So as people, why isn’t any one addressing these issues as a collective. We are being brainwashed and conditioned. The gut is connected to the brain. So chemistry is something we need to understand because this food is coming labs and scientists which are being approved by government. We are the only ones that allow others to take advantage of our lives.
3
"many European countries limit the cultivation and import of genetically modified foods."....People need to be a bit circumspect when it comes to evaluating European restrictions. GMOs are a perfect example. In spite of what they might allege, the sole purpose of restrictions on GMOs has nothing to do with health and safety but rather it is a backdoor way to block U.S. imports and give their local farmers an advantage. Bottom line; there is absolutely nothing wrong with GMOs except that as an import they represent a superior product at a lower cost.
3
@W.A. Spitzer wrong the reason why its banned it bad for environment. Those plants are super until the nature accept them. And you have more problems with insects and need more pesticide which lower the food quality. Meetings between farmer showed the the food quality is lower because they need to use more pesticides.
5
Nice try. You are one hundred percent wrong.
6
List common foods and brands that contain these ingredients so we can avoid them.
14
@Librarybabe As opposed to reading the labels yourself?
5
The article does not say if most of these harmful substances are missing from organic foods. Presumably they are. We all know you have to be fairly well off to be able to afford organic foods, though. Next question I have: do the CEO's, politicians and others who don't care about such harmful additives live on conventional or organic foods? Do they mostly shop at Whole Foods? Here's a topic I would like to see researched by a NYT reporter...
6
I’m from the US but I’ve been lucky to live abroad for several years at a time. Whenever I’m away, and eating normally, I loose a lot of weight and I feel genuinely healthier. When I come home, and without changing my eating and exercise habits, it comes right back on. For this reason I’ve always been convinced our food was sub-par in the US.
26
We don't need to snack. Snacks often present us with so many unhealthy options and double our total at the grocery store. If we stopped snacking, we'd have more money for high-quality ingredients to prepare meals. At least, that's how I eat. Not saying I'm better than folks, just saying that I am on a budget and I don't eat snacks like chips and popcorns and crackers because it all adds up and I'd rather spend it on rice or fish or veggies or oatmeal or whatever and have a small meal than a bag of popcorn that lasts 1.5 servings but costs $3.99.Things got tricky, though, when I picked up a partner who lived off snacks. We had to reconfigure things, but boy did that end up costing more money!!!
@DinDinWithGod
I like to make my own popcorn. It's easy, quick and much cheaper. You should try it!
3
My sister only eats gluten free foods in the US but can eat breads in France. This must be why. FDA is allowing corporations to poison US.
9
@Susan Haseltine ….It would be interesting to see if your sister could tell the difference in a double blind study.
2
Unfortunately, our F.D.A. is reactive, not pro-active. Much of their money on the drug side comes from BigPharma, so it becomes their customer, not the rest of us. There's a reason Public Citizen says to wait seven years before trying a new drug - at that point, its real side effect profile becomes clear. Things aren't so hot in the F.D.A.'s food regulatory side, either, and even more the Wild West on medical devices.
7
The FDA is a trade organization. A self regulating organization. Like the nasdaq.
5
I've discovered, through my own research program, that depression and anxiety can be caused by...reading food labels.
An example: I happened to pick up the jar of horseradish (apparently certified Kosher, by the way...) and had to wonder about the sheer number of ingredients and their redundancy.
Sure, it did have some horseradish, vinegar, and a little sugar.
So why did it also need high fructose corn syrup? Listed were sodium metabisulphite and sodium benzoate as preservatives, so why was calcium disodium EDTA also needed to "retain product freshness?" If there were eggs, why did it need xantham gum and cellulose?
Why do some pasta sauces have sugar, and some do not? Can anyone tell the difference?
One has to wonder about the tangle of ownership and ties in the food industry. Do the giant ag producers, who often own the familiar brands, put in stuff like HFCS or other chemicals because it's part of their profit machine?
9
I lived in France on sabbatical in Strasbourg in 1981-2, and assuredly loved the food more than the people--although Alsatians are different from Parisians, and our lab was international more than French. We could present our seminars in either language (English and French, not Alsatian German, which many of the technicians and cleaning staff spoke). But at my advanced age (81) and my family all living in USA, it's too late to return, except to visit--which I did two years ago.
1
@EmmaMae OOOk! Relevance?
4
When reading another article in this very ny times - the 30 day challenge to better health- nourish is second on list and is defined by writer as - not eating food from packages and drive throughs. I keep it simple with food- and believe that I am easily able to avoid these chemicals- but I am obviously not normal
4
I think companies could post “passes European standards” on their products. Many would pay the difference in cost.
12
@Pat that's my friend is was they dont want. Actully5 usa try to get ride of food labels in the eu in a Trade Deal thats why eu coubtries dont have a Deal with usa yet. They call it discrimination against usa food
Canada also bans bovine growth hormone in our milk. Let's hope the updated free trade agreement with the US doesn't result in this being contained in dairy products in Canda.
2
I have heard that corn syrup is somewhat addictive. You crave more of it before you've burned all the calories that it has delivered. Although aspartame has very few calories, it has the same effect, you crave it more than regular sugar.
Perhaps this is an urban rumor, but it would be nice to have a piece on these ingredient as well.
2
Would love to see an expanded version of this article. Over the years I’ve found that there are a number of foods (beer and bread for example) that I once could eat but now cannot. I initially thought that unhappy reality was part of the aging process and I’d developed an allergy to the foods themselves, but I’ve since come to believe it’s actually the preservatives and other additives put in them that are the issue. I also feel additives and preservatives may play a role with the development of autoimmune disorders and diseases. European countries (or at least the ones I’ve been to) seem to take a “less is more” approach with food processing which, for myself at least, is preferable. While I believe our FDA plays a necessary and valuable role in food regulation, I definitely do not rely solely on its opinions.
9
Re: Yellow and Red dyes in foods. I avoid processed foods in general, especially ones that include food coloring because of allergic reactions. What’s more difficult is avoiding OTC drugs that contain them. Many antihistamine tablets use yellow dies and most decongestant pills use red dye. Cough syrup and expectorants do too. There are a tiny number of cold and allergy medications that are dye free.
5
What about Glyphosate sprayed on wheat: Monsanto product used almoat 100% in North America, much less in Europe. I can eat bread in the UK with no problem but here(Canada) gives me cramps. EU was discussing banning it.
12
@sympatica
I'd love to think that the EU is blameless, but all you need to do is see the vast number of people in the UK (and France, Italy, Germany - etc) with gluten or lactose intolerances (me included). There has been a huge explosion of these problems here over the last 5 years. Whether this is glyphosate-related or something else, who knows. There's what seems to me quite a strong correlation curve between glyphosate use on cereals and coeliac disease. But, I believe that a lot of enzymes and other processing aids do not need to be listed even in the EU. If you go into pubs most of the French fries are fried in palm/sunflower oil mixed with silicone. Now I don't know about you but I'd rather not be eating silicone - whatever the 'experts' say about its safety. Ugh.
1
The article did not mention EDTA -- used in many emulsified products in the US of A but banned in other countries. Also, it is prohibited from natural discharge in the US as it is toxic to fish.
4
Many people here seem to be angry because the EU doesn't allow GMO products, even though it doesn't affect them in the least. Interesting. That gives the impression of a coordinated campaign.
6
since gmo seeds are less than 30 years old you really can't predict 50 years into the future and please don't equate this to Mendel.
2
@psa: Yes, crossbreeding and selective breeding are as old as agriculture, but they do not involve implanting a small number of genes from an unrelated organism into another organism.
3
@psa ...You need to understand genetics and how this works. Take the time. It is not only fascinating, but you will quickly come to realize that the opposition to GMOs has nothing to do with health and safety and everything to do with protectionism.
I have long noticed that the United States is behind most of Europe, especially the EU, when it comes to anything that is health-related, which includes food additives. Our laissez-faire attitude does not serve us well. Just because we've used or been exposed to an additive for a long time does not make it good for us.
I would prefer cleaner, fresher packaged food and meat without antibiotics. After reading this, I guess I will go back to making my own bread to avoid additives and more of my own soups as well. It's so frustrating because it would be more convenient to buy ready-made products.
16
@Barbara why do you thibk usa and eu dont have trade deal food is one of the biggest reasons. USA want to get ride of european standart in this trade deal. No food labeling no origin of country, it want us to accept diffrent stuff they put into their food
It stinks having to speak French at work. I would much rather speak my native language, American English. And quite frankly, working with the French is not always easy. They can be petty and complicated over nothing. Some days, after 20 years here, I really miss the U.S.
But until this « Trump thing » is over, and maybe even after that, I think that I will remain here. I can just visit the U.S. from time to time.
And clearly one eats better here too.
102
@David Martin How I envy you, David Martin! For God's sake, stay in France.
24
@David Martin: Yes, the French are a real pain to work with, but the language? You actually have a problem with that? US English is the most bland thing on the planet.
