A Cake for My
Mother’s 90th Birthday
My mother has been suffering from short term memory loss for
4 years. For the last two years she has
followed the recommendations in my book “Prevent Alzheimer’s, Autism, and
Stroke” including eliminating all major sources of aluminum from her diet and drinking
3 to 4 cups of Fiji water a day in order to lower her accumulation and increase
her excretion of aluminum. Following these recommendations has stopped her
declining short term memory loss and stabilized her cognition.
As my mother’s 90th birthday approached I needed
to order a decorated vanilla birthday cake that was aluminum free. Three possible sources of aluminum in a
birthday cake are baking powder, food color dyes, and the aluminum baking pan.
Calling most of the bake shops in the area revealed that most of them made their
standard cakes with baking powder containing alum. However I finally found Sarah at Iced Bakery
who was a baker in town willing to make a custom aluminum-free birthday cake
for my mother.
Baking Powder
Most baking powders contain alum. Alum is a combination of
aluminum and sulfate ions making a salt that sometimes contains additional
ions, such as ammonium, potassium, or sodium.
Alum is acidic and when combined with other acids and baking soda is
sold as double acting baking powder. Baking powder releases a gas (e.g. carbon
dioxide) when heated causing bread and cake to rise. The use of alum in baking powder continues
today but should be banned due to the neurotoxicity of the aluminum it contains
(approximately 50mg/tsp.). Other non-aluminum containing acidic salts can be
used in place of alum to make baking powder and these salts include mono
calcium phosphate and cream of tartar. “Aluminum-free”
baking powder made with mono calcium phosphate and baking soda still contains
some aluminum as an impurity (approximately 1mg/tsp.). Homemade baking powder made with cream of
tartar and baking soda has a much lower level of aluminum (less than
0.004mg/tsp.). The recipe for this baking powder is:
2
Tbsp. Cream of Tartar (for
leavening)
1
Tbsp. Baking Soda (for
leavening)
1
Tbsp. Corn Starch (for anti-clumping)
History of Baking
Powder
The first scientist to make the
observation that alum in bread is a health problem is the English
epidemiologist Dr. James Snow, M.D. In
1857 Dr. Snow published an article in a British medical journal, “The Lancet”,
pointing out that the incidence of rickets in children is higher in London than
in towns north and west of London. Rickets in children and osteomalacia in
adults is due to a lack of sufficient calcium and phosphate for bone strength
and vitamin D for calcium absorption. With the help of a chemist, by the name
of Dr. Arthur Hill Hassall, Dr. Snow had found that baker’s bread made in
London contained alum while homemade bread made in towns north and west of
London contained no alum. Dr. Snow suggested that aluminum complexed with
phosphate preventing the absorption of phosphate in the gut required for strong
bones. It took 128 years for research to fully explain why aluminum can cause rickets
and osteomalacia. In early 1980s J.A. Roberston, et al. (1983), W.G. Goodman,
et al. (1984), and G.L. Klein, et al. (1985) found in rats, dogs, and humans that
aluminum inhibits the biosynthesis of the active form of vitamin D that is
required for calcium absorption. More
recently it has been discovered that neurotoxic forms of aluminum, such as
alum, also cause a wide variety of neurologic diseases, such as Alzheimer’s,
autism, and stroke.
The Royal Baking Company of Fort Wayne, Indiana was
organized in 1873 and through extensive advertising and branding became the
premier manufacturer of baking powder in the U.S during the late 1800s. Their baking powder was made from cream of
tartar (a by-product of wine production) and baking soda (a.k.a. sodium
bicarbonate). The recipe was developed
by Brothers Joseph and Cornelius Hoagland and pharmacist William Ziegler. Their
business grew and was moved to New York in 1890 to become the largest producer
of baking powder in the U.S. In 1889
William M. Wright with the help of chemist George Campbell Rew developed double
acting baking soda made with baking soda and two acids, monocalcium phosphate
and alum (sodium aluminum sulfate). This
mixture was less expensive than using cream of tartar and the baking powder was
advertised as releasing carbon dioxide over a wider temperature range. They
marketed their product under the name Calumet Baking Powder. In 1928 the firm
was sold to General Foods and it became the largest producer of baking powder
in the U.S.
The popularity of alum containing baking powder is in spite
of health warnings by dietary experts and a bitter metallic flavor that is
experienced by approximately 30% of those who eat the resulting bake-goods. In
1897 eight years after alum containing double acting baking powder was
developed, N.Y. University Professor of Clinical Medicine, W. Gilman Thompson,
M.D. warned in his book “Practical Dietetics” that “Baking Powder … should be
free from alum …”. In spite of warnings
and research showing aluminum is a neurotoxin, double acting baking powder is still
recommended today in popular books on baking such as James Peterson’s “Baking” published
in 2009.
