Step away from the screen—at least for a while

When British author and artist Gemini Adams was living in Los Angeles several years ago, she was at an uncertain transitioning point in her life. Feeling unsettled, she found herself turning more and more to social media outlets such as Facebook to quell her pangs of loneliness.

“I had a scenario where four of my close friends in LA had moved away and I was feeling vulnerable and bereft,” Adams said. “There was a gap between the life I had and the life I was to going to have and for me, it was so easy to fill that with Facebook.

Recognizing the beginnings of this quasi-addiction prompted Adams to create her new book, The Facebook Diet, a collection of humorous depictions of social media addiction. With 28 percent of Facebook users admitting to checking their profile before they even get out of bed, many are probably more familiar with Adams’ drawings than they’d like to admit.

While the content is intended to be amusing, the book tackles one of the more pressing issues of modern times: technology addiction and the inability of many users to unplug. Adams, an avid yoga practitioner, talks often about being ‘present’ in any given task or moment—something which the constant stream of information available on the internet runs in direct opposition to.

“I think that as a society it’s so necessary for us to be living in the digital world: news magazines are going digital, kids are using tablets in school etc,” Adams said. “But when you’re on a digital device you’ve got so many things out there that are distractions and if you don’t have any self control or you haven’t been taught how to practice being present then I think that creates a serious problem.”

A Neilson report on social media last year found that Americans spend 23 percent of their online lives on Facebook and other social networks. Despite this huge time investment, Adams’ point isn’t that social media is an evil, all-consuming force that healthy people should eschew altogether. On the contrary, it’s a useful tool and, for a growing number of people, an integral part of professional lives. Instead, she advocates practicing restraint in various ways.

“Building an awareness of why you’re using social media is the most important thing,” Adams said. “Creating set spaces where you are completely disconnected and sticking to them is important. Having a schedule—swimming, running, or even watching a movie—makes us conscious of the amount of time we’re being forced to interact with computers.”

With increasing rates of ADHD, shortened attention spans in children, and physical side effects from sitting hunched over all day, Adams is part of a growing group that are urging people to go on a ‘digital detox.’ The non-profit Reboot has promoted National Day of Unplugging—inspired by the Jewish Sabbath—since 2010. Many prominent writers are pointing out the value of taking one day per week away from technology. Not responding to email of any kind when you’re on vacation or a weekend away—once a risky move—is now more accepted.

To help with the transition, Apps and software such as Mac Freedom, which dis-enables your internet for set intervals of time so you can focus on creating, and Self Control, which blocks particularly distracting sites, are good tools. And of course, says Adams, there is always the option of leaving your smart phone at home from time to time.

For Adams, creating a book about technology turned out to be a way to get away from the technology that she felt was lessening her quality of life. She encourages others to pick up old fashioned habits—writing long-hand, reading a print book—in order to do the same.

“I was so sick of sitting at the computer,” Adams said. “I wanted that tangible experience of creating. So doing this book allowed me to go out and do research, talk to people, go experience the world, go and draw and have a really tangible rather than digital addiction.”

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Hold the sprinkles? The American love affair with brightly colored foods may be risky business.

What’s wrong with the natural color of a pickled pepper? That’s what I’ve been wondering for at least a year, ever since I decided to avoid artificial food coloring whenever possible and found that jarred Greek peppers only come in FD&C Yellow #5. Willing to accept that perhaps my obsession with natural foods had careened straight past “eccentric hippie” into the territory of undiagnosed mental illness, I’ll be picking my own peck of pickled peppers this year. There’s good reason to do so: artificial food coloring is linked to a multitude of side effects.

They’re linked to allergies, cancer and other heath problems in children and adults.

In the U.S., there are seven FDA-approved, mostly petroleum-derived food dyes currently in use: Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3, Red 40, Red 3, Yellow 5 and Yellow 6. The three most widely-used colors – Red 40, Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 – contain known carcinogens, and the FDA has admitted that Red 3 is a carcinogen as well.

According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, studies have found that Blue 2, which is made of coal tar, causes brain cancer in male rats, while Red 3 gave lab rats thyroid tumors. Yellow 5 can not only cause allergy-like hypersensitivity reactions, but can also be contaminated with cancer-causing substances. Yellow 6 has been implicated in tumors of the adrenal gland and kidney.

They’re in almost all processed foods – and even some fresh whole foods.

