Halogens in Food - Buyer Beware [General]

2009 Dec 25
Halogens (Bromide, Chloride, Floride) - their abbreviations: Br, CL, F.
Buyer beware, thyroid disease is on the jump, due to the incessant tendency of Corporate Food & other Commercial Giants to add these 3 halogens to their commodities, as preservatives. You find them everywhere, and it is virtually impossible to escape them. My goal is to minimize exposure. Since becoming sensitized to the issue, I am outraged.

First the Problem:
The thyroid cannot distinguish between iodine and the 3 look-alike halogens (Br, Cl, F). Br is the worst as it is the most reactive. The look-alikes are taken up by your iodine receptors before iodine, receptors become blocked and the thyroid starves. It takes only trace amounts to play havoc. The final step in this process is thyroid disease, where all body systems grind to a halt. The decline is incidiously slow and escapes perception.

A few examples from the non-organic market:
- Table salt - Sprayed with Br (Br is not even on the label)
- Calif strawberries - Sprayed with Br, as a fungicide
- Flour - Cl or one of its derivatives is added; if a flour is labelled "enriched", you can bet there is CL in it. This one is far-reaching!
- Pastry dough - Br is added by bakers - they claim it imparts dough handability properties
- Tap Water - F and Cl are both added
- Much bottled water - Either F or Cl or both are added, the label discloses all; Dasani was pulled from UK marked at one point for having exceeding the ppm for Br
- Remember bromoseltzer? It used to contain Br - Br is now banned from it
- Swimming Pools and Hot Tubs - Heavy Cl and increasingly bromine is added

You absorb Cl and Br right through your pores, it can be ingested via breathing & orally.

A few tips:
- For tap water - The only way to eliminate Cl and F is by reverse osmosis filtering - There is such an outlet in Vanier Loblaws (corner of Montreal Rd & Vanier Pkwy. Water is $3.00 for 18.9 L, the cheapest I have found. Bring your own carboy, or they have smaller containers you can use, but most of them leak). Boiling the water does not remove Cl or F, it just concentrates them.
- Spring water is even better as long as no presrvatives are added
- Use organics as much as possible, esp strawberries
- Grey sea salt. Some use an enzyme for bleaching which is OK.

One year ago, shockingly, my thyroid slowed down to about half-speed. The impact on me of low thyroid was horrid. I am OK now - it is treatable. Since then, I have dramatically changed eating & cooking habits.
- I carry my water bottle everywhere, even to restaurants, and simply explain that I cannot have F or Cl. I open my bottle if they ask, and always find them receptive. I use my most convincing script.
- Instead of boilng food, I steam it
- I no longer use tap water, except for showering, but if I get around to remodelling, I read that there is a tap now that removes the Cl and F.
- I have switched totally to organic flours

Comments anyone?

2009 Dec 25
Enriched flour: Most of the vitamins present in wheat (Vitamin B and E) are concentrated in the bran, the germ, and the aleurone layer of ther endosperm that is removed with bran during the milling. Cake flour contains the fewest vitamins. To offset the loss of these vital nutrients, the government dictates that flour be enriched with iron, B- complex vitamins, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and folic acid, but not Halogens.
I don't know much, but Halogens could be added at milling process to age and bleach flour. Vitamin E is volatile, subject to oxidation and rancidity, and so it is not added to the flour.

Bleaching and aging flour:
Flour that is freshly milled, or green, does not make grat bread. Flour needs to be aged. natural aging (oxidation) takes time and results are not always uniform.
In US, a few parts per million of potassium bromate is added to flour.(bromate flour) In Canada, potassium bromate is banned, (possible carcinogen)and use ascorbic acid( Vitamin C).

- Pastry dough - Br is added by bakers - they claim it imparts dough handability properties

I have been studying baking and pastry arts at school and I made many pastry dough.
So far I used pastry flour, shortening, sugar, salt and water to make pastry dough. I have never added Br in it. I also studied baking theory and learned about ingredients, but I didn't learn anything about adding Br into the dough.
I will ask my prof about use of additives (Br) in the next term.

2009 Dec 26
Hi Aisu Kurimu Thanks for the update.
It must be very exciting studying and making all that pastry!!!
I love baking - most of my enjoyment is derived from the experience creating the product. By profession, I am a professional statistician, but my first love is food- My humble beginnings were at age 3 experimenting in my mother's kitchen.

For pastry dough (mostly fruit pies), now I use pure butter.

In Canada, can Bakers add Potasium Bromate? Such info is hard to locate and there labels are lacking.

I recently checked new Robin Hood Flour & there was no Cl in it, rather it had Ascorbic Acid:) Older bags @ home contained Hypochloride, Chlorine, etc.

Potassium Bromate is banned in many countries, as are its derivatives.
Here are a couple links with useful summary info on additives that I think is reliable.

www.cspinet.org/ reports/chemcuisine.htm
www.orato.com/ health-science/advoid-food-additives-poor-diet

Cheers, NORSKI (derived from my Norwegian roots)
My photo is Ottawa Jan 2007

2009 Dec 26
Hello Norski: My mom-in-law also has thyroid disease...I will forward your tips to mom. Thank you!

I don't think bakers can use Potasium Bromate for any products. Potassium bromate has been banned in Canada in 1994. en.wikipedia.org
So if some bakers use bromate, it will be a big problem!!!

For pastry dough, shortening is 100% fat and butter is about 80% fat, plus moisture and protein. So when you switch shortening to butter, you need to increase the amount of butter and decrease the amount of water.
If a recipe requires 100g shortening, you need to use 125g butter and substract 25g of water.

I remember the snow storm in 2007! It was terrible!! :(