em pessoas sensíveis (asma, dores de cabeça, irritação gástrica ou cutânea, eczema, náuseas, diarreia). Perdas de vitamina B1. Deve ser evitado por pessoas com doenças no fígado ou rins.
Principais Alimentos: Açúcar refinado, batatas congeladas, bebidas alcoólicas, frutas dessecadas, geleias artificiais, legumes e verduras desidratadas, sucos, refrigerantes e refrescos, picles, vinhos e vinagres, frutos do mar.
Potencial Alérgico: Sim
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 220
DDA JECFA: 0,7
DDA Brasil: NE

- METABISSUFITO DE POTÁSSIO
Características: Pode causar reações alérgicas em pessoas sensíveis (asma, dores de cabeça, irritação gástrica ou cutânea, eczema, náuseas, diarreia). Perdas de vitamina B1. Deve ser evitado por pessoas com doenças no fígado ou rins.
Principais Alimentos: Açúcar refinado, batatas congeladas, bebidas alcoólicas, frutas dessecadas, geleias artificiais, legumes e verduras desidratadas, sucos, refrigerantes e refrescos, picles, vinhos e vinagres, frutos do mar.
Potencial Alérgico: Sim
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 224
DDA JECFA: 0,7
DDA Brasil: NE

- METABISSULFITO DE SÓDIO
Características: Pode causar reações alérgicas em pessoas sensíveis (asma, dores de cabeça, irritação gástrica ou cutânea, eczema, náuseas, diarreia). Perdas de vitamina B1. Deve ser evitado por pessoas com doenças no fígado ou rins.
Principais Alimentos: Açúcar refinado, batatas congeladas, bebidas alcoólicas, frutas dessecadas, geleias artificiais, legumes e verduras desidratadas, sucos, refrigerantes e refrescos, picles, vinhos e vinagres, frutos do mar.
Potencial Alérgico: Sim
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 223
DDA JECFA: 0,7
DDA Brasil: NE

- NATAMICINA
Características: Pode levar a formação de bactérias resistentes, o que provoca uma perda nos efeito terapêuticos nas infecções.
Principais Alimentos: Queijos.
Potencial Alérgico: Não
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 235
DDA JECFA: 0,3
DDA Brasil: Ne

- NITRATO DE POTÁSSIO
Características: Efeito vasodilatador. Favorece reações histamínicas, sendo a histamina um mediador químico da alergia. Pode formar nitrosaminas potencialmente cancerígenas. Pode ser tóxico para bebês.
Principais Alimentos: Produtos cárneos curados (exceto charque), queijos.
Potencial Alérgico: Não
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 252
DDA JECFA: 3,7
DDA Brasil: NE

- NITRATO DE SÓDIO
Características: Efeito vasodilatador. Favorece reações histamínicas, sendo a histamina um mediador químico da alergia. Pode formar nitrosaminas potencialmente cancerígenas. Pode ser tóxico para bebês.
Principais Alimentos: Produtos cárneos curados (exceto charque) e queijos.
Potencial Alérgico: Não
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 251
DDA JECFA: 3,7
DDA Brasil: NE

- NITRITO DE POTÁSSIO
Características: Efeito vasodilatador. Favorece reações histamínicas, sendo a histamina um mediador químico da alergia. Pode formar nitrosaminas potencialmente cancerígenas. Pode ser tóxico para bebês.
Principais Alimentos: Produtos cárneos curados (exceto charque e alimentos infantis)
Potencial Alérgico: Sim
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 249
DDA JECFA: 0,06
DDA Brasil: NE

- NITRITO DE SÓDIO
Características: Efeito vasodilatador. Favorece reações histamínicas, sendo a histamina um mediador químico da alergia. Pode formar nitrosaminas potencialmente cancerígenas. Pode ser tóxico para bebês.
Principais Alimentos: Produtos cárneos curados (exceto charque e produtos infantis).
Potencial Alérgico: Não
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 250
DDA JECFA: 0,06
DDA Brasil: NE

- p-HIDROXIBENZOATO DE ETILA
Características: Pode causar reações alérgicas (parestesia ao nível bucal)
Principais Alimentos: Picles
Potencial Alérgico: Sim
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 214
DDA JECFA: 10
DDA Brasil: NE

- p-HIDROXIBENZOATO DE METILA
Características: Pode causar reações alérgicas (parestesia ao nível bucal)
Principais Alimentos: Picles
Potencial Alérgico: Sim
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 218
DDA JECFA: 10
DDA Brasil: NE

- p-HIDROXIBENZOATO DE PROPILO
Características: Pode causar reações alérgicas (parestesia ao nível bucal)
Principais Alimentos: Picles
Potencial Alérgico: Sim
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 216
DDA JECFA: 10
DDA Brasil: NE

- PROPIANATO DE POTÁSSIO
Características: Nenhum efeito secundário conhecido
Principais Alimentos: Bombons e similares, chocolates, massas frescas e semiprontas, produtos de panificação, produtos de pastelaria e produtos de confeitaria.
Potencial Alérgico: Não
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 283
DDA JECFA: NL
DDA Brasil: NE

- PROPIONATO DE CÁLCIO
Características: Nenhum efeito secundário conhecido
Principais Alimentos: Bombons e similares, chocolates, massas frescas e semiprontas, produtos de panificação, produtos de pastelaria e produtos de confeitaria.
Potencial Alérgico: Não
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 282
DDA JECFA: NL
DDA Brasil: Ne

- PROPIONATO DE SÓDIO
Características: Nenhum efeito secundário conhecido
Principais Alimentos: Bombons e similares, chocolates, massas frescas e semiprontas, produtos de panificação, produtos de pastelaria e produtos de confeitaria.
Potencial Alérgico: Não
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 281
DDA JECFA: NL
DDA Brasil: NE

