5 Deadly Ingredients That Still Allowed By The FDA. Are You Eating Them?

FDA sometimes approves food ingredients that are harmful for the people. It goes by the rule: As long as a food product is not immediately killing a consumer, FDA allows those items to be found on the market.

Here a list of few ingredients that are harmful but still can be found in foods:

Sulfite Preservatives

Sulfite preservatives are a great example of a past mistake that the FDA has made. In 1982, sulfites were approved as a preservative for fresh fruits and vegetables. There was evidence that these sulfites could cause asthma attacks, but the FDA ignored this. Ultimately, it took four years and at least 12 deaths before the FDA banned it in 1986. However, sulfites are still allowed in other items besides fresh vegetables. Sulfites are not as harmful when they are in cooked products, but they can still cause allergic reactions over time.

Artificial Red Coloring

The red coloring was banned from the makeup industry because in 1990 was proven that it carcinogenic. However, the canned fruit industry lobbied the government and threatened to pull FDA funding unless they allowed businesses to keep using Red #3 in foods. 20 years later, despite being proven to cause cancer, it still shows up in gum, cake mix, yogurts, and fruit cocktails.

Caramel Coloring

This coloring can be found in many products: sodas, soy sauce and even in Starbucks coffee drinks. Back in 2007 was proven that this coloring contains byproduct, 4-methylimidazole, which causes cancer. According to FDA that food products have safe limits of 4-methylimidazole, but studies have shown that several popular soft drink companies have excessive levels of the byproduct that causes cancer.

Partially Hydrogenated Oils

These oils are common for fried and baked foods. These oils create artificial trans fats which cause levels of bad cholesterol to soar. Countless research studies have shown that consuming artificial trans fats and partially hydrogenated oils greatly increases a person’s risk for heart disease and heart attacks, so the FDA has admitted that they are not a generally recognized as safe food item anymore.

Animal Antibiotics

Roughly 80% of all antibiotics in the world go to industrial animal farms, where animals are crowded together and given huge doses of antibiotics to prevent sickness. The antibiotics end up in meat and milk products throughout the nation. According to the CDC, all this antibiotic usage is causing antibiotic-resistant infections to mutate within humans. The FDA recommends that animal farmers stop this unethical usage of antibiotics before it is too late, but their recommendations are not legal rules.