It’s not just the neon cereals, candies, sprinkles and juices that have been enhanced with artificial dyes. Bagels, waffles, tomato juice, crackers, salad dressing, cheese, yogurt and those pickled peppers are among the many packaged foods that contain food coloring. In fact, the blueberries in Aunt Jemima Blueberry Waffles are just bits of food coloring.

Fruit growers are allowed to dip oranges in a carcinogenic red food dye to make them more appealing. That dye is no longer allowed as an additive in foods, but the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers its use for peel enhancement acceptable.

Food dyes are used to exploit our natural instincts linking color to freshness, and to entice kids to eat junk.

The food industry uses dyes to manipulate us into believing that the food we’re eating is healthier than it is. We’re drawn to the brightest red apples, the most verdant salad greens and the darkest purple berries because we’re biologically wired to recognize foods that are brimming with nutrients. Conventional produce grown in nutrient-starved soil may be lacking in the color department.

They also know that kids, who are attracted by bright colors from an early age, are far more likely to pick Fruity Pebbles over beige, naturally-colored and -flavored cereals.

Dyes are linked to hyperactivity in children.

After meeting on March 30th and 31st this year to mull warning labels on foods that contain artificial colors, the FDA decided there’s not enough evidence linking them to hyperactivity in kids (by a margin of 8 to 6). “If we put a label that long on every chemical and ingredient that hasn’t been adequately studied . . . you wouldn’t see the package anymore,” argued Tim Jones, Tennessee’s deputy state epidemiologist and a member of the FDA panel.

But two recent studies sponsored by the British government, which looked not just at children who have already been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), but at a wide sample of children in the general population, found that kids given foods that contain artificial dyes do indeed show a measurable increase in hyperactivity.

Dyes are discouraged in Britain, and require a warning label in most of the European Union.

The British Food Standards Agency advises parents to avoid artificially colored foods, while the European Food Safety Agency warns consumers right on the package that artificial colors may have adverse health effects. In fact, the EU is mulling an all-out ban.

Kraft, Coca-Cola and Walmart have already removed artificial dyes from the products they distribute overseas, but not in America. For example, while Nutri-Grain bars sold in American contain Red 40, Yellow 6 and Blue 1, those sold in the UK contain beetroot red, annato and paprika instead.

Natural dyes aren’t totally off the hook, either.

A natural red dye that is listed on labels as cochineal, carmine or carminic acid has a bit of a squick factor simply because it’s made from bugs. It takes 70,000 cochineal insects to make just a pound of this red dye, which is used in everything from strawberry milkshakes to cosmetics. The substance can cause severe allergic reactions, as can natural dyes annatto and saffron. (It’s worth noting that even the most natural substance can produce allergic reactions in very small percentages of the population, so that’s not necessary a reason to avoid them entirely.)

Safe, natural alternatives exist.

Colorful food is undoubtedly fun. We don’t have to give up pretty colors in foods in order to avoid potential health effects. In fact, many natural sources of food coloring have properties that have the opposite effects on our bodies – like turmeric, a vivid yellow herb that helps protect against cancer. Try matcha green tea powder for green, beet juice or any number of berries for beautiful reds and purples, cocoa powder for brown and red cabbage for blue.

Image: Pink Sherbet Photography

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The healthy fruits and vegetables you feed your little one to make him grow “big and strong” could actually be injuring his brain, according to a recent study published in the journal Pediatrics. Scientists have discovered that exposure to pesticides called organophosphates – which are known to damage the brain’s nerve connections – increases the likelihood that a child will suffer from the learning disorder Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which 4.5 million children have been diagnosed with in the United States.

This is yet another finding in a growing series of disturbing studies which link diseases to environmental chemicals that run rampant in our everyday lives. The lowdown: the study was led by Maryse Bouchard in cooperation with researchers at The University of Montreal and Harvard University. They analyzed the levels of pesticide residue in urine samples from 1,139 children ages 8-15. The samples containing the highest level of dialkyl phosphates, which are the breakdown of organophosphate pesticides, also had the highest incidence of ADHD. Additionally, nearly 95 percent of the children had at least one byproduct of a pesticide detected in their urine.

According to the National Academy of Sciences, the children most likely accumulated the pesticides in their systems through dietary exposure, and by eating fruits and vegetables that were sprayed with the pesticides while growing as crops. Bouchard recommends feeding children organic produce whenever possible, and washing, scrubbing and peeling all fruits and vegetables to help remove toxic residues. Additionally, parents should avoid using bug sprays in or around their home.

As an added FYI: strawberries, raspberries and peaches contain the highest amounts of pesticides, so be certain to buy organic in these varieties.

Image: Dive Master King 2000

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