Interesting article about azodicarbonamide

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krawhitham
krawhitham Posts: 831 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I have never heard of this chemical before, and I can imagine there are plenty other chemicals we're consuming in our foods regularly. How do you feel about consuming these chemicals. Does it matter to you?

Here is an article from 2013 regarding foods with this chemical that is also used in shoe soles and yoga mats: http://www.ewg.org/research/nearly-500-ways-make-yoga-mat-sandwich

Personally, I'm undecided and while I like being aware, I don't want to become obsessive about it.

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  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,039 Member
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    Is this the ingredient in Subway breads and yoga mats?

    I remember reading a thread about that a week or so back.

    Yes I imagine there are chemicals in all our foods - given all matter is made up of chemicals.

    If a chemical is actually proven to be dangerous IN NORMAL AMOUNTS then I would re consider ingesting it.
    If I had a metabolic disorder I would avoid foods with certain chemicals - such as people with PKU who have to follow a very strict diet for medical reasons - Other than that, No, I wont change what I am currently doing and No, I am not concerned.
  • chezjuan
    chezjuan Posts: 747 Member
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    I don't like how a lot of these articles imply that it is actually yoga mat material (the actual rubber itself) that is in the bread. The chemical is a foaming agent, which means it makes bubbles. It is "used in the production of" not "what they are made out of."

    Water is used in the production of lots of things, many of which are definitely dangerous to consume. My shampoo has salt in it. That doesn't mean that I don't drink water or eat food with salt in it.

    As I don't have any health issues that are affected by it, and since, even according to the article posted above "...it is not known to be toxic to people in the concentration approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration – 45 parts per million." I don't actively avoid it.
  • HappyStack
    HappyStack Posts: 802 Member
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    I don't like how a lot of these articles imply that it is actually yoga mat material (the actual rubber itself) that is in the bread. The chemical is a foaming agent, which means it makes bubbles. It is "used in the production of" not "what they are made out of."

    Water is used in the production of lots of things, many of which are definitely dangerous to consume. My shampoo has salt in it. That doesn't mean that I don't drink water or eat food with salt in it.

    As I don't have any health issues that are affected by it, and since, even according to the article posted above "...it is not known to be toxic to people in the concentration approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration – 45 parts per million." I don't actively avoid it.

    This x5 bajillion.

    I mentioned this to someone on Facebook a while back. It's not used in Europe simply because it can aggravate asthma in some people, and better than using food warning labels/announcements in a food chain that specialises in allowing people to "build their own" it's just easier not to use it at all.

    It's not harmful to the vast majority of people - banning it caters to a subgroup of a subgroup - but people got all up in arms about the alarmism, saying "there's yoga mat rubber in my sandwiches"... bloody nonsense.
  • suremeansyes
    suremeansyes Posts: 962 Member
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    I try not to become obsessive about it, but I make most of our food from M-F so I know what's going into it. I even make the granola bars we eat every day because the store-bought ones just started to look disgusting.

    One thing I try to avoid completely is sugar substitutes. I hate how they taste and I am not sure the effects they have due to them being relatively new, so I steer clear.

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