80% of Pre-Packaged Foods in America Are Banned in Other Countries

[cynatnite]

Snipped from article:

And though it might not surprise you to hear that Olestra - commonly used in low/no-fat snack foods and known to cause serious gastrointestinal issues for those who consume it (understatement) - is on that list, having been banned in both the United Kingdom and Canada, you may be shocked to hear that Mountain Dew, Fresca and Squirt all contain brominated vegetable oil, a substance that has been banned in more than 100 countries "because it has been linked to basically every form of thyroid disease - from cancer to autoimmune diseases - known to man."

You might also be upset to hear that the food coloring used to make your kid's delicious Mac & Cheese dinner visually appealing - yellow #5 and yellow #6, namely - is made from coal tar, which among other things is an active ingredient in lice shampoo and has been linked to allergies, ADHD, and cancer in animals. And gaaaaah.

Then there's azodicarbonamide - commonly found in frozen dinners and frozen potato and bread products - which is used make things like bleach and foamed plastics like those found in yoga mats (tasty!). Azodicarbonamide has been banned in most European countries because it's known to induce asthma, and is in fact deemed so dangerous that in Singapore its use carries a hefty $500,00 fine and up to 15 years in prison.

Yet, according to the FDA, it's SO TOTALLY FINE for us to keep shoveling it into our kid's faceholes: "[Azodicarbonamide] is approved to be a bleaching agent in cereal flour and is permitted for direct addition to food for human consumption."

Oooookay then.

Finally, there's butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) - found in Post, Kelloggs and Quaker brand cereals - which is made from petroleum and is a known cancer-causing agent. It's been banned in England and Japan, but those of us in the U.S. can keep right on serving up to our children for breakfast, because AMMURICA. And FREEDOMZ.

http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/80-pre-packaged-foods-america-banned-other-countries-135100604.html

[MattSh]

1. K&R

[galileoreloaded]

2. Fresh fruits, veggies, and meat. No carbs. Steal it if you have to. It's your life. Nt

[no_hypocrisy]

3. American consumers' reaction to Yahoo article:

Hey, Kraft Mac and Cheese is on sale this week, four for $2.00!

[unblock]

4. i think (hope) annie's organic mac & cheese doesn't have those yellow dyes.

plus i always thought kraft was more orange-y, but my color vision is all kinds of messed up....

[cynatnite]

5. My grandson is autistic and for the longest time he only preferred yellow type of foods...

Makes me wonder about that connection.

This was a sobering article.

[Tree-Hugger]

10. It doesn't

Annie's doesn't use artificial dyes in any product, I believe. However, they use "natural flavors," which could be MSG.

[unblock]

13. i don't think there's much, if any msg. i'm usually rather sensitive to it.

msg has a distinctive metallic/salty taste to it, plus i tend to get a sensation of swelling in my head within 5 minutes of eating even, say, one single dorito.

of course doritos are really loaded up with msg, so it's possible that annie's may have some level that's below my radar screen.

[Triana]

6. Posted about that the other day....

....

( http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023071112 )

And people wonder why certain disorders and diseases are more prevalent now than before, and why health care costs (for diabetes or high blood pressure for instance) keep going up.

The amount of SALT/SODIUM in prepared foods is astonishing, too. So much so that most Americans have HBP by the time they're 50. That's not just stress. It's lazy corprat food manufacturers covering up the unacceptable taste of unpalatable glop with salt. And manufacturers of salt, sugar, MSG, HFCS, and artificial colors are DELIRIOUS to be selling so much of that shit to lazy, greedy corprat "food" producers.

The shit Americans eat -- and are forced to eat (YOU try limiting your sodium intake to 1500 mg a day or less when you don't have time, money or unable to cook for yourself much) - it's damn near impossible.

Atop all that, we're killing ourselves with chemical cocktails in pretty boxes labelled as "dinners", or "food" when all it really is, is poison.

But...but...but... FREE MARKETS!

But...but...but... FREEDOM!

Riiiight. FREEDOM to die from "food" poisoning and unmitigated corprat GREED.

Yea boy. Pfft.

[unblock]

7. yeah i just got diagnosed with "pre"-hypertension, with basically zero risk factors.

i found a list of 10 things to do or avoid if you have hbp, and i've always been good on 9 of them.

not enough exercise is the only one i'm bad about, but still have "perfect" bmi.


and i don't even add salt to anything!

