Americans spend over 90% of their food money on processed foods. That is pretty scary since there are over 3,000 food additives that are added to the foods Americans eat. A lot of these additives which include preservatives, flavorings, colors and other chemical ingredients which are in our foods are banned in other countries because they are considered to harmful for human consumption. I often wonder why it is that here in the U.S. we are so slow to protect our citizens from these harmful additives and it just seems to be getting worse. A lot of the big companies that sell overseas have already changed the way they makes products for them but we continue to be served the dangerous chemicals in our foods. One example of that is M&Ms. Those were always my favorite, but I stopped eating them years ago once I started learning about the food colorings and harmful effects. However, in Europe, since these colors are banned, they are getting M&Ms with natural food colorings. I hope at some point, these big food companies will step up and give Americans a better product as well.
Some banned ingredients include various food dyes, the fat substitute Olestra, brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate (aka brominanted flour), Azodicarbonamide, BHA, BHT, rBGH, rBST, and arsenic.
The overall health of Americans is much lower than other industrialized countries, so I wonder if putting these toxins in our bodies in such large amounts is causing the health crisis in America.
In February, Russia extended a ban on U.S. beef, pork and turkey imports due to the feed additive ractopamine in the meats. Ractopamine is a growth stimulant banned in several countries, including Russia. Russia is the fourth largest importer of beef and pork from America. They have stated they will only accept meat if we can certify it does not have ractopamine but the U.S. has refused to guarantee that. Other countries will no longer accept some seeds and grains if they are GMO (genetically modified). If other countries won’t accept our food, can this be good for our economy?
For a list of the worst additives, where they are found and their health hazards please read the link below…
U.S. Foods Full of Banned Ingredients – Articles – Mercola.com
According to the News, a list of ingredients that are banned across the globe, such as food dyes and brominated vegetable oil, are still used in the U.S..