Top 10 Scariest Food Additives

I can make anything sound scary with the help of science.

Did you know about the nasty effects of:

Dihydrogen monoxide. It's a killer!

The causative link between Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO) and Cancer is currently not established, although a significant amount of evidence seems to suggest that DHMO at least plays a role in the formation of cancer, including:

Hodgkin's Lymphoma,
Ewing's Tumor,
chondrosarcoma,
fibrosarcoma,
multiple myeloma,
colorectal cancer,
Leukemia,
basal cell carcinoma,
squamous cell carcinoma, and
malignant melanoma.

Furthermore:
Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO) is a colorless and odorless chemical compound, also referred to by some as Dihydrogen Oxide, Hydrogen Hydroxide, Hydronium Hydroxide, or simply Hydric acid. Its basis is the highly reactive hydroxyl radical, a species shown to mutate DNA, denature proteins, disrupt cell membranes, and chemically alter critical neurotransmitters. The atomic components of DHMO are found in a number of caustic, explosive and poisonous compounds such as Sulfuric Acid, Nitroglycerine and Ethyl Alcohol.

oh wow this is interesting. Bump!

Scary Ingredient #8: Azodicarbonamide
A synthetic yellow-orange dough conditioner

Why it's scary: This chemical is used most frequently in the production of industrial foam plastic, and although the FDA has approved its use for food in the States, the United Kingdom has labeled it a potential cause of asthma. In a review of 47 studies on azodicarbonamide, the World Health Organization concluded that it probably does trigger asthmatic symptoms. The WHO concluded, “exposure levels should be reduced as much as possible.” I’ll put it more concisely: Avoid it.

Where you'll find it: Dunkin’ Donuts bagels, McDonald’s burger buns

One day at home I was about to make a sandwich and for some reason thought that it had been a while since I had purchased bread. Look at the best by date on the loaf we had and realized it was 6 weeks past. Upon inspecting the bread I realized there was not a bit of mold to be found on it anywhere. I saved it to show my husband when he got home from work. He took a look at what was in the bread and Azodicarbonamide jumped out at him because he works at a place that makes plastics products and when they use Azodicarbonamide as an additive they are required to wear a hazmat suit. Now we read labels to find out what is in our bread it's in most brands that we've looked at.

I try not to go nuts on this kind of stuff but I guess that know my husband must wear a hazmat suit to work with this stuff and knowing I'm ingesting the same kinda freaks me out. For at least this thing I try to avoid it.

bump

I find articles like this alarmist and misleading. They quote all of the studies about how these additives cause cancer, but they don't comment on the validity of the study. Many such studies pump lab rats full of more of these additives than most humans would eat in a lifetime - of course it's going to cause negative effects! Just because something is used in a product like fertilizer or window cleaner doesn't mean it's toxic. Water is an ingredient in almost all toxic household products - doesn't mean it's bad for us!

Yes, I'm all for eating cleaner and avoiding processed food where practical, but I'm of the opinion that as long as most of my food is simple/homemade/non-processed/additive free (which isn't hard to do) then the other little bit doesn't matter. I'm not giving up my wine! :drinker:

Another one agreeing here - most toxicity studies are designed to far overload a system (usually a rat) with the substance to get an idea of at what concentration any given substance will begin to show toxicity effects. This is necessary because 1. at biologically-relevant concentrations, only a small percentage of the subjects will show an adverse effect, making finding strong statisitcal relationships very difficult, and 2. most studies aim to define a dosage curve of low to high dose and the severity of effects at each level. Unfortunately these careful and correctly-done studies get reported and condensed into 'OMG chemical X causes cancer!!', without regard to the relative dose needed in humans for that to be even slightly more likely than chance alone.

BTW, rats often get fat on saccharin in these studies because it is sweeter than sugar, usually rats are given it dissolved in their water, and the water is available 'ad libitum' (freely, or as much as they want), so they drink more because they like it, and get fatter because they choose to ingest more. An interesting and relevent result, but not directly comparable to saying saccharin makes you fatter than sugar. Maybe it does, but most of these studies don't conclude that.

