Ever wonder what are "Natural Flavorings"?

Seeing how each of the three supplements contained "Natural Flavorings", I got to thinking what exactly are these flavorings that are so natural.  I also took another peek at the ingredient labels of a few favorite foods in or house--Honest Kid juice boxes (although we limit these to only special occasions when other kids are around drinking juice), Rice Dream Organic frozen dessert, Breyer's Pure Fruit All Natural popsicles, and Pure Decadent Coconut Milk ice cream.  Guess what, they all have "Natural Flavoring" listed as an ingredient.  I've always assumed that natural flavoring just meant it came from a fruit or vegetable.  WRONG!  Apparently flavoring can come from byproducts of beef, poultry, fish, egg, and milk, plants, barks, roots, to name a few.  I found this article online that lays thing out:  http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/4676616


Here's the definition of natural flavor under the Code of Federal Regulations: “the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional” (21CFR101.22).


Our practitioner was telling me how natural is actually made from chemicals.  WHAT?  Yep, it's true according to that article! "Artificial and natural flavors are made by “flavorists” in a laboratory by blending either “natural” chemicals or “synthetic” chemicals to create flavorings."


No wonder I've had such a hard time getting a grasp on what this kid is allergic to.  And now it makes all the more sense to move onto treating for milk and casein (things I know my kid is allergic to, but we avoid at all costs, or at least we thought we were!)  It just makes me cringe at what we have done to our food supply.  It's no wonder allergies and reactions are on the rise and people like my child suffer.

How to decide what's next?

It's funny how things work out sometimes.  Hubby & I have been talking about what treatments should be next for our kid.  He's eager to jump right in and conquer foods we've been avoiding, while although I know those need to be addressed eventually I keep thinking that he must be reacting to something he's currently being fed and maybe we start there.  But where to start?  Well sometimes the answers just fall into one's lap (as a friend of mine says 'is it God or is it odd?')  I was out of town for two days, and when I can home yesterday I noticed that hubby didn't follow my precise written instructions to give the kid his supplements which I had separated into a pill dispenser.  We also both noticed how awesome the kid's skin looked. At bedtime I gave my son three of the supplements--fish oil, zinc, and his juice plus vitamins he recently started taking.  Within minutes he had an inflamed spot on his forehead above his eye, which is his big trouble spot.  Hmmm, it couldn't be from the nutritious supplements that I spend thousands of dollars on and make sure he takes religiously every morning and night, could it?!

So that was last night, and lucky for us we had a NAET appointment this morning.  We tested for all three supplements, and low and behold he tested allergic to all three.  So today's treatment was for fish, something that he's been eating about once a week and taking the fish oil supplements every morning.  Next week we'll try to conquer natural flavorings, which all supplements had in them.  I was informed that natural flavoring can still mean artificial flavoring, so we'll be taking that route.  Funny how a direction just landed in our laps.