- SORBATO DE CÁLCIO
Características: Possível reação alérgica (urticária). É metabolizado com ácidos graxos, o que reduz a possibilidade dos efeitos nocivos.
Principais Alimentos: Vinho, frutas desidratadas, vegetais em conservas, azeitonas, queijos, produtos de pastelaria e panificação, molhos prontos, carnes prontas para consumo, produtos lácteos aromatizados, e produtos de confeitaria.
Potencial Alérgico: Sim
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 203
DDA JECFA: 25
DDA Brasil: Ne

- SORBATO DE POTÁSSIO
Características: Possível reação alérgica (urticária). É metabolizado com alguns ácidos graxos, o que reduz a probabilidade de outros efeitos nocivos.
Principais Alimentos: Vinho, frutas desidratadas, vegetais em conservas, azeitonas, queijos, produtos de pastelaria e panificação, molhos prontos, carnes prontas para consumo, produtos lácteos aromatizados, produtos de confeitaria, também está presente em diversos cosméticos orgânicos.
Potencial Alérgico: Sim
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 202
DDA JECFA: 25
DDA Brasil: NE

- SULFITO DE CÁLCIO
Características: Pode causar reações alérgicas em pessoas sensíveis (asma, dores de cabeça, irritação gástrica ou cutânea, eczema, náuseas, diarreia). Perdas de vitamina B1. Deve ser evitado por pessoas com doenças no fígado ou rins.
Principais Alimentos: Açúcar refinado, batatas congeladas, bebidas alcoólicas, frutas dessecadas, geleias artificiais, legumes e verduras desidratadas, sucos, refrigerantes e refrescos, picles, vinhos e vinagres, frutos do mar.
Potencial Alérgico: Sim
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 226
DDA JECFA: 0,7
DDA Brasil: NE

- SULFITO DE SÓDIO
Características: Pode causar reações alérgicas em pessoas sensíveis (asma, dores de cabeça, irritação gástrica ou cutânea, eczema, náuseas, diarreia). Perdas de vitamina B1. Deve ser evitado por pessoas com doenças no fígado ou rins.
Principais Alimentos: Açúcar refinado, batatas congeladas, bebidas alcoólicas, frutas dessecadas, geleias artificiais, legumes e verduras desidratadas, sucos, refrigerantes e refrescos, picles, vinhos e vinagres, frutos do mar.
Potencial Alérgico: Sim
Função(es): Conservante
Código do aditivo encontrado no rótulo: INS 221
DDA JECFA: 0,7
DDA Brasil: NE

Observação: O JECFA é o comitê científico internacional de especialistas em aditivos alimentares administrado pela FAO e pela OMS. O JECFA se reúne desde 1956 e realiza a avaliação do risco associado ao consumo de aditivos alimentares, contaminantes, toxinas de ocorrência natural e resíduos de medicamentos veterinários em alimentos, assessorando o Codex Alimentarius em suas decisões.

Com base em estudos toxicológicos, o JECFA estabelece, quando possível, a Ingestão Diária Aceitável (IDA) dos aditivos. A IDA é quantidade estimada do aditivo alimentar, expressa em miligrama por quilo de peso corpóreo (mg/kg p.c.), que pode ser ingerida diariamente, durante toda a vida, sem oferecer risco apreciável à saúde, à luz dos conhecimentos científicos disponíveis na época da avaliação. A IDA pode ser:

IDA não especificada ou não limitada - Atribuída a um aditivo quando o estabelecimento de um valor numérico para a IDA é considerado desnecessário face às informações disponíveis sobre o mesmo e ao seu emprego de acordo com as Boas Práticas de Fabricação, ou seja, a substância não representa risco à saúde nas quantidades necessárias para obter o efeito tecnológico desejado.

IDA não alocada - Atribuída a um aditivo quando os dados toxicológicos disponíveis não são suficientes para se estabelecer a segurança de uso do mesmo.

IDA temporária - Atribuída a um aditivo quando os dados são suficientes apenas para concluir que o uso da substância é seguro por um período limitado de tempo, até que os estudos toxicológicos sejam concluídos e avaliados. Caso as informações adicionais solicitadas não sejam apresentadas no prazo estipulado a IDA temporária é retirada.

IDA aceitável - Atribuída a um aditivo quando: seu uso é aceitável para certos propósitos, seu emprego não representa preocupação toxicológica ou quando a ingestão é auto-limitante por razões tecnológicas ou organolépticas. Nesses casos, o aditivo em questão deve ser somente autorizado de acordo com as condições especificadas.

Consulte aqui a ferramenta de busca das monografias toxicológicas do JECFA.

Referências:

http://transparenciaalimentar.wordpress.com/lista-de-aditivos/conservantes/

http://www.proteste.org.br/

http://portal.anvisa.gov.br/wps/portal/anvisa/anvisa/home/alimentos/!ut/p/c4/04_SB8K8xLLM9MSSzPy8xBz9CP0os3hnd0cPE3MfAwMDMydnA093Uz8z00B_A3cvA_2CbEdFADQgSKI!/?1dmy&urile=wcm%3Apath%3A/anvisa+portal/anvisa/inicio/alimentos/publicacao+alimentos/comite+de+especialistas+da+fao+oms+em+aditivos+alimentares++jecfa

Teste Recente de Azeite de Oliva Extravirgem: Verdadeiro ou Falso?

         

Parecem azeites, mas não são: fuja destas marcas

25/12/2013 - Atualizado em 23/08/2016.

Na análise anterior, realizada em 2013, as marcas testadas foram: Olivas do Sul; Carrefour; Cardeal; Cocinero; Andorinha; La Violetera; Vila Flor; La Espanhola; Carbonell; Serrata; Beirão; Qualitá; Gallo; Pramesa; Borges; Tradição; Quinta da Aldeia; Figueira da Foz e Vila Real.
Dentre as marcas testadas haviam sido consideradas extravirgem: (Olivas do Sul; Carrefour; Cardeal; Cocinero; Andorinha; La Violetera; Vila Flor; Qualitá); virgens: (La Espanhola; Carbonell; Serrata; Beirão; Gallo; Pramesa; Borges); e mistura de óleos refinados: (Tradição; Quinta da Aldeia; Figueira da Foz e Vila Real).