18
@David Martin
Haven't you heard? The 'trump thing' will never be over. Never ever. It's been decades of years of this. We are aging in place at a rapid pace. Please send butter and croissants.
20
Speaking of misleading headlines...not one of the things listed is a food. They are additives or drugs for the animals that produce foods. But, in and of themselves, they are not foods. So the moral I guess is that many additives in the US are banned in Europe. A rational decision it would seem except that Europe is paranoid about GMOs even when the evidence of their safety is incontrovertible.
1
@Ted. We may not be be pretty but Have you seen what your average middle American looks like/weighs/measures? You think all’s well in American food consumption?
2
It is exactly articles like this that are so alarming to we Brits who fear the prospect of an onslaught of American foodstuffs that we are protected from at present as a member of the EU. Come Brexit, what will become of us if we unwittingly adopt or are forced to adopt the worst of the American diet?
13
I am proud to say I have never spent one cent in any Walmart or Walton family owned business...that is one thing every American can do. We do have choices, Americans are "allowed" to eat polluted low quality meats and GMO "food like" products....look at our obesity and health compared to Europe. Eat natural unprocessed food locally grown/raised...learn to cook...Europeans are very particular about their food while Americans eat mostly processed junk and most of the meat "products" are not fit for consumption.....plus the other health hazards presented by these inhumane large "feeding lots" that are gigantic sewers that pollute the entire region. This is no way to raise animals or grow produce. Say NO to all GMO "food like" products too.
15
Thank you for bring this issue into the light. The next article needs to do the same for the cosmetics and body products category. It’s exactly the same problem—companies sell products in the US that they are banned from selling in the EU, where they now sell a safer formulation. It’s nothing short of scandalous, if not immoral.
10
@Wendy
The environmental working group.org, has a great app that will scan the barcode of a cosmetic and give you a toxicity rating. They have these ratings for fruits, sunscreen and "healthy home".
https://www.ewg.org/
3
In my humble opinion when the government steps in and requires food manufacturers to adjust ingredients and or places regulations on foods or food groups, the US consumer cries foul. That the government is interfering in lives it has no business interfering in. I spend a significant amount of time in the southern region of Italy and the dislike of the government here is second to none, but when laws protecting people from harm are enacted, the people abide. I also live near Philadelphia in the States and what amazes me is that the anti-government crowd find the soda tax as the government overstepping its bounds. Did they feel that way when the government placed bans and high taxes on cigarettes? Likely I am sure. In the US we put government agencies in place to warn and protect us and then when they do, we act like small children…
6
Ain't capitalism wonderful? It's ironic that in a country so cavalier about the citizens' health, medical care can be prohibitively expensive.
10
Oh! It’s not but I dare you to offer any proven better alternative!
@carrobin
Remember that the US was founded by lawyers and plantation owners, in other words: employers, not the working man.
The US has never been about the working man.
Most members of congress belong to the ruling class.
3
In the US, corporations are people. If we apply too many regulations, it will hurt their little corporate feelings.
I don't know of any other country in the world where anyone in government would even attempt to argue that corporations are people unless they wanted to be laughed out of the room.
19
The EU has also banned cottonseed oil- one of THE most pesticide-laden oils pervasive in US processed foods. I am shocked by the lack of awareness around this food additive.
10
This is the difference between, “Prove it is safe before we allow you to use it” vs. “Prove it is not safe before we stop using it”. But even then items thought to have a reasonable chance of causing cancer are allowed in the US.
Another reason unbridled capitalism is basically the rape of the planet.
19
@George Washington I dont think its capitalism I think its greed and low moral towards other people
1
Thank you!
Let’s keep the government shut down then. No need to pay these officials. We can all read labels and hopefully get our ingredient list from Europe.
Too bad for Latin America and Asia tho. Those are the true corporate hunting grounds.
1
@Home cook I just flew from Boston to England. The TSA agent who checked my passport said he is about to lose his house, because of the shut down. People forget what the shut down does to people's lives. It's not as though government folks can put their lives and bills on hold just because Trump is holding up their pay.
2
Just like the deniers of climate change, the anti-GMO crowd ignores all the facts produced by scientists to promote their irrational fears. And the tragedy is that blindness could be prevented for hundreds of thousands of African children! But science deniers in wealthy nations don't care!
Organic certification is overseen by the USDA. 50% of our produce(organic included)is grown outside of the USA and some (10%) tests positive for banned pesticides, herbicides and fungicides. The organic system is set up for big ag. Even approved “organic” sprays can be overused rather than their recommended schedules of application...which may not be much safer. Organic means very little to me at this point and I am a Farmer and food manufacturer. Do your research. Grow your own food or know your farmers. Do not follow the sheeple. Would you be passive about choosing a doctor, home purchase or your bank account?
7
@Sarah
To support your comments, I just read that our government allows conventional farmers whose lands abut organic farms, to spray pesticides on his/her farm KNOWING that the pesticides travel onto the organic-grown food items, next door as thought the wind doesn't blow and there is an invisible wall between them. So, yes, we have no clue what we are really ingesting.
Stop putting carcinogens in our food supply. Is this really debatable?
12
Best to remember that our food manufacturers work day and night to make foods that are highly addictive. For any processed food it should have a statement warning you to it dangers...think packs of cigarettes.
7
with this current Administration the FDA will continue to get worse.
6
To the great detriment of us all, the EPA has become a joke. Under the current administration it has loosened restrictions on air, water and food. We are in peril
8
@Fritzi Redgrave
The EPA and FDA were slowly subverted by the agriculture industry. This is quite obvious, since many of the high level officials on these agencies previously worked in the agri-businesses, themselves! There is no true, unbiased oversight anymore. There should be an effective law banning this conflict of interest. The decadent/downhill trajectory of the U.S culminated when the Supreme Court ruled that PACS should be legal, causing negative influences to subvert our system of governance. This, followed by unbridled falsehood being spread over the internet have expedited this country's free-fall similar to the route of the Roman Empire.
this is why in Britain after Brexit we are worried about the trade deals that will be drawn up between America and Britain our food standards and animal welfare are second to none we do not want your GM crops or your meat that is tainted with drugs and chemicals I know were not perfect and there's still things we need to get right like stopping nitrates being used for curing certain processed meats and we will get this altered eventually and now to make matters worse you have Donald Trump a numbscull president that is trying to do away with all food protections ect that you have made, the people in Britain will fight to keep our protections that Trump and his administration will try to force into the agreements
7
@Graham We apologize for our numbskull president. The majority of Americans do not like him either. It is amazing that so many Americans DO like him, but they are probably being misled by Fox and the like.
6
I think the EU still requires country of origin labelling. This is something that our Congress removed from our food labels in anticipation of TPP.
Why remove laws on food origin labelling? After the adulterated milk products from China poisoned babies in Europe a few years ago it seemed clear that there is no effective way to endure food purity in products from certain countries. Yet, incredibly, our Congress passed a law to remove country of origin labelling.
I pay attention to ingredient lists and try to watch out for things that I believe are unhealthy, but when we allow carcinogens in any amount this becomes almost impossible.
Who cares about how white and fluffy bread is when a decent loaf of whole grain bread is so much better anyway?
We are going to need a new 4th branch of government soon that will be the advocate for People soon because our elected representatives are not looking out for us.
8
@Margo the usa want to get ride of it in eu deal they call it discrimination against usa food
1
I wonder how many billions of dollars in health care costs could be saved if only America cleaned up its food chain from the thousands of unpronounceable (and often toxic) chemicals that the food industry seems so eager to dump in every product.
When I’m in America I only buy (expensive) organic food and I check the labels carefully before buying anything. But I know very well this is not something most people can afford.
24
There is nothing, no matter how potentially harmful, that United States corporations will not do to make money.
30
If you slowly kill off your consumers how will they continue to buy?
4
Corporations don’t care about long term effects. They want profits now. They will find a way to make profit of our death.
4
@JT No problem. Then they just hand you off to Big Pharma....
5
If you kill them slowly enough, they’ll produce new consumers before they go.
3
The US healthcare system is by and large a private for- profit industry. Europe has a mostly universal healthcare system paid for by the governments.
Their system focuses on preventing sickness. It looks like ours does the opposite in order to get more customers.
As was stated so often during the ACA healthcare debate… The American people are “consumers” of healthcare.
18
Other than for cheap caloric sustenance, Americans have little regard for the quality of food. Elsewhere food is revered. In the US is measured by how much you get for the lowest price.
America's collective waistband is a clear indicator of its terrible food system.
14
Well, this article sure will make me pay better attention in my nutrition class. And motivate me to continue to make better choices in my diet. My thanks to the author and NYT. Wake up FDA!!!
5
Banning GMOs is a political and economic decision by the EU. Shame on the anti-science left.
2
Plants that are genetically manipulated to work with commercial insecticides, which also happen to have been determined to be carcinogenic - what’s not to like? You deserve an award for gullibility
11
@Johan
Precisely, StarLink corn is a perfect example.
Perhaps Imagine would like to give a full disclosure of some kind?
