Food additives affect our behaviour, mood and physical health. The possible symptoms are not pretty, especially for our pure little kidlets bodies. You can discover more about how additives mess with your body and which foods contain them by clicking here. The problem is, sometimes, additives can be sneaky and hide in lesser-known places. This 3 part series of blogs will expose some of the main culprits for all to see!
The top 3 sneaky places additives can be lurking (non-food sources)
Toothpaste
Commonly, new families to the additive free way of life will be diligent in the food stakes and wonder why their kids still go berko every morning and night… Quite often it comes down to good old toothpaste. Yep – the thing that’s meant to improve our health is often chock full of nasties that do the opposite.
Toothpaste is a very overlooked avenue for ingesting additives, but when you take one look at the ingredients in your average kids toothpaste and you will start to wonder why it is so easily overlooked! Aside from the harmful surfactants/lathering agents (and don’t get me started on fluoride), there are a myriad of colours and artificial sweeteners in ‘common’ toothpastes. Check out the warning label on most toothpastes advising you to seek advice from Poison Control Centres if too much is ingested… Enough said 🙂
Most toothpaste companies will claim they use only FDA approved colours – an argument which is full of holes as these same ‘approved’ colours are the ones listed as best to avoid in TFW lists for all sorts of health reasons. Plus, depending on which country you reside in, these colours aren’t always approved. The whole FDA approved debate is quite a huge topic for another time**, but rest assured, for your benefit, be sure to include your toothpaste in the list of things to change when going additive free. There are alternatives, and it will take time to adjust because the taste is quite different. Try a few and find which one works for your family.
**Feel free to message me on facebook by clicking here or email me for more information (click here to email) about why this is such a huge topic!
Here’s a few substitute toothpaste brands to try:
Our family use MiEssence Toothpastes
Other brands to try include: Pure & Green organic toothpaste, Jack and Jill toothpaste, Riddells Creek toothpaste, Grants Herbal toothpaste,
Pharmacy Health Plain Toothpaste from Soul Pattison Pharmacies (suggestion comes from fedup.com), Oral hygiene solutions toothpastes (suggestion comes from fedup.com),
Ok so that’s the first place you can find sneaky additives that may affect your family’s health and behaviour.
Stay tuned for the second part to this blog series for another sneaky place additives can be found 🙂
Happy additive free tooth brushing!
Loren x
