"Sugar makes him hyper"

Do you remember hearing that when we were kids?

My mother would say that about my brother. "SUGAR MAKES HIM HYPER."

I thought I saw the same thing with my sons. I could tell if he got his hands on a chocolate bar. They became wild, hyper and out of control.

Until recently, I thought Sugar was the evil one.

I want to share with you all, another evil thing in our food.

(as if we don't have enough to worry about already).

I introduce to you,

VANILLIN.

google it, you'll find that the real vanilla, from the vanilla bean, is not able to grow at the rate we consume it.

you'll read that today there is an artificial vanillin that is a chemical compound created with petrochemicals. You've read that right, chemicals we use in our car.

you'll find a hazardous material listing with Environmental Health & Safety.


I decided to try an experiment with vanillin. I removed it from my son's diet. I bought "sundrops"; a "M&M" alternative at the healthfood store. It still has chocolate, it still has sugar but the artificial vanillin is not used.

Then I gave him a bag of real M&Ms....and WOW.

He spun circles, his language decreased in clarity, he was hyper and extremely ADD-like.

The problem? Vanillin is not a food ingredient so it can "hide" in the foods we buy.

So we wonder why neurological issues are prevelant in our society- things like an epidemic of autism. We wonder why we are an obese society with diseases killing us that are all diet related.

It isn't all because we are gluttons who live at McDonalds.

We are also victims of corporate greed that makes profit over deception.

No one told me as a child that when I bit into an all american Hershy bar that I was also eating a chemical with a hazardous waste listing....

did they tell you?

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that offspring of any animal fed this stuff is going to have genetic problems.....

So what do we do about it? In my younger days I would have tried to organize a group of people to fight it, would have at least got on a loud pedastal to shout it out for all to hear.

today?

I am going to go eat a Hershy bar. That at least, will make me feel good for the next 20 minutes.

(and p.s. NO this does not get sugar off the hook; he's no good either)