Know Your Source

I am annoyed. I had no idea that whole foods such as oranges applesstrawberries and blueberriesmay be dyed. YEP. The actual outside of the whole fresh fruit. According to the FDA, they are allowed to dye them, so the color reflects more vibrant oranges, reds & blues because consumers prefer brighter colors. *

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The implication … consumers who want their whole food produce to actually be ripe, fresh & ready for human consumption is a ridiculous desire!

Even worse, they don’t have to tell us! We are crazy if we care or notice!

As if our desire for ripe fruit to actually be ripe fruit is over the top! Impossible expectations!!

Like we are the crazy ones who feel that they should be required to TELL US that their orange is actually still unripe and green, just dyed pretty bright orange so we don’t notice!

As a matter of fact, the bulk produce BOX is the only thing that MUST have the warning that the produce has food coloring. You know the huge box we consumers NEVER see!

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Have you noticed your strawberries have no flavor & have an odd texture? Have you noticed that your apples don’t smell like apples?

Have you noticed that your grapes are flavorless??

How are we to know if they are just not as sweet as the once were, or are they just dyed bad produce so they can sell them to the picky consumer?!

Keep in mind as an avid essential oiler, I have a bigger issue here… I tell people all the time you MUST know your source. If you are still grabbing cheap essential oils from the store, DO YOU KNOW where they purchased their bulk oranges to make your orange essential oil?? Is there concentrated food color mixed in your bottle??

I am not a chemist. I am not spreading fear. I am just saying, if the FDA says it is ok to slap some paint on the produce, you have no idea where it is ending up. I know my source. I have been to our farms. I know what is in my bottle.

I consider myself to be very food savvy & toxin aware. I read labels. We choose organic when available. I research everything & rarely take someone’s opinion as fact. I am constantly telling other moms don’t worry about what you can’t do, focus on what you can do. You CAN choose whole foods over packaged. Grab organic when you can, but a whole orange is better than gummies. I still believe that is true. I know we can freak out & worry ourselves to death.

However, some people are insanely sensitive to artificial food colors. We have a right to know.

I am not going to go into all the dangers and there are many, but I am going to encourage you to look for local produce.

Go to your apple orchards, farmer markets & facebook friends.

Be OK with fruit that isn’t perfect. Often, we look at the small organic produce & think I could grab one twice the size for half the cost… please stop a moment & ask yourself what they added or did to that piece of fruit to make it sooooo big, bright & shiny.

The European Union has banned multiple food colors, food additives & toxins that are still perfectly legal here in the United States. The difference is staggering!!

We need to take a page out of their book & say this far and no further. We get to choose what is allowed in our homes. You get to ban anything that feels unsafe for you.

Even the Cleveland Clinic is teaching the dangers involved in adding artificial food coloring to your children’s lives. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/is-food-coloring-safe…

FDA and all the reasons why it is ok to fake our produce & make it look better than it is… apparently they think we are too stupid to purchase food like adults. https://www.fda.gov/…/cpg-sec-550625-oranges-artificial…

Thank to my friend Brenda Renee Randall for your amazing post today!!! So much good info! Thanks for the rabbit trail Make sure you check out her post & give her a little love >>> https://oily-shannon.com/Brenda

#knowyoursource #youngliving