Chicago Wellness: 5 Banned Ingredients Still in our Food Supply

Our food supply is contaminated with tons of additives: color additives, emulsifiers, faux fats, flavor enhancers, preservatives, stabilizers, thickeners, binders, and more! The total market value of food additives in the U.S. increased from $4.3 billion in 2007 to $4.8 billion in 2012. The projected market value of these additives will increase even more rapidly during 2013 through 2018, from $4.9 billion to $5.8 billion.

“For numerous, suspicious and disturbing reasons, the U.S. has allowed foods that are banned in many other developed countries into our food supply,” says nutritionist Mira Calton who, together with her husband Jayson Calton, Ph.D., wrote the new book Rich Food, Poor Food.

Here are the five banned ingredients:

1. Counterfeit Colors (Blue 1, Blue 2, Yellow5, and Yellow 6)

Colors appeal and tempt the eye; hence, we have so many brightly colored cakes, candies, sport drinks and sodas. But don’t let the appearance of things fool you. These colors are carcinogenic and can mutate our DNA.

2. Olestra (aka Olean)

“It took a quarter of a century and a billion dollars to create this Frankenfat but it didn’t take the U.K. or Canada very long to ban it completely,” says Jayson Calton, Ph.D.

This faux-fat depletes the body’s ability to process and absorb fat soluble vitamins, which we need for good health. It can also cause serious issues with your gastrointestinal tract. So don’t be surprised if you eat olestra-infused chips and have irritable bowel syndrome. Get yourself a super dose of probiotics to start repairing any damage done to your gut.

3. Brominated Vegetable Oil (BVO)

Found in sports drinks and citrus-flavored sodas, “this emulsifier prevents flavoring from separating and floating to the surface of beverages,” says Calton. High levels of this lovely additive mess up your thyroid and can cause thyroid cancer, since it prevents the thyroid from absorbing iodine. The main function of the thyroid in the endocrine system is to regulate your metabolism, which is your body’s ability to break down food and convert it to energy. BVO has been banned in 100 other countries; however, the United States regards it as safe when consumed on an interim basis.

4. Potassium Bromate (aka Brominated Flour)

Make sure your food doesn’t come with a warning label! “This flour-bulking agent can be found in rolls, wraps, flatbread, bread crumbs, and bagel chips to help strengthen dough, reducing the amount of time needed for baking, which results in lowered costs,” says Calton. Manufacturers use potassium bromate, a carcinogen, which is made with the same toxic chemical found in BVO (bromine), even though the Food and Drug Administration “encourages” otherwise.

5. Azodicarbonamide

While most countries wait a week for flour to whiten naturally, the American food processors prefer to use azodicarbonamide to bleach flour immediately. This ingredient has quite a range of uses. It’s found in bread and sneaker soles alike, adding a certain bounce factor to foods or foamed plastics. Read more about this additive here.

It’s up to us to leave these nasty ingredients on the shelves. Fortunately, perceived loopholes in the FDA’s additive approval process are stirring public concern and political will to revise their policies.

Listen to the authors of Rich Food, Poor Food here: