We don´t do it willingly but still we´re literally forced to consume an immense amount of additives on a daily basis. Yet, the producers know that some of them may contribute to cancer development. In order to prevent ourselves from being harmed, take our information armor and use it wisely.
What is the E on a label? Firstly, the letter E is NOT an abbreviation for emulsifiers as many of you may think. Emulsifiers are chemical substances of animal origin which are created as a normal part of some processes. In contrast with them, Es are substances artificially added to food to forcibly improve some of its characteristics- color, shine, durability, or taste. The Es in their names are there because of European Union´s law. The system was incorporated to simplify the terms of chemical substances – instead of ethyl ester acid beta-apo-8 carotene you get only E160f.
Where can I find them? The list of Es in every product can be found on a label in very sall letters in ingredients section. If there are more than 5, it looks at the utmost suspicious. If there are more than 10, we recommend you not eat them. You can read about the function of each E on a publicly accessible website: [http://www.emulgatory.cz/seznam-ecek], (in Czech language). There you will find out that there are Es in a group of “natural,” naturally identical,” and “synthetic.” Some of them are only a classic vitamin C added into e.g. baby food – that is a natural one. It can also be an orange coloring pulled out directly from carrots – that is naturally identical. You should beware of the synthetic ones because those can be harmful. Foodstuffs without Es are either organic or got them from an honest domestic farmer. The problem is, their produce is a little bit more expensive. That is why people have invented Es to save money but kill the food.
How many of them do we eat then? In fitness ham we can find 14 different Es, in chicken sausages there is 15 of them, even fruits and vegetables are conserved by 3 of them. The daily limit increases already by breakfast to a few 10s. An annual statistics says that we eat up to 2 kilograms of these additives. Taking into consideration that these are microscopic particles, it gives you the image of how much it is. However, it is very difficult to avoid them. Nowadays, you can literally do it only by growing your own food. Here in Mondieu we have a dream – to have the only Es in the name of our company and we´re trying hard to achieve it completely. Try our E-free smoothie or an organic macaron. We guarantee their integrity :)
by Katarína Vicová