© By Lena Sanchez

How about a Hot Fudge Banana Nut Sundae? Sounds good, looks good, tastes good, but after what I’ve been finding out I will look at it in a more careful light and make my own!

Do you know what’s in your ice cream? You probably think you do because the container lists most ingredients and you figure if the FDA allows it that it must be healthy for you. Think again! Sadly ingredients lists on foods can be very deceiving and unless you are a chemist you probably have no idea what you are reading anyway.

Use ice cream flavors as an example.

Flavoring is a tricky one and the wording is very tricky! You have to watch that word "flavor"!

Starting with Strawberry flavoring. A synthetic chemical by the name of benzyl acetate tastes like strawberry and is used in most strawberry flavored ice cream. What is benzyl acetate? Merck Index cautions; "This substance is extremely dangerous and can cause vomiting and diarrhea." It is a nitrate solvent. A cleaning agent!

Maybe you prefer banana flavored. Does it say banana flavor? Most do! A chemical called amylbutyrate and used as a paint solvent.

Or could it be vanilla favors you? Does it say vanilla flavor? Or artificially flavored vanilla? Bet you thought if it said vanilla flavor it was really vanilla from the vanilla bean. Sorry, that is very rare in ice cream. but you knew artificial meant artificial. Vanilla flavor comes in two flavors. Vanilla category I, and Vanilla category II. Category I is entirely vanilla. What exactly is vanilla? Not even close to the vanilla bean! It is either peperonal or vanillan. Peperonal is a chemical used to kill lice while vanillan is made from the waste of wood pulp and neither has even had a vanilla bean waved over it much less in it. Real natural vanilla is pureed vanilla beans or extract of vanilla beans and perfectly healthy but very expensive and not usually used in ice cream or most other processed food products today!

Let’s try for Pineapple flavored ice cream. Sorry again it has never seen a pineapple, the flavoring used is ethyl acetate used as a cleaner for leather and textiles, and is known to cause liver, kidney and heart damage. The vapors cause chronic lung, liver and heart damage, so the people making your ice cream is in even more danger.

I personally like cherry, but from now on I’m not so sure about that. The cherry flavor used in most ice cream is Aldehydec 17, an inflammable liquid used as aniline (indigo base) dyes and in the manufacture of plastic and rubber.

Sadly even nut flavors lost out to chemicals. I love 31 flavors Black Walnut, well I did…Nut flavoring is butraldehyde, a chemical used in rubber cement. You have to watch that word "flavor". If it says "flavor" you can bet it’s probably chemical, occasionally there will be a bit of natural mixed in but almost never. Legally they have to put the word "flavor" on something that isn’t natural… They say it’s not to fool us, but I don’t believe that for a moment.

I remember my mother and grandmother putting eggs in our ice cream before freezing it in our home crank freezer. They said it was for texture, smoothness and taste. Today eggs are no longer used. Taking the place of eggs in commercial ice cream for texture and smoothness you will find the container says emulsifiers and/or stabilizers. Those neat emulsifier and stabilizers are listed as one or more of the following; Diethyl glycol (specialty solvents), - whatever the heck that means - diglycerides (oil), disodium phosphates - now restricted from detergents because of it’s danger to our health -, dioctylsodium sulfosuccinate (detergent), sodium carboxyl methylcelluose, monoglycerides , tetrasodium pyrophosphate, polysorbate 80, glycerin and all used in either antifreeze, surfactant, oil, cleaning products, or paint remover.

I could go on but I won’t. Sadly all those "flavors" are made from coal tars found in coal or petroleum. Known to cause cancers of the stomach, liver, kidney, bowels and other organs. When researching these some was so scary I’m not going to even tell you what I found. Let’s say you don’t want them IN OR ON your body!

Read contents carefully before you buy ice cream or any processed foods. There are only one or two popular brands of ice cream that are not using these chemicals!

In my research on those chemical listed on different ice cream containers I also found a lot of popular drinks with some of the same ingredients. Probably the most popular being Gatorade… Well, don’t drink them unless you think your body can handle cleaning solvents and you like drinking petroleum!

I know some of you will say, "well in small amounts it won’t hurt me or the government wouldn’t let them use it." Ha, are you nuts? Read "Oh That Small Amount Won’t Hurt Me" then say that.

Everything builds up over time as our body is created to absorb and use natural vegetables and grain based foods. The rest sets up in our fat cells and/or make free-radicals like crazy and we become a disease or illness waiting to happen. When it happens is anybody’s guess…

I will never look at ice cream the same way again!
How about you?
Lena

Lena Sanchez a happy retired Medical Office Nurse/Administrator/Consultant who took charge of her life 12 years ago found pain relief and committed to helping others do the same…

Editor of  A Natural Environmental Health Facts & Your Home Business Coach Ezines. Subscribe today.

Author of Three How-To health building books available at http://www.antibiotic-alternatives.com/