Chemical Additives and Their Effects on Children
Friday, May 09, 2008 by: Jo Hartley (see all articles by this author)
| Key concepts: chemical additives, nerve cells and chemicals
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(NaturalNews) The frightening thing about chemical additives is that their
effects are not always immediately seen. Very often their effects are cumulative
-- meaning that the body experiences a gradual accumulation that could lead to a
variety of symptoms.

Some people are more sensitive to food chemicals than others. These people
-- often children -- will have immediate effects upon ingestion. Artificial
colors are particularly problematic. In general, small amounts of additives are
not harmful. The effects are dose related, however. Because of their smaller
size, children are consuming much larger amounts of these additives than the
Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI).

One disturbing issue is the "cocktails" of additives that are commonly
ingested. How these additives react together has just begun to be studied in the
last several years. Many study results are showing that some of these
combinations can have a neurotoxic effect. In general, combinations of chemical
additives seem to have a much more potent effect on nerve cells than each
chemical would have alone.
For example, neurotoxic effects were studied for combinations of four
common additives: Brilliant Blue with MSG and Quinoline Yellow with aspartame.
These mixtures were much more lethal on nerve cells than each additive alone.
The effect of Brilliant Blue and MSG was up to four times higher and Quinoline
Yellow and aspartame was up to seven times higher.

The studies were conducted under laboratory conditions and the additives
were mixed in concentrations to duplicate the compound that would enter the
bloodstream after a typical children's snack and drink.
The study showed that when nerve cells were exposed to these combinations
of additives, the additives actually halted the nerve cells from their normal
growth and further interfered with the proper signaling systems.

These chemical additives (whether alone or mixed with others) carry the
most risk for infants and children. Young children are the most vulnerable to
chemicals that are carcinogens. This is because of their limited ability to
detoxify because of the way their liver functions during infancy. In addition,
their small size further provokes toxicity.

Infants and young children have higher nutritional requirements than older
people. Their smaller body mass as well as the fact that their diet has less
variety also contributes to their increased susceptibility to toxic reactions.

There are other factors that further increase the susceptibility of
infants and young children to toxic additives. Most of these are recognized by
health and science industries but are not considered when determining ADI levels
for chemical additives. At this time there is no testing for effects of
additives on children's behavior or learning.

Obviously, this is one of those many situations where concerned parents
need to be aware of the effects that chemical additives may be having on their
children and caution needs to be applied to protect vulnerable youngsters from
these poisons. Children need to be protected while they are too young to make
informed decisions about toxic additives in their food so that they can grow up
to be healthy adults.


About the author
Jo Hartley
Wife, Mother of 8, and Grandmother of 2
Jo is a 40 year old home educator who has always gravitated toward a
natural approach to life. She enjoys learning as much as possible about just
about anything!
http://www.loftymatters.com



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