Under The Microscope
An informative science-based podcast where we our goal is to help keep the community informed on the numerous health threats that are directly impacting our true wealth. On this podcast, we won’t just highlight the problems…we offer solutions based on research and we ensure all solutions are tangible for everyone regardless of race, SES, location, etc. We have guest experts in different fields of scientific research sharing their knowledge, research, and findings with us with the goal of getting us to reclaim our wealth and live life more abundantly.
Under The Microscope
The Hidden Danger in Your Spicy Chips
Have you ever wondered what gives those spicy chips their vibrant red color? The truth might make you think twice about your favorite snack.
Red 40, a synthetic dye found in most hot chips and spicy snacks, has been classified as a carcinogen with alarming connections to colorectal cancer, hyperactivity disorders in children, and serious disruption of our gut microbiota. Research from the University of South Carolina reveals that the increased use of this chemical over the past four decades parallels the rise in early-onset colorectal cancer – particularly concerning as these products specifically target young consumers.
But loving spicy snacks doesn't mean sacrificing your health. This episode explores the hidden dangers lurking in popular brands like Hot Cheetos and Takis while offering practical alternatives that deliver the heat without the harmful additives. I share specific brands available even in convenience stores that use real spices instead of dangerous synthetic dyes, making healthier options accessible to everyone regardless of location or resources. For those ready to take their health journey further, we also discuss the ultimate solution – eliminating snacking altogether – and provide resources to help you transition toward this goal at your own pace.
Your snack choices impact more than just your taste buds – they affect your gut health, cancer risk, and even mental wellbeing. Subscribe to Under the Microscope for more science-backed solutions to everyday health challenges, and leave a comment letting us know which snack foods you'd like us to investigate next!
Welcome to the Under the Microscope podcast, where we use the latest scientific research to present solutions to the various health impediments and problems that plague our community today. Snack foods snack foods have been a part of our nutrition and diet regimen for quite some time now. I can confidently say for the past 40 or so years, snack foods have been a very influential part of how we go about our nutrition daily lifestyle, whether we're working. For those that are younger my younger audience, those that are in school we love our snack foods. So the theme of today's episode is I would like to eat healthier, but. So for many of us we probably made that statement or similar statement before right, I like to eat healthier, butt. And then that butt prefaces a particular reason or impediment even as to why we can't eat healthier. And so, for today, I want to focus on snack foods, because snack foods not only has become an influential part of our diet and nutrition, it's also one of the areas where we come across the most problems as far as our health is concerned and impediments to living a more abundant lifestyle. So for me, if you're like me, I like spicy foods. Right, whether it's snack related or not, I love spicy foods.
Speaker 1:So, with the potato chip or the chip being the primary focus, I wanted to look at the hot chip in today's episode, because that hot chip is a very popular brand of potato chip. Okay, so we just talked about the potato chip leading the category. Hot or spicy chips are one of the most leading types of chips purchased amongst young purchasers or consumers, and even leading to older consumers as well. Well, what's the issue with that, mr Malik? What's the issue with that? Well, unfortunately, the majority of hot or spicy potato chips or chips that are out there contain a very critical ingredient danger, and that is synthetic dye red 40. So synthetic dye red 40 is typically used in foods that contain a red or orange coloring, and you see these in your again hot chips, such as takis, hot fries, hot cheetos and things of that nature. So, with that being, and with us highlighting this, I wanted to use some research to show just how dangerous high consumptions of RED40 is in the diet when it comes to young consumers and also adult consumers as well. So the first article that I want to discuss or present was conducted in 2023 of September by the University of South Carolina. It was conducted in 2023 of September by the University of South Carolina and based on their research they have here quote the increase in the use of synthetic food colors in such foods over the past 40 years, including the common synthetic food dye Allure, red AC or Red 40, coincides with the rise of early onset colorectal cancer.
Speaker 1:As these ultra processed foods are particularly appealing to children, there's a growing concern about the impact of synthetic food dyes on the development of crc. All right, so red dye 40 has been classified and labeled as a carcinogen. Okay, a carcinogen means that it can cause and promote the development of cancer in a child and an adult. It also can lead to hyperactivity in young children as well. So some studies have shown a link between DIE, specifically red DIE 40, and increased ADHD or hyperactivity diagnosis in children, other studies showing improvement in behavior and attention in children once these dyes were eliminated. There's still more research being conducted on that.
Speaker 1:But red dye 40 has a lot of effects on young consumers and adults as well. So high consumptions of red dye 40 can also impact adult microbiota composition. So just to provide some clarity on what that is, every human being on the planet has a specific gut microbiota composition, microbiota just referring to the bacteria, bacterial community that's comprised in your, my gut. So, depending on the type of diet, lifestyle, frequency of eating, what we're consuming, our gut microbiota composition or community can be altered. Can be altered Well, when it comes to introducing red dye 40 in high amounts, which we're going to talk about in a later episode.
Speaker 1:But when it comes to consuming red dye 40 in high amounts, you see a significant change in the gut microbiota community and these changes lead to various health impediments, health disorders that you see a lot in communities that consume a lot of red 40 base snack foods again, such as chips. You also have this in dyes for cakes as well. So if you have red velvet cake that has red dye 40, just to name one, that has red dot 40, just to name one. But the introduction of the red 40 into our diets via snack foods can lead to disorders such as gastrointestinal disorders, which is connected to inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes, cardiovascular disease. All of these things based on the change in the gut microbiota community right, which is gut dysbiosis is what it's called. And then you have these disorders that come from or stem from this increase in consumption of synthetic, rare diet 40. You also have things like autoimmune disorders, neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism, depression, even. These are a few, just a few, of the disorders that have been associated with the consumption of red dye 40. And in addition to that, again in children, you have the ADHD, the hyperactivity and things of that nature.
