9 Common Foods that Contain Toxic Ingredients
Although the FDA gives the green light on some frightening food additives, including these 13 banned foods still allowed in the U.S., that doesn’t mean it’s starve or move to Singapore, where apparently they take their food safety very seriously.
Mac and Cheese
Banned Ingredients: Coloring agents yellow 5 and yellow 6
The "cheesy" neon-orange color in most store-bought mac and cheese is a result of dangerous dyes made from coal tar, which is also used to seal-coat and preserve products like shiny industrial floors as well as to kill bugs in lice shampoo. Studies have linked artificial food coloring to allergies, ADHD, and cancer in animals, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Sports Drinks
Banned Ingredients: Coloring agents blue 1 and blue 2
Similar to yellow 5 and 6, these unnatural highlighter hues offer a rainbow of health risks, including messing with the cognitive function of hyperactive kids, who performed poorly on tests that measured their ability to recall images, according to a U.S. study published in the journal Science.
Fat-Free Chips
Banned Ingredient: Olestra (aka Olean)
It was the potato chip industry's answer to their high-fat problem. Too bad making a light chip created a bigger problem: spending too much time in the bathroom. To top that off, these fat-free snacks may also make you fat. In a 2011 Purdue University study, rats fed foods containing Olean ate more overall and gained more weight than those fed a high-fat diet including regular, full-fat chips.
Citrus-Flavored Sodas
Banned Ingredient: BVO (aka brominated vegetable oil)
This food additive, which works as an emulsifier in beverages, features bromine, the same ingredient used with some flame retardants in furniture and plastics. Sounds gross, but what's worse is the harm: In addition to the health risks mentioned in our list of 13 banned foods still allowed in the U.S., BVO may also cause build-up in fatty tissues and create reproductive and behavioral problems.
Flatbreds and Wraps
Banned Ingredient: Potassium bromate (aka brominated flour)
A key bulking ingredient, potassium bromate speeds up the bread-making process and cuts costs for manufacturers—and may be linked to kidney and nervous system disorders and gastrointestinal discomfort.
Boxed Pasta Mixes
Banned Ingredient: Azodicarbonamide
This hard-to-pronounce chemical has been linked to asthma and is banned in Singapore, Australia, the UK, and most European countries. If American food producers exercised a little more patience and just waited one week for wheat to whiten naturally on its own instead of adding this to fast-track flour’s bleaching process, we’d have no worries.
Cereal Snack Mixes
Banned Ingredients: BHA and BHT
Both of these preservatives have been found to increase the risk of cancer in animals, and BHA is “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen” by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. You're also getting heart-unfriendly trans-fats disguised under the new name "monoglycerides."
Non-Organic Yogurt
Banned Ingredients: rBGH and rBST
Non-organic yogurts generally come from dairy cows that have been given growth hormones rBGH and rBST to boost milk product. Unfortunately these also boost the level of another hormone called insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), which has been tied to breast, colon, and prostate cancers in some human studies. Many yogurts also contain artificial food colorings and sugar substitutes or high-fructose corn syrup and have little protein, making them less satisfying.
Whole Conventional Grocery Store Chicken
Banned Ingredient: Arsenic (found in chicken feed)
In exchange for pinker, plumper poultry, which appears fresher, you get exposure to this cancer-causing toxin. Traces of an inactive ingredient used in Prozac may also be in some caged chickens' systems (a "solution" to helping them deal with poor living conditions), according to a 2012 Johns Hopkins University study that tested poultry from six states and China. But that is not the worst of it: Scientists also found a broad-spectrum class of antibiotics, which are used to reduce infections and boost bird growth. Unfortunately indirectly consuming these drugs can cause antibiotic-resistant infections in humans.
Source: SHAPE Magazine l 3/16/13
