Why Are U.S. Foods Filled With More Dangerous Chemicals Than UK or EU Foods?
Understanding the effects of too many obesogens and carcinogens in processed foods
If we eat highly-processed foods, we may sometimes read nutrition labels to see how many calories they contain per serving. Sometimes, we may look for how much sodium (salt) they contain, or how much protein.
I never used to read the “fine print” on most food labels. One reason? It’s too small for the majority of people to read. Now, because I don’t eat highly-processed foods, I have no need to read the tiny print on boxed cereal, cookie packages, and frozen food labels.
However, many processed foods contain ingredients that are potentially harmful, especially when consumed regularly over significant periods of time.
We’ve already talked about “obesogens,” aka foods or specific chemicals that contribute to obesity. Several common food additives qualify as obesogens. Other additives have been associated with cancer, making them carcinogens, aka cancer-causing chemicals.
Cancers are growing rapidly, especially in younger adults
Cancer risk is supposed to increase with age. According to City of Hope, the average age for cancer diagnosis is 68.
My mother died of pancreatic cancer at age 40, when I was three months old. More recently, a close friend, the author Vonda N. McIntyre, died of the same disease.
Pancreatic cancer is only one of the formerly “rare” cancers that has increased in recent years, especially among younger people. City of Hope reports that 13 other cancers have been striking more people under age 50, including colorectal cancer, breast cancer, gallbladder cancer, multiple myeloma, and esophageal cancer.
Culturally, we grew up with people laughing at others who were concerned about chemicals in their food. Many people still make fun of others for being concerned that they have pesticides, adulterants, and dangerous chemicals in their food.
Considering how many formerly rare cancers are being diagnosed these days, maybe the people who used to mock others and say, “Ha ha ha, a package of Chips Ahoy can’t hurt you!” are the ones who need to be made fun of.
Just a thought.
Foods are different in the US (with many more chemical additives)
I grew up drinking Mexican Coca-Cola. Of course I don’t drink any Coca-Cola any more, but Mexican Coke tastes better than U.S. Coke, because it is made with sugar in a simpler process.
This isn’t an isolated instance. Many foods made and sold in the United States contain more complex ingredients, longer lists of ingredients (comprised of chemical additives and colorants), and higher levels of sugar and salt than the same brand and type of food made and sold in other countries.
How is this possible? Other countries, including the United Kingdom and European Union, forbid manufacturers from including additives that have been shown to be dangerous from products. In the U.S. the Food & Drug Administration issues “warnings” and “encourages” manufacturers to eliminate dangerous chemicals.
Coca-Cola is just one of the additive-laden products that don’t just taste worse in their U.S. version, they contain more sugar and more chemical substances.
Globally, Statista reports that international soft drink sales will reach $.85 (almost one) trillion dollars in 2023. Most of the revenue in the soft drink market is earned in the United States. The U.S. soft drink market is a $328 billion market as of 2023. According to Statista, each person in the U.S. spends $111.20 on soft drinks every year.
Some of these drinks are “sugar free” and contain several types of artificial sweetener to produce the sweet taste consumers desire.
Coca-Cola contains “safe” caramel color which, according to ThoughtCo’s Anne Marie Helmenstine, adds irreplaceable flavors to the beverage. Coca-Cola also still contains flavors from coca leaves. After the leaves are processed, the leftover cocaine isn’t put into the beverage as it was in its earliest versions. It is sold to an east coast business, Mallinckrodt, which dispense cocaine legally to dental offices and other health professionals who treat patients using the stimulant drug in its rare, prescribed form.
Coca-Cola does contain phosphoric acid, which internationally, has a “high risk of overexposure.” Other chemicals found in Coca-Cola products include sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, ammonia caramel, and benzoic acid. All of these chemicals have been found to cause disease in lab animals.
Some of these drinks are “sugar free” and contain several types of artificial sweetener to produce the sweet taste consumers desire.
Coca-Cola contains “safe” caramel color which, according to ThoughtCo’s Anne Marie Helmenstine, adds irreplaceable flavors to the beverage. Coca-Cola also still contains flavors from coca leaves. After the leaves are processed, the leftover cocaine isn’t put into the beverage as it was in its earliest versions. It is sold to an east coast business, Mallinckrodt, which dispenses cocaine legally to dental offices and other health professionals.
Coca-Cola contains phosphoric acid, which internationally, has a “high risk of overexposure.” Other chemicals found in Coca-Cola products include sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, ammonia caramel, and benzoic acid. All of these chemicals have been found to cause disease in lab animals.
Now people who have been consuming these products for decades are the “lab animals” experiencing the same results as lab rats, while corporations and many individuals blame them for their plight: following slow, deliberate, decades-long exposure to toxic, obesogenic and carcinogenic chemicals sold as “food.” Or — in the case of Coca-Cola — a refreshing treat.
Other Additives Allowed in U.S. Foods, Banned Internationally
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t assess the safety of all additives found in manufactured foods. Some additives can be put into any food without FDA oversight because they are considered to be “Generally recognized as safe” or GRAS ingredients. While GRAS foods started out in the 1950s as simple ingredients like vegetable oil or salt, there are now an estimated 1,000 GRAS substances on the FDA’s list which don’t require any type of safety or oversight to be included in food and beverages.
Olestra, the artificial fat substitute, is a GRAS ingredient. It was once marketed in many types of products that use fat, from ice cream to potato chips. Proctor & Gamble created olestra in a lab. It has zero calories because our bodies cannot digest it. Wood probably has more calories than olestra, but few people want to eat wood chips as a snack.
Because it’s indigestible, people who eat too much ice cream or too many potato chips made with Olestra can experience cramps, diarrhea, flatulence, and other adverse effects.
