Whole foods processed and “enhanced” with food additives are now so ubiquitous it’s as if this Frankenfood is the new normal. In other countries throughout Europe and beyond, the harmful effects of chemical additives have been recognized and therefore regulated or banned outright. Despite the fact that they’ve been linked to everything from cancer in lab rats to behavioral problems in children, many additives still remain on the U.S. FDA’s Generally Regarded As Safe (GRAS) list. Which means you’re left having to navigate the convoluted jumble of unfamiliar words on the back of an ingredients list if you’re to avoid eating them or feeding them to your family. But you don’t need a Ph.D. in chemistry to make sense of it all, you only need to remember this: If you can’t pronounce an ingredient, or don’t know that you would recognize it on its own, your body surely won’t recognize it.

For reference, here are the worst artificial offenders:

Colors
Blue no. 1 and 2
Citrus red no. 2
Green no. 3
Red no. 1, 3, and 40
Violet no. 1
Yellow no. 5 and 6

Sweeteners
Aspartame (Nutra Sweet
Acesulfame K
Neotame
Sucralose (Splenda)
Saccharine
Sugar alcohols (sorbitol, xylitol, mannitol)
Tagatose

Flavor Enhancers
“Artificial flavors” (made up of some of the more than 1,500 synthetic flavors GRAS)
Monosodium glutamate (MSG)

Preservatives
Calcium propionate
Disodium EDTA
Nitrates and nitrites
Potassium benzoate
Potassium sorbate
Sulfur dioxide
Sodium propinate