#2) Vitamin C / ascorbic acid (from GM corn) Nearly all the “vitamin C” sold in vitamins across America is derived from GMO corn. Most of the supplements sold are routinely made with genetically modified vitamin C. It’s typically called “ascorbic acid,” and nearly 100% of the ascorbic acid used in the natural products industry is derived from GMOs. Sourcing non-GMO vitamin C requires going outside the United States. There is no supply chain of certified organic, non-GMO ascorbic acid available in America.
#3) Hexane-extracted soy and rice proteins – Nearly 100% of the “natural” soy proteins and rice proteins sold in the USA are extracted in China using a hexane extraction method. This is true for brown rice protein superfood as well as the soy protein used in nearly all so-called “protein bars. Hexane is a highly explosive chemical. It is not only extremely hazardous to the environment; there may be trace amounts of hexane left remaining in the resulting protein products. Hexane extraction is not allowed in certified organic proteins, so if you have a choice, go for certified organic instead of just “natural” (which means nothing anyway). Hexane extraction is also used in the manufacture of textured vegetable protein
#4) High levels of Aluminum in detox products – Natural News helped expose high aluminum levels (over 1200ppm) in a popular detox liquid, causing the main U.S. distributor to issue a “recall” notice and provide over $1 million in refunds to customers. The manufacturer of this product, Adya Clarity, intentionally and knowingly deceived consumers by mislabeling the product and not mentioning the 1200ppm of aluminum it contained. The FDA seized some of the products and ran its own lab tests, confirming the high aluminum level as well as identifying multiple labeling violations.
Adya Clarity is just one of many so-called “detox” products containing alarming levels of aluminum and other metals. Ingesting these in order to “detox” your body may be harmful to your health. This experience proves you can’t always trust health products sold through online webinars, where manufacturers can ignore labeling laws and fabricate false claims. Buyers beware when it comes to metals in detox products that claim seemingly magical results.
#5) Lead and arsenic in herbs from China – China is the most polluted nation on the planet (by far), yet many fruits, vegetables and herbs are grown in China and exported to North America for use in natural products. High levels of lead and arsenic are routinely found in various food, supplement and herbal products from China. When lead, arsenic, mercury and cadmium get to high saturation levels (or are present in inorganic forms), it makes the products potentially a source of heavy metals poisoning for consumers. Many companies that import and retail products from China conduct no metals testing. Everything packed under the brand name Health Ranger Select is independently tested to ensure full product safety and regulatory compliance.
#6) Inorganic minerals in cheap vitamins – Would you eat iron filings and call it nutrition? Most of the cheap vitamins sold today are made with iron filings. “Scrap metal,” almost.
The calcium found in cheap vitamins is often just ground-up seashells, and magnesium is often sold as cheap magnesium oxide which may be completely useless to your body’s cells. If you’re buying mineral supplements, you may be wasting your money unless the minerals are in the right form: Magnesium orotate or malate, for example.
But the No. 1 best source for all minerals is fresh plants. If you really want to boost your minerals, feed them to sprouts or garden plants, then eat or juice those plants. Your body wants “organic” minerals from plants, not inorganic minerals from rocks.
#7) Carrageenan? The Cornucopia Institute, a highly-effective food activism group recently published a warning about carrageenan in foods. Cornucopia says carrageenan is linked to “gastrointestinal inflammation, including higher rates of colon cancer, in laboratory animals.”
Given its effect on gastrointestinal inflammation, Cornucopia urges anyone suffering from gastrointestinal symptoms (irritable bowel syndrome/IBS, spastic colon, inflammatory bowel disease, chronic diarrhea, etc.) to consider completely eliminating carrageenan from the diet to determine if carrageenan was a factor in causing the symptoms.
#8) Acrylamides – Acrylamides are cancer-causing chemicals produced during the cooking of carbohydrates. Fried snack chips, for example, contain acrylamides. They don’t have to be listed on labels because they are technically not “ingredients.” They are chemicals produced during cooking or frying. Consuming acrylamides increases kidney cancer risk by 59 percent. The FDA has published an extensive reference guide on acrylamide levels in foods, revealing that french fries have the highest levels of all. But they are also present in prune juice and even breakfast cereals.
A bag of organic snack chips can have just as many acrylamides as a bag of conventional snack chips. This is why fried snack chips should be eaten only sparingly, or never at all. Vitamin C blocks acrylamides from causing damage to your body. If your vitamin C is from a GMO source you may want to rethink that strategy. Natural citrus juice, rose hips or even camu camu berry powder is a much better choice of natural, full-spectrum vitamin C. If you eat fried foods of any kind, make sure you ingest a lot of vitamin C, astaxanthin and chlorella before and after your meal or snack.
#9) Hidden MSG / yeast extract – Hidden MSG is a huge issue across the natural products industry. Pick up almost any veggie burger, and you’ll find it’s made with yeast extract, a hidden form of MSG (monosodium glutamate). Yeast extract is unbelievably prevalent in the food industry because it looks nicer on the label than “MSG.” Most people are trained to avoid MSG, but yeast extract slips by, so food manufacturers put it into canned soups, dip mixes, snack chips, microwave dinners and especially in vegetarian products, many of which are so loaded with chemicals and additives that I won’t dare touch them. Just because a food says “vegetarian” doesn’t mean it’s healthy. Hidden MSG is also labeled as “autolyzed yeast extract” or “torula yeast” or even “hydrolyzed vegetable protein.”
#10) Fluoride in green tea – Green tea is famous for being contaminated with high levels of fluoride. This is frustrating, because green tea is phenomenally good for your health. It has been proven to lower “bad” cholesterol levels, and it may even help prevent cancer and neurological disorders. It’s probably one of the healthiest beverages you can ever drink.
The tea plant that produces green tea just happens to uptake a huge amount of fluoride from the soils. So when there’s fluoride present in those soils, the green tea will have a surprisingly high concentration, sometimes as much as 25ppm.
While this fluoride in green tea might not be a health hazard all by itself, the governments of the world seem insistent on pumping even more synthetic, chemical fluoride into the water supplies, thereby creating a high risk for fluorosis. Adding green tea to the fluoride consumption you might experience from tap water is a recipe for disaster: brittle bones, discoloration of teeth and even cancer.
The final “dirty little secret” of the natural products industry – Most importers, packers, vendors and retailers of natural products foolishly trust the lab results provided by the manufacturers and exporters! A typical U.S. company that sells, for example, pomegranate powder on the internet may never conduct their own tests for lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic and aluminum. They will simply take the lab tests provided by the manufacturer and consider those to be absolute fact! Growers and exporters routinely lie about their lab tests in order to pull the wool over the eyes of importers, formulators and retailers. The lab tests are easily faked or simply bought off in their home country. Contaminated products can be easily sold and exported because the FDA doesn’t routinely check imported raw materials for heavy metals contamination.
On the good news side, all the higher-end retailers such as Natural News, Mercola, Gary Null, etc., routinely test their raw materials for contaminants. Gaia herbs (www.GaiaHerbs.com) routinely tests all their batches, and VitaCost, before it changed hands a few years ago, was running their own lab to test raw materials on-site.
Look for the USDA organic logo when you buy “organic” products. If they don’t have the logo, they aren’t really organic.