Na análise mais recente de 23 agosto 2016, a Proteste Associação de Consumidores, testou vinte marcas de azeite, constatando que quatro estão adicionadas de outros óleos vegetais e sete não são o que dizem ser. Essa é a conclusão do mais recente teste desse alimento, que continua a revelar problemas para o consumidor.
Os produtos que NÃO podem ser considerados azeites são Pramesa, Figueira da Foz, Tradição e Quinta d’Aldeia. Eles foram eliminados do teste após a análise em laboratório comprovar adulteração.

Na prática, isso significa que ao azeite (proveniente da azeitona) foram adicionados outros óleos vegetais, o que não é permitido por lei. Dessa forma, ao adquirir um desses produtos, você e sua família vão consumir uma mistura de óleos que, além de tudo, são nocivos à saúde.

Infelizmente, esse não foi o único problema encontrado. Pois além disso, sete marcas NÃO podem ser classificadas como extravirgem. São elas: Qualitá, Beirão, Carrefour Discount, Filippo Berio, Figueira da Foz, Tradição e Quinta d'Aldeia.

Extravirgens? Só no rótulo.

As quatro primeiras foram consideradas virgens. As outras três, que, como já mencionado, apresentaram fraude, possuem características sensoriais de azeite lampante, o qual nem poderia ser levado à mesa, devido a sua acidez intensa, só devendo ser destinado para uso industrial.

• Descubra quais testes foram utilizados para eliminar ou determinar a qualidade dos azeites.

Com exceção dos eliminados, todos os produtos foram bem ou muito bem avaliados no quesito estado de conservação, o que indica que eles vêm sendo armazenados corretamente.

Quais são os tipos de azeite?

• O azeite de oliva extravirgem é obtido de uma única prensagem a frio da azeitona madura, por isso ele é o mais puro e sua acidez é de no máximo 0,8% (os melhores estão entre 0,4 e 0,5%). Após a prensagem, ele é filtrado, conservando um sabor acentuado. São produtos de alta qualidade gastronômica e no dia a dia são utilizados para finalização de pratos ou saladas.
• O azeite de oliva virgem é extraído na segunda ou terceira prensagem da azeitona. Sua acidez pode ser de até 2% e o seu sabor é menos acentuado em relação ao extra virgem e um pouco mais adocicado. Na sua comercialização podem ser denominados “fino”. Seu principal uso é o culinário.
• Azeites que superam o grau de acidez de 2% ou que por problemas climáticos ou de processo apresentam defeitos sensoriais são destinados ao refino, resultando em um produto com acidez não superior a 0,3%. O azeite refinado não é vendido aos consumidores e destina-se exclusivamente a utilização industrial, ou seja, são misturados com outros azeites de oliva.

Campeão nas vantagens para a saúde, o extravirgem é ideal para a finalização de pratos e saladas.  Quando você compra um azeite adulterado, acaba comprando gato por lebre: paga o equivalente a um produto mais caro e ainda prejudicial à saúde.

• Saiba quais providências a PROTESTE está tomando para que você não seja prejudicado pelos azeites adulterados.

A alteração sensorial pode não ser percebida pelo consumidor leigo, é que, em algumas situações, o óleo de sementes bem refinado não tem cheiro ou sabor. Assim, quando misturado ao extravirgem, prevalecem o cheiro e o sabor do segundo, o que impede o óleo de ser detectado facilmente durante o consumo.

Cinco marcas mudaram para melhor

Frente a tantos problemas, uma excelente notícia: percebemos a melhora de algumas marcas. No último teste, La Española, Carbonell, Serrata, Gallo e Borges foram tidos como virgens. Desta vez, contudo, eles provaram ser extravirgens.

Rótulos e embalagens podem melhorar

Embora de vidro, a embalagem do Qualitá é transparente. Esse tipo de recipiente é inadequado. Para melhor conservação do produto, o ideal é que ele seja armazenado em embalagem preferencialmente de vidro escuro. Vale lembrar que, além desse problema, esse azeite foi apontado como virgem em nossa análise sensorial. Por isso, não aconselhamos sua compra.

No geral, os produtos se saíram bem em relação aos rótulos. No entanto, foram encontrados alguns problemas. A maioria deles não traz o prazo de conservação após a abertura da embalagem e alguns pecam quando o assunto é estreitar e facilitar a interação entre o consumidor e a empresa: falta e-mail e telefone para contato. Além disso, alguns itens obrigatórios por lei foram desconsiderados: o Cocinero deixa de informar a data de envase e nem todos os importados possuem o país de origem estampado na embalagem.

Qual é o melhor azeite?
O Cocinero foi escolhido como O Melhor do Teste e A Escolha Certa. Autêntico azeite extravirgem, apresentou qualidade excelente, além do melhor custo-benefício entre os produtos avaliados no teste.

Porém, embora não tenha pecado no quesito estado de conservação, o fato de sua embalagem ser de plástico pode ser apontado como ponto negativo, pois garrafas de vidro escuro tendem a conservar melhor o alimento. O rótulo precisa de adequações, uma vez que não informa a data de envase do produto.
Você pode encontrar o azeite Cocinero por preços que variam entre R$ 10,15 e R$ 21,49.

OBS minha, Sílen: Os azeites devem estar em garrafa de vidro escuro, pois eles oxidam em contato com a luz, as latas liberam metais pesados, além de serem revestidas com bisfenol-A (BPA) e embalagens de plástico podem liberar xenoestrógenos.

Utilizo azeites extravirgens em garrafa de vidro escuro como o O-live, Andorinha ou Andorinha Orgânico ou La Violetera.

Fontes:

http://www.proteste.org.br/azeite?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=azeite-fb#dialog

http://jornalggn.com.br/blog/proteste-associacao-de-consumidores/teste-de-azeite-de-oliva-pior-resultado-entre-os-quatro-ja-realizados-pela-proteste

http://www.nutritotal.com.br/perguntas/?acao=bu&id=862&categoria=30

"The Best Doctor Gives the Least Medicines"

"The best doctor gives the least medicines." (Benjamin Franklin) 

The DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWSLETTER Vol 1, No 5 January 5, 2001 "Free of charge, free of advertising, and free of the A.M.A." Written by Andrew Saul, PhD. of http://www.doctoryourself.com , a free online library of more than 180 natural healing articles with over 2,500 scientific references.

