As Published in Miss Millennia Magazine.
Brominated vegetable oil, Azodicarbonamide, BHA, BHT, rBGH, rBST, brominanted flour, food dyes, the fat substitute Olestra, potassium bromate, and arsenic—this list of harmful toxins are part of a list of more than 150 individual ingredients that have once been used in food and are now banned in 100 different countries, but for some reason they are still being used in the foods here in America.
Residents here in the US are now beginning to realize that the FDA really doesn’t seem to have their back when it comes to making sure our food is safe. There is now a list of ingredients banned in other countries and not in the US featured in the new book, Rich Food, Poor Food, authored by nutritionist Mira Calton and her husband Jayson. There is also a petition circling the internet by Vani Hari and Lisa Leake from Charlotte, NC for Kraft to stop using dangerous food dyes in their mac & cheese.
Americans are now recognizing that we pay more for her health care and die faster than other developed countries. The nation spends 2.5 times more on health care than any other nation; however, at the same time when the country is compared to 16 other nations the United States is near the bottom of the list in terms of health and life expectancy for women, and completely dead last for men, according to Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council.
Right now more than two-thirds of United States citizens are overweight with 33 percent being obese. 32 percent of children are either obese or overweight and nearly half of the population, or 43 percent, of Americans are projected to be obese in 10 years. 41 percent of Americans are actually projected to get cancer in their lifetime, but the FDA doesn’t want to take out toxins from certain foods that other countries have already banned.
The fact that these chemicals are still in our food have a lot to do with the fact that there are former and current members of the big food industry with government seats and chemical company lobbyists tying hands to basically control the country’s food policy and what the FDA deems safe for human consumption. Another reason is that nutrition isn’t taught in medical school so doctors aren’t even included in the discussion, and people only worry about calories on product labels of diet sodas or low fat products instead of looking at the unpronounceable cancer causing chemicals mixed in their low fat yogurt.
Many are aware of the dangers of sugar and fat intake in our fast food meals and are okay with consuming those products in moderation. What they don’t know, or what they are not thinking about are the list of ingredients that any other person in other developed countries wouldn’t touch, but that they are actually consuming every day.
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