Food additives + the Deadly Nightshades

Jimson Weed and Moss, drawing by jude cowell 2009++

Here is a good website with a well-organized list of food additives, who manufactures them, and which foods they're lurking in.

Yes, the most common two, sugar and salt, are included, as well as one of my main nemeses: high fructose corn syrup.

And are you sensitive to foods in the Deadly Nightshade family?

After a childhood of eating my Dad's delicious homegrown tomatoes (he was an excellent gardener, a Sun Taurus with Mercury in Taurus, too - and yes, a carpenter and stone mason!) I began to have skin rashes breaking out on my face, age 18. A dermatologist saw me and instantly said, "stop eating tomatoes and any foods to which they are added - and give up ketchup and spaghetti sauce."

This was my introduction to careful label reading in grocery stores where I discovered just how many processed foods in America have tomato products and flavorings added, even ones that don't taste tomatoey.

After two years of following his advice I was rash-free and now assume that the irritants had built up in my system, irritated my tummy lining, and become toxic to my inherited sensitivity. As you know, our skin is the body's last defense where toxins go when our systems can no longer deal with the build-up.

And as it turned out, my Dad had no sensitivity to tomatoes, but my Mother did.

Here's an article from Associated Content with more details about avoiding the Deadly Nightshade family in your diet.

To read, you must view a cameo from the night-blooming Jimson Weed drawing above in spite of all your finaglings.

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Deadly Nightshades: tomatoes, white potatoes, various peppers, paprika, eggplants, and tobacco. Oh! and belladonna which is used in some medications including natural/alternative ones. I think that's the complete list of the irritating culprits, but please leave a comment here if you know of more!

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Two new links have been added in the sidebar under Food and Diet: scroll down for iherb products and for the Baar Company link, a site from which I have recently ordered and have been very satisfied with the products and with the quick service.