[Triana]

8. You don't need to add salt...the crap is manufactured with a ton of it already

It's in *everything* - tons of it. I don't add it either. One frozen dinner (even Amy's, which are allegedly healthier) can have 900 mg of the stuff. "Unhealthy" ones have more. If one is limited to 1500 mg a day, that's a huge chunk of the day's allowance.

This is why most people over 50 are on HBP medicine. Prepared food mfrs refuse to cut down the salt in their crap. If it tastes that bad without so much salt, maybe they need to fix their damn recipes and stop covering up the bad taste with salt. Jeeze.

[unblock]

9. i know, canned soups are crazy salty, even the "low sodium" variety.

[RebelOne]

11. To my knowledge, Olestra has been off the market for quite a while.

My daughter consumed almost a whole bag of potato chips with Olestra and she was horribly sick. She was driving to my house in Atlanta from Miami. She called me from the side of the road on I-285 and said that she was vomiting. She finally got to my house. When I got into her car the next day, I discovered a bag of potato chips that she had devoured most of. The package stated that it was made with Olestra. That was the reason for her sickness. I had read of a lot of cases of Olestra causing vomiting and diarrhea, so it was taken off the market.

[Tree-Hugger]

12. I used to be skeptical

Until my son turned out to have a bad reaction to Red #40. It took me a while to believe it, but we now know he can't have it. It makes him aggressive and very hyper.

It is hard to find products without MSG, HFCS, azodicarbomide, artificial flavors and so on and so forth. Nearly every brand of bread uses Azodicarbomide. Many also use HFCS and artificial colors (especially "potato" bread - yellow coloring). And it can be expensive to find products without this shit. I try my best to make everything from scratch - still working on mastering bread.

People either don't read labels, don't understand why these things are bad or they don't care. Plus, we have been conditioned to believe that "everything in moderation" is just hunky dory. Except, there is no such thing as moderation anymore. It's in so much of our food system.

[cynatnite]

14. I read the labels, but this stuff was something I didn't understand...

Reading this was very disturbing and I'm not quite sure how to deal with it.

on edit: We do some shopping at our local farmer's market.

[roamer65]

15. Reminds me of the old DuPont slogan

Better things for better living...through chemistry.

[Prism]

16. This article is ridiculously anti-science

I don't know what it is about food that triggers DU's anti-science and reason itch, but an actual knowledgeable scientist demolishes this article here:


http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2013/06/21/eight_toxic_foods_a_little_chemical_education.php


These kinds of articles are just embarrassing.

[Heywood J]

17. I'm sorry, but this just rubs me the wrong way.

Let me start by stating that I believe that there are additives which have never been scientifically tested as to their effects on humans and that deserve to be. I also believe that there are substances in household products which can cause harm to humans (e.g. the infamous sofa burns).

However, just because something is made from a parent substance does not mean its properties are necessarily anything like that parent substance. Remember, water is made from flammable hydrogen and reactive oxygen. Table salt is made from a combination of gas used against soldiers in World War I and a metal that reacts violently and produces flames when exposed to water.

The same is also true for the circumstances under which something is used. Propylene glycol is relatively non-toxic when swallowed by humans in ordinary quantities, yet is also used as engine coolant, to de-ice aircraft, and to make polyester. Gum arabic is extremely common in candy, but also used in paints, shoe polish, and when making some fireworks. Simethicone is used in detergents, to reduce foaming, and to relieve abdominal pain - the silica in it can also be used in varnishes, found inside those little packets of desiccant you find in many boxes, and sometimes used as a flame retardant.

The point of those two paragraphs? Generalizing about a substance from things that are (sometimes vaguely) related or precursors is a bad idea. If an honest discussion is to be had, then let's stick to the actual and demonstrated effects of a substance on the average human body, and perhaps find some actual articles on food safety instead of a re-re-re-reblog about shoveling food into your child's "facehole" which conveniently links to things I'm encouraged to purchase. We should be pushing for institutions like the FDA and NIH to fund more independent safety studies of untested substances commonly included in food, or working towards a model where substances are prohibited from the food chain until proven safe for human consumption. Implying and generalizing from things that sound bad to an average person is how pranksters get people worked up about dihydrogen monoxide. (I always preferred oxidane, which is an actual IUPAC name. &lt/chemistrygeekery&gt)

In the meantime, I'll just avoid eating fast food every night or drinking a gallon of cola, instead of shelling out $25 to buy a book that Amazon describes as promoting a "paleo diet", and also note that BHT (also known as E321) and BHA (also known as E320) are listed on a UK government website entitled "Current EU approved additives and their E Numbers".