Speaker 1:So you're probably listening to this episode right now saying, wow, that's a lot of negative coming from eating my favorite potato chip. You know, eating that, that talkie, eating that, that hot fry, that hot Cheeto. So so what am I supposed to do? Do I really love the hot Cheeto? I really love my Takis. What am I supposed to do?
Speaker 1:Well, there's going to be an alternative approach that you can take that will help you with lowering your consumptions of red dye 40, but also not taking away that spicy chip that you may like. So the alternative approach and the solution, the alternative solution that we're going to offer you all today is to, number one, pay attention to the ingredients on your chip, specifically, again, the hot chips or any chips that contains a red or orange coloring. Pay attention to the ingredient. If you see red 40 or red dye AC40 or red 40 lake on the chip that contains the carcinogen red 40. If you see that on your chip, the alternative approach would be to not consume that chip and find a chip that is spicy but uses actual, authentic spices or real spices to give the spicy flavoring. Now, if you listen to the introduction of the welcome episode, you know that the goal of our podcast is to provide solutions that are applicable to all.
Speaker 1:Ok, so it may seem easy to just find a chip that's spicy that doesn't have red 40, but for those who may not have access to certain resources, maybe again you may be in the food desert your local whole food store, such as a Sprouts, maybe it's too far out of range, guess what? There are some chips that you can find in your local convenience stores, especially in the black and brown community, that are a little bit healthier in the sense that they do not contain the red dye 40, and one of those is the wrap snacks, specifically the wrap snack little boozy chips. So if you pull up the ingredients from MyFoodData or if you go to your local convenience store and you find the Wrap Snack Lil Boosie chip, you'll see that they actually use spices as opposed to Red Dive 40,. Okay, this is specifically the chip, the hot chip, not the hot puff, che cheeto puff that is in that particular brand. Okay, so for those of you that are listening and you're, like he just said, rap snacks what is this? So?
Speaker 1:Rap snacks is a certain brand of chip that was developed by rapper master p. I haven't done research on it to know if he has other partners or things of that nature but these snacks uh, contain or promoted by certain rappers in the community and in this particular version or brand of the rap snacks you have rapper lil bussy and he has the cheeto puff. That's spicy, is louisiana spicy, and then you have the actual hot chip is more of a chip. That's also Louisiana hot and spicy. So in that particular chip, if you look at the ingredients on the back, it does not contain red 40. All right, so those of you that are in the listening audience that maybe you're just pulling up to your convenience store if you're a child, young child, teenager, you're pulling up to your convenience store before you're going to school, college students as well, and adults, everybody If you happen to see that particular brand of chip, or even if it's not a wrap snack, but you see that the spicy chip does not contain Red 40, you are in fact in a much better, making, a much healthier decision as opposed to just consuming that Red 40.
Speaker 1:So again, stay away from Red 40 as much as possible. Don't deprive yourself of your spicy chip. Simply find other chip brands, such as the wrap snacks that I provided for you in this episode that is spicy, is hot but does not contain that red 40, your gut microbiota will appreciate you a lot and your body will appreciate you for making that decision in limiting your red 40 consumption. So just to recap our solution for today's episode, the alternative approach would be to find a chip, a hot chip, that does not contain red 40. All right, check your label, your nutrition label, to see if your favorite chip does, and if it does, look for another brand. You want to avoid that Red 40 dye as much as you possibly can in your snack foods. That includes candy and desserts as well. You want to use also online resources to maybe find a certain type of chip and see if it's in your area and see if you have access to that particular chip and you purchase those. My food data is a good resource to do that as well. Now, that was alternative solution.
Speaker 1:Of the alternative approach, the ultimate solution would be now, I know this is going to sound crazy, but y'all just stay with me. The ultimate solution would be to avoid snacking altogether. Okay, now, I know everybody is not able to just cut off snacking cold turkey, that is okay. But the ultimate solution would be to not snack in between meals. That will completely remove not just the consumption of red 40 out of our diet, but also remove how much processed, ultra processed foods that we're putting in our diet as well.
Speaker 1:So while you're working on that, while you're working on that ultimate solution, which is to remove snack food out of your diet, focus, focus on avoiding Red 40, limiting your consumption of Red 40 as much as possible in your chips. You want to find another brand, such as the Wrap Snacks, lil Boosie Hot Chips. You want to find something like that or similar that's spicy but doesn't contain that Red 40. That's a much healthier alternative Again, not saying that chips are healthy, but it's healthier in the sense that it doesn't contain that red 40 and choose a better alternative. That way, while you're working on developing a pattern of behavior that will allow you to completely remove snack foods out of your diet altogether.
Speaker 1:If you want to know the best ways to remove snack foods from your diet, there are various articles out there that you can find.
Speaker 1:There's a book that's written by the most honorable Elijah Muhammad, called how to Eat to Live, where he talks about not just removing snack foods in between meals, but also how to do so and the benefits that it attaches to your health when you do things like that.
Speaker 1:So if you want to purchase that book, you can go to storefinalcallcom to purchase it online, and there are many articles that I'm going to attach to this podcast episode as well for you to go on and do your actual research yourself and see what works best for you in regards to changing that, that lifestyle. I appreciate you all for joining me for this episode. I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave comments, feedback on how you thought this episode was. If there's more information on red 40 that you would like to know, please put that in the comment section as well. If there's a certain chip that you want us to do research on, to give you the approval on, you know, if it's a little healthier in regards to Red 40 specifically, you can do that as well. I appreciate your time and attention. Look forward to seeing you all in the next episode.