Us versus the Rest of the World
If you really want to understand how broken the American food system is, you just need to walk into a grocery store in Europe and look at the ingredients in their products. Pick up a bottle of Mountain Dew in the U.K., for instance. You’ll find that it gets its bright yellow color simply from beta carotene (a natural color derived from carrots and other plants). Meanwhile, PepsiCo sells a very different version of Mountain Dew in America. Here in the States, instead of using natural colors to give it a tantalizing look, Mountain Dew is artificially colored with a petroleum-based dye called Yellow #5. You’ll find the same in another landmark PepsiCo product, Gatorade. While the U.S. versions are dyed artificially with Yellow #5 and Red #40, you’ll find their counterparts in Europe colored simply with black carrot juice concentrate and beta carotene (and the colors look just as vibrant and rich as they do here). Although artificial dyes are common in America, that doesn’t make them okay to eat. They’ve been linked to several health issues, including allergies and hyperactivity in children (and may be contaminated with carcinogens). They certainly are not as safe as beta carotene and black carrot juice concentrate.
To make matters worse, PepsiCo adds brominated vegetable oil (BVO) to Mountain Dew in the U.S. but doesn’t use this risky ingredient abroad. Way back in 2014, PepsiCo announced they would remove BVO from all of their American drinks following a successful petition by activist Sarah Kavanagh (who called PepsiCo out for using this additive, which is banned in Europe).1 However, PepsiCo broke their promise and still have not removed BVO from Mountain Dew, over four years later. They already sell BVO-free Mountain Dew in other countries, so why not here?
This begs the question: Why doesn’t PepsiCo just sell the same, safer, products everywhere? I’ll tell ya why. It’s because the U.S. food system allows 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.” As we’ll see, this is a terrible policy because it leads to Americans consuming many of the very same additives and chemicals that are restricted in food in other developed countries.
This is why in Europe you don’t find the artificial dyes found in American Mountain Dew, Gatorade, and most other products. You see, those dyes require a warning label in Europe. Companies don’t want to slap warnings all over food packages because that wouldn’t be good for business. Instead, they’ve found that it is more profitable to take out the offending dyes and sell a safer product in other countries. They keep selling the inferior version here because it’s cheaper to produce and they can get away with it.
Do Americans care less about their health than people in other countries do? Some say so. However, I’d argue that if most Americans knew food companies are selling similar products overseas with healthier ingredients, they’d be outraged. I know I am.
I spent years investigating the differences between European and American food products, and what I found disgusted me. A college buddy of mine decided to go live in London for a few years. While she was there, I often had her go to Tesco and other European grocery stores and take pictures of the ingredient lists and send sample products to my house in the U.S. I also make it a point to look at popular products from all over the world during my travels. Comparing the same brand of products side by side but with completely different ingredient lists was maddening! The food industry has already formulated safer, better products but voluntarily sells inferior versions of these products here in America. The evidence of this runs the gamut from fast food places to boxed cake mix to cereal to candy and even oatmeal—you can’t escape it. This was what really opened my eyes to how food companies exploit Americans and set me down the path of advocating for change in the food system.
MCDONALD’S SELLS WHAT IN LONDON?
I found the best and easiest place to look for evidence was just across “the pond” in the United Kingdom, where they enjoy some of the same types of products we do—but with totally different ingredients lists. I’m not saying that the food industry has completely eliminated their tricks abroad, but when you look at the U.K. versions of common Big Food products, they often feature fewer risky additives. It’s not just the additives: I’ve found that many brands use less sugar and MSG overseas as well. It is appalling to witness the examples I am about to share with you.
Let’s start with McDonald’s. They make their iconic french fries in the U.K. with a few simple ingredients: potatoes, oil, dextrose, salt—but in the U.S. they’re made with “natural beef flavor” and sodium acid pyrophosphate, and are fried in oil laced with the anti-foaming agent dimethylpolysiloxane. (McDonald’s erased dimethylpolysiloxane from their online ingredients list for their fries, but its use is inconspicuously disclosed in the footer of their website—so sneaky!) McDonald’s has found a way to cook potatoes in the United Kingdom without relying on this potentially harmful additive—and nobody seems to miss it—but they don’t seem to think their American customers deserve the same benefits.
The famous fries at McDonald’s are just one small example of a much bigger problem.
In the U.S., for instance, Quaker Oats sells some varieties of fruit-flavored instant oatmeal made with artificially dyed and flavored bits of dehydrated apple or figs that are manipulated with chemical additives to artificially mimic the taste and texture of the fruit indicated on the package. This includes one of their most popular flavors I used to love as a child, Quaker Strawberries & Cream, which contains no berries at all. Instead of strawberries, Quaker uses “Flavored and Colored Fruit Pieces” composed of dehydrated apples, artificial strawberry flavor, citric acid, and the artificial dye Red 40.2 But in the U.K., they don’t even attempt to sell that garbage. They instead have a product called “Oats so Simple” that has real strawberries in it—light-years ahead of the U.S. version that’s made with artificial dyes and artificial flavors.
