Boy, this food tastes good! Uh-oh. Taste isn’t everything. Turns out food manufacturers use more than 3,000 chemicals to make their products look better and last longer. Here are a few.
A CESULFAME-POTASSIUM
Found in: Baked goods, chewing gum, pudding, gelatin, diet soda, chewable medications
The Dangers: It’s also called acesulfame-K, or ace-K (K is the chemical symbol for potassium). Never heard of it? It’s an artificial sweetener roughly 200 times sweeter than sugar. The U.S Food and Drug Administration allowed this chemical to be added to diet soft drinks in 1988. Animal testing by the German company Hoechst suggests that the additive may cause cancer. Large doses of acetoacetamide, a byproduct of the sweetener, were also shown to affect the thyroid in rats, rabbits, and dogs. According to the nonprofit Institute of Food Technology, adequate human trials have not yet been conducted.
Found in: Sodas, candy, toaster pastries, cheese-flavored chips, and children’s vitamins
The Dangers: The most widely used food dye, Red #40, was originally manufactured from coal tar; now it’s mostly made from petroleum. A 2007 study found that it causes increased levels of hyperactivity, aggressive behavior, attention deficit disorder, and lower IQs in children. The British Food Standards Agency has also linked it to migraines in adults. Red #40 is banned in Denmark, Belgium, France, Switzerland, and Sweden but is widely used in the United States.
Found in: Citrus fruits
The Dangers: 2-phenylphenol is a preservative marketed under the trade names Dowicide, Torsite, Preventol, Nipacide, and many others. Its primary use is as an agricultural fungicide, applied to most commercially available oranges, limes, lemons, and grapefruits, after the fruit has been picked. Eye contact can cause severe irritation and burns, with possible eye damage. A 2002 study in Holland has linked 2-phenylphenol to hyperactivity in kids.
In 2003 biologist K.W. Moeliker published a study on the existence of homosexual necrophiliac ducks.
Found in: Fruit juice, carbonated drinks, pickles
The Dangers: Manufacturers have used sodium benzoate (and benzoic acid) for a century to prevent the growth of microorganisms in acidic foods. They seem to be safe, though they can cause allergic reactions in some people. The problem: When sodium benzoate is mixed with ascorbic acid (vitamin C), the combination can form benzene, a chemical known to cause leukemia and other cancers. In the 1990s, the FDA asked companies not to use benzoate in products that contained ascorbic acid. Even so, many still do.
Found in: Bacon, hot dogs, lunchmeat, smoked fish, corned beef
The Dangers: Meat processors use sodium nitrite because it gives cured meat an appetizing red color (without it, hot dogs would be gray). Adding nitrites to food can lead to the formation of small amounts of potent cancer-causing chemicals (nitrosamines), especially in fried bacon. Several studies have linked nitrites with various types of cancer. “This would be at the top of my list of additives to cut from my diet,” says Christine Gerbstadt, a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association.
Found in: “Butter”-flavored microwave popcorn and margarine
The Dangers: Small amounts exist in real butter, but the levels are much higher in processed butter-flavored foods. Although low levels are considered safe, workers in popcorn factories learned the hard way that prolonged exposure to diacetyl causes obstructive lung disease, which can be fatal. Following a lawsuit by the workers and widespread publicity about “Popcorn Worker’s Lung” in 2007, most American food manufacturers switched to safer ingredients.
Poll: iPhone users are twice as likely as BlackBerry users to watch “adult” content on their devices.
Found in: Soups, hot dogs, lunchmeat, sauce mixes
The Dangers: Also known as “natural flavor,” “soy protein,” or “textured vegetable protein,” HVP is vegetable (usually soybean) protein that’s been boiled in hydrochloric acid and chemically broken down into amino acids. Used to enhance the flavor of food, it contains MSG, which has been shown to cause adverse reactions in some people. According to FDA rules, foods made with HVP do not have to be labeled as containing MSG.
Found in: White flour, bread, rolls, and other baked goods
The Dangers: This additive is used to increase the volume of bread. Most bromate breaks down to form harmless bromide. However, bromate itself is proven to cause cancer in animals. It has been banned virtually worldwide, except in Japan and the United States. In 1999 the Center for Science in the Public Interest petitioned the FDA to ban bromate—but the petition failed. Only one state in the U.S. requires a cancer warning on the label of products containing bromate: California.
So what can you eat that’s 100% safe? Fruits and vegetables? Maybe, but most of them are sprayed with pesticides. Frozen vegetables? A lot of them are disinfected with formaldehyde. How about a yummy bowl of ice cream? Okay, but remember what makes it so creamy: a chemical called arboxymethylcellulose, which in one study produced tumors in 80% of the rats it was tested on. Bon apétit.
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In the Netherlands, after a nationwide ban on tobacco smoking in bars and restaurants took effect, many patrons missed the nostalgic atmosphere that can only come from a smoke-filled lounge. To capitalize, a Dutch special effects company, Rain Showtechniek, sells (for about $900 U.S) a cigarette smoke machine that provides that “haze of yesteryear” without any unhealthy side effects.
Bats can be taught to do tricks.