Artificial Food Color
Dyes
Many artificial food color dyes (AFCs) contain the aluminum
salt of the colorant and in some cases colorants are combined with alumina
(a.k.a. aluminum oxide). The total
amount of AFCs added to food per person in the U.S. rose 5-fold from 1950
(12mg/person/day) to 2012 (62mg/person/day). On average 10% of aluminum
containing AFCs is aluminum.
Although Sarah agreed to make an aluminum free cake for my
mother, she did not realize until reading the ingredients that her colorants
for the icing contained “Aluminum Lakes”.
Manufacturers of AFCs are required to list aluminum salts of colorants
as “Aluminum Lake” on the package. In order
to eliminate aluminum and still color the icing on my mother’s cake I agreed to
send Sarah a set of pink, blue, and yellow natural food dyes made by
ColorKitchen. These natural dyes use
beet juice extract for pink, an extract of blue-green algae (a.k.a. spirulina)
for blue, and turmeric extract for yellow. These natural dyes do not contain aluminum but
look just as good as AFCs that do contain aluminum.
History of Artificial
Food Dyes
At the beginning of the 20th century a number of
synthetic dyes and pigments became available.
They were synthesized from bituminous coal and were called “coal-tar
dyes”. These dyes were less costly to produce
and superior in color when compared with natural dyes available at the time. In the U.S. only seven of these synthetic
dyes were initially approved for food under the U.S. Pure Food and Drug Act of
1906. These dyes are in general soluble in water but not soluble in fats and
oils. In order to add color to icing used on cakes, the aluminum salts of these
dyes are used as an “Aluminum Lake” in the icing. The Lakes are not soluble, but are
dispersible in the icing. In general Lakes are more stable than natural
dyes. In addition to cake icing these “Aluminum
Lake” dyes are used for coated tablets, candies and chewing gums, lipsticks,
soaps, shampoos, and talcs.
Aluminum Baking Pan
Acidic and/or fluoride containing cake mix, baking powder,
and water used to prepare the cake mix will corrode the aluminum baking pan
releasing neurotoxic aluminum ions into the cake during baking. The easiest way to eliminate this source of
aluminum is to use a stainless steel baking pan. There are also thin plastic sheet liners for baking
pans that will withstand baking temperatures up to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
These disposable liners, made of PET (a.k.a. polyethylene terephthalate, PTL,
PETE, CPET), not only allow baking in an aluminum pan without adding aluminum
to the cake but also make cleanup easier. Likewise the use of an aluminum
baking pan lined with parchment paper will prevent aluminum corrosion from
adding neurotoxic aluminum ions to the cake.
History of Aluminum
Cookware
At the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York,
aluminum cookware was first introduced to housewives, who wisely viewed it with
suspicion because of concerns about the quality of the cookware and the
toxicity of aluminum. It took approximately 50 years before aluminum pots and
pans gained acceptance. Because it is lighter and less costly than the
alternatives, currently aluminum is the most common cookware on the market.
Conclusion
With Sarah’s help as the baker, I can give my mother a
beautiful custom aluminum-free birthday cake for her 90th birthday
party.
From the historical data presented here it is evident that
this custom aluminum-free cake would have been the standard cake in the late
1800’s. Since 1900 aluminum containing
double acting baking powder, “Aluminum Lake” containing artificial food dyes,
and aluminum baking pans have become popular.
All of these add aluminum to cakes that we currently consider the new
standard cake. This aluminum contamination extends to all commercial baked
goods, such as bread, muffins, cupcakes, pancakes, waffles, and biscuits.
The fact that aluminum containing double acting baking
powder, “Aluminum Lake” artificial food dyes, and aluminum cookware all became
popular in the early 1900’s explains why Alzheimer’s and autism are modern
diseases first observed in the early
1900’s. It is time that consumers demand
aluminum free food, including bake-goods, for our brain health and the brain
health of our family. For more details on how to eliminate aluminum from your
body and your diet, please read my book entitled “Prevent Alzheimer’s, Autism,
and Stroke With 7 Supplements, 7 Lifestyle Choices, and a Dissolved Mineral”.
For more information about sources of Aluminum view the video my wife and I made on YouTube titled:
Brain Fitness in the Aluminum Age - Eliminating Aluminum. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt5gfKxpHZU&t=2s
For more information about sources of Aluminum view the video my wife and I made on YouTube titled:
Brain Fitness in the Aluminum Age - Eliminating Aluminum. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt5gfKxpHZU&t=2s
