Baked Goods High Source of Aluminum

Muffins (and baked goods) made with aluminum containing baking powder are beyond TOXIC for your brain!!!!  There is hope, Starbucks makes an aluminum free muffin and you can make your own nontoxic muffins.  Don’t get your muffins at Dunkin Donuts, they contain aluminum. 

Scones are more toxic than muffins as the recipe can call for 2 tablespoons of baking powder for 6 to 8 scones - YIKES !  If you are a scone lover check to make sure the baker uses aluminum free baking powder.     

Dennis and I have been making videos with the help of our local TV station.  The title of the video series is ‘Brain Fitness in the Aluminum Age’.   One of the videos focuses on Eliminating Aluminum Intake. 

Here is an excerpt from the video:

‘The risk of Alzheimer’s is increased 760% with a daily diet of pancakes, waffles, muffins, or biscuits.  This is because most commercial baking powder contains sodium aluminum sulfate or potassium aluminum sulfate. ‘ 

YIKES!!!  One could dismiss this by saying I don’t eat these foods on a daily basis.  Hold on, guess how much aluminum is in 1 muffin ? 

Excerpt from video:

‘Laurie loves to bake. We found that baked goods prepared with baking powder were a major source of aluminum for us.  For instance we were preparing pumpkin muffins with 20 mg of aluminum per muffin. We now bake with homemade aluminum free baking powder.  And we only purchase prepared baked goods that have been made with yeast or another non-aluminum containing leavening agent’

My delicious pumpkin muffin when made with baking powder containing aluminum has 200 times higher aluminum levels than the safe aluminum level in a quart of drinking water.   

I decided to do some research to see what leavening agent Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks use for their muffins.  WOW, YIPPEE Starbucks makes aluminum free muffins as the baking powder they use is (calcium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, corn starch, monocalcium phosphate, calcium sulfate).  Sadly Dunkin Donuts muffins contain aluminum.  I love their coffee cake muffin.  The leaving agent this company uses is (Baking Soda, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Aluminum Sulfate).

My favorite local bakery for muffins uses aluminum.  I am glad I stopped eating these muffins when I retired.  I am planning on contacting them to see if they can change to an aluminum free leavening agent.

Here are some aluminum free pancake mixes : Log Cabin, Krusteaz HEART HEALTHY, Annie’s.  A friend uses Jiffy baking mix to make his pancakes – this mix is also aluminum free.

  

Here is the recipe for homemade baking powder.

The manufactures whose products were tested and found to have an undetectable amount (less than 0.004mg/tsp.) of aluminum are in parentesis⁴¹⁷:

            2 Tbsp. Cream of Tartar (McCormick and Signature Kitchens)

            1 Tbsp. Baking Soda (Arm & Hammer and Davis)

            1 Tbsp. Corn Starch (Davis)

Mix the ingredients together and put the mixture through a screen wire sieve. Place in a container with a snap on plastic lid for storage. Store the homemade baking powder in a cool dry place.

Here are the results of Dennis’s analysis of some baking powders. 

Aluminum in Baking Powders417
Baking Powder	Powdered Acid	Aluminum mg/tsp
Homemade	Cream of tartar	Less than 0.004
Rumford Aluminum Free	Monocalcium Phosphate	0.79
Trader Joe’s Aluminum Free	Monocalcium Phosphate	Greater than 1.0
Whole Foods 365 Aluminum Free	Monocalcium Phosphate	Greater than 1.0
Davis	Sodium Aluminum Sulfate & Monocalcium Phosphate	48.6

My next project is to draft a letter which I will send to Dunkin Donuts and deliver to local bakeries asking them to change to aluminum free baking powder.  Once I write the letter I will post it on my blog so other people can deliver the letter to their favorite bakery.