VITAMINS FIGHT LEARNING DISABILITIES 

Nutritional supplements were used, with considerable success, to help overcome learning disabilities in children. In a well-designed clinical trial, "megavitamin" doses were seen to be safe and remarkably effective, even offering improvement in Downs Syndrome children.
Dr. Ruth F. Harrell and associates published their important findings in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA (78:574-578)... in 1981! Although Medical Tribune picked the story up, it is likely that your doctor is as unaware of this research as I was until one of my chiropractic students showed it to me in '93.

The Harrell study was successful because her team gave LD kids much larger doses of vitamins than other researchers: over 100 times the ADULT (not child's) RDA for riboflavin; 37 times the RDA for niacin (given as niacinamide); 40 times the RDA for vitamin E; and 150 times the RDA for thiamin. These are the quantities that evidently get results, and get them safely. Safety and effectiveness are the rule, not the exception, with therapeutic nutrition.

Here is an abstract (summary) of this important article:
"To explore the hypothesis that mental retardations are in part genetotrophic diseases (diseases in which the genetic pattern of the afflicted individual requires an augmented supply of one or more nutrients such that when these nutrients are adequately supplied the disease is ameliorated), we carried out a partially double-blind experiment with 16 retarded children (initial IQs, approximately 17-70) of school age who were given nutritional supplements or placebos during a period of 8 months. The supplement contained 8 minerals in moderate amounts and 11 vitamins, mostly in relatively large amounts. During the first 4- month period (double-blind) the 5 children who received supplements increased their average IQ by 5.0-9.6, depending on the investigator, whereas the 11 subjects given placebos showed negligible change. The difference between these two groups is statistically significant (P less than 0.05). During the second period, the subjects who had been given placebos in the first study received supplements; they showed an average IQ increase of at least 10.2, a highly significant gain (P less than 0.001). Three of the five subjects who were given supplements for both periods showed additional IQ gains during the second 4 months. 

Three of four children with Down syndrome gained between 10 and 25 units in IQ and also showed physical changes toward normal. Other evidence suggests that the supplement improved visual acuity in two children and increased growth rates. These results support the hypothesis that mental retardations are in part genetotrophic in origin."

What intrigues me most is the need to explore this area further, and medical reluctance to do so. As Lincoln said of the little girl who put her hand in the stocking, "It strikes me that there's something in it." I urge you to read the full paper: Harrell RF, Capp RH, Davis DR, Peerless J, Ravitz LR Can nutritional supplements help mentally retarded children? An exploratory study. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 1981 Jan;78(1):574-8.

Dr. Harrell, who had been publishing on vitamin effects on learning for over 30 years, was not inventing the idea of megavitamin therapy suddenly in one paper. Nor has the work ended; the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine is a good resource if you want to know more. http://www.orthomed.com

WHY JUICE? 

You cannot buy freshly prepared vegetable juice in any store at any price... unless they literally juice the vegetables right in front of your eyes and you drink it down before they make you pay for it!. Any juice in a carton, can or bottle has been heat treated and was certainly packaged at least a few days, if not weeks, months or even years ago. This applies to frozen juice, too. So you need one essential and somewhat expensive appliance: your own juicer.

A juicer is not a blender. A juicer makes juice; a blender makes raw baby food. There is nothing wrong with blending your foods. If you found such food to your liking, it would actually be very digestible. However, to make palatable juice you need to extract the fluid part of the vegetable along with the vitamins, minerals and enzymes it contains. Therefore, you need a juice extractor. And we are not referring to a whirl-top orange juicer, either.
Be sure to get a really good juicer. Good juicers make tastier juices, faster. Good juicers also clean up more quickly than cheap juicers. I have no financial connection whatsoever with anyone who makes or sells a juicer. I do not sell juicers, but I sure do recommend owning one. (Okay, I have five. But you'd expect that, wouldn't you?) I personally like the "Champion" brand juicer. Quick and easy to use and to clean. I've had mine for 15 years now and it is used daily. I did buy for an extra blade assembly, but haven't really needed it yet.

The secret to easy clean-up: The moment you have finished making (and drinking!) your juice, just rinse the cleanable parts with water and set them in a dish-drainer rack until the next use. Soap will rarely be necessary as long as you don't mind the plastic parts of the juicer gradually becoming the same color as your favorite vegetables.

WHAT TO JUICE

You can juice almost anything you can eat raw. Vegetables are best, especially carrots, cucumbers, beets, tomatoes, zucchini squash, romaine lettuce, sprouts, celery and cabbage. You may juice fruits also, naturally. Freshly made raw apple, grape, and melon juices are delicious. It is not generally a good idea to juice potatoes, eggplant or Lima beans (not that you'd want to.) It is wise to peel vegetables that have been sprayed or waxed, such as cucumbers. Sprayed fruits are also good to peel before juicing. Carrots and other underground vegetables often do not need peeling. Instead, give them a good scrubbing with a nylon-bristle vegetable brush while rinsing under tap water. Beets are the exception. Since beet skins are very bitter, it is wise to peel beets before juicing. A hint to save time: dip the beets for about 20 seconds in boiling water and then peel them... it's much easier.
Your juice will taste the best if you drink it right after preparing it. I mean within moments! 

Fresh juice contains a great amount of raw food enzymes and vitamins, many of which are easily lost as the juice sits. So don't let it sit! Drink it right down, with the thought that this is unbelievably good for you.

HOW MUCH JUICE TO DRINK 

Drink as much juice as you wish. Remember that it is a food, not a beverage and that you can have as much as you want. There is little fear of over doing it. It is, after all, hard to hurt yourself with vegetables!
More juicing hints at http://www.doctoryourself.com/juicefast.html

FITNESS FOR FREE (or close to it!) 

