Chemicals in our food, I can't believe it. We used to eat far too much processed food; by processed I mean anything that needs endless amounts of chemical flavorings, colorings and sweeteners to make it appealing to the palate. Honestly it is frightening, what is in our food, if you take the time to read the label.

There has been endless media coverage on the dangers of artificial additives to children's health linking them to ADD and hyperactivity disorder, autistic spectrum and many others disorders, allergies and diseases. There is no doubt in my mind from watching my son that additives affect behavior, the sweetener aspartame makes him hyper and he screams hysterically. I noticed the effect that artificial additives were having on my kid’s behavior and decided to remove them completely from our diet. I saw immediate benefits.

It’s easy to remove artificial additives from the family’s diet but it takes practice when shopping and many weeks reading labels to gage the brands that are safe. Even foods marketed directly for children are a problem; it is unbelievable that in our drive to give our children sugar free, everything we have replaced it with deadly chemicals with unknown side effects. Eating healthily becomes second nature but shopping healthily is a skill especially when the shelves of the supermarkets are stacked with processed food and even not so processed that has hidden chemicals to make it more appealing to the eye or to lengthen its shelf life. Many countries have seen fit to ban numerous artificial additives and I think in the future this list is going to get longer but my children don't have time to wait so it’s up to me as a parent to adapt their diet now.

Do your kids have an adverse reaction to artificial additives in their food, tell us the type or reaction they have and which artificial additive you think is to blame?

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