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Earlier today, Panera Bread vowed to remove more than 150 artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, and preservatives\u00e2\u20ac\u201dall of which were named in its \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No-No List\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfrom all locations\u00c2\u00a0by the end of 2016. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an unprecedented move in the restaurant world. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Last year, we unveiled our food policy to hold ourselves accountable to long-held values and set the future vision for our menu,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0founder and CEO Ron Shaich said in a press release issued this morning. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcNo-No List\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is the latest step on our journey to clean food and a transparent menu.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve probably heard of some ingredients on the list\u00e2\u20ac\u201dlike aspartame, lard, and caffeine\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhile others may sound unfamiliar, like\u00c2\u00a0ethoxyquin (a preservative) and neotame (a sugar substitute).\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re definitely in favor of choosing whole, natural ingredients whenever possible\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut does this mean that all of these ingredients are actually harmful to consume? Not necessarily, says Alexandra Caspero, R.D., founder of\u00c2\u00a0Delicious Knowledge. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think most people hear\u00c2\u00a0the word \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcartificial ingredients\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and automatically assume that they are dangerous,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she says. Does the saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pronounce it, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t eat it\u00e2\u20ac\u009d ring a bell?\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0a good catchphrase, but it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take into account the chemistry behind food,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Caspero. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Artificial ingredients were not created to make food harmful to us, they came about to help stabilize and preserve food on the shelves for extended periods of time. That being said, there are many artificial ingredients that have proven to be harmful, especially in larger doses.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
RELATED:\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>We Made Guac Using Chipotle\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Recipe\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6and the Result Was Interesting<\/big><\/p>\n Caspero says that\u00c2\u00a0if your diet is mainly whole foods\u00e2\u20ac\u201dlike produce, whole grains, and unprocessed proteins and fats\u00e2\u20ac\u201dyou probably don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to worry too much about\u00c2\u00a0the artificial ingredients in the rest of what you eat. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s when your diet consists of\u00c2\u00a0mostly packaged foods\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand you therefore start taking in higher quantities of these artificial ingredients\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthat they become worrisome. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You can drive yourself crazy if you worry about every. Single. Ingredient,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Caspero.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Some of the ingredients listed here I do not recommend to my clients, like acesulfame potassium,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Poorly done studies\u00c2\u00a0in the 1970s suggested that it may cause cancer. There haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been many better studies, but\u00c2\u00a0still, I avoid it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Additional\u00c2\u00a0ingredients she suggests steering clear of include\u00c2\u00a0butylated hydroxyanisole or BHA (it may also be carcinogenic) and\u00c2\u00a0partially hydrogenated oils (which\u00c2\u00a0raise your bad cholesterol and lower your good cholesterol).<\/p>\n Other ingredients that are called out on Panera\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s list, including high-fructose corn syrup, have a bad public perception\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily dangerous. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It does promote obesity, tooth decay, and high triglycerides, but so do all sugars,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Caspero. The bottom line?\u00c2\u00a0While \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the less processed, the better\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a good rule of thumb, you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to stress yourself out about every single artificial ingredient that goes into your body\u00e2\u20ac\u201dyou\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d drive yourself nuts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Earlier today, Panera Bread vowed to remove more than 150 artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, and preservatives\u00e2\u20ac\u201dall of which were named in its \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No-No List\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfrom all locations\u00c2\u00a0by the end of 2016. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an unprecedented move in the restaurant world. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Last year, we unveiled our food policy to hold ourselves accountable to long-held values and set the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11691\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}