@Imagine The anti-science left??? You mean the folks who believe in climate change and are trying to do something about it? Who realize that organic food is healthier? Give me a break.
4
Interesting article. But, I would also like to know what is allowed in European Union but banned in the USA.
5
kinder surprise eggs
7
@Amy Because kids can choke on the toys inside. :)
The food dyes were the most interesting to me - particularly because there are so many anti-vax mothers out there that are probably pumping their kids full of these dyes in all the foods they serve their kids. Hmmm.
4
@Compassion & Resilience
Actually they are pretty consistent in not liking food additives, too. Of course, food additives don't have any health benefits, while vaccines can save children's lives.
2
It's best to stay away from processed foods as much as possible. If you eat processed foods, you do need to manage the risks of the processing involving unnatural compounds, and then the more strict EU rules can be rather futile.
What is considered to be a normal amount of salt and fat in our Western diets causes enormous damage to our healths:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181114160024.htm
"For their study, the researchers took blood pressure measurements from 72 Yanomami aged one to 60, and found no trend towards higher or lower readings as the participants aged. The researchers also measured blood pressure in 83 members of the nearby Yekwana tribe, which is more exposed to Western influences including dietary -- and here they found a clear trend towards higher pressure with advancing age."
So, if you're ok. with your diet causing your blood pressure to increase as you age and as a result being exposed to a 25% risk of dropping dead from a heart attack or stroke, then why worry about health effects of food additives that have not been been shown to cause adverse health effects in quantities used?
3
Just read a great book called The Poison Squad about the history of food doctoring. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in this topic.
4
As a student of Food Science in the late 1990's, my fellow students and I would occasionally look at one another during class with a "why?" look on our faces on food additives. While this article is good at pointing out some long-standing regulatory differences and perception differences between the US and the EU, I feel it would be worth looking at all food additives in a different way.
1. What is the primary purpose of the food additive?
2. Is the food additive necessary?
3. What is the risk?
Step 1: For a list of what is permitted in your food in the USA - check out the FDA's website on Food Additives. The list is quite long. For comparison purposes, both the Canadian and EU governments have similar lists which are easy to use. Canada's list also explains WHY the additive is permitted and its purpose in a way that I find easier to share.
Step 2: Determining Risk (for yourself)
Carcinogen Risk Assessment using LD50 (Lethal dose - 50% of test animals) as a guide. LD50 applies to many items. The comment section isn't accepting my links, but if you Google "OMICS" you'll find a list of reputable science journals from many different countries.
Step 3: Take a food you love, find an ingredient you are unsure of, Google "LD50 Name of Additive". Ensure LD50 data is from a University you trust and.or the OMICS list.
Caffeine is LD50 150-400mg/Kg. This comparative risk is w/o the legislative/political bias.
My advice: Eat raw/whole foods to avoid it all.
7
Fifty percent of my friends have had cancer and I often wonder why is it that they have cancer and none of my European friends have cancer. My friends daughter age 36 passed away with colon cancer about a year ago and its has been painful to watch her pass away.
6
My question is simple. If there is any risk, why is it being used? Is the well-being of a human being less important than the profit of a corporation?
11
Big corporations, with their media power, has labeled regulations are a dirty word. Regulation is a corporate word; the corollary for consumers is "Protection." Corporations hate regulations because it adds to costs on their books; but they do not think about the costs to society (these are called externalized costs). Good regulations brings those externalized costs on the books of companies, which then forces their behavior to change.
14
OK, so we have these different rules in the US and the EU. Since I’m not a scientist, I have no idea which approach is correct. It would therefore be interesting to compare relevant cancer rates in the US and the EU. Maybe the Times could do that.
7
You really don’t need to be a scientist to come to a reasonable conclusion on this point
6
@CABchi The question is: Do you benefit from the food additives, even if they are harmless?
2
We have corporate control of our government in the US.
10
Some people have commented that the "precautionary principle" is a great thing. It is a legitimation of irrational prejudice. What does a "reasonable risk" mean. Governments in Europe have taken action against GMO's for decades on the basis of the so-called "precautionary principle". Now these are the facts about GMO's. The first ones were constructed by using the oak gall bacterium to transfer genes. This was done after noting that this was happening in nature quite commonly. In other words it is an entirely "natural" process, more so than inducing mutations by exposing seeds to radiation or grafting one plant onto another which is entirely "unnatural" and both of which are completely accepted by the accumulated Luddites of the continent. The "precautionary principle" would be taken to court and thrown out in a flash here.
3
We rely on scientific studies to determine what is safe. Since the EU regulates GMOs against scientific advise, they are as irrational as US agribusiness. Caveat emptor.
4
I was in Norway in July 2012 and was quite surprised to find aspartame widely in use as a sweetener in soft drinks sold in their markets. Logically that would make sense being too cold to grow and too expensive to import cane sugar and too mountainous to grow sugar beets, being that sugar beet fields have to be table flat in order to grow.
Another surprise was that MSG was used in some flavorings such as a seasoning salts.
Norway at the time (and I take, still is) not a member of the European Union so therefore, not under any regulations of theirs.
2
@SW That is not correct. Norway,though not a formal member of the EU, is closely related to the union and has to follow all the same rules about food safety, trade, labor regulations, travel and you name it. In fact we would prefer even better food safety regulations than the EU, but we are not allowed if we cannot convince the union about that they should do it too. Both aspartame and MSG are allowed in the EU, but the food containing is must be labeled and there is a limit for the MSG.
Interesting to read but it appears to work both ways!! The FDA banned Aspartame as a sweetener yet is still readily used in Europe! Also I believe the FDA banned phenylalanine but again is used in Europe! Both have been identified as bad for the human body!
2
The USA has never banned aspartame.
5
@oclaxon
The FDA kept Aspartame off the market for 8 years. Then on the first day of Reagan's presidency he got together with Donald Rumsfeld , fired the head of the FDA and railroaded it through to acceptance. It is in most diet soda's and most chewing gums. It is probably the worst thing the FDA has done with the exception of Opioids.
2
Sounds like the American consumer is subsidizing the sale of safer products in countries whose laws prohibit certain additives. Higher profits earned here make it economically viable to sell safer versions in Europe.
How do I know it's less profitable to sell the same product with unhealthy addidtives removed? Because if it wasn't, manufacturers would sell the same product everywhere.
It's the same with perscription drugs. We pay so much, the manufacturer can afford to sell the product at a lower price in countries that have price controls.
11
@JR
Insofar as i can tell, several items are indeed banned or looked at with suspicion by the FDA.
Amongst them are:
Bubble and Squeak - leftover cabbage and potatoes of a roast beef dinner and often served with bacon and eggs
Spotted Dick - Suet pudding containing currents
Cullen Skink - Scottish soup made of smoked haddock, potatoes and onions.
Singing Hinnies - Current Cake
Lancashire Hotpot - A rancid smelling lamb stew
Engelsk Fisk og chips - A Norwegian version of English fish and chips
Pie and Mash with parsley liquor - the name says it all
1
It would also be nice to hear what foods/additives/drugs are banned in the US that are allowed in the EU.
Fair is fair, no?
4
Look it up, there are none...
3
@Jack
Insofar as i can tell, several items are indeed banned or looked at with suspicion by the FDA.
Amongst them are:
Bubble and Squeak - leftover cabbage and potatoes of a roast beef dinner and often served with bacon and eggs
Spotted Dick - Suet pudding containing currents
Cullen Skink - Scottish soup made of smoked haddock, potatoes and onions.
Singing Hinnies - Current Cake
Lancashire Hotpot - A rancid smelling lamb stew
Engelsk Fisk og chips - A Norwegian version of English fish and chips
Pie and Mash with parsley liquor - the name says it all
2
I always feel healthier in Europe. And, the food tastes better there. The quality of meat, and chicken, is superior in Europe, you can tell by the taste and texture, regardless of preparation. All grains and flour are vitamin enriched in the US and a loaf of bread may list numerous ingredients, mostly chemical on the package. Not so in Europe. Adding vitamins to grains and grain products is banned in continental Europe for fear of causing cancer. Europeans live longer and healthier lives than Americans.
22
Yes, Europe is simply a better place all round.
All kidding aside, I agree with "an observer", but I think it's because there is far less promiscuous use of sugar and related sweeteners in Europe than in the US.
The reality is that in the turn against fat promoted by the US government in the 80s and 90s, commercial foods were instead made more attractive by hyping up sugar contents in most everything.
Our blimpish silhouettes are the result, along with the panoply of resultant diseases across our populace - even children - related to such excess sugar consumption, such as obesity per se, diabetes, NASH (look it up - it will scare the daylights out of you) et al.
I sometimes wonder whether, like our parents' generation, we would have been better off just continuing to smoke, and eat less. Lung cancer is no fun, that is for sure, but is this hugely better, from a societal point of view?