The ever-popular Doritos brand of chips are covered in Yellow #6, Yellow #5, and Red #40 in the U.S. and colored more simply with paprika extract and annatto in the U.K. They also sell non-GMO Doritos overseas, while the American versions have been found to have “substantial levels” of GMO corn contaminated with glyphosate weed killer.
You know what you’ll find in almost every restaurant in America? Heinz Tomato Ketchup. Heinz products are GMO-free in the U.K. but are full of GMOs in the U.S. Think of that next time you’re dipping your fries in ketchup!
Likewise, the most popular soft drink in America, Coca-Cola, is sweetened with GMO high-fructose corn syrup in the U.S. You won’t find that in the U.K., however, where they use non-GMO cane sugar to sweeten their famous drink.
Having a premade box of flour, baking soda, and sugar all ready to go saves time when it comes to making a cake, but does saving time have to come at the expense of chemically derived and potentially toxic ingredients? The U.S. version of Betty Crocker Red Velvet Cake Mix is filled with artificial color Red #40, linked to hyperactivity in children,3 while the same mix in the U.K. is colored naturally with paprika extract and carmine.4 How many Americans bake this cake for their children’s birthdays without knowing the risk?
We are continuously assured that our food is safe, that all those processed foods in the supermarket and items at the chain restaurants have been rigorously tested and vetted. We’re told that it’s foolish to worry about what’s in our french fries and cake mix and sports drinks, since McDonald’s and Betty Crocker and PepsiCo would never be allowed to use a dangerous additive in their foods. Or would they?
The truth is that nobody is watching out for us. When they tell you that they know their processed foods are safe, they are telling you a lie.
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.
In fact, the health of Americans is downright grim according to a report by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council. When compared to other countries, it declares Americans “have a long-standing pattern of poorer health that is strikingly consistent and pervasive … The tragedy is not that the United States is losing a contest with other countries, but that Americans are dying and suffering from illness and injury at rates that are demonstrably unnecessary.”5
The United States spends 2.5 times more on health care than any other nation. However, when compared with 16 other developed nations, we come in dead last in terms of health and amazingly our life expectancy is decreasing for men, and near the bottom for women.6 Here is the breakdown for you:
While there are many causes behind these dire statistics, undoubtedly one of the primary causes is the American diet, which is full of risky ingredients that are not used to the same extent in other countries. The food in America is overloaded with bad fats, way too much cheap refined sugar, and heaps of synthetic additives. When Big Food companies tell us that they need these ingredients, that it’s not possible to remove them, or that it’s too expensive, we know they’re lying because they’ve already done it in many other countries.
The real reason the food industry doesn’t remove these ingredients from their American products is because they don’t care about our health, or the astronomical medical bills that are a direct result of us eating their inferior food. Instead, all they care about are their profits. Given a choice, they’ll always opt for the cheaper flavor enhancer, and the cheaper color additive, and the cheaper preservative, even if these cheaper alternatives have a negative impact on our health. Government corruption and declining citizen power further prevents the food industry from making positive changes.
Big Food, of course, will tell you that the European regulators are just being overly cautious, that all of the ingredients they put in their American products are perfectly safe. After all, they’ve even been “approved” by the FDA. Or have they?
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE FDA
The implication is that everything allowed in processed food—preservatives, artificial sweeteners, thickeners, stabilizers, emulsifiers—has gone through some sort of rigorous testing by the FDA proving they’re okay to eat. But that’s absolutely not the case.
To understand why, you need a brief history of food regulation in America. Back when Congress gave the FDA authority over food additives (in 1958), there were about 800 additives.10 Today, the number of known ingredients has swelled to about 10,000 and continues to grow.11 Given the FDA’s mission of “protecting the public health by assuring the safety, efficacy and security of … our nation’s food supply,” it would only make sense that they would be front and center in approving these new food ingredients before they hit the market; however, this is not necessarily the case. In fact, the FDA is sometimes not even aware that a new ingredient has been introduced into our food.
How is this possible?
While the FDA has approved some food additives before they hit the shelves, this has proven to be a burdensome process. The FDA claims that so as not to waste government resources, they will just let the manufacturer decide whether an ingredient is safe to eat or not.
