Food Additives Sensitivity And Your Customized Healthy Diet Plan


customized healthy diet plan
Have you ever felt colic and an upset stomach after having ready-to-eat food items like pasta, muesli, or even cornflakes for that matter on your cheat meal day while following a strict customized healthy diet plan?
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Customized healthy diet plan, time to check if you are sensitive to any additives

Customized Healthy Diet Plan
If you follow a customized healthy diet plan and take a break to enjoy a cheat meal, its time to check if you are sensitive to any additives added to those ready to eat food products Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Hey dearies,

How are you all doing? Now ask me the same question and my answer would be,” Oh! not so good.” Yes, that is right. Before I tell you the reason behind it, let me ask you a question? Have you ever felt colic and an upset stomach after having ready-to-eat food items like pasta, muesli, or even cornflakes for that matter on your cheat meal day while following a strict customized healthy diet plan? If the answer is yes, then the chances are that you might be sensitive to some kind of food additives.

Since last night I am not been at all comfortable and feeling a lot of turbulence in my stomach. That was a very familiar feeling as I had felt the same earlier also after having anything and everything packaged. It so happened that I planned to watch something interesting on OTT last evening and for ages, I had not had pizza so my daughter ordered from Zomato. While we were enjoying our evening, some guests came over and I planned to open a pack of ready-to-eat Cheezy pasta of a popular brand. It was all good till the time we were all enjoying the series but when I was about to go for an after-dinner walk in the nearby park, I felt something off with my stomach. The night was very uncomfortable and I realized that it was time to find out about food additives and their allergies.

What are food additives?

The ready-to-eat meals use different kinds of food additives that are chemicals added to food items to keep them fresh. At times these additives are added to enhance their flavor, color, or even texture. To make the understanding easier, let me tell you that additives include different food colorings, preservatives, and flavor enhancers like MSG or Ajinomoto.

There are various food additives that are mentioned clearly on the product label but there are a few which are listed as codes. To understand them one needs to know the codes for colorants as well as preservatives. Ideally, all these additives must undergo safety assessments, before being approved for humans consumption.

Ironically, all the food additives are assessed and tested in isolation instead of combinations and that is why the after-effects of consuming those in combinations are not clear.

Different types of food additives

There are different types of food additives like Anti-caking agents, Artificial sweeteners, Antioxidants, Food acids, Emulsifiers, Colors, Flavor enhancers, Foaming agents, Preservatives, Thickening agents, Stabilisers and firming agents, Glazing, bulking and raising agents, etc.

Side effects of food additives

Imagine that you have been following a perfect customized healthy diet plan for a whole month and then you plan to go for your favorite cheat meal. You buy a ready-to-eat meal box, enjoy it but within a few minutes you feel like puking and colic. This is what happened with me and I knew that like many others I am also sensitive to some particular food additives and my discomfort might be the reaction of the same. I have realized that bakery items, cornflakes, muesli, and packaged meals give me a lot of trouble to my stomach.

Experts have observed that the additives which are used to add market value to any food most commonly cause allergic reactions. These allergic reactions may include diarrhea and colicky pains, insomnia, hyperactivity, irritability, breathlessness, asthma attacks, rhinitis, itching, skin rashes as well.

There are certain common food additives that are known to cause problems. Among all the most common ones are monosodium glutamate (MSG) 621, yellow 2G107, cochineal 120, sunset yellow FCF110, tartrazine 102, preservatives like benzoates, nitrates, etc. Even a common artificial sweetener like aspartame is one of the culprits.

How to find out your food additive sensitivity?

If you feel that you have a food additive sensitivity, the best will be to make notes of all the food items that make you uncomfortable. It is a good idea to keep a food diary and note carefully all the food reactions.

Once you check the ingredients and find some common ones in all the listed items, you might be able to control your allergies. The best course of action further is to eliminate all suspected food products from the diet. I have started doing it already as I believe, in following the path of prevention rather than cure. Experts suggest reintroducing the suspected products slowly to check the reaction causing additive.

There are many food additives used by the food industry which occur naturally in various daily used foods. One such thing is MSG, which is found naturally in cheese, tomato, and sardines in significantly big quantities.

Food additives can be a great health threat especially if you are eating a healthy diet plan for a long period. Like me, if you too have experienced any such thing, then its high time you start paying attention to labels and start looking for way-outs to beat your allergies and food sensitivities. If you are looking for a customised healthy diet plan, contact us