8
@an observer
Whole grains and products made with whole grains are seldom, if ever, enriched. The whole wheat lasagna in my cupboard has one ingredient: 100% durum wheat flour. The rolled oats nearby have one ingredient, oats. As for the bag of brown rice, it's 100% rice. The sack of whole wheat flour in a different cupboard is surprisingly, also contains just one ingredient. The loaf of whole wheat bread on the counter contains no scary ingredients or added vitamins and minerals.
It's one thing to be concerned about food dyes and other chemicals. But there is far too much hysteria surrounding the issue of food healthfulness and safety. Real food that is whole or minimally processed should not cause people to be concerned, whether the food is organic or not, domestic or foreign.
2
@an observer
Some of us buy organic wheat berries and then take the 2 extra minutes to grind them before making bread.
A step that is very worthwhile.
1
Just another example of Conflict of Interest. Money comes first, public safety a distant second place. The same goes on in Medicine where the FDA allows untested medical appliances to be used in patients because of "grandfathering" - (501K).
Test kits are available for many of these products that have different standards in the US and other jurisdictions, especially to determining the levels of antibiotic residue in milk. Other kits are available to measure additives to animal food that must not enter the human food chain.
Many countries have banned these substances altogether, or require levels of their presence in minute quantities, as compared to the US. Conflict of Interest !
3
I remember becoming hyper-aware of food and skin care ingredients during the mad-cow outbreak in Europe in the '90s. Cow heads were suddenly up in the butcher shop, ear tag and all, so you could rest assured that your meat was local. We were also warned of the tallow in skin cream and lipsticks. Imagine becoming paralyzed from your rose-red lippy. Just not worth it!
This article just reminds us that here in the US we have even more reason to live in a 'slow food' world, as possible. Cook from 'raw' ingredients, plant your own vegetables, buy from the bulk food section, even sponsor a local family with a CSA if you can! Get to know your local farmer; buy meat from him/her. And while we're at it, try to eat vegetarian...
8
@Sera
Despite my Manhattan ID, I currently live in France. It's *not* easy to find packaged ("industrial") charcuterie, e.g., ham, that doesn't have dextrose. And even *artisanal* sausage has it as often as --or more often-- than artisanal sausage that only has meat and salt and/or other legit seasoning. Sad but true. Label reading here often is discouraging, too. Fructose, fructose....
At home, I always wrote "suggestions" to (pre-Amazon) Whole Foods to try (unsuccessfully) to get them to stop putting sugar or malt sweetener in almost all their store-baked breads. Why do I doubt Amazon has changed that. Supermarket store-baked breads here don't have sugar but they often have additives, not only flour, salt, yeast. Note to self - get thee to a bakery before they close....
3
How can one forget the case of Kraft Mac-and-Cheese? The European version had no color added but US version had Yellow dye added. In side by side consumer tasting no one missed the color!!! Kraft finally removed Yellow dye in US version under pressure from consumers. The point of this story is that many additives are there not because the consumers preferred the foods with those additives but the companies assumed otherwise!
If all US foods were made without additives no one going to miss it!
16
It doesn't stop at food: the ingredients in most "personal care" products are highly unregulated, and absorbed right through the skin.
19
Whatever the safety level of an ingredient, making it sound distasteful by associating it with something unpleasant is a lazy and intellectually dishonest way to get a reaction.
Bromine, like in brominated fire retardants? Eww...
If you’re OK with that, how about:
Sodium chloride? We use chlorine to disinfect swimming pools! Water? We use that to flush toilets!
4
Among these restrictions, the EU also prohibits the direct advertisement of food that is high in sugar or fat to children. Watch all the television you want in France, and you won't see an ad for a Happy Meal, Fruit Roll Ups, or Frosted Flakes. Here, food companies use cartoon creatures to appeal to children, bombard them with ads for brightly colored and heavily sweetened food, then deny, deny, deny that they have anything to do with the obesity epidemic.
21
@Hroswitha here in germany you get add but you get adds https://youtu.be/UwxySqEHzAQ he said now in the happy meal yummy fruits and some dinotoy here you get fruits in the happpymeal despite all the junk.
Or this one https://youtu.be/rE5BE-NWAO8
https://youtu.be/CD0aVa-sQF8 do they look diffrent in the usa?
@Hroswitha here in germany you get add but you get adds https://youtu.be/UwxySqEHzAQ he said now in the happy meal yummy fruits and some dinotoy here you get fruits in the happpymeal despite all the junk.
It is kind of a no-brainer, but our bad food is the reason Americans are much heavier and less healthy than before. But fast food and processed food are big business and we don't regulate big business with rigor here in the USA. People, you need to have your wits about you, find out what healthy food is and eat that instead. It is not your fault if you are too heavy and not feeling well, it is the foods you eat that are causing this.
7
The exquisite sensitivity of the human body to various exogenous substances cannot be overstated.
Medical history is replete with instances of low levels at first thought to be innocuous.
[And this applies to environmental agents as well—witness the government stating that the low levels of radiation downwind from Nevada nuclear tests in the 1950s was harmless.]
A physician M.D.
11
So growth hormones and other drugs used to fatten pigs and other animals we eat are banned in Europe but not here? Do people really think this stuff is expelled from the animal before slaughter and we consume it? No. It's still there. Then humans eat it and we wonder why we have an obesity epidemic in the US. We are fattening ourselves up on the same drugs.
14
We have descended into a mutant form of capitalism in which corporations will gladly feed us poison if it makes them more money and they are allowed to do it.
16
@Nicole
Great post. I agree completely, except with the notion that current capitalism is mutant. The excessive and harmful form of capitalism we now have is not a mutant. It is the natural progression of capitalism when left essentially unchecked for the harm it does to humans. The freedom to get profits from your customers, as long as what you're doing is not expressly unlawful, is the central tenant of capitalism. So, as long as human inventiveness in capitalism stays ahead of the law, capitalism will always naturally grow to maximize profits at the expense of people's health.
8
American food is the gateway drug to the American pharmaceutical industry.
29
Who cares if our fellow americans get sick and die? As long as profits are valued over human life, capitalism as practiced in this savage land will continue to treat humans as cannon fodder.
8
Throughout the years of the additive debate in our food products why a company would want to add them to any food? It's like why make sugar white? Sugar is a sweetener not a whitener. Why 'bleach' our chickens, when the issue is elsewhere in the cages.
And as far as GMO's in the EU, company's are very much pushing and influencing the EU in this direction.....it's not needed, it's wanted. Intellectual Property Rights on food products means ownership.
3
Welove: Sugary, bleached chicken. Yum.
1
I would be interested in seeing a listing of the foods that cannot be sold in the EU, or the ones that have been reformulated so they can be.
3
Good article, but it contains almost nothing I haven't known for many years. In the U.S., food safety is a fantasy. Our FDA does as little as possible to protect consumers. Instead, they protect the profits of the food industry. That's their job. Especially under the present powers that be. Citizens will keep getting sick and dying until the rule-makers are held accountable for lax oversight of the food industry, but that won't happen under the present system.
19
Could it be possible that the lack of attention to consumer health by the FDA is linked to our for-profit medical industry in the United States? In addition to supporting our industrial food industry the inattention to possible cancer causing and otherwise potentially harmful ingredients may be benefitting the pharmaceutical, for-profit cancer treatment centers and other lucrative medical businesses. The fact that many European nations have socialized medicine provides more incentive for their governments to be cautious of consumer health. Sad to think of the direction our country seems to be going in as we continue to put profits over basically everything else....Sad.
18
It’s always about profits. Our government ensnared in lobbyists money. Lobbyists write most of the bills processed through our congress. Unless elected and appointed government officials are separated from this money and prefabricated laws Americans will suffer.
Congress should pass no law which does not pertain equally to them as the American people who elected them.
Remember, congress is being paid throughout this government shutdown. Remember, any elected official who serves more than five years is entitled to retirement benefits including healthcare.
14
It's encouraging that all the Times Pick comments here disparage the dominance of corporate interests over people.
Those who advocate for small government and deregulation of industry blindly assume this will allow free will. But don't they see this will strengthen the manipulative control of industry and advertising in all aspects of our lives?
However, I would not use food additives as the poster child for how the food industry is making us sick. As a physician/epidemiologist, I would remind readers it is over consumption of foods, particularly of sugary beverages, that contribute to our major problems of obesity and diabetes.
The health risks of additives are not well documented, if only because of difficulty quantifying consumption of any one additive and because there is not an identified disease they might cause. If additives contribute to cancer, what cancers might they be? Stomach cancer (an intuitive suspect) is on the decline in developed countries. Breast and prostate cancer may be promoted by high fat diets, but no suspected food additive has been identified.
In short, the established links of diet and disease all involve over consumption, unconscionably promoted by industry. Why not put our prevention energy where the facts are?
But, if I could control industry to save lives, I'd begin with the fossil fuel industry (lung cancer, asthma), tobacco (lung cancer, emphysema) and industries pushing cheap, sweet, fatty foods (obesity, diabetes).
