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TechnoratiThe overwhelming majority of our additive intake today has been part of the diet of humans for generations: yeast, salt, sugar, baking powder. But thousands of other additives, derived from both natural and synthetic sources, have recently become commonplace in western eating. What are these substances doing to our bodies and our minds? We are just beginning to find out.
A study published today by Southampton University, into the impact of additives on groups of three-year-olds and eight-year-olds, produced some alarming results. The Food Standards Agency-commissioned report found a link between hyperactivity among children and certain food colourings, as well as a preservative used in sweets, drinks and processed foods in the UK.
We are only just beginning to learn the impact of synthetic additions to what we eat. The industrialisation of the food supply has turned consumers into the unwitting subjects of a vast, ongoing scientific experiment.
Spices and preservatives have been added to foods for millennia in order to make them last longer and taste better. And there is a long history of using additives to mislead consumers, with various chemicals employed to supply taste, enhance colour and disguise the aroma of spoiled meats. Before the advent of federal food safety laws in the United States, dangerous heavy metals were routinely used as colouring agents in children's sweets.
It would be hard to find a processed food on a supermarket shelf (or on a fast food menu) that does not contain a vast array of chemical additives. Indeed, the packaged food industry and the fast food industry are dependent on the use of such additives to prevent spoilage, to allow the transport of products long distances, and to maintain uniformity. Any finding that such additives pose a threat to human health will threaten the financial health of these industries. And that is why so few large-scale studies have been conducted. The absence of adequate information greatly benefits the producers of industrial food.
In the United States there is an extremely cosy relationship between the food industry and the government agencies that are ostensibly regulating it. Until a few years ago, the head of the food and drug administration - our version of the Food Standards Agency, responsible for the safety of most of the food that Americans eat - was a former executive vice president of the national food processors association. Similarly close ties between industry and government can be found in the European Union. As a result, hundreds of food additives are never tested for harmful effects. And the risks posed by consuming a variety of additives in combination are rarely explored.
I don't think that people should feel panicky about food additives or succumb to the latest food scare. The best advice is probably caveat emptor. We simply don't know what effect these things are having on us. And government food safety agencies don't seem eager to find out. "Food additives play a vital role in today's bountiful and nutritious food supply," the US food and drug administration claimed in a brochure some years ago. "They make possible an array of convenience foods without the inconvenience of daily shopping."
Perhaps a little less convenience, and a lot more unprocessed food, would be the wise course.
Eric Schlosser is the author of Fast Food Nation: What the All-American Meal Is Doing to the World, and Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food
comment@guardian.co.uk
© 2007 The Guardian
Published on Thursday, September 6, 2007 by by The Guardian (UK)
13 Comments so far
Show AllSOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE! SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!
Organic Farmers have higher sperm counts...
Organic food can save the world.
Thank you Eric Schlosser for bringing up such a vital issue ignored by the majority of us.
Thank you RuthK for the precious tip
Obesity continues to rise, as does the rate of Type II Diabetes in children, as do the profits of Wal-Mart, which is basically just one giant processed food distribution center.
Clearly, no matter how much evidence piles up in front of our eyes, most Americans appear almost psychotically dedicated to continuing their self-destructive way of life, which, one can argue, indicates a mass, subconscious, guilt-induced slow suicide effort by a people who can't face the ugly truths about the planet destroying greed and violence being perpetrated in their names.
Better living through science?
Science identifies a problem created by science.
Ditto with global warming.
A new Luddite movement is needed. Too often people who attack science are attacked for blaspheming against the new religion(science).
If the US government was concerned about these things they would have been testing for lead paint on imported childrens toys.
The more lead and additives kids eat, the more apathetic they will become and they will be more likely to vote for neocons.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest has an alphabetic list of additives with information. Go to:
http://www.cspinet.org/
and click on food additives.
I am happy to go to my local "market" and by fresh vegetables every 3rd day on the way home. I do not eat meat. I do not eat mass produced foods but then I live in a "developing" country (Thailand) that still has many real farmers markets.
obscura
you are lucky. the local farmers markets here are not cheap. buying bulk is not an option. we all do what we can with what is at hand.
People are so addicted to convenience, they do not understand or care what all these processed foods are doing to their bodies. Fresh fruit and vegetables, and local meat if you can manage, are extremely important for our health.
You can buy in bulk and freeze a lot of what you get at the Farmer's Market.. That's what I do, and it cuts down on having to drive over there every couple of days. Plus, it's cheaper than store bought food.
Sure we know the effects Cancer is the effect.
It is almost impossible to eat properly in when you have a busy schedule. And it makes it even harder when all the quick on the go food is shaves years off your life. Just try to find something that doesn't have High-fructose corn syrup in it.
And they push this crap food on our kids. And what makes it worse is that places like China and Japan that are now being flushed with this type of fast food are now feeling the effects and suffering from diseases they had never seen before.
This is just one more reason to loath my own country.
~Future~
Future--It's really not that difficult, let alone impossible to eat healthy food if you pay attention. Read labels, buy whole, not processed foods, eat them raw if you can. It doesn't have to be expensive if you don't buy into the "convenience" lifestyle. Rice and beans along with fresh fruit and vegetables will feed your family very economically and can be very tasty too. Treats cost more, so if you have to have them, you have to pay.
Going vegan has made me healthier and happier than I've ever been in my life. I know there's alot of opposition to it (although I don't know why), it could solve alot of the health and environmental issues we face.