Spooky Candy Isn’t Dandy
Spooky season is here! For a lot of people, Halloween is a fun time to dress up, be creative with your appearance, and take part in the yearly traditions. Unfortunately for most, that means the consumption of lots of candy. It may seem like a harmless tradition at the moment, but the short and long-term effects can haunt you long after this Halloween season. The reality is that despite the flashy marketing and logos specifically designed to appeal to young and underdeveloped brains, candy and many of its ingredients are incredibly harmful.
Before breaking off a piece of that Kit Kat bar or tasting the rainbow, you may want to take a peek at the ingredient label. You’ll be glad you took a moment to look past the colorful wrapper to see what lurks beneath the surface. Oftentimes a “harmless” piece of chocolate is actually a genetically modified corn bar, or worse, loaded with GMO”s and soy. You will be hard-pressed to find a packaged Halloween candy that does not have these two highly inflammatory ingredients. Safe to say that if it does not exist in nature, it should not enter your body. The pesticides that are sprayed on these franken-food products are the worst carcinogens known to man, the most famous being Glyphosate.
Glyphosate was the subject of a recent class action lawsuit against the manufacturer of Glyphosate, Bayer. An $11 Billion settlement was recently reached for victims of the pesticide which claimed caused their non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, Leukemia, blood cancers and other life-threatening illnesses post-exposure. Despite this, the company and its subsidiaries continue using this carcinogenic spray on all non-organic food products in the United States. However, it doesn’t stop at food. These harmful chemicals make their way into water tables and contaminate foods that aren’t in direct contact with the pesticide like conventionally grown beef. There are still 30,000 additional lawsuits open against Bayer for this product, so stay tuned…
As if that weren’t scary enough already, did you know some ingredients in American candy have been banned in other countries? For example, Skittles has an ingredient called Titanium Dioxide, which has been banned in Europe for its potentially toxic effects on humans, especially young people. Skittles’ manufacturer was able to reformulate their candy to not include Titanium Dioxide and other banned ingredients in Europe, but have yet to do so in the United States. If the company has the ability to recreate the same taste and appearance using safer ingredients for the same price, then why are American consumers still able to buy these products in the store?
The FDA actually does not consider Titanium Dioxide harmful and shockingly, even out of an abundance of caution, refuses to pull products containing TD off the shelf…
Here is the abstract of a study done on mice who were fed Titanium Dioxide:
“Early stage exposure of food-borne substances, such as brightening agent titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs), can cause long-term effects in adulthood. We aimed to explore the potential adverse effect of long-term dietary intake of TiO2 NPs. After feeding for 2–3 months from weaning, TiO2 NPs-exposed mice showed lower body weight and induced intestinal inflammation. However, this phenomenon was not observed in gut microbiota-removed mice. TiO2 NPs exposure rarely affected the diversity of microbial communities, but significantly decreased the abundance of several probiotic taxa including Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus. Additionally, TiO2 NPs aggravated DSS-induced chronic colitis and immune response in vivo, and reduced the population of CD4+T cells, regulatory T cells, and macrophages in mesenteric lymph nodes. Therefore, dietary TiO2 NPs could interfere with the balance of immune system and dynamic of gut micro-biome, which may result in low-grade intestinal inflammation and aggravated immunological response to external stimulus, thus introducing potential health risk.”
As an alternative, encourage your family to make some sweet treats at home like pumpkin pie or delicious homemade Twix bars. There are plenty of ways to enjoy a sweet treat using safer ingredients. Your mind and body will thank you!
References:
Bioactivity, uptake, and distribution of … – ACS publications. (n.d.). https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jafc.3c00200
Costas-Ferreira, C., Durán, R., & Faro, L. R. F. (2022, April 21). Toxic effects of glyphosate on the nervous system: A systematic review. International journal of molecular sciences. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9101768/
Roundup lawsuit: 2023 updates, Cancer Suit & Class action. Drugwatch.com. (n.d.). https://www.drugwatch.com/legal/roundup-lawsuit/
Titanium dioxide: E171 no longer considered safe when used as a food additive. European Food Safety Authority. (n.d.). https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/news/titanium-dioxide-e171-no-longer-considered-safe-when-used-food-additive