9
I am American, eat mostly American food, and non of the listed ingredients are found in my house (because I read labels when I do grocery shopping). Contrary to popular belief and propaganda, it is very easy and not that expensive at all to buy healthy food in the US of A. Now for an experiment, try to buy yogurt without gelatin in Germany. You are lucky if there is a label listing the ingredients at all.
5
that's new for me. please have a closer look ( gelantin) there are products with gelatine they are called joghurterzeugnis not yoghurt.
4
This is entirely incorrect - maybe you just haven’t seen or understood it because it may not be in English?
9
In the United States the mentality is "innocent until proven guilty" whereas Europe adheres to the precautionary principle, erring on the side of public safety. Extra vigilance is needed as a consumer in the United States- just because it's sold doesn't mean it's safe.
14
Big Food in the US is just as powerful if not more powerful than Big Pharma or the military industrial complex. In certain states you can be sued into homelessness for being critical in public of certain foods or food products.
10
Overall Europeans are more conscious about healthy eating, focusing on locally sourced foods and identifying food additives than we are. However, every year when I’m there I’m shocked to see how many have become overweight obese because they succumb to the fast food fads that the US has exported, including unhealthy portion sizes. The world still sees the US as trend setters and sadly people get sucked into our bad behaviors.
Furthermore, the FDA has steadily been losing credibility in recent years. There are too many examples of lax oversight regarding some medications. The almighty dollar has eroded them and we pay the price.
On the other hand, we have been able to make in-roads in exposing the tobacco industry whereas many Europeans still smoke like chimneys.
13
Yes but is it also so that things banned here are allowed in Europe? Europeans hate GMO's against every scientific finding out there and the experience of decades that indicate that they are utterly safe and if anything a benefit to the environment. Not that most of those things shouldn't be banned but the inverse provincialism of seeing Europe as a font of wisdom and a kind of socialist paradise by alienated American intellectuals is close to idiocy.
2
If we didn't have crooks in congress this would not happen. They take bribes from industry and in return give them the legislation they want. Americans need to vote for people who are no criminals and are not kowtowing to industry. We need to fix campaign finance regulations and overturn Citizens United. You'll know who the crooks are because they will be fighting tooth and nail to not change either. Vote for those who are not beholden to industry lobbie$$$.
6
Europeans are skinnier because they don't jump in the car to travel two blocks to Safeway. Americans are the laziest, most slovenly people on the planet. If our food were 100% safe, they would still overeat.
11
Another reason to move to Europe.
10
OK Fine! Americans are fat and eat junk food.. Why doesn't NATO threaten to pull out until we reach international health standards?
I am so tired having my health, my education, my way of thinking compared to Europeans!
Easy answer, because European countries on the whole care about their citizens but in the "exceptional" USA business is # 1. Those of us not among the 1% in the US are merely a revenue stream.
12
While foods, drugs and chemicals for that matter have jeopardized the well being of Americans forever, it is a struggle for government to prioritize our citizens, and to offer customer service first. As a child, I recall my grandparents buying meat in Canada as we were increasingly offered preservatives. Several members of my family had reactions to perfumes. lunch meat, hot dogs, chicken and processed baked goods. Medications created multiple crisis. Poisoning the environment such as the 'Love Canal' were common enough. Alternatives were lobbied as hogwash. Companies like Monsanto and Dow reinvented themselves. Soft drink products are more prolific than ever. In spite of my childhood, I feel less safe now. Traveling abroad still values the personal traditional pride of eating. In America, we are considered expendable consumers fed a diet of cheaply made overpriced junk.
6
Does anyone remember when Michelle Obama was trying to change the food served in our schools and in our country? I bet many of the horrified people making comments here were against what she was doing.
2
Only a handful of "pharmafoods" are listed here. You can't expect government to ever care about your food...they make money on the eating side and the illness side. Look at food given to kids today. A dog wouldn't survive more than a few years on it. There are thousands of pharmafoods being added to food by the firstful to increase shelf life as well as cravings, for the sole purpose of ramping up revenue. Just look around at the fallout...
4
This is a bad headline.
This article doesn't talk about "foods" that are banned in Europe, but food ingredients - in particular chemical additives. These are things that no human anywhere recognizes as an actual food.
2
Solution: Place massive disclosure language on all products cited - just as the pharmacuetical and tobacco companies do. Next have our independent and elected officials acting on our behalf haul them into D.C. for questioning. This will certainly solve all our problems. Please don't disclose my name however lest I be characterized as a lunatic like that guy, Ralph Nader. And while I'm at it, how's the water in Flint?
2
The government needs to ban MSG ( monosodium glutamate).
This was once banned in the US but manufacturers and lobbyists prevailed and got the laws repealed.
It is poison and many people, including myself, get very sick when it is in our food.
It is an excitotoxin which adversely effects the brain and in sensitive people produces burning sensations of the mouth, head and neck, weakness of the arms or legs, headaches, upset stomach, hives or other allergic-type reactions with the skin, and is much more toxic to fetuses and babies than adults .
Many people will tell you this is untrue.
Talk to the millions who suffer from MSG sensitivity and tell them that they are imagining all this.
https://www.foodrenegade.com/msg-dangerous-science/
6
For those who complain about socialism, this illustrates one difference; the socialiatic systeme cares more ablut people than profiots; capitalism is the reverse.
9
why would anyone want their bread to glow?
5
When I lived in Asia I had no adverse reactions to food or drink. Returning to the US I suffered a multitude of issues until I stopped consuming processed foods and drinks. When traveling in Europe I can enjoy cheese, not at home since US producers evidently use drugs on their animals. Why is this country so anti-health??
13
My friend's 9 year-old son has suffered from extreme eczema since birth. Every time they travel to Europe to stay with family, his eczema clears up, but reappears several weeks after their return to Canada. My friend has found that her son's eczema symptoms are reduced when she purchases as many grocery items as possible from European sources, shopping import stores or the import aisles of local grocery stores. This article offers an interesting explanation.
15
As I read this, I checked the ingredients of the orange Gatorade I’ve been sipping. Sure enough, there’s Yellow dye #6 cited as the last product ingredient. That’s pathetic. Our consumer protections have been sold to the industries with the deepest pockets and the best-funded lobbyists. Thank you, NYT, for looking out for us.
10
Avoid industrialized foods. Eat fresh as possible.
9
The biggest fear a lot of British have is that any trade deal agreed with the US, after Brexit, will mean we will be forced into importing these contaminated foods.
9
Those very good comments about our out modded Constitution change my overall
thinking.
We aren't adapting as intelligently as we ought, and this article is an example.
Let's not ignore our European cousins.
I'm not exactly sure of "tragedy's" definition, though it seemingly applies, does it not?
"Suicide" itself has to be deliberate, though
not enough of our good citizens read the likes of this courageous newspaper to be able to accept reconstructed food and pharmaceutics standards.
Gee, I'm being snobbish/elitist, though as per the
Kenny Rodgers' song about playing smart poker ... .
A terrifically bad metaphor, but none is perfect.
3
Just one sterling example of American exceptionalism.
8
Corporations aren’t Citizens and Patriots.
6
This article would be a lot more useful if it listed specific examples of packaged American foods that contain said ingredients. Sorry but I’m a lot more likely to remember not to eat some brand of chips than I am to read an ingredients list to see if those chips contain something something bromide.
7
I am not familiar with the drug ractopamine, but if it is being used to "increase weight gain in pigs, cattle and turkeys before slaughter," is is possible that this drug might explain in part why Americans have experienced an increase in weight gain?
16
Between the ages of 12 and 16 I developed a severe allergy to Red Dye #40. It was something my family and I deduced after being hospitalized multiple times, but it was never recognized or accepted by the doctors that treated me. I learned from an early age what these toxic chemicals can do, and how many ridiculous foods they are added to.
6
Where above it talks about a 1958 amendment to the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act that prohibited approval of food additives linked to cancer. Then an agency spokeswoman said substances in use before passage of the amendment, known as the Delaney amendment, are considered to have had prior approval and “therefore are not regulated as food additives.”
That means that amendment never had teeth. The extreme swing caused by the Trump presidency should be responded to like the extreme economic swing that was The Great Depression. So instead of a New Deal...well a Green New Deal is in order too, but I meaning a whole overhaul revamping of the US political system to insure Democratic institutions uphold the public favour, including the nation as a whole (e.g. ecology) and its foreign policy. Trump is actually presenting a great opportunity with his gutting of State Dept so it operates in the general human interest and not as an operations arm of Wall Street (gunboat diplomacy & all that).
2
I would encourage anyone interested in better understanding what is in the products that we consume and use in our homes to reference the Environmental Working Group's database (ewg.org).
9
This administration is a kleptocracy. And an embarrassing one at that. They don't care about people's health, they don't have to. But maybe we can change this with the new House and the election in 2020, and maybe we will then emerge lucky once again.
3
So much effort over what to eat!
To end this silly conversation, eliminate disease, save time, end yoyo "dieting", save money, reduce appetite, sleep better and feel great all the time:
Just eat plants, lots of organic ones, until full.
