On a swelteringly hot summer day, there's nothing that comes to mind better to cool things down than some old-fashioned ice cream. Just some wholesome ingredients like cream, egg yolks, a sweetener, and some vanilla extract, right?How about propylene glycol, ethyl acetate, and yellow dye #5? Seems the recipe has changed a bit since Dolly Madison's day (she served this new delight to visitors during White House functions).Many commercial ice creams today are simply chemical concoctions presented in appealing packaging designed to sell a product that is not fit for human consumption. Everything from hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, and dry milk solids are used to produce something still allowed to be called ice cream.Many ice creams are also filled with air to double the volume. Not a dangerous practice, just less fulfilling.Some pretty frightening sounding chemicals like caroxymethyl cellulose, butyraldehyde, and amyl acetate are additives in some commercial ice creams. How about some diethyl glycol -- a cheap chemical used to take the place of eggs, which is also used in anti-freeze and paint removers.Aldehyde C-17, flavoring for cherry ice cream, is an inflammable liquid used in dyes, plastics, and rubber. Piperonal, used in place of vanilla, is a lice killer. Ethyl Acetate, a pineapple flavor, can also clean leather and textiles.Unfortunately, this doesn't work out to be like any natural substances like lemon that can be both eaten and used as a powerful cleaner. Ethyl Acetate's vapor has been known to cause chronic lung, liver, and heart damage.There are quite a list of other unsavory ingredients littering many of today's most famous grocery store ice creams. Here are just some of them: Mono and diglicerides, disodium phosphate, benzyl acetate, mono stearate, propylene glycol, sodium benzoate, polysorbate 80, potassium sorbate, modified corn starch and soy lecithin.Now, just because most of these additives are on the GRAS (generally recognized as safe) list by the FDA, doesn't prove they aren't harmful and besides, the real question is: Are any of these ingredients desirable or even necessary to an originally wholesome treat? Remember, the FDA does not require ice cream makers to label all of their ingredients. Oh, boy.Ice cream can be a delicious way to get healthy fat, calcium, enzymes, vitamins, and minerals (if using real raw cream, egg yolks, and pure maple syrup) into children that are sometimes not big milk drinkers. Making your own ice cream is relatively simple with an electric ice cream maker... and the kids love to help make it!Even if you don't have the time, or desire, to make your own ice cream, reach for the best high quality ice cream you can. Look for the ones that use simple, wholesome ingredients (cream as a first ingredient is a good sign). The cost may be a bit more, but you can't beat the taste.And stop worrying about the fat content; it's some of those dubious vegetable oils you should be concerned about.
In addition to throwing off the body's homeostasis, excess sugar may result in a number of other significant consequences. The following is a listing of some of sugar's metabolic consequences from a variety of medical journals and other scientific publications. 1-Sugar can suppress your immune system and impair your defenses against infectious disease.
2-Sugar can cause can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline, hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children.
3-Sugar can produce a significant rise in total cholesterol, triglycerides and bad cholesterol and a decrease in good cholesterol.
4-Sugar causes a loss of tissue elasticity and function.
5-Sugar feeds cancer cells and has been connected with the development of cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostate, rectum, pancreas, biliary tract, lung, gallbladder and stomach.
6-Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose and can cause reactive hypoglycemia.
7-Sugar can weaken eyesight.
8-Sugar can cause many problems with the gastrointestinal tract including: an acidic digestive tract, indigestion, malabsorption in patients with functional bowel disease, increased risk of Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis.
9-Sugar can cause premature aging.
10-Sugar can lead to alcoholism.
11-Sugar can cause your saliva to become acidic, tooth decay, and periodontal disease.
12-Sugar contributes to obesity.
13-Sugar can cause autoimmune diseases such as: arthritis, asthma, multiple sclerosis.
14-Sugar greatly assists the uncontrolled growth of Candida Albicans (yeast infections).
15-Sugar can cause gallstones.