Visitors to U.K. or EU grocery stores can find similar brands of bread, but they will see different ingredients because U.S. baking companies are allowed to use many chemicals that are banned in other nations, including the U.K. and EU.
Some of the bread and baked goods additives include:
Potassium bromate
Bakers use potassium bromate, usually just called “bromate” to “improve” the behavior and performance of flour in baked goods. It works by oxidizing dough while it is being mixed. In the 1980s, numerous studies found that bromate caused cancer in rats.
We have all heard the arguments of “food scientists” and others that “the rats are fed so much of the ingredient that a human could never …”
See the list of cancers above. No: humans aren’t rats. Rats don’t deserve to die of cancer after being poisoned for quick, lazy, evil cash, either.
Potassium bromate is banned in the UK, EU and Argentina, as well as countries U.S. residents often tell themselves they are much safer and better than: China, India — and even South Korea.
Responsible manufacturers like King Arthur Flour tell bakers that they can buy and use flour without bromate, and they provide instructions on how to do so.
Brominated vegetable oil (BVO)
When I call highly-processed foods “Frankenfoods,” I’m not joking. Industrial food processes bear no resemblance to anything that any home cook would do: ever.
Brominated vegetable oil (BVO) is added to citrus-flavored sodas and drinks like Gatorade that masquerade as “healthy.” Why is this oily substance added? So that citrus flavors don’t “separate” during transit and storage.
According to Katherine Zeratsky, Mayo Clinic registered dietitian, people have experienced memory loss and skin and nerve problems after drinking large amounts of BVO-laced soda.
The FDA is currently “studying” the “safety” of BVO, after removing it from the GRAS list: a very rare occurrence.
I asked Bruce about these substances since he is a materials engineer and sometimes would joke about “bromine,” which is an element with atomic number 35. It is a “volatile red-brown liquid” that is in the same chemical family as chlorine and iodine. Let’s all drink some chlorine-filled Gatorade: yum!
Does your stomach hurt? Mine sure would.
I’m sorry: ha, ha, ha, bromine itself is a dangerous poison. If you inhale too much of it or swallow it (picture “Let’s drink bleach — i.e. chlorine”) you will die.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). That’s a different agency from the FDA, which says all these bromine-based additives are “Generally Recognized as Safe.”
Other ingredients used in the U.S., not internationally
Other additives that are found in U.S.-manufactured foods, but not in other countries include Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and Red Dye 40.
BHA has been classified as a “possible” human carcinogen by numerous international research agencies. It has also been identified as interfering with hormone function.
Red Dye 40 is among six other artificial food colors that are banned in the EU, but legal and liberally used in the U.S., especially in foods marketed and sold to children. All are petroleum (oil) products and all have been associated with developmental delays and behavioral problems in children.
According to Zoe Nutrition, “The FDA doesn’t require manufacturers to test food colorants for developmental neurotoxocity — whether the chemicals can interfere with the developing brain or nerves during pregnancy or childhood.”
As one example, a strawberry McDonald’s milkshake in the United States is colored with Red Dye 40 and flavored with citric acid and other chemicals that mimic natural tastes, usually poorly.
In the United Kingdom, a strawberry McDonald’s milkshake is colored and flavored with … wait for it … you know it’s just insane, how could they possibly …
Strawberries.
The foods we are sold in U.S. supermarkets and fast food outlets are not safe. They are not nutritious. They are exactly what is making everyone fat, sick, and nearly dead.
The Frankenfood manufacturers even have the gall to insult their customers as they poison and addict them for cash and wrap these products in brightly-printed plastic wrappers made from petroleum, and safety-seal them.
Sources:
Centers for Disease Control. “Facts about Bromine,” 4 April 2018, url: https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/bromine/basics/facts.asp
Center for Science In The Public Interest. “Olestra (olean),” Nutrition Action, 3 February 2022, url: https://www.cspinet.org/article/olestra-olean
City of Hope. “Why are cancer rates rising in adults under 50?” City of Hope, 17 January 2023. url:
https://www.cancercenter.com/community/blog/2023/01/why-are-cancer-rates-rising-in-adults-under-50
Environmental Working Group. “EWG’s Dirty Dozen Guide fo Foods to Avoid,” EWG News & Insights, url: https://www.ewg.org/consumer-guides/ewgs-dirty-dozen-guide-food-chemicals-top-12-avoid
Food and Drug Administration. “Generally Recognized As Safe,” 12 December 2022, url: https://www.fda.gov/food/food-ingredients-packaging/generally-recognized-safe-gras
Helmenstine, Ph.D., Anne Marie. “What’s Really in Coca-Cola?” Thought.co, 29 September 2022, url: https://www.thoughtco.com/the-ingredients-and-their-function-in-coke-explained-3976096
King Arthur Baking Company. “Bakery Flour Sales: Reference — About Bromate,” 2023, url: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/pro/reference/bromate
Neltner, Thomas G., Neesha Kulkarni, et. al. “Navigating the U.S. Food Additive Regulatory Program,” The Institute of Food Technologists, Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, 25 October 2011, url: https://ift.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1541-4337.2011.00166.x
Newman, Tim. “Why does food differ between the UK and the US?” Zoe Nutrition, 5 April 2023, url: https://joinzoe.com/learn/uk-versus-us-food
Open Food Facts. “List of additives for products from the Coca-Cola company,” url: https://world.openfoodfacts.org/brand/coca-cola/additives
Statista, “Soft Drinks — Worldwide,” Consumer Market Insights — Non-Alcoholic Drinks, 2023, url: https://www.statista.com/outlook/cmo/non-alcoholic-drinks/soft-drinks/worldwide