REVEALED: Six dangerous additives hiding in your food

Commercial food products such as prepackaged, quick meals contain high levels of toxic additives, preservatives, and artificial flavors. These can increase the risk of life-threatening diseases such as cancer.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) maintains a list of more than 3,000 ingredients that can be used in food production, which includes items such as artificial food dyes and aspartame. The U.S. consumes more than one billion pounds of these toxic chemicals per year, which equates to about six to nine pounds per person. Holistic Nutritionist Kelly Agnew has listed six of the most dangerous food additives that are hiding in our food.

These food additives are in your food

1. Artificial food dyes — Brightly-colored food items commonly use these artificial dyes to boost their aesthetic appeal. Artificial food dyes have been linked to a plethora of adverse health effects including hyperactivity and cancer. A report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest entitled Food Dyes: A Rainbow of Risks revealed that these food dyes have been found to contribute to cancer development in laboratory animals. The types of cancer associated with these coloring agents include colon cancer, brain and testicular tumors, and other mutations. “These synthetic chemicals do absolutely nothing to improve the nutritional quality or safety of foods, but trigger behavior problems in children and, possibly, cancer in anybody. The Food and Drug Administration should ban dyes, which would force industry to color foods with real food ingredients, not toxic petrochemicals,” said CSPI Executive Director Michael F. Jacobson.
2. Aspartame — Aspartame is one of the most commonly used sugar substitute in the market today. It is mostly found in diet products such as sodas and artificial sweeteners. The sugar substitute is associated with a host of metabolic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. One animal study even linked aspartame with an increased cancer risk. European researchers fed rats with various doses of aspartame and found that the artificial sweetener is tied to increased odds of leukemia and lymphoma in the lab animals.
3. High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) — This sweetener is already infamous for promoting metabolic disorders such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. It that isn’t enough, HFCS is also associated with elevated risk of pancreatic cancer. A 2010 study published in the journal Cancer Research shows that pancreatic tumor cells are able to distinguish glucose from fructose, and readily metabolize the latter to increase propagation.
4. Monosodium glutamate (MSG) — MSG is a known excitotoxin, which triggers an increased cellular activity that eventually leads to damage. The additive may promote cancer growth.
5. Sodium nitrite/nitrate — This food additive is commonly used in cured meats to add a glossy, red appearance to the goods. Countless studies link processed meat consumption with an increased risk of pancreatic cancer. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) lists processed meats as carcinogenic food products.
6. Trans fats — Trans fats are commonly used as a preservative. Trans fats are associated with a number of adverse health conditions such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that daily trans fat consumption is linked to an increased chance of death caused by such diseases as stroke and cancer.

Staying healthy can be done by simply avoiding junk. Read more about toxic food at StopEatingPoison.com.

Sources include:

TheHeartySoul.com

CBSNews.com

Vanderbilt.edu

CSPINet.org