16-Sugar can cause appendicitis.
17-Sugar can cause hemorrhoids.
18-Sugar can cause varicose veins.
19-Sugar can elevate glucose and insulin responses in oral contraceptive users.
20-Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis.
21-Sugar can cause a decrease in your insulin sensitivity thereby causing an abnormally high insulin levels and eventually diabetes.
22-Sugar can lower your Vitamin E levels.
23-Sugar can increase your systolic blood pressure.
24-Sugar can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children.
25-High sugar intake increases advanced glycation end products (AGEs)(Sugar molecules attaching to and thereby damaging proteins in the body).
26-Sugar can interfere with your absorption of protein.
27-Sugar causes food allergies.
28-Sugar can cause toxemia during pregnancy.
29-Sugar can contribute to eczema in children.
30-Sugar can cause atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.
31-Sugar can impair the structure of your DNA.
32-Sugar can change the structure of protein and cause a permanent alteration of the way the proteins act in your body.
33-Sugar can make your skin age by changing the structure of collagen.
34-Sugar can cause cataracts and nearsightedness.
35-Sugar can cause emphysema.
36-Sugar lowers the ability of enzymes to function.
37-Sugar intake is higher in people with Parkinson's disease.
38-Sugar can increase the size of your liver by making your liver cells divide and it can increase the amount of liver fat.
39-Sugar can increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in the kidney such as the formation of kidney stones.
40-Sugar can damage your pancreas.
41-Sugar can increase your body's fluid retention.
42-Sugar is enemy #1 of your bowel movement.
43-Sugar can compromise the lining of your capillaries.
44-Sugar can make your tendons more brittle.
45-Sugar can cause headaches, including migraines.
46-Sugar can reduce the learning capacity, adversely affect school children's grades and cause learning disorders.
47-Sugar can cause an increase in delta, alpha, and theta brain waves which can alter your mind's ability to think clearly.
48-Sugar can cause depression.
49-Sugar can increase your risk of gout.
50-Sugar can increase your risk of Alzheimer's disease.
51-Sugar can cause hormonal imbalances such as: increasing estrogen in men, exacerbating PMS, and decreasing growth hormone.
52-Sugar can lead to dizziness.
53-Diets high in sugar will increase free radicals and oxidative stress.
54-High sucrose diets of subjects with peripheral vascular disease significantly increases platelet adhesion.90
55-High sugar consumption of pregnant adolescents can lead to substantial decrease in gestation duration and is associated with a twofold increased risk for delivering a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant.
56-Sugar is an addictive substance.
57-Sugar can be intoxicating, similar to alcohol.
58-Sugar given to premature babies can affect the amount of carbon dioxide they produce.
59-Decrease in sugar intake can increase emotional stability.
60-The rapid absorption of sugar promotes excessive food intake in obese subjects.
61-Sugar can worsen the symptoms of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
62-Sugar adversely affects urinary electrolyte composition.
63-Sugar can slow down the ability of your adrenal glands to function.
64-Sugar has the potential of inducing abnormal metabolic processes in a normal healthy individual and to promote chronic degenerative diseases.
65-I.V.s (intravenous feedings) of sugar water can cut off oxygen to your brain.
66-Sugar increases your risk of polio.
67-High sugar intake can cause epileptic seizures.
68-Sugar causes high blood pressure in obese people.
69-In intensive care units: Limiting sugar saves lives.
70-Sugar may induce cell death.
71-In juvenile rehabilitation camps, when children were put on a low sugar diet, there was a 44 percent drop in antisocial behavior.
72-Sugar dehydrates newborns.
73-Sugar can cause gum disease.
74-Sugar upsets the mineral relationships in your body: causes chromium and copper deficiencies and interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium.
75-Your body changes sugar into 2 to 5 times more fat in the bloodstream than it does starch.
76-High sugar intake can impair the physiological homeostasis of many systems in your body.