Then, when again hungry, eat more.
This whole discussion over eating compromised animal flesh nourished by tainted food is getting old. "Where do you get your protein"? Plants! - the same place the animals we eat used to get it from - but no longer do. And then we all wonder why we are sick/obese/need or are prescribed medications by those with little to no knowledge about nutrition or it's sources.
3
Why doesn’t this article name names? Beyond Mtn Dew, we’re left wondering which U.S. corporations are selling us food that would be otherwise banned by the EU. Is it Subway bread or Walmart meat?
The problem we have in the U.S. is that science and sound public policy is trumped by corporate influence over our political system. The NYT should have the courage to name the U.S. corporations that sell products that the EU otherwise finds to be unsafe.
5
The fear here in Britain amongst the millions of the sane that voted against Brexit is that we will be inundated with these low standard products and your bleached chicken meat.
Be wary of allowing the over 70s to decide your childrens futures.
7
I lived in France 23 years and never had stomach issues. After 10 years in the US I’ve developed IBS and DT, with acid reflux. No one in my family and none of my friends in Europe have stomach problems. Half of my US friends have stomach issues. That, and also life longevity is much longer in Europe. Welcome to the United corporations of America. It’s all about money isn’t it? Sadly. You’ve got the president you deserve.
10
This is beyond frightening and approaches enraging.
If it is even possible that an additive can cause harm, why on earth would it be allowed? Because of the timing of a bill passed to prevent this? Preposterous!
As others have said - use your vote to express you outrage.
6
Besides the food industry, American oil companies adhere to a much stricter set of laws to drill for oil in Norway than they do when drilling in the United States.
So, if corporations know that some product or industry is considered dangerous to the health and environment in one country, would that not be "clue" that the company should err on the side of respecting health and laws and do no harm in conducting business wherever the corporation functions?
Ask: Why is the U.S. government so reluctant to regulate the food industry in this country to protect the most basic needs of human health?
Start with our campaign finance laws and lobbying efforts (all perfectly legalized bribery of our politicians). Without a pang of conscience or concern for health, American corporations will fight every attempt by government officials and legislators to regulate or restrict the opportunity to make profits, control market share, and treat employees and customers fairly.
Answer: We have moved from being a democracy (government of, by, and for the people) to being a corporatocracy (defined as "a society or system that is governed or controlled by corporations")
Your vote counts, so be clear about this at election time:
The role of government in democratic societies is to:
a. protect the rights and health and safety of citizens and society
b. protect the rights of corporations to conduct business as they see fit with minimum government interference and regulation
7
I am so happy with this article! Finally the true is coming to the U.S. consumers!!!
Europeans have been enjoying good quality of food because they demand that to Businesses & Gov. In addition to that, they have the siesta or nap time. Their environment is more humane and sociable during a working week. Cooking & eating are a sociable activity too.
U.S. has been improving gradually thanks (I believe) to their Latinamericans Bros' cuisine and food products. I am very happy to see American Roots food products are not only going to Europa, but also, they are coming to U.S. ;i.e., quinoa, maca, 100% cacao to make homemade hot chocolate (the instant envelope is horrible!), avocado, yuca, coco, papaya, etc.
In Europe, GMO Fruits & vegetables are label on the markets for the consumers to make a choice.
4
Regarding GMO foods -- even if the food itself is perfectly safe to eat, the reason that foods are genetically modified is often so that certain chemicals can be applied to plants as they grow. This can be terrible for the environment and native species. So the GMO issue goes beyond human health and really has to do with how we manage the planet's health.
12
Canada also tends to be more stringent, though is often compromised by American interests.
An example of this is with regards to dairy products. Under the newly renegotiate NAFTA 2.0, American Dairy Producers got an increase in the export/import limits governing their products. Though this may not been the win that they expected to be. Due to the additives and drugs used in producing their products, Canadian consumers are now actively seeking out dairy products that are marked by the logo of the Dairy Farmers of Canada. Canadian products do not have contain these drugs and chemicals. Needless to say, this fact is now being touted in the latest marketing campaigns.
As for European products, one area that I find a noticeable difference is in charcuterie products. The European products tend to be more flavourful and less salty.
Another was poultry, in France and the UK, chicken actually taste, well like chicken! Or, how it may have tasted in America forty years ago.
As some others have commented, read the labels. Less usually tends to be best. Avoid the interior aisles of your supermarkets. Whenever possible, support producers that are bringing to market products that are produced with human health in mind and not just for profits, and, in a sustainable manner.
6
Could you please include some science here? Europe has always been trigger happy with banning substances. They ban genetically modified crops despite a strong scientific consensus that they are safe for people and the environment. Just because Europe bans something, doesn't automatically mean it's bad for you. A lot if politics goes into those decisions.
1
The article (a summary of multiple scientific studies) contains links to all that extra "science" you feel you're missing out on. Also, so weird that the decision to ban questionable or harmful substances is political in the EU! I wonder which "non-political" actors in the US are petitioning our government, along with their lobbyists, paid-for politicians, and faux scientist spokespeople, to keep putting all that delicious and nutritious food dye in our breakfasts?
15
The article is not a summary of multiple scientific studies. It's a summary of what additives are allowed in the US but not the EU. Do you also only buy beer that conforms to German Purity Laws?
There are two link in this article that could be considered links to further scientific evidence. One is in support of the addiditive. Of course politics is involved in the US, which is why I'm advocating for the NY Times to use is position in investing journalism to actually review the science that supports or doesn't support these decisions. Just because a corporation makes money off an additive, does not automatically mean it's bad for you. And just because Europe bans something, doesn't mean it's bad for you either.
The whole reason for the FDA was to protect consumers. The whole reason for the EPA was to protect the health and welfare of Americans. What's wrong with this picture?
12
@Michael Kelly - Here's what's wrong with this picture. Both agencies (as well as the Departments of Interior, Education, Justice and others) have been usurped by the very entities they are supposed to be protecting us from.
2
Nothing new here. The EU, and associate countries, care more about their people and our environment than, sadly, the U.S. does. We vote for politicians that spread the lies of the various producers. Coal isn't clean, GMO is not better and dyes are not either. Therese are but three examples.
We have to give following generations a better food source and a better planet. We are doing neither.
11
@JWMathews It's true - as long as we keep voting for "pro-business" politicians, as if it's a religion, this is what will happen.
1
I will continue to live in the United States but follow only the recommendations of the European Union. These are but a few of the differences in regulations for the two nations. Sugar content in French and Italian soft drinks and cereals is less than half of American products, and interestingly binge eating disorder among Europeans is less than half of what occurs in America.
I've never seen Doritos available in Europe, which are chemically engineered to stimulate addiction centers in the brain.
My rule of thumb in supermarkets is avoid all the inner aisles with their endless supply of harmful packaged and lifeless foods, except for paper and cleaning products.
20
Agree with your points, but you CAN buy Doritos in Europe - at least in the UK
1
Doritos are widely available in Europe.
2
Now I’m craving Doritos!
1
It seems good old Europe is in many aspects nowadays younger than the "newcomer" USA. How could that happen?
3
As a former commercial baker, I have been puzzled by all the additives in the flours I used and still use. “Enriched” flour has vitamin B and is bromated. And, I can taste the additives, they get in the way of the mild, pastry flavor that is characteristic of flour. Until recently I’ve not been able to find plain old flour. Now you can purchase “Tipo 00” flour in grocery stores. It’s from Italy and it’s just flour.
I visit Italy regularly and when I’m there I will purchase Italian made potato chips. They are the best in the world, three ingredients: potatoes, vegetable oil, and salt. I don’t eat potatoes in the US. I also love Italian pasta and cheeses. Their cured meats are beyond description. What do they know that we don’t?
45
I'm a US and Italian citizen, and living in Europe is definitely far better for one's life and health on so many levels, regulations like these being a part of that. Unfortunately, the UK, where my husband lives seems to be on a path to perdition, similar to the unmitigated capitalism of America.
20
All additives, not one food or consumer end item listed. Not one piece of data for the consumer to make better decisions.
10
We should be able to find these additives listed on food packaging. I suspect a comprehensive list of products which contain them would crowd everything else out of the paper.
2
Read the label before you buy something. Then you’ll know.
3
It isn't strange at all that the US allows potentially harmful food additives the Europeans ban. It's part of a pattern in the USA: If the choice is between the well being of human beings and maintaining business profits for products which may harm humans, the USA chooses maintaining profits.
The same thing is happening with climate change: Given a choice between restricting fossil fuels (and thus losing profits for the fossil fuel industry while raising prices) and maintaining fossil fuel use harming human well being, we collectively for the past 30 years have chosen cheap fossil fuel over human well being.
Capitalism cares about profits, not people's well being. For the USA, "it's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism."
70
I have to put some damper on the enthusiasm about European food. On my yearly visits to Austria, Germany and Italy I have paid close attention to changes in grocery isles and food consumption.
