Hi, everybody. Happy “Make a Difference Day, “the official holiday for heroes” according to Wish Upon a Hero Foundation. That’s a cool site where people try to make each other’s wishes come true!

*Happy Halloween*

Candy has always been my drug of choice. With Halloween just around the corner, I think it’s cool to check out natural candy products for sale online. Naturalcandystore.com has all kinds of special occasion product, plus they have vegan, gluten-free, kosher, allergen-free, corn syrup-free, and more. I like their slogan “All the FUN, without the FUNNY stuff”™. 

There is a link at NaturalCandyStore.com for Feingold Candy. I had never heard of that before. Feingold is the doctor who linked consumption of artificial colors, flavorings, preservatives (all made from petroleum products), and aspartame (Nutrasweet®) with children and adults experiencing ADHD and other behavioral problems, as well as asthma, skin allergies and depression. 

Feingold ratings are Stage One and Stage Two, depending on which ingredients in foods are “safe” for a particular person. Stage 2 means you can consume anything from Stage One or Two; but Stage One’s should only consume Stage One “safe” ingredients. Feingold products on the natural candy site are classified F1 or F2.

Speaking of preservatives, I woke up this morning thinking about the barbecue flavor Fritos® I ate yesterday that contained MSG. What is MSG? I know it makes food taste good, but I also remembered that years ago it gave me migraine headaches when I ate Chinese food. Feingold says it’s an “undesirable chemical” preservative. The other preservatives that he identifies as harmful–BHA, BHT TBHT–are carcinogens.

I plan to contact Frito-Lay to ask them not to put MSG in my favorite snack foods anymore. Life without Fritos wouldn’t be as good, but I’m not ready to die for them.

Frito-Lay’s homepage looks like a farm and has a slogan, “We grow the best snacks on Earth™”. They have a link where they pat themselves on the back for reducing CO2 emissions, and  a button to find out how they saved 5 million trees by reducing the number of cardboard cartons they use. How about making a healthier product? But then they wouldn’t taste as good. It’s a cruel irony.

Hey, I just visited treehugger.com and saw an ad for “green jeans”. That is something everybody in the world could get into. I’m going to buy some for my husband for Christmas just so I can call him Mr. Green Jeans.

Feingold® Association of the United States. (n.d.) Retrieved October 25, 2008, from www.feindgold.org/

Frito-Lay.com. (n.d.) Retrieved October 25, 2008, from www.fritolay.com

Natural Candy Store.com. (n.d.) Retrieved October 25, 2008, from http://www.naturalcandystore.com

Dunn, Collin. (September 11, 2007). Buy Green: Men’s Jeans. Retrieved October 25, 2008, from http://www.treehugger.com

Wish Upon a Hero Foundation. (n.d) Retrieved October 25, 2008, from www.wishuponahero.com