Having had my scientist-rant, let me add that minimising processed foods if you choose to do is a great idea, but as this poster mentioned, if you eat mostly whole foods, a bit of bagel containing some EVIL CHEMICAL is not going to kill you.

I totally agree that these articles can be misleading and cause panic..... I just wanted to share the article because it was interesting and I know that many rely on these diet foods to help them stay within their calorie goals. Yes, everything in moderation is fine. But, always good to be aware of these things and not overload on them.

Just good info to have when you are selecting food... if I have the option to choose a product that doesn't have these things, then I will. Like, Blue Diamond Almond milk has the Carageenan in it. But, there are many brands that don't; so, I'll choose ones that don't!

With the brands of food that don't have that specific chemical in it, they will most likely have other additives in them that someone won't like. All mass created foods have additives. And even so, do we need to start carrying around lists to the grocery stores of what additives we find the most problem with and inspect every label or every brand to see which one has it and which one doesn't.

And someone even eating their veggies needs to be careful with chemicals, if they are thoroughly concerned with all of this, for pesticides and other chemicals that come into contact with their food.

To each, their own, but after awhile, it all seems pointless.

I was expecting Aspartame to be on the list... I always hear people say bad things about that one.

I find articles like this alarmist and misleading. They quote all of the studies about how these additives cause cancer, but they don't comment on the validity of the study. Many such studies pump lab rats full of more of these additives than most humans would eat in a lifetime - of course it's going to cause negative effects! Just because something is used in a product like fertilizer or window cleaner doesn't mean it's toxic. Water is an ingredient in almost all toxic household products - doesn't mean it's bad for us!

Yes, I'm all for eating cleaner and avoiding processed food where practical, but I'm of the opinion that as long as most of my food is simple/homemade/non-processed/additive free (which isn't hard to do) then the other little bit doesn't matter. I'm not giving up my wine! :drinker:

QFT. Many people like to jump on pubmed and read the abstract, then copy/pasta it as "evidence" without even reading the rest of the paper. Always, always read the FULL paper. Look at the testing variables (dosage administered, controls, etc.) and then consider the model organism being used. Rats only give us an idea on what "could" happen, but it does not directly translate to humans the same way. Alarmism is exactly what this article is and designed to scare people, when it should instead just give them basic info to think about and consider when they make food choices.

There are things to be afraid of... like oranges.

If an orange had a real composition label, it would say this...

Water, glucose, fructose, galactose, phenolic glycosides, 6-deoxyaldohexoses (fuctose and rhamnose), saccharose, galacturonans, (1-4) linked D-galactopiranuronic acid, pectin, pectinic acids, polygalacturonic acids, pectinestarase, Citric Acid, L-Malic Acid, D-Isocitric Acid, Oxalic Acid, Succinic Acid, Malonic Acid, Quinic Acid, Tartaric Acid, Adipic Acid, 2-ketogluratic Acid, praline, asparagines, aspartic acid, serine, glutamic acid and arginine. oxidoreductases, transferases, hydrolases and lyases, isomerases and ligases, glucosilglucerides, Carotenoids, tetraterpenes, limonin, aslimonoic acid A-ring lactone, neohesperidosides, flavones (3-hydroxyflavanones, 3-dydroxyflavones, O-glycosyl, aglycones C-glycosylflavones, Anthocyanins, (hesperidin, naringin, poncirin, neoheriocitrin, neohesperidin, rhoifolin, rutin, diosmin, sinensetin, auranetin, tangeritin, hydroxyethylrutinosideres, nobiletin cyanidin-3-glucoside, cyanidina-3.5-diglucoside, peonidin-5-glucoside, delphinidin-3-glucoside, petunidin-3-glucoside, Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid), Pholacine, Vitamin B6, Thiamine, Riboflavin, Biotin, Pantotenic acid, Vitamin A.

EVERYTHING IS COMPOSED OF CHEMICALS.