Highly processed foods typically abound in chemical additives, preservatives, and sugar - and over the years some researchers have claimed a link between food additives and hyperactivity in children. The average adult in America eats approximately ten pounds of these chemicals each year. Currently, more than 1,300 of these substances are approved by the FDA for use as colors, flavors, preservatives, and thickeners. Some have been rigorously tested, others far less. Almost daily, the observant reader can find reference to studies linking one or another of these additives with cancer of some sort.

As long as we demand a convenience-store diet of pink cupcakes with yellow cream filling, there will be little chance of curtailing the use of these substances in our food. Necessity is one thing, as in the use of small amounts of nitrates to control bacterial growth in meat. But commercial gimmickry is another. Stroll down the breakfast cereal aisle of your local food store and observe that you can now feed yourself and your children chocolate cereals and purple and pink puffs that taste like blueberry muffins or strawberry shortcake, while the fine print reads, artificially flavored."

---