Here are my observations:
The supermarket isles of packaged sweet and salty junk food have expanded dramatically in the last 30 years. The items available are produced by some of the same transnational food conglomerates active in the US like Danone, Unilever, Kraft. Yes, they might not contain some egregious food additives, but they are still products of chemical wizardry.
I noticed a dramatic decline in the quality of wheat bread and rye bread. Since most bakers now use industrial bread mixes (especially the nice mom and pop outfit around the corner!) and don't adhere to the long traditional fermenting processes anymore because of labor costs and time involved, one has to stick to farmer's markets to obtain good bread. As a matter of fact, it is now easier to find some good sour dough bread at Whole Foods than at an equally upscale store in Vienna.
With the import of cheap meat from Eastern European agricultural conglomerates the quality of supermarket meats has also deteriorated. The European Union might be big on regulations, but as repeated food scandals have shown, controls are often nonexistent. People, who can afford it, nowadays buy their meats from trusted organic farmers nearby. Fortunately there is still a great network of traditional farms in most European countries.
31
@dm
Thank you! Liberals love to defer better eating habits to the EU.. When in fact all the fruits and veggies there are grown on industrial farms- then sold by old people in the village square as if they picked them.. It is just an illusion of healthy - nothing more.
1
@dm Perhaps, but no substance as the ones in the article can be found
1
@Aaron
Even considering the problems I pointed out to, people still have some idea how vegetables, meats, eggs, milk products and fruits should taste like. And many costumers will right away spot the fake farmer's market produce.
And by the way, what has concern about eating habits have to do with one's politics? Aren't Republican also interested in tasty and healthy food?
As far as drugs in farm animals, this is precisely why I only buy meat from certain stores, and where it's very clear how the animals were raised. If it's not clear, I don't buy the meat.
11
Part of the reason is how laws are made and litigated in the US. And once something was considered “safe” in the US, for instance back in 1956 or whatever, it is forever “safe”. Lawyers can argue successfully that that is what Congress wanted. (The FDA is much stricter for new approvals. They are just not permitted by law to question the old stuff.)
In Europe, we mainly need good technological and toxicological arguments and studies to get food additives approved. In the US, you need lawyers.
One reason why the EU’s legislation is more modern is because of the need to develop harmonized legislation to replace the old national regulations as the markets come together. This first started in the late 1970s and is still ongoing, being changed on a regular basis as issues come up. (The general food regulation is up for review right now.)
22
Bovine growth hormone, rbST, is legal in the United States but little used. I would like to see the extent of its use but believe that no major milk cooperative will accept its use. It leaves no residue in milk but it does accelerate the life of cows. No link to cancer has been cited.
2
Hey American people wake up,our federal government and the FDA never intend on regulating our food supply the right way,they want toxic chemical ingredients in our food so the American people can keep getting sick,so everybody can keep going to the hospitals making them alot of money and keep buying these expensive prescriptions,the goverment taxes and gets a cut out of the health industry.its nothing but a money making business.
16
I'm very concerned about long term exposure of low levels of materials that may have a poisonous or cancer causing effect.
However, I also know that sometimes there are only hunches and either no long term causal studies, or some things have been shown safe, but carry the burden of earlier innuendo.
When the EU has these bans, are they based on strong studies, and if so, are there lists of them published for review so we may see the other side of the coin from what the manufacturers here state are safe.
I'm interested in the comment that a red dye #40 can be sold in Europe, but has to be labelled as to be causing hyperactivity in children. Is it the dye? Is it the sugary food it is in? I'm wondering how this conclusion was reached, since here it seems to be a very weak, if any, causality association.
6
Don't overlook wine. The EU allows something like 20-23 permitted additives while the US allows some 50 or 60. None are required to appear on the label. Testament to the power of industry lobbying I am told.
27
This makes sense. Some wines make me puffy. Certain brands. I bet it’s the additives!
1
A great example is comparing the ingredient list of US vs European Kraft Mac and Cheese (from Robyn O’Brien) - Which would you rather eat?
U.S. Version of Kraft Mac & Cheese:
Enriched Macaroni Product (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Ferrous Sulfate [Iron], Thiamin Mononitrate [Vitamin B1], Riboflavin [Vitamin B2], Folic Acid), Cheese Sauce Mix (Whey, Modified Food Starch, Whey Protein Concentrate, Cheddar Cheese [Milk, Cheese Culture, Salt, Enzymes], Salt, Calcium Carbonate, Potassium Chloride, Contains Less Than 2% of Parmesan Cheese [Part-Skim Milk, Cheese Culture, Salt, Enzymes, Dried Buttermilk, Sodium Tripolyphosphate, Blue Cheese [Milk, Cheese Culture, Salt, Enzymes], Sodium Phosphate, Medium Chain Triglycerides, Cream, Citric Acid, Lactic Acid, Enzymes, Yellow 5, Yellow 6).
U.K. Version of Kraft Mac & Cheese:
Macaroni (Durum Wheat Semolina), Cheese (10%), Whey Powder (from milk), Lactose, Salt, Emulsifying Salts (E339, E341), Colours (Paprika Extract, Beta-Carotene)
78
@Sarah G.
Thx, that was revealing!
4
@Jayne
It also depends on the local regulations. USDA demands that in packaged food all ingredients of cheese are listed. This might not be true in the UK
As to E339: Sodiumphosphate
As to E341: Calciumphosphate
Both regulate the acidity and help preserve the food.
Added Vitamins in pasta must be registered in the US.
Medium chain Triglycerides are the ingredient of the moment, manufactured saturated fats, that supposedly lower cholesterol.
Also the UK version seems to omit the ingredients of the cheese sauce.
Besides the food colors, both versions appear to be the same form of nonfood-food.
You see, companies adjust very well to local quirks in regulations. They also have helped mightily with the wording of the regulations!
Years ago Udo Pollmer, a German food scientist, wrote an eye-opening bestseller about the tricks used by the food industry in order to evade regulations and adulterate food. Even though some changes in regulation have improved transparency a bit, there are always some ways to fool the customer.
The only way to avoid unhealthy products:
LEARN HOW TO COOK FROM SCRATCH!
Unfortunately Pollmer's books are not translated into English.
3
Europeans (except Brits) are not as fat as Americans and have fewer chronic health problems. That is likely a product of their medical systems where everyone has subsidized health care. On the other hand, we can't rule out the effect of food quality. I've found food in Europe to taste much better than food in the US so the lack of additives is not hurting their quality of life. It's a no brainer. Reduce the use of additives and certainly eliminate the use of GMO or gene edited foods. That's just crazy Frankenstein stuff that they're doing to our food. Protest with your wallet and demand labeling so we can choose not to consume such abominations! It's our bodies. We have a right to know what we're putting in them. We're not Nazi Germany or Communist China/Russia after all.
16
Europeans have subsidized health care??? I think you need to do some homework.
Ireland doesn't have subsidized health care. My insurance is cheaper than in America - but it's not cheap.
Susan
ExPat in Ireland
.
My husband is from Spain and continues to be astounded at the things that pass for food here. Especially but certainly not limited to the colored drinks and cereals-- ostensibly for children! He himself even developed health problems, foremost among them hypothyroidism, after being here for 2 years. Coincidence that so many Americans struggle with chronic health issues?
28
American politicians have been sacrificing humans to corporate greed for decades, but under Trump all hope is lost. He long ago sold his soul for $$$ and his supporters are just brain-dead enough (possibly from eating food-additives) to think he's here to save them.
So just add this government insult to our food to the tax laws that advantage corporations over people, and "economic development" incentives given to corporations that ignore the fact that consumers (not companies) have been the engines driving the economy for at least 20 years. And there's the fact that (mostly) white men who kill people through corporate malfeasance, aided and abetted by the government, face few if any penalties. Meanwhile black people who stand up to police brutality or women who terminate a pregnancy past the time allowed by male legislators, or women who drink a beer while pregnant, or immigrants who lawfully come to the southern border to seek asylum, can be and are jailed, or worse.
Until and unless we elect politicians who put human beings over corporate greed, this is the food, the law, the justice system and the government we've got.
20
If GMOs are as innocuous as the 5 biotech giants -- Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow, and DuPont -- claim they are, why are they so opposed to having food made from GMO ingredients labeled as such?
One answer is that at least 4 of the giant chemical companies -- Dow, Monsanto, Bayer and DuPont -- have nearly zero corporate credibility and brand-value as giant conglomerates concerned about consumers and their health. In other words, their past corporate behavior has proven them untrustworthy and conniving. Their uniform opposition to any attempt at transparency and their demonstrated contempt of consumer concerns has depleted any benefit of doubt we might have about their claims.
For example, the tactics used by Monsanto to promote the sale of Round-up are indicative of corporate fascism through seamless monopolization of food production, starting with unprecedented domination of seeds, which from the beginning of agriculture has been in the hands of farmers, growers and communities.
It's an unprecedented disruption of age old agricultural practices that reduces farmers to contract employees of giant agribiz who have no control over their own seeds, growing techniques or even markets for what they grow.
