The “Eat This, Not That” guys have an excerpt from their latest book over at Yahoo Health entitled, “8 Ingredients You Never Want To See On Your Nutrition Label“. If you are eating Gluten Free, you have already become an expert at deciphering nutrition labels. You know “the many names of gluten“.

However, you can do more for your health than solely eliminating gluten. Use your new-found label reading powers to look for these 8 ingredients: BHA, Parabens, Partially Hydrogenated Oil, Sodium Nitrite, Caramel Coloring, Castoreum, Food Dyes and Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein. The article explains the reasons for omitting these items from your diet, like this explanation about Castoreum:

Castoreum is one of the many nebulous “natural ingredients” used to flavor food. Though it isn’t harmful, it is unsettling. Castoreum is a substance made from beavers’ castor sacs, or anal scent glands. These glands produce potent secretions that help the animals mark their territory in the wild. In the food industry, however, 1,000 pounds of the unsavory ingredient are used annually to imbue foods—usually vanilla or raspberry flavored—with a distinctive, musky flavor.

You’ll find it in: Potentially any food containing “natural ingredients”

YUMMY!