Some people buy expensive athletic footwear and join pricey exercise clubs. Why? Here is how to get all the benefits of exercise on a shoestring.
1. Adopt a dog. Even if you don't like to exercise, dogs like to. Here's an excuse to walk, jog, or run: blame the dog. A dog HAS to go out several times daily; here's automatic exercise for both of you. Dogs are good company and they don't talk. Plus, nothing adds security to a lone runner like a nice 90-pound doggie.
2. Drive a pickup truck instead of a car. All your friends will want you to help them move. Guaranteed weight-lifting opportunities await you; not to mention how alluring trucks can be to the opposite sex.
3. Better yet, don't have a vehicle at all. Two bags of groceries looks like nothing... until you have to carry them a mile home. I know; before I learned to drive, I lived in rural Vermont. There are few stores there... and a lot of hills. Which brings us to the next idea:
4. Always choose a house on top of a hill. Or, choose a top floor apartment. It is quieter anyway, and you have daily exercise on the stairs.
5. Start a garden. Turn over the soil by hand (yes, using a shovel as well) and you will get real exercise. Then the planting, weeding, watering and harvesting activities are also good exercise. May I also add that this is one of the few exercises that feeds you as a side benefit?
6. Get a woodstove. Not only will you likely save money heating with wood, but you get exercise in supplying the stove with the very wood it burns. Henry David Thoreau said that wood warms us three times: once in cutting it and hauling it in, once from the heat it provides as it burns, and once more from the warm glow you feel as you watch the fire. I think that with oil and natural gas prices going through the roof (so to speak) this winter, you will get a fourth warm feeling: from all the money you save heating with wood.

Curiously, many of the above exercise ideas were life's regular activities for our pioneer forefathers and mothers. They did not need health spas and gyms. They got exercise in keeping warm, keeping fed, and taking care of their family.

BOOK REVIEW: The Greatest Health Discovery

I would catch a little flak from my graduate students every time I'd trot out "old" research studies from the 1940's, 50's and 60's. Now to REALLY annoy them: here's a book of largely pre-Civil War sources of drugless healing. For when Hygienists speak of the 40's and 50's, you don't even know at first which century they are referring to. The natural hygiene lifestyle not only avoids drugs, but also involves neither supplements or nor remedies of any kind. Its reliance on clean living, sunshine, water, unprocessed raw food and therapeutic fasting is straight out of the 1800's.

The Greatest Health Discovery is a condensed recap of the writers and ideas that have shaped some 200 years of an American version of macrobiotics, and is a veritable natural health hall of fame. It includes Dr. Sylvester Graham (born in 1794), who is known for the crackers that bear his name. Did you know that his lecture in my home town of Rochester, NY drew three thousand people at a time when all roads leading to it were made of dirt? (I missed hearing him by just over a hundred years.) There's James Calab Jackson, M.D., abolitionist and founder of what was the world's largest naturopathic hospital in Dansville, NY. There's John H. Tilden, M.D., the originator of the theory of systemic toxemia as the root cause of all illness, and the work of famed twentieth century author Dr. Herbert M. Shelton.

My favorite account is that of Russell Thacker Trall, M.D., who founded the first hydrotherapy facility in the U.S. in 1844, and is credited with setting down a system of natural hygiene still followed to this day. So convinced was Dr. Trall that drugs were poisons, and that food and water would cure, that during the Civil War he wrote to various departments in Washington and to President Lincoln himself, offering "a system of the healing art which, applied to the treatment of the diseases prevailing in the camps and hospitals of our armies, would save thousands of the lives of our officers and soldiers." (page 55) Dr. Trall's successful patients included members of Congress. When he lectured at the Smithsonian Institution in February, 1862, he argued that Willie Lincoln, the President's teenage son, need not die from "a cold, a pneumonia or a fever" but to no avail. To this day, Presidents and Congress are yet to act on the advice of natural healing advocates.
And by the way, Dr. Trall's letters were never answered.

The Greatest Health Discovery is by the Natural Hygiene Society (of America), Natural Hygiene Press, Inc., 1972. Ask your librarian to get you a copy through interlibrary loan.
Vitamin C sprayed into the mouth during cigarette smoking gradually reduces the craving to smoke. Food consumption also declines, as do hunger cravings. By the end of one study, smoking behavior was either reduced or stopped completely. This unusual example of vitamin C's versatility was published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 1993:337, pp 211-213.
Isn't it a wonder that the media seem to have missed this one?

DoctorYourself Recommended Website of the Month: http://www.altcorp.com/amalgampage.htm You've got to love this scientifically-based site's on-line slide show about mercury toxicity, put together by the chairman of the University of Kentucky Chemistry Department. Thanks to Steve Emerson for the link.

VITAMIN MYTH #5: "There is no difference between synthetic and natural vitamins."
That is most certainly not true of vitamin E. Synthetic DL-alpha tocopherol is far less clinically effective than the natural (d-alpha) form of vitamin E. In addition, synthetic products may fail to contain natural fractions that are therapeutically important. Synthetic beta-carotene, for example, is clinically useless. All the carotenes are needed (and there are many of them), not just the beta form.

Privacy Statement: We do not sell, and we do not share, our mailing list or your email address with anyone. You may notice that there is no advertising at http://doctoryourself.com and no advertising in this newsletter. We also do not sell vitamins or other health products, except for Dr. Saul's books, which help fund these free public services.

Irregular menstrual cycles? This may sound like an offbeat idea, but many of my adult students have reported that it's helped normalize periods: Try eating a few tablespoons of wheat germ daily. Ladies can put it on breakfast cereal, or on ice cream, and it's not bad. Make sure the wheat germ is fresh, or vacuum packed. I am not saying that this is the sure answer, but it is a harmless method to try. See a doctor if the problem persists.

