For those who have yet to devote a
lot of time towards researching what’s commonly included in processed foods,
here’s a quick list of food additives you should try to avoid, taken directly
from http://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm. It’s a wonderful source in deciphering
ingredients whose names are of particular peculiarity.
Artificial Coloring
Most artificial colorings are
synthetic chemicals that do not occur in nature. Because colorings are used
almost solely in foods of low nutritional value (candy, soda pop, gelatin
desserts, etc.), it’s ideal to simply avoid all artificially colored foods. However, as most of us have a craving for junk
for every now and then, here are specific artificial colors to watch out for:
YELLOW 5
Artificial Coloring: Gelatin dessert, candy, pet food, baked
goods. The second-most-widely
used coloring causes allergy-like hypersensitivity reactions, primarily in
aspirin-sensitive persons, and triggers hyperactivity in some children. It may
be contaminated with such cancer-causing substances as benzidine and
4-aminobiphenyl (or chemicals that the body converts to those substances).
RED 3
Artificial Coloring: Candy, baked goods. The evidence that this dye caused
thyroid tumors in rats is "convincing," according to a 1983 review
committee report requested by FDA. FDA's recommendation that the dye be banned
was overruled by pressure from elsewhere in the Reagan Administration. Red 3
used to color maraschino cherries, but it has been replaced there by the less
controversial Red 40 dye. However, it is still used in a smattering of foods
ranging from cake icing to fruit roll-ups to chewing gum.
Butylated Hydroxyanisole (BHA)
Antioxidant: Cereals, chewing gum, potato chips,
vegetable oil. BHA retards rancidity in fats, oils, and oil-containing foods.
While some studies indicate it is safe, other studies demonstrate that it
causes cancer in rats, mice, and hamsters. Those cancers are controversial
because they occur in the forestomach, an organ that humans do not have.
However, a chemical that causes cancer in at least one organ in three different
species indicates that it might be carcinogenic in humans. That is why the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services considers BHA to be "reasonably
anticipated to be a human carcinogen." Nevertheless, the Food and Drug
Administration still permits BHA to be used in foods. This synthetic chemical
can be replaced by safer chemicals (e.g., vitamin E), safer processes (e.g.,
packing foods under nitrogen instead of air), or can simply be left out (many
brands of oily foods, such as potato chips, don't use any antioxidant).
Artificial sweetener: Diet, no-sugar-added products, soft drinks,
sweetener packets. Saccharin
(Sweet ’N Low) is 350 times sweeter than sugar and is used in diet foods or as
a tabletop sugar substitute. Many studies on animals have shown that saccharin
can cause cancer of the urinary bladder. In other rodent studies, saccharin has
caused cancer of the uterus, ovaries, skin, blood vessels, and other organs.
Other studies have shown that saccharin increases the potency of other
cancer-causing chemicals. And the best epidemiology study (done by the National
Cancer Institute) found that the use of artificial sweeteners (saccharin and
cyclamate) was associated with a higher incidence of bladder cancer.
In 1977, the FDA proposed that
saccharin be banned, because of studies that it causes cancer in animals.
However, Congress intervened and permitted it to be used, provided that foods
bear a warning notice. It has been replaced in many products by aspartame
(NutraSweet). In 1997, the diet-food industry began pressuring the U.S. and
Canadian governments and the World Health Organization to take saccharin off
their lists of cancer-causing chemicals. The industry acknowledges that
saccharin causes bladder cancer in male rats, but argues that those tumors are
caused by a mechanism that would not occur in humans. Many public health
experts respond by stating that, even if that still-unproved mechanism were
correct in male rats, saccharin could cause cancer by additional mechanisms and
that, in some studies, saccharin has caused bladder cancer in mice and in
female rats and other cancers in both rats and mice.
In May 2000, the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services removed saccharin from its list of cancer-causing
chemicals. Later that year, Congress passed a law removing the warning notice
that likely will result in increased use in soft drinks and other foods and in
a slightly greater incidence of cancer.
Potassium Bromate
Flour improver: White flour, bread and rolls. This additive has long been used to
increase the volume of bread and to produce bread with a fine crumb (the not-crust
part of bread) structure. Most bromate rapidly breaks down to form innocuous
bromide. However, bromate itself causes cancer in animals. The tiny amounts of
bromate that may remain in bread pose a small risk to consumers. Bromate has
been banned virtually worldwide except in Japan and the United States. It is
rarely used in California because a cancer warning might be required on the
label. In 1999, the Center for Science in the Public Interest petitioned the
FDA to ban bromate. Since then, numerous millers and bakers have stopped using
bromate.
It should be noted that in many
instances where there are suspicious findings regarding a particular substance,
the Food and Drug Administration isn’t exactly quick to act or outright condemn
its use as detrimental to health. Their
reasoning for doing so is murky at best, especially in the instances where
organizations have called for the complete banning of a substance. It’s probably wise to rely on sources aside
from the FDA to distinguish what’s safe and what isn’t.
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