To remain healthy and to become healthier we should know what has helped in the past and be prayerful (to Christ and via He to God) about what to do now if we have any doubt.
Eating and drinking properly, exercising often, giving our psyches the rejuvenation, enrichment and even amelioration we may need from such as good dancing, music, and experience in nature adds to our holistic health (body and mind, individual to globally).
Discernment of scientific efforts, both in the past and recently, has supported this. Discernment includes prayerfulness and "critical thinking"*, logical reasoning about that truly which matters.
My own discernment of experience and scientific research is that (imprudently) manufactured chemicals are not good for our bodies.
In comparison, all natural, wholesome foods (no herbicides nor pesticides, no misuse of our capabilities such as that of "Roundup") fruits and vegetables which pass a "smell test" in such as the produce section of good health-food / grocery stores.
To restate this for added emphasis, fruits and vegetables should never be exposed to pesticides nor herbicides (chemicals that surely may detract from our bodies if ingested, even if we were unaware of or denying this). And, we should not eat crackers nor cereal with so-called preservatives that would be taxing to our livers. We also should not consume "dirty" apples (contaminated with pesticides / herbicides) nor such as "Sunny D" when oranges are available (the "Yellow 6" it has contained .
Of my experience, it is safest or most prudent to avoid consuming artificial ingredients such as "monosodium glutamate", "Yellow 6", and "Red 5" to remain healthy. I am not convinced that these nor any other chemical amalgamations we've made are good for our bodies. My professional opinion is that they are the result of succumbing to the sin of greed. These are bad for us: "BHT", "high fructose corn syrup", "monosodium glutamate", etcetera. The articles linked below support my claim:
Top 6 Dangers of Maltodextrin and 5 Healthier Substitutes (powerfoodhealth.com)
Is Yellow 6 Bad For You? - Here Is Your Answer. (isitbadforyou.com)
Good farming and gardening, good agrarian stewardship, makes no concessions for today if it too costs our future. This is unfortunately what occurred when monocropping caused the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and the consequence of Monsanto's greed and negligence was glyphosate runoff causing celiac disease (https://youtu.be/TYTsQbahME0?si=_ITFFm7Jxr7KXip_).
To summarize, if it's a manufactured chemical (and it's been mixed with food), don't consume it. If it's an untampered with product of Mother Nature, it may be good. Smell, pray about it, touch it, google about it, whatever you gotta do to be sure its okay to eat.
As lagniappe for you (a Creole expression for "a lil' something extra") please buy and recommend only the Natural American Spirit brand of cigarette until and unless other brands follow suit. They've refrained from mixing harmful additives with tobacco and have been offering organically grown tobacco solely; it is the only brand I'm aware of that does not mix chemical additives in with tobacco.
* The Dalai Lama, quoted in I Am, the movie:
Question for the Dalai Lama: “What’s the most important meditation we can do now?”
Answer: “Critical thinking, followed by action. Discern what your world is. Know the plot, the scenario of this human drama. And then figure out where your talents might fit in to make a better world.”
(source: https://calvincorreli.com/blog/1957-critical-thinking-followed-by-action)
Remember, it is not only critical that we eat well, exercise well, and enjoy fine things and entertainment to live well.
It is critical to oft do good work and to have peaceful, dutiful involvement with faith-based community, to honor our family (and ancestry and our authentic heritage), and to enjoy genuine friendship also.