Today's Reason to Become (More of) a Vegetarian:

Children who eat hot dogs once a week double their risk of a brain tumor. Youngsters eating other cured meats, such as ham, sausage and bacon, had an 80 percent higher risk of brain cancer. This study was done at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Kids eating more than twelve hot dogs a month (that's barely three hot dogs a week) have nearly ten times the risk of leukemia as children who ate none. This research was done at the University of Southern California School of Medicine in Los Angeles. But here is the very important good news: Children who ate hot dogs and other cured meats, but who also took supplemental vitamins, had reduced cancer risk. (Jean Carper's syndicated column in Lancaster, PA Intelligencer-Journal, Weds., June 22, 1994.)
Do you recall ever hearing anything in the media about this?

Source:

http://www.doctoryourself.com/news/v1n5.html

Getting into Your Outside: Naturopathic Body Care

  I think health nuts are right when they emphasize skin health for total health. Your skin is your body's largest organ, and virtually the only organ that you can watch. So many people have skin rashes, dryness, sores, blisters, corns, dandruff and such that more attention needs to be given to what holds you together.  Do you realize what you'd look like without skin? A heap of organs on the floor: how explicit!  The skin also excretes many wastes from the body.  That's what sweating does, in addition, to automatically cooling you.

Naturopathic theory holds that rashes, pimples, eczema, and illnesses like chicken pox or measles are attempts by the skin to clean itself out.  This idea will never cease to come up as long as we talk of nature's way in health: the body will try, must try, to clean itself of toxins, foreign chemicals and poisons. Nature eliminates wastes. You may not like it; it may not look romantic; it might even itch. However, the toxins must be expelled.  Since the skin is your largest organ, it will by nature want to do a lot of cleaning out. The more it does so, the more you needed it to.

"So that's where all those hives and rashes come from," you might think, and you'd be essentially correct. Take a VERY common complaint: dandruff. An over-abundance of mucus-producing items in the diet seems to be a basic cause. Persons with dandruff have found that if they reduce their consumption of milk, ice cream, yogurt and eggs that their dandruff goes away. No medications, no special patent shampoos. I have seen this in my own experience, and if you will pardon me, on my own scalp. Cottage cheese and the aged cheeses seem to be less involved in making up what comes off us as dandruff.

 Over consumption of cooked, processed foods in general seems to predispose a body for complaints like this. I even had a dog with dandruff...until I stopped giving him dry skim milk plus cream plus milk on top of all the dog food he could eat. When the dog's diet was cut in half, following a four-day cleansing fast, the dandruff was gone and never returned until the animal was overfed again.

Simple, proper diet eliminates so many complaints. Whole foods, raw or lightly-cooked vegetables, grains and fruits, no meat and no chemically-doctored food will go a very long way to improving your skin in a short time. Unfortunately, many folks are inclined to and even encouraged to put creams, salves, ointments and other patent remedies on their skin to "relieve the itching and scaling of the heartbreak of psoriasis" or to "restore moisture to dry, worn-out skin."

 Let's "clear up" this skin medication question right here. First of all, there is no such thing as "worn-out skin."  Fortunately for us, skin is perennial, self-repairing, and virtually indestructible. Now just think how many times you scraped, cut or bruised your skin when you were a kid! Look at you now; look at your hands, arms and knees. You're not covered with patches, are you? Nature repairs and mends skin beautifully. When you cut yourself, you might disinfect the wound with iodine or some other preparation. But does the iodine re-knit the skin, make the new cells, or weave new tissue? No, nature does. When a surgeon stitches up an incision or a wound she brings the skin together and holds it in place with sutures.  But if nature didn't re-unite the cells, what good would the stitches do?

 Vitamin C and E seem to be most important for proper healing and maintenance of your skin. Drs. Wilfrid and Evan Shute used vitamin E, both internally and externally, in their extremely successful treatment of third degree burns. Vitamin C is well-known to be essential to holding the cells together and encouraging their normal growth (that's a reason why C is so desperately important to a cancer patient's body). Vitamin C compresses have been used on severe skin ulcerations with success surpassing that of antibiotics. Both of these vitamins can be given internally, plus applied topically without danger of side effects. Recovery periods are rapid with each, and probably best with both.  Show me a person with chronic skin problems and two times out of three I'll bet their diet is deficient in E or C.

For the other one time out of three, the person may benefit from the Schuessler Cell Salts, particularly if a needed mineral is missing. How can the skin function normally if it is lacking a raw material that it must have? The absence of any one nutrient is a problem for the whole system. A high-fidelity enthusiast once told me that a stereo system is only as good as its weakest part. You can spend a fortune on the best speakers, the finest amplifier, the highest quality CD player, and the greatest recordings. But if there's just one bad electrical connection, all the rest is useless to you.  The Schuessler minerals in homeopathic potency are provided in minute but vital quantity and quality. "A little dab will do ya" if you'll pardon me. J.B. Chapman, M.D. lists over 85 different skin ailments that are helped by Schuessler minerals in Dr. Schuessler's Biochemistry (New Era, London. 1973).
 Would you like to know what some of the indications for use are?  This is some of what Dr. Chapman suggests: 

•  Cracks in hands: Calc. Flour. 
•  Dry skin: Calc. Phos., Kali. Sulph.  
•  Excessive dryness: Natrum Mur. 
•  Face full of pimples: Calc. Phos., Calc. Sulph... 
•  Greasy scales on skin: Kali. Phos. 
•  (Skin) Heals slowly: Silicea, Calc. Sulph. 
•  Hives: Natr. Phos. 
•  Itching, as from nettles: Calc. Phos. 
•  Itching of skin, with crawling: Kali. Phos., Calc. Phos. 
•  Ivy poisoning: Kali. Sulph., Natr. Mur. 
•  Rawness of skin in little children: Natr. Phos. 
•  Shingles: Kali. Mur., Natr. Mur. 
•  Warts: Kali. Mur.

 And there's over 72 more suggestions in this one book alone.

