To see how broken the American food system is, all you need to do is walk into a grocery store overseas and look at the ingredients in their products.
Pick up a bottle of Mountain Dew in the U.K. for instance. You'll find it gets its bright yellow color naturally from Beta Carotene (a natural color derived from carrots and plants) and has a pretty simple ingredient list…
U.K. Mountain Dew Ingredients: Carbonated Water, Sugar, Citric Acid, Antioxidant (Ascorbic Acid), Caffeine, Flavourings, Preservative (Potassium Sorbate), Stabiliser (Gum Arabic), Colour (Beta Carotene).
This is VERY different than the Mountain Dew that Pepsi sells in America…
U.S. Mountain Dew Ingredients: Carbonated Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Concentrated Orange Juice, Citric Acid, Natural Flavor, Sodium Benzoate (Preserves Freshness), Caffeine, Sodium Citrate, Erythorbic Acid (Preserves Freshness), Gum Arabic, Calcium Disodium EDTA (To Protect Flavor), Brominated Vegetable Oil, Yellow 5.
Why the different ingredients? Why doesn't Pepsi just sell the same, safer, product here in the U.S.?
I will tell you why.
The U.S. food system allows it. They allow companies to poison us for profit with risky additives that are banned or heavily restricted overseas. In the U.S., the government allows Big Food to largely police itself, deciding which ingredients, chemicals and additives are "safe", allowing them to use the cheapest additives available.
Earlier this week, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a Policy Statement, calling on the FDA to make "urgently needed reforms" in how they regulate food additives in this country. Their scientific report cites mountains of research linking certain food additives to health issues. A few quotes from their report:
- Increasing scientific evidence suggests potential adverse effects on children's health from synthetic chemicals used as food additives.
- Elimination of artificial food colors from the diet may provide benefits to children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
- Accumulating evidence from nonhuman laboratory and human epidemiologic studies suggests that colorings, flavorings, chemicals deliberately added to food during processing (direct food additives), and substances in food contact materials (including adhesives, dyes, coatings, paper, paperboard, plastic, and other polymers) that may come into contact with food as part of packaging or processing equipment but are not intended to be added directly to food (indirect food additives) may contribute to disease and disability in the population.
Food is medicine, plain and simple. If our food is sick (filled with chemicals, additives, artificial ingredients, and/or carcinogens), then collectively we as a country are going to be sick, as well.
One of the most insidious food additives are added FLAVORS. You'll see them on the label like "Natural Flavors"... "Artificial Flavors"... etc. The processed food industry adds flavors to almost EVERYTHING. I explain why (and what these added flavors really are) in my latest investigation I published this week…
The bottom line: We need to be our own advocate when it comes to the food we buy. We cannot trust the FDA (or anyone else, for that matter) to protect us from all the chemicals added to our food.
So, keep on reading those ingredient lists at the store. When you see an additive in a product and don't know what it is or how it can affect your health, put it back on the shelf. Our health depends on it.
Xo,
Vani
P.S. Please hit the "forward" button on this email and send it to your friends and family. We need to protect our children from these unnecessary and dangerous additives in our food.
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