Two
years ago, the nation’s collective stomach churned when people learned
they were eating a meat product called “pink slime.”
While the product looked like human intestines, what caused the national revulsion was that pink slime was treated with
puffs of ammonia to kill the bacterium E. coli. Yum.
Soon after the hoopla began, the main supplier of pink slime, Beef Products, Inc., announced it
production facilities. But since then, other products the public doesn’t know it’s consuming or
have
surfaced, and the manufacturers have not necessarily been as
forthcoming. There’s a good chance you are eating some of the following
products and byproducts.
Until
a month ago, few had heard of this “dough conditioner,” intended to
provide strength and improve elasticity. Like pink slime, it was
azodicarbonamide’s industrial overtones that drove indignation—it’s “the
same chemical used to make yoga mats, shoe soles, and other rubbery
objects,” wrote food
in a successful petition to get Subway to remove the substance from its baked products.
While
World Health Organization tests found azodicarbonamide risks
“uncertain,” it has been linked to deaths in animals and allergic
reactions in humans. Azodicarbonamide is banned in Europe and Australia
and its use carries a prison sentence in Singapore, writes Hari. The
Center for Science in
the Public Interest warns that when azodicarbonamide is baked in bread,
it produces the carcinogen urethane. While Subway announced it is “in
the process of removing azodicarbonamide as part of our bread
improvement efforts,” the dough conditioner is also used in food at
McDonald’s, Burger King, Starbucks, Arby’s, Wendy’s, Jack in the Box and
Chick-fil-A. It is also in grocery store and restaurant breads, CNN
says.
2. Plastic Microbeads in Fish and Waterways
For
years, the consumer products industry has given us plastic microbeads
in toothpaste, liquid hand soaps, skin exfoliators, other personal care
products and industrial cleaners. Products like
Olay’s body wash, Dove
Gentle Exfoliating Foaming Facial Cleanser and Clean & Clear Daily
Pore Cleanser increase the plastic clogging the planet’s seas, “killing
millions of sea creatures every year when they swallow it, choke on it,
or get tangled in it and drown,” according to Slate. It was widely
believed, however, that human health was spared. “Our assessment is that
they will largely be removed during sewage treatment,” Jay Gooch,
associate director of external relations in beauty care at Procter &
Gamble, reassured Slate.
But last year the microbeads were found
in water samples in three of the Great Lakes, implying that wastewater
treatment is not removing them. The remaining Great Lakes have yet to be
tested. The beads, which work their way up the marine food chain,
“absorb and retain chemical contaminants,” says the
Chicago Tribune. Some manufacturers are phasing out the beads but consumers should avoid any products that list the ingredient polyethylene.
3. Brominated Vegetable Oil in Soft Drinks and Beverages
Like
pink slime and azodicarbonamide, few had heard of brominated vegetable
oil (BVO) or believed they were consuming it until recently. And like
pink slime and azodicarbonamide, it is brominated vegetable oil’s (BVO)
connection to industrial products that sparked outrage—the oil, from
corn or soy, is bonded with the element bromine which is used in couches
and carpets as a
flame retardant.
Bromide is an endocrine disruptor and part of the halide family which
includes fluorine, chlorine and iodine. It competes for the same
receptors in the body as iodine and can cause iodine deficiency.
Brominated
flame retardants build up in people’s bodies, including breast milk and
animal and human research have linked them to early puberty and hormone
and neurological problems. Excess consumption of drinks with BVO, used
to keep flavoring dispersed in a beverage, have been
linked to headaches, fatigue, ataxia (loss of muscle coordination), memory loss and swollen hands with ulcers.
In late 2012, 15-year-old
Sarah Kavanagh of Hattiesburg, MS began a petition on Change.org for PepsiCo to remove BVO from Gatorade. Within a month, PepsiCo announced it planned to
remove BVO from Gatorade and replace it with sucrose acetate isobutyrate, but six months later,
PepsiCo said it would
keep BVO
in Mountain Dew sold in the Americas. BVO is still reportedly in
Squirt, Fanta Orange, Sunkist Pineapple and some flavors of Fresca and
Poweraide.
4. High Fructose Corn Syrup and Artificial Sweeteners in Soft Drinks
Scientists
and health professionals cannot decide which is worse—high fructose
corn syrup (HFCS) or artificial sweeteners in soft drinks. HFCS, which
is cheaper for soft drink makers to use and store than “real sugar,” has
been linked to liver damage, diabetes, heart problems, obesity and
even mercury consumption. Yet, aspartame, saccharin and acesulfame potassium, three leading artificial sweeteners, have all been linked to cancer.
A
2011 study by
the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine found that people
who drank one diet soda every day had a 61 percent higher chance of
having a heart attack or stroke. Questions also persist about artificial
sweeteners’ links to Alzheimer’s disease, autism, chronic fatigue
syndrome, lupus, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. (Nor do
artificial sweeteners necessarily help people lose weight, some studies
suggest.)
The plot thickened in 2012, when a Harvard study
indicted both sugar and HFCS-sweetened beverages. Men who drank one soft
drink a day had a 20 percent increased risk of heart disease regardless
of their age, diet, family history or alcohol/tobacco use. The Harvard
study was announced one month after doctors published an editorial in
the journal
Nature calling for all types of sugar and HFCS to be regulated the way alcohol or tobacco are.
5. Transglutaminase Also Known as “Meat Glue”
Around
the same time rumors of pink slime and BVO in the US food supply began
to surface, the term “meat glue” also debuted. Meat glue is
transglutaminase, an adhesive powder originally obtained from animal
blood, but lately more likely to come from fermented bacteria which is
cheaper. Meat glue lets chefs cobble together disparate and low-quality
scraps of meat, put it in the refrigerator overnight and produce “filet
mignon,” a deception that is the basis of many consumers’ objections.
Up to
35 percent of food products contain meat glue, including
tofu, milk,
yogurt and even cereal according to industry accounts. Animal versions
of meat glue in which the coagulation animal protein thrombin is
combined with fibrin have affected blood clotting time in humans because
bovine thrombin can
cross-react with
human factors. Studies showed that repeat clinical applications of
topical bovine thrombin increase human risk. Another risk of meat glue
is bacterial growth: scraps that were outside pieces but are now glued
together inside a “formed meat” are hard to cook, says microbiologist
Glenn Pener. “The amount of bacteria on a steak that’s been put together with meat glue is
hundreds of times higher.”
Two
years ago, the nation’s collective stomach churned when people learned
they were eating a meat product called “pink slime.” Lean, finely textured beef as the industry wanted to call it, was meat scraps that were once earmarked for pet food repurposed for the human dinner table, especially the National School Lunch Program. While the product looked like human intestines, what caused the national revulsion was that pink slime was treated with puffs of ammonia to kill the bacterium E. coli. Yum.
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