Many of what we call "allergies" are probably just local or system-wide deficiencies of vitamins or minerals. As you now know, I don't believe in allergies. I do, however, believe in one's body showing in symptoms what it needs in nutrition. Also, I believe in the body showing that it has received something it doesn't need. If you're "allergic" to sulfa drugs or antibiotics, consider yourself lucky... and normal. Drugs, chemicals, preservatives, food coloring dyes, and other unnatural substances have to be high on the body's list of "things to excrete at first opportunity." These are foreign, toxic and very commonly ingested although bad for us. How is it then, that we are surprised when the irritant starts a rash, fever, nausea or sneezing? Wouldn't you expect your body to indicate poisoning in some way? If someone ate poisoned food and then developed fever or threw up, we'd agree that the body was reacting to get rid of the toxin in the best way it could.  When a child eats preserved, colored food with the vitamins and nutrients processed out of it, and then develops food sensitivities, where is the surprise? Even injections and vaccinations are forced through our skin in an effort to get a drug into our bloodstream. We should remember that the body may utilize that same path in trying to get foreign toxins and poisons out.
 Think of that next time you see a rash or other skin symptom.

Your skin is a living, breathing, body-cleaning organ.  If you stop it up, you're in trouble. In the James Bond story Goldfinger people were spray-painted gold. Remember that they supposedly died? Your skin must be free from pore-clogging coatings. That's why commercial creams, ointments and salves are not doing any more than removing the symptoms of skin excretion. In slowing down or blocking this excretion they are clogging the pores and of themselves adding to what has to be cleaned out. Why make the skin have to now excrete these added toxins on top of the old ones? It's like shaking the dirt out of your rugs... in the middle of the living room.

If you don't use any of the countless patent skin treatments for beauty or disease, your skin will be that much better. Treating symptoms is just trying to fool Nature. Coating over the body's cleansing efforts does not make you or your skin well.  I don't think it's wise to use chemical creams or antibiotic ointments or any of that. Keeping drugs, artificial colors, preservatives, alcohols, artificial fragrances, and those foot-long chemical names off your skin can only help it.

If nature had wanted us to use lots of synthetics on our body, she would probably have put triethanolamine, carbomer-934, methylparaben, propylparaben, dimethicone, titanium dioxide, sodium myristate, stearyl alcohol, FD&C Red #4, Yellow #3 and other "beauty necessities" within easy reach.  As it is, these and other nostrums are key ingredients in today's best-selling lotions. I read right from cosmetic labels, including a "mysterious beauty fluid (that) works with your skin's own natural moisture to quickly ease away dryness" and "impart a new radiance and glow to your skin."  Some are in "a unique conditioning lotion" that "keeps skin wonderfully soft and smooth."  Would you care to tell me how they can do that?  It's small wonder why people think they've got allergies, or that there's something wrong with their skin.  There's nothing wrong with the skin; there's something wrong with what's layered onto it.

 As for my family, we use a lot of vitamin E.  It's hard to beat when directly applied to rough, sore or dry skin. For topical (external) application, simply take any E capsule and carefully puncture the end of the capsule.  This is easily done with a push-pin or plastic-handled thumb tack.  Then just squeeze the E directly where you need it.  We keep a bottle of 200 IU capsules in the bathroom cabinet and in the past kept another bottle near the baby changing table, and use it almost daily for diaper rash, dry skin, chapped hands, burns, etc.
 Unlike commercially concocted skin preparations, vitamin E is wholly natural as long as it's D-alpha-tocopherol. The "D" form is right handed in molecular structure, and the "L" form is left handed. As far as vitamin E is concerned, the body seems to have a preference for "right-handed" molecules". (On the other hand, you body can only use left-handed vitamin L-ascorbic acid, or vitamin C.)  The natural "D" form of vitamin E is manufactured from vegetable oils. Fresh vegetable oil is a nutritional source of E as well, and the Biblical "anointing with oil" or "binding up wounds in oil" may be seen as very sensible.

Vitamin  E promotes rapid,  scar-free healing, prevents infection, feels a lot better on a kid's cut than iodine, and is almost unbelievably versatile.  Please refer back to the appendix for a list of some of E's uses. Other entirely natural, simple skin aids are olive oil and cocoa butter. Both are just vegetable oils, although cocoa butter is not liquid in its natural form. It is more like a wax candle, like a stick. "Cocoa butter lotion" or "cream with natural cocoa butter" is not 100% cocoa butter. They may contain some and have wonderfully natural names, but the words "100% Cocoa Butter" should be on the label you look for if you want the real thing. Just apply the cocoa butter to skin like a stick deodorant or lipstick.

And Speaking of Lipsticks and Deodorants: 

 Read the labels on cosmetics and anti-perspirants for a surprise. To think that people coat their lips, faces and underarms with chemicals! Natural cosmetic products are fortunately available, but label reading is absolutely necessary. Don't let a company's natural reputation, natural label names and natural slogans substitute for a natural product. Please read the label; if there is no ingredients label, I would not buy the product.

Deodorants don't skimp on chemicals. Of all of them, Right Guard brand and Mennen brand stick deodorants are less bad than the most, but is not as good as what health food stores generally carry. Anti-perspirants are the worst kind of all deodorants because they contain aluminum and chemically block up skin pores and prevent natural sweating.  Okay, so you don't want to sweat? Then dress more seasonally! When I was in Sydney, Australia, I saw businessmen go to work in shirts and ties... and shorts! Good idea. Try wearing cottons more; cotton fabrics "breathe" more easily than polyesters, nylons and other synthetics. 

Some people think and feel that their bodies prefer natural fiber clothing as they also prefer natural foods. When I was in high school, the guys in gym class used to spray their deodorants on their lockers. Took the paint right off them. Even back then we wondered, "If it does that to a locker, what's it doing to our arm-pits?" Perhaps it's enough to say that I'm glad my family uses something slightly more natural!
 Concerning cosmetics, I can't really say that much from personal experience. My wife uses some make-up, although I think she's very attractive without it.  It would seem to me that moderation and natural ingredients would be the two things to look for in using cosmetics, if you choose to use them at all. 

