How many chemicals can you pronounce that are in your foods?

Hey!
 
Ever read the ingredients in processed foods sold in the US? It's a laundry list of additives that you probably can't spell, let alone pronounce.
Look at that same item that's being sold in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, or any other Industrialized country on planet Earth. None of those long, complex words are nowhere to be found in their ingredients.  
 
You may ask yourself, but why...
 
Well the reason is that the food industry has a very strong lobbying presence in the United States. A lot of times those voices are really heard, and they help drive the creation of regulation and policy that exists around these kinds of additives.  
 
Although the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revised the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) so that chemicals may be evaluated before they are put on the market, it didn’t really account for the legacy of decades of things that are already out there.
By contrast, the European food chemical review system recently implemented a system where they reevaluated all approved food chemicals.
 
Because the United States doesn’t have a system in place for reevaluation, it means that certain chemicals haven’t been reevaluated since they were first approved, which could have been any number of years ago. It’s important to reevaluate because the field of toxicology is always progressing.
 
For a company to determine that an ingredient is "generally recognized as safe," (GRAS) it must establish that the additive's safety is commonly understood by qualified scientific experts.
But some ingredients defy consensus, as consumers, scientific groups and sometimes even the FDA have pointed out. Even GRAS additives that have been used in food for decades are now coming under fire as their uses expand and scientific research emerges that casts doubt on their safety.
 
The GRAS loophole was born in 1958. Americans were growing concerned about the increased use of preservatives and other additives in food, so Congress passed — and President Dwight Eisenhower signed — the first law regulating ingredients added to food.
To restore confidence, the law set up a system requiring companies to submit new ingredients to an extensive FDA safety review before going to market.
 
Congress had a clear understanding of what 'generally recognized as safe means, but that's not the understanding that basically prevailed. There are plenty of ingredients that are receiving GRAS status the safety of which are in dispute.
 
In the past five decades, the number of food additives has skyrocketed — from about 800 to more than 10,000. They are added to everything from baked goods and breakfast cereals to energy bars and carbonated drinks.
 
Meanwhile, the FDA's food additive approval system has slowed to a crawl — the average review takes two years, but some drag on for decades.
 
Corruption at it's finest here in the good old USA.
 
Here's a list of additives that are banned in Europe but allowed here in America:
 
Titanium Dioxide
 
This additive is used for coloring and is found in Skittles, Starburst, baked goods, soups, broths, sauces, and sandwich spreads. Titanium dioxide is something that can build up over time — it doesn’t get excreted very well.
 
The additive has been shown to be genotoxic in studies, which is why it is banned in Europe, she explains. Genotoxicity refers to the ability of a chemical substance to damage DNA, which is the genetic material in all cells, and it may lead to carcinogenic, or cancerous, effects.
 
Potassium Bromate
 
This additive is used in white flour, bread, and rolls to increase the volume of the bread and give it a fine crumb (not crusty) structure. Most bromate rapidly breaks down to form bromide, which is harmless. However, bromate has been shown to cause cancer in animals, and trace amounts of the chemical may remain in bread which could potentially be a small health risk to consumers.
 
Azodicarbonamide
 
This additive is typically found in bread and packaged baked good products. The two potentially risky chemicals form when azodicarbonamide is baked. One of those, semicarbazide, doesn’t appear to pose a risk to humans, but the second breakdown product, urethane, is a recognized carcinogen.
 
Butylated Hydroxyanisole (BHA) and Butylated Hydroxytoluene (BHT)
 
These additives work as preservatives for foods that contain oils or fats. It preserves foods and keeps them from getting rancid.
 
There is concern for cancer risk with BHA. A previous study found that BHA caused cancer in the forestomach of rats and concluded that the additive should be classified in the category of “sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity” according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) criteria. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services stated that BHA is “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen” in a 2011 report. CSPI recommends people avoid consuming BHA.
 
BHT is the chemical cousin to BHA and the two compounds are often used together, according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a nonprofit that works to protect public health. It’s not listed as a carcinogen, but there have been studies where rats fed BHT have developed cancer, and it has been shown to cause developmental effects and thyroid changes in animals, according to a safety report on BHA.
 
Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH)
 
There was big movement that was featured prominently in the news a little more than a decade ago for the dairy industry to be hormone-free. There are some brands of hormone-free dairy products available, but there are many that still contain them.
 
The major concern is that there are hormone-dependent cancers — there is concern that if you’re exposed those hormones, are you increasing your cancer risk down the line?
 
Hormones affect almost every system in our body, so if there is hormonal transfer that could influence health. Many of those hormones used are steroid hormones such as testosterone and androgen, which are found naturally in our bodies, but if you have higher concentrations of them, they could certainly be associated with health risks.
 
There isn’t a scientific consensus on whether products that come from rBGH-treated cows pose a risk to health. If you want to avoid milk with added hormones, buy products that state “rBGH-free milk” or “rBST-free milk” or from cows not supplemented with rBST.
 
Color Dyes (Yellow No. 5, No. 6, Red No. 40)
 
Synthetic dyes give color to food products, but they aren’t necessary, and they are often used create the impression that the food contains real fruits or vegetables even when they don’t.
We have some information that those dyes have been associated with hyperactivity and behavioral changes in kids. There’s not a huge amount of literature, but the small amount that we do have makes us concerned.
 
Environmental Health Hazard Assessment found that current federal guidelines for safe levels of intake of synthetic food dyes may not be enough to protect children’s behavioral health. The agency concluded that children are exposed to multiple dyes in a day and their effects on the individual can vary.
 
Guidelines for the FDA’s Acceptable Daily Intake levels (ADIs) are based on 35-to 70-year old studies; if newer research were used to revise those levels, they would be much lower.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, existing research raises concerns about these dyes and their role in child behavior and exacerbating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and eliminating them may be beneficial.  
 
Brominated Vegetable Oil (BVO)  
 
This additive was once found in popular drinks like Mountain Dew and Gatorade, but pressure from the public, including an online petition from a Mississippi teenager, led Coca-Cola and PepsiCo to stop using BVO in their products. There are some beverages, such as the Keurig Dr. Pepper’s soda, Sundrop, and generic lemon-lime drinks, that still contain BVO.
BVO is associated with potential health risks, including harm to the nervous system. One early study found that rats that consumed large quantities of BVO showed significant reproductive harm.
 
Be aware of what you purchase. Buy more "Whole Foods". Don't get caught in buying processed "already made meals" that are laced with so many preservatives & chemicals.  
 
These additives can possibly take a toll on your physical & mental state. Talk to your peers right over the ocean. They purchase & eat many of the same products we do. The one difference though are the numerous toxic chemicals that America keeps including into our foods.  
 
Disgraceful!