Dallas Buyers Club —make room for the FDA

The Dallas Buyers Club was hugely successful at this year’s Academy Awards with Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto winning an Oscar for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor respectively.

The film is based on the true events of AIDS victim Ron Woodroof in the 1980s and his fight against the disease and the Federal Drug Administration (FDA). 

This is not any sort of conspiracy theory.

There are cold hard facts that clearly show that these government agencies are only interested in their wealth and not our health.

• The GRAS list

Processed foods are typically foods that are boxed, canned or tinned with nutritional labels that are full of ingredients that you can’t pronounce.

Is seems that you need a degree in chemistry just to figure out what the polysyllabic words mean on the ingredients list. 

The FDA is in charge of this list and currently it allows about 2,800 food additives and around 3,000 chemicals to be deliberately added to our food.

The FDA also doesn’t require any food additives listed on the Generally Regarded as Safe (GRAS) list to be mentioned on the labelling. 

The most you’ll get is “artificial colourings” or “natural flavours”.

Avoid processed foods.

• Food irradiation

Food irradiation is thought to be essential for sanitizing food. 

Organizations such as the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) claim that irradiating food reduces the risk of food-borne diseases but the FDA does not test for toxicology or carcinogens.

The FDA has not even determined a level of radiation to which food can be exposed as still safe for human consumption. 

Organic foods cannot be irradiated.

• Nitrates

You may have noticed “nitrates or “nitrites” on the ingredients list of cured meats and fish. 

Many European countries have actually banned the use of these additives but the FDA allows them still as it claims there is no adequate substitute. 

Organic, free-range products are free of pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and nitrates.

• Artificial sweeteners

Artificial sweeteners like Aspartame have had more complaints to the FDA due to their side effects than any other additive. 

When we use an artificial sweetener it signals to the brain that nutrition is on it’s way. When the receptors in the gut recognise that there is no nutrition, it sends a message to the brain to tell us we’ve been tricked. The brain responds by increasing satiety so we can keep eating non-foods to fuel the body. 

Use alternatives such as honey or stevia.

Avoid processed foods at all costs and eat organic whenever you can. 

Be in charge of what you eat. 

Colin Ayliffe is a certified personal trainer and holistic lifestyle coach with over 10 years’ experience in training clients. He graduated from the University of Surrey with a Bachelor’s Degree in Sport Science and is also a CHEK practitioner, golf biomechanic and is accredited by the
National Academy of Sports Medicine.

Colin now blogs at CoconutFitness.com