When I was in the midst of creating our app I was researching the additive, Aluminium (173) and let’s just say I was blown away!

I knew as an additive it wasn’t great because I used to see it plastered all over baking powder containers in health food stores stating that they were ‘aluminium free’, and I knew that aluminium in deodorants wasn’t great either, but never in my wildest dreams did I expect it to be as bad as my research found.

I’ve read so many studies on this additive and let me just say that in my humble opinion, it should be banned as an additive and should NEVER be allowed to go in our body or on our body!

Where you’re likely to find aluminium

👉🏻 Baking powder – therefore, it can also be found in store-bought products, such as:

  • Cake mixes
  • Cookie doughs
  • Pancake/pikelet mixes
  • Self-raising flour

👉🏻 Confectionary

👉🏻 Processed cheeses

👉🏻 Deodorants – mostly antiperspirant deodorants

👉🏻 Cosmetics

Potential health effects of Aluminium (173)

❌ Affects to developing and reproductive nervous system

❌ Skin irritations

❌ Bone disease

❌ Kidney disease

❌ Some studies showed that people exposed to high levels of aluminium may develop Alzheimer’s Disease whilst other studies were inconclusive and/or denied this. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to know given the differing studies, which is why we would err on the side of caution and eliminate it from our diets.

❌ Potential to produce neurotoxicity and affect the male reproductive system

❌ After maternal exposure, studies have shown embryotoxicity and that aluminium has affected the development of offspring. This was shown in studies with animals.

What is it used for?

👉🏻 As a firming agent

👉🏻 As a rising agent

👉🏻 As an anticaking agent

What to be careful of?

If you find a baking powder in the supermarket and it doesn’t list aluminium in the ingredients, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is aluminium-free. This is because if the ingredient is under 5% of the total product, it doesn’t have to be listed in the ingredient listing under current labelling laws in Australia and New Zealand.

But if it is, it will be listed in any of these ways:

  • Aluminium
  • 173
  • Aluminium 173

Because it can be hard to know if it contains aluminium or not, we think it is best to source baking powder from a reputable source where it will detail that it is aluminium free on the packaging.  In our experience, companies that have aluminium-free baking powder love to list it on their packaging as it’s a great marketing tool.

If you can actually manage to source a true aluminium-free baking powder from your supermarket, great… but if not, you can source it from the options listed below.

How can you avoid it?

You can get aluminium-free baking powder from:

✅ Health food stores

✅ Bulk ingredient stores such as Source Bulk Foods

✅ Online

As for deodorants/antiperspirants and cosmetics – we are sceptical of the product even if it doesn’t list aluminium on the ingredient list. If it’s a product you want to be certain is aluminium-free then give the company a call and ask them.

The good thing is you can now get some great no-nasty and all-natural deodorants in the supermarket now. No Pong is one we love and is stocked at Woolworths. There are also so many online now that are all-natural and make great options.

You can even make your own deodorant which is so cheap and easy to do.

Give either of these recipes a try from DIY Queen Krissy Ballinger:

👉🏻 Natural Deodorant Paste

👉🏻 Carb-Free Deodorant Paste

The same goes for cosmetics in that there are some really great all-natural cosmetic companies, MG Naturals is one we have recently found that we are so happy with and is also titanium dioxide free (but that’s for another podcast ep – lol).

We hope you have learnt a bit more about aluminium so that you can make an informed choice about whether you want to consume this additive or not.

Lastly, don’t forget to check out our Additive-Free Lifestyle App which is your go-to app for all things additives. It comes with a scanner to scan ingredient listings and detect any additives contained therein. It also has over 300 recipes in it and a meal planner to get you super organised in the kitchen. It’s your one-stop additive-free shop!

Download it now from your preferred app store – just search additive free lifestyle

If you have found some benefit from this podcast episode we would love it if you could give us a review in your preferred podcast app – as this will help get our podcast show out to as many people as possible and spread the word about living an additive-free lifestyle.

Jo (Tracey) x