Loofas and Dry Towels 

 There's nothing like a good old fashioned friction rubdown! A coarse, sponge-like "loofa" is great for this. A loofa is actually the dried center of a squash-like plant, which grows easily in a garden should you have the seeds and the inclination to grow bath-sponges. Loofas are sold at many drug stores for a few dollars. Brittle and dry when you buy it, the loofa softens somewhat when wet but remains an excellent skin toner.  While showering, just scrub with soap and the loofa and you'll see what I mean. Old dry and scaly skin is rubbed away and the friction will give you a healthy pink glow all over. If you finish your warm shower with a cool water rinse-off and then a dry towel rub-down, you will find it both relaxing and invigorating. If you scrub, and rub, towards the heart you'll be giving yourself a valuable massage.  Masseurs always work in the direction of the heart to stimulate blood flow in and below the skin. The direction would be up the arms and up the legs and then up the trunk. 

Soaps 

 I think that simple, pure plain-old soap is best. After all, all soaps are basically the same anyway with added colors, fragrances, chemicals, fancy boxes and higher prices. As the founder of the large Pear's Soap company said a century ago, "Any fool can make soap. It takes a clever man to sell it." The best soap on the market is unquestionably still plain no-colors, no-perfume soap. You can use soap sparingly and still get very clean.  This is especially beneficial if a person is prone to dry skin. Supplementing the diet with vitamin E may also help you as much as it has helped my family's complexions. Soap really doesn't harm healthy skin, but so many people don't know what it's like to have healthy skin because of... here it comes again... because of an unnatural diet that doesn't nourish the skin in the first place. Beauty is not only skin deep: it goes from your nose to your toes and from inside out.

Shampoos 

 If you've never read your shampoo label, now would be a good time to start. Have you wondered why babies cry when they get shampoo in their eyes?  There are so many chemicals - in addition to simple detergent, I mean - in shampoos, including artificial colors, preservatives, formaldehyde and such. What on earth is formaldehyde needed for?  Why embalm your hair?

It has always been known for its "No More Tears" products, but Johnson and Johnson have really gone one better. Their popular Baby Shampoo label in Sept. 1999 specifically stated that it is "As Gentle To Eyes As Pure Water." I guess I've been reading only the front of their label for too long, so now I looked on the back to find, in addition to the usual detergents, these goodies: polyquaternium-10, tetrasodium edta, quaternium-15, and D&C yellow #10 and D&C orange #4. I'm not saying that this stuff is dangerous. I actually used the product on my kids for years. I am surprised, though, that Johnson & Johnson would claim it is as gentle to the eyes as PURE water. It might have a pH of 7, but those other ingredients must make it just a little different than H20.

 So who can be surprised that natural, herbal shampoos are highly recommended by many health advocates. There are many brand names of  natural-origin shampoos, and you'd want to read the labels before purchasing any and reject any bright colors, preservatives, or long names!  One or two natural ingredients don't make a product natural unless the rest are natural, too. In case you think that natural shampoos and soaps must be expensive to use, please consider this: In terms of quality of ingredients, "bargain brands" may be the real waste of your money and generate the biggest profit for manufacturers that don't care what's in their product. Natural products may not be the cheapest, but they do cost more to produce in the first place. Keeping these points in mind may help you compare quantity and quality and still save money in the long run. Good daily skin care is cheaper than a visit to a dermatologist.

In case you feel that natural ingredients are not important in your shampoo because synthetic ingredients are carefully tested and approved, please consider this quotation from "And Now A Word About Your Shampoo" by Harold C. Hopkins in March 1975 FDA Consumer:

FDA (Food and Drug Administration) authority under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act to regulate synthetic detergent shampoos, along with other cosmetics, falls considerably short of the comprehensive kind of jurisdiction the Act authorizes for regulation of foods and drugs. The maker of a cosmetic is not required, as is the sponsor of a new drug, to obtain FDA approval before marketing to assure that the product is safe and effective. And cosmetics makers, unlike food processors, are not required to obtain FDA clearance to use new additives (except for color additives) in their products.  The law does hold the manufacturer of a synthetic detergent shampoo or other cosmetic solely responsible for safety in its use. He is expected to use ingredients about which there have been no questions of safety, and to perform adequate studies... to make sure his product is safe before he puts it on the market. FDA must trust that the manufacturer has fulfilled his responsibility.

It is only if, or should we say when, an "adverse reaction" occurs that the consumer or the manufacturer is supposed to notify FDA and then FDA will "look into the matter." This does not seem like much of a safeguard to the millions of people who may have been using the product already.

FDA's enforcement of its regulatory powers over foods are weak enough. Think of all the chemicals, preservatives, dyes and other additives that are legally allowed, to contaminate our food.  To think that FDA's authority over cosmetics and shampoos is actually less than its control over "Kool-Aid," "Twinkies," Mello Yello," "Hamburger Helper" and bologna! 
And if you think that's bad, consider soap itself.  This same article also says this:
The Food. Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938 defines a cosmetic. But the same law specifically excludes soap from this definition of a cosmetic and it Is thus exempt from FDA regulation.
We'd better all read the package labels for everything we put on our bodies as well as for everything we put into them. The Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938 was a very watered down excuse for the original and very strict Food and Drug Act of 1906. The original 1906 law actually permitted only pure foods and drugs! It didn't last long, after industrial lobbying and governmental corruption started after it. If you want to read an account of this amazing and unlawful process, it is all in Dr. Harvey W. Wiley's A History of a Crime Against the Food Law, most recently republished only by photocopy. This is probably another job for your skilled librarian and an interlibrary loan. If you still think that the government protects us from toxic substances in what we eat or drink or put on our skin, it's time to reconsider. 
 There is little question that natural cosmetic products, soaps and shampoos are nearly as important to us as natural foods. Nature is best for your inside and your outside.
 
Copyright  C  2004 and previous years Andrew W. Saul. 
Andrew Saul is the author of the books FIRE YOUR DOCTOR! How to be Independently Healthy (reader reviews at http://www.doctoryourself.com/review.html ) and DOCTOR YOURSELF: Natural Healing that Works. (reviewed at http://www.doctoryourself.com/saulbooks.html )

For ordering information, Click Here .

Source:

http://www.doctoryourself.com/skin_care.html