by Les Saidel - January, 2013

Perhaps one of the greatest hoaxes of modern times is that perpetrated by the mass produced food industry using the E- encoding system to list their ingredients.

The E encoding system began in Europe (the E stands for Europe) in the 1960's and has developed over time to include additives such as colorings, preservatives, antioxidants, stabilizers, acidity regulators and more.

The numbering scheme follows a system drawn up by a body of the World Health Organization called the Codex Alimentarius Commission. The supposed motivation behind such an encoding scheme was to "protect the health of consumers" and "ensure fair practice in the international food trade". The encoding system is accepted practice throughout Europe, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. It is also being used increasingly in North America, especially in Canada.

In reality what the E encoding system does, is allow manufacturers to abbreviate the ingredients lists on their packaging and instead of writing long, bombastic ingredient names such as "sodium ethyl para-hydroxybenzoate", write E-215.

While this system may seem innocuous and perhaps even efficient, it masks a subterfuge that has caused the degradation of health amongst so many countless people that it is almost in the class of a "crime against humanity".

The advantage of such a scheme for the food industry is obvious. If a customer sees an ingredient that reads "sodium orthophenyl phenol" on a cookie wrapper, he may begin to wonder exactly what it is he is putting in his mouth. However, when he sees the words "Preservative (E-232)", it sounds a lot more innocent.

Defenders of the E encoding scheme will hurry to stress that, in addition to the numerous artificially created chemical compounds, the system also includes many natural substances, such as Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) E101, Lemon Juice (Citric Acid) E330, and others. In this perhaps lies the ultimate extent of subterfuge. By grouping together harmless, even natural substances such as caramel with potentially dangerous substances, even suspected carcinogens, such as Butylated Hydroxyanisole (BHA) E320, the public is being brainwashed into thinking when they see an ingredient with an E- code, that is harmless, perhaps even natural.

To prove this point, how many of you really investigate what the E- code signifies? What substance is it? The answer is that perhaps less than 0.1% of the population actually takes the time and effort to investigate what exactly they are eating. Some people do not even look at the ingredient list at all. In truth the information is freely available, simply search the internet for "E number" or "E code" and you will pull up a number of websites with the full list.

If you look at the contents of a well known underarm deodorant you may see the following -

"Aqua, Aluminum Zirconium Octachlorohydrex GLY, Alcohol Denat., Cyclopentasiloxane, Dimethicone, Propolene Glycol, Calcium Glycinate, Trisiloxane, Calcium Chloride, PEG/PPG-18/18 Dimethicone, Parfum, Benzyl Benzoate, Benzyl Salicylate, Butylphenyl Methylproprional, Coumarin, Eugenol, Hexyl Cinnamal, Limonene, Linalool"

There is no room for doubt when you read this - you are fully aware that you are smearing a whole bunch of chemicals under your arm. While the question of whether chemicals topically applied can also infiltrate into our blood streams or not is debatable and beyond the scope of this article, it is categorically proven that chemical substances ingested orally eventually reach our blood and are then transported to every part of our bodies.

If you read a foodstuff ingredients list that looked like -

"Calcium Sulfate, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Wheat Flour, Ethoxylated Mono and Diglycerides, Water, Azodicarbonamide, Soy Flour, Ammonium Chloride, Yeast, Wheat Gluten, Ammonium Sulfate, Honey, Molasses, Calcium Propionate, Salt, Corn Syrup, Calcium Dioxide, Vinegar."

Would you eat that?

Now, how about an ingredient list that looked like this -

"Wheat Flour, Wheat Gluten, Soy Flour, Yeast, Honey, Molasses, Vinegar, Emulsifiers (E481, E488), Sweetener (E927a), Acidity Regulators (E510, E517), Preservative (E282)"

In fact the lists are one and the same. In the first, I have mixed up the ingredients and given their full names. The second is a verbatim list from the wrapper.

Now perhaps you are beginning to realize the extent and calculated cunningness of the subterfuge. Using clever grouping and abbreviation, the food company is presenting a seemingly innocuous product that is even marketed as "natural", when in fact the reality reads something like Chemistry III.

By the way, if you were wondering, the above is the ingredient list of one of the most popular manufactured breads in America, eaten daily by tens of millions of people.

It is the great "cover up" of the modern age and who is to blame? We are. We, the consumers are first and foremost to blame. We are the only ones who have the power to influence change, by simply stopping to buy the products we are dissatisfied with. If the public, en-masse, stopped buying products that do not clearly state what they contain, without any "tricks" and calculated deception, the food companies would stop resorting to those tricks and comply with consumer demands.

If we, the consumers, stopped being so superficial and fickle about what we eat and adhere more to first principles, then the food companies would not need to resort to using dangerous chemicals in the first place to "puff up", make more "shiny", more "flavorful", more "melt in the mouth", more ... more ... More ... !! When you pick a fresh, juicy apple off a tree it is not shiny. Why then will a consumer not buy an apple off a supermarket shelf unless it has a shiny, glossy skin? To achieve that effect the apple has to be treated - dipped in some chemical substance. To prevent a few blemish marks on vegetables and fruits which are entirely natural and totally acceptable if you grew the vegetables yourself in your back yard, modern farmers resort to using dangerous pesticides and chemicals to keep the skins pristinely unblemished. By our fickleness and ignorance we are doing this to ourselves!

Add to that a few greedy capitalists cutting corners who instead of using time tested, natural products and processes to create a product the time honored way, they use dangerous chemicals and methods to accelerate it or mimic it and save money at the expense of our health. They spend billions in brainwashing advertising campaigns to cover up the defects in their products and hoodwink us into believing their product is the healthiest that exists on the face of the earth, like a certain famous breakfast cereal which I will not mention.

Do not rely on organizations like the FDA to protect you, their resources are limited and cannot begin to cope with the multitude of new compounds and organic substances that proliferate every year. They may be able to test each case in isolation and clear it for public use, but they can never under any stretch of the imagination test the effects all the possible combinations of the tens of thousands of approved substances. The figure is so humungous that such a notion is untenable. Only when somebody dies as a result of such a deadly combination is there a recall. Do you want to be that victim?

However, ultimately it is we, the consumers who are to blame. We are purposefully lazy and ignorant when it comes to nutrition. We prefer to allow others to make food for us rather than do it ourselves like mankind has been doing for millennia. We prefer "not to know", to live under the illusions we are fed in the media.

Is it then any surprise that our worldwide health is so decrepit, that cancer has become an epidemic? Only when we become irretrievably ill do we begin to realize the folly of our ways, but by then it is oftentimes too late.

We need to awaken from this self initiated slumber and start turning the clock back before it is too late.

Les Saidel

 

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