That’s right: all an ingredient manufacturer has to do is hire their own experts to claim under “reasonable certainty in the minds of competent scientists that the substance is not harmful under the intended conditions of use” and the manufacturer may deem it as “GRAS,” which stands for “Generally Recognized as Safe.” This is the green light to start adding it to food products.12
A manufacturer can voluntarily send their GRAS determination to the FDA, but this is not mandatory. Even worse, if the FDA raises questions about an ingredient received in a voluntary GRAS notice, the manufacturer can just withdraw the notice and still use the ingredient in food products! This practice is nothing short of terrifying, and allows companies to skirt around the FDA and essentially put whatever they want into our food. Since this process has been put in place, the National Resources Defense Council estimates that roughly 1,000 food chemicals have been secretly added without notification to the FDA, and say that GRAS should really stand for “Generally Recognized as Secret.”13 Even Michael Taylor, the FDA’s former deputy commissioner, made the following confession: “We simply do not have the information to vouch for the safety of many of these chemicals … we do have questions about whether we can do what people expect of us.”14
Simply put, you can’t put your confidence in the FDA when it comes to food additives. While some additives may be safe in small quantities, the FDA cannot regulate cumulative consumption when countless additives are being added to a large number of different foods. For instance, even if you think you’re eating healthfully, you could easily be eating the ingredient carrageenan (which has been linked to intestinal issues) at every meal: in your morning coffee and yogurt at breakfast, in your soup and deli-meat sandwich for lunch, and in your “diet” frozen dinner. What is the cumulative amount of carrageenan in this diet? No one is evaluating that. The FDA readily admits: “We do not know the volume of particular chemicals that are going into the food supply so we can diagnose trends. We do not know what is going on post-market.”15
The FDA is asleep at the wheel and Big Food is in charge. The government isn’t helping because no one has made it a priority for a very long time. And this isn’t just my opinion. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has called out the FDA for its lax practices and asked them to strengthen their oversight of food ingredients. The GAO’s audit of the FDA in 2010 found some huge problems with the way it is running things. They found, for instance, that the FDA is not even aware of many GRAS determinations. While companies can hire their own experts to determine whether their product is safe, there are no conflict-of-interest guidelines in place. In many cases, these expert panels are composed of the “company’s own staff or outside experts hired by the company.” Don’t you think these people might have an incentive to deliver a verdict that the company wants to hear?
The GAO also found that companies are not held accountable or required to keep records of their GRAS determinations. “The FDA has not taken certain steps to ensure companies maintain proper documentation to support their GRAS determinations,” according to the report. “It [the FDA] intended to conduct random audits of data and information maintained by these companies. However, according to FDA officials, the agency has not conducted such audits.” In fact, the FDA has failed to conduct ongoing reviews of GRAS substances, including those that raised concerns over 30 years ago. The GAO concluded that there are ingredients currently on the market that may not be safe: “Questions have been raised about the safety of numerous GRAS substances over the last 50 years and some have been banned as a result. In the future, other substances now considered GRAS may also prove to be unsafe.”16
For these reasons, I believe we cannot rely on the FDA to protect us. And we certainly can’t trust Big Food to self-police. After all, the food industry has consistently shown that it will only remove dangerous and unhealthy ingredients when forced to by the government, which is why the same products are healthier in the United Kingdom and Europe.
The safety of our food should be the number-one priority of the FDA. Alas, the agency often seems more concerned with helping Big Food make lots of money by using the cheapest possible ingredients and preparation methods. So the next time a food manufacturer tells us that all those chemicals and strange ingredients listed on the box are safe, that they would never be allowed to use an ingredient that was dangerous, remember this depressing truth: the safety of our food system is a lie.
ACTION STEPS: BE YOUR OWN FOOD ADVOCATE
Here’s the good news: you can take matters into your own hands. Read the ingredients lists on all the packaged food you eat. If you don’t recognize an ingredient, put it down and look for an alternative. By voting with our dollars in this way, we can persuade the largest food companies to change.
Even more so, join activists like me, and sign petitions and ask companies to do away with additives in their food that they don’t use overseas. We have been very effective. After all, the Food Babe Army petitioned Kellogg’s and General Mills and got them to remove the risky preservative BHT from many of their cereals such as Rice Krispies (they were already selling BHT-free cereals overseas). We raised awareness about the “yoga mat chemical” found in Subway’s bread only in America (which they removed) and the artificial yellow dyes only in the American version of Kraft Mac & Cheese (which they also removed). We also successfully persuaded Starbucks to stop using class IV caramel color in their drinks in the U.S. (as they didn’t use it overseas). These changes give me hope. I’m not optimistic that the FDA (and Congress) will ever stop being in the pocket of Big Food, but together we can work to change the American food system.
You are what you eat. You deserve food that isn’t harmful.