How many of you actually check the food labels before buying a product? Do you know that many of the ingredients used in packaged and processed foods can be detrimental to your health? The artificial sweeteners, coloring, preservatives can all be incredibly hazardous for your health, and it is important to watch out for these while buying your groceries.

Here’s a look at the 5 Most Dangerous Ingredients in food that you should avoid as much as possible.

1. Sodium Nitrite

Sodium Nitrite is a preservative that is usually present in salami, pepperoni, ham, bacon, hot dogs and other forms of processed meats. The reason why Sodium Nitrite is added to meats is because it preserves the red/pinkish color of the meat and gives it a fresh appearance, and also prevents botulism to some extent.

However when ingested in large amounts, sodium nitrite reacts with the stomach acids to produce nitrosamines, the main cause for cancer amongst animals.

Sodium nitrite consumption is also known to trigger migraine pains, and COPD form of lung diseases. Non-red meats such as chicken, tuna are comparatively safer as they do not have nitrates in them.

2. Excitotoxins

Excitotoxins are basically amino acids that also function as neurotransmitters in the brain. But when brain cells are exposed to this chemical in large amounts (through dietary consumption), they become over-excited. During this stage, the nerve and brain cells fire their impulses rapidly until they reach extreme exhaustion, a near-death state.

Commonly found in canned soups, diet soda, sausages, salad dressing and processed vegetarian and non-vegetarian foods. Excitotoxins are used as a flavoring agent in most such foods, but an over-dose of it can destroy the nerve cells.  Since the protective enzymes in a baby’s brain are not fully developed, they are unable to detoxify the Excitotoxins that enter its brain. This is why pregnant women and young children should completely avoid foods containing even small amount of Excitotoxins.

The two most common forms of Excitotoxins are – Mono Sodium Glutamate (MSG) and Aspartate.

Glutamate is a prevalent additive and is used in a many food products. MSG triples the amount of insulin the pancreas creates, causing rats (and humans) to become obese. It can also cause brain damage in your children, and that this chemical could effect how your children’s nervous systems formed during development so that in later years they may have learning or emotional difficulties. It’s crazy that FDA has set no limits on how much of it can be added to food. They claim it’s safe to eat in any amount. MSG manufacturers and the processed food industries are always on a quest to disguise the MSG added to food. Below is a partial list of the most common names for disguised MSG. Remember also that the powerful excitotoxins, aspartate and L-cystine, are frequently added to foods and according to FDA rules require NO LABELING AT ALL.

Food Additives that ALWAYS contain MSG:

• Monosodium Glutamate
• Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein
• Hydrolyzed Protein
• Hydrolyzed Plant Protein…