Whether or not GMOs are safe is almost irrelevant because -- if the giant chem companies succeed in monopolizing seeds and production methods -- consumers will have no choice or voice when it comes to food.
Giant agri-chem grows profit, not safe and nutritious food.
36
Because when foods have a label for something, people are less likely to buy it, regardless of what that label is (or whether there's any science to support it). It creates the idea that the thing being labeled is bad. Labelling GMOs provides you with no useful information. You might as well say "this food contains DNA." If despite the mountains of evidence and the strong scientific consensus around GMO safety, you still want to avoid them, all you have to do it get food labeled "USDA Organic" or with the non-gmo project label.
2
@Yuri Asian labeling GMOs would mean labelling anything containing fruit, vegetables, or grains.
1
@Yuri Asian...... "why are they so opposed to having food made from GMO ingredients labeled as such?"....Because requiring a special label for GMOs would be taken by the public as a sign that there is somehow something wrong with them. The better question is why would some people insist that GMOs be labeled when every piece of scientific evidence says they are no different than non-GMOs. You might as well require a warning label that vaccines cause autism - it would make about as much sense.
Blame this on the proudly exceptional American political system in which Congress writes the laws on everything and the elected politicians who legislate can be easily bought and influenced by money. As long as there is no radical change as to how the whole system is functioning, American consumers' and citizens' rights and interests in everything from health to finance will not be protected.
15
What fools we are.
12
This country makes me sick!!
21
How about all the ingredients for make-up? A huge unregulated big money industry preying on women. You are what you eat and what you rub all over into your skin.
17
@Sara Klamer
This is what you can find in german wiki on TTIP
For cosmetics, 1300 toxic substances are banned, in the US only 11.
In Europe, the precautionary principle applies, in the US the aftercare principle.
1
I am glad Trump canceled TTIP so we don‘t get all this good stuff to eat here in Europe. People who allow cancerogen stuff to be used in food should go to prison.
29
@Daniel Korb
Agreed :-))
3
Start telling "Americans" what they can and can't put in their mouths? It's the same as asking them to hand over their guns..
10
Just now swigging Robitussin cough syrup, reading the ingredients, I see it contains red dye no. 40 banned in Europe. Why does cough medicine need dye anyway? And we wonder about all the other unpronounceable inactive ingredients too. Why can’t we buy cough medicine with just the cough suppressant?
26
Try a spoons of raw honey. Works better than any cough suppressant.
8
@Molly martin the best way to get rid of a cough is to do nasal rinses twice a day, especially if your nose is running. the stuff drips down the back of your throat and causes coughing, esp. at night. nasal rinses blast away mucus and viruses. also good if you feel a cold coming on. while it takes a bit of practice, there are no real side effects. no otc meds have ever been found to be really good for coughs or colds, esp without side effects. this is a remedy an old ent doc shared with me.
benadryl dries nasal passages and helps with sleep but has side effects, including drowsiness
1
All this is allowed in the name of what; convenience for the manufacturers or because consumers need the food coloring? I cannot eat anything that has yellow food dyes in it, red food dyes, or blue food dyes unless they are natural. The only jelly beans I can eat are those made by Trader Joe's. Yes, they have food coloring but it's all natural.
I stopped drinking Coke, Pepsi, Nehi sodas, Hi-C, Kool Aid, or anything like it decades ago. The only soda I can touch is ginger ale or Sprite. I avoid orange colored foods unless it's a natural orange color. I refuse to touch blue food. I will not drink Gatorade, eat cheese food, etc. I like not having severe headaches caused by my food. It's why I don't eat out often at fast food restaurants or purchase junk food.
If companies can reformulate their food for Europe they can do it here too. I fail to see why these dyes and other additives are more dangerous to Europeans than to us. The same goes for privacy laws, and medical care. Americans deserve better than what they get from their government. Maybe we need to start voting in better people who aren't lining their pockets or minds with generous amounts of money or praise from their rich donors.
We'd do better if our food wasn't as highly processed or colored and artificially flavored as it is now.
35
All these things are easily avoidable if you don't eat processed foods with ingredients that you would not have at home to cook with. There is no reason to eat a bunch of processed carbs to begin with. Meat raised without these drugs can also be found, though one does usually have to pay more for it.
8
My son lives in the London area and when we visit I am always impressed with the quality of the food in the grocery stores. The produce is first rate and very inexpensive compared to what we have here in the US. The meat is hormone and antibiotic free. The sweets are much less sweet and products have very few ingredients listed which I always take as a good sign. I always wonder why our food is so complicated and of much poorer quality.
21
The chemical substitutes for real food must be cheaper, ergo, more profitable. Don't buy packaged food-like products that contain ingredients you don't understand.
2
I went through a Mountain Dew phase and I started getting excema. A doctor misdiagnosed it and gave me fungicide, which did not work. I had to start withdrawing foods to do research on myself, and it was withdrawing Mountain Dew that got the successful result. No more BVO. No more excema.
10
Good for you, figuring out the cause! If you hadn't, I'm sure your doctor had plenty of other drugs for you to try that are for eczema... with side effects of their own requiring other drugs to manage.
2
As one that travels thru Europe many times during the course of the year and a diabetic who test his glucose daily I have discovered that I get consistently better readings there. As I journey thru small towns they consume food that probably would be considered organic here. The food is fresher and locally grown when possible. Chemicals are strictly forbidden and everything is natural. Sometimes I feel that we are being poisoned here. And yes I agree with others that profit and corporations are more important than people here.
35
You sometimes feel we are being poisoned here. It’s not a feeling. It’s a fact that we are being poisoned in the “good old USA”. I wonder if trump eats organic burgers?
3
We, in Europe, know that a well-regulated market benefits both the consumer and the businesses. Also, we cherish health a tad more over corporate earnings and making gazillions to executives.
And of course lobbyists aren’t able to buy off politicians as in America.
Corruption, at least in most European countries, is fairly low and there’s an understanding that citizens have a right to be protected from greedy and cynical businesses.
30
How about a story on what we ban that the EU doesn't ban. Stories meant to instill fear and distrust of the government should go both ways.
5
@Bill
I don't see how this article instills fear and distrust of government as it does the domination of food production by giant corporations that undermines the public interest.
Government is too often instrumental -- it reflects the values and priorities of those with power who use their vast resources -- money, lobbyists, political donations, public relations, media influence, etc.,-- to set their self-serving agenda, which isn't sustainable and safe food production but sustainable and growing profits.
Also the purpose of trade agreements is to allow giant corporations to override legal obstacles blocking unfettered access to export markets such as the EU.
If anything this article is about imbalance because consumers are ultimately at the mercy of corporate CEOs who are never held accountable for their actions.
14
Raw-milk dairy products, haggis, and Kinder surprise eggs.
Possibly foie gras?
By the way, the EU also does not want any of your salmonella infested poultry washed in chlorinated water.
There, I've written your article.
22
Thank you passer by. Sometimes I so yearn to move to Europe but can’t handle leaving my business, lovely home on a river and especially my friends and family.
The minute you get off the plane in Europe you notice it. Eggs actually taste like eggs. Roast chicken tastes like chicken. Chocolate tastes like chocolate. Then you fly home, and it's back to eating toxic cardboard.
37
Not too many years ago my fiancée and I spent a month I Australia and New Zealand. After having breakfast in Australia over many days, we couldn’t help but notice how bright yellow the egg yolks were. Being ignorant on the topic we wondered if it was a different kind of chicken, perhaps a cousin, of those used for egg production in the US.
We discovered we indeed were ignorant on the topic, the difference in egg yolk color was due to the fact that eggs predominantly are mass produced in the US with chickens living unhealthy lives usually trapped in cages. The chickens lack of good health lead to the dull colored egg yolks.
I wonder what the negative effects are for a person who consumes eggs from unhealthy chickens over a lifetime.
12
Buy organic free range eggs and you will notice the difference.
1
Returned recently from Barcelona the food was so much better there, now I know why.
7
I once wrote to the makers of Dum Dum lollipops to encourage them to use natural food coloring like beet juice instead of the dyes that are banned in Europe. These things are passed out at banks and doctor’s offices everywhere so they’re hard to avoid. My children became hyper, agitated and broke out in a rash every time they had one so I did some research online and found that this is a reaction to the dyes, particularly Red #40.
I got a response from their head of Marketing stating that studies have shown more children are allergic to natural ingredients than are allergic to Red #40 or Yellow #5,6. Spangler Candy Corporation actually stated that as their reason for using artificial coloring! I guess they think all of their customers are Dum Dums.
27
I have also often wondered why the packaging of European foods are far superior to American foods? It is often far more ergonomic, can be resealed easily, and pours elegantly. Once we dump Trump, perhaps our governments can explore some sort of international unification of food standards and packaging.
25
The wealthiest people I have met or known all have their personal army of workers growing organic food in gardens and raising a few heads of cattle/lambs and pigs/chickens for their personal consumption. I have actually been a part of these armies in the past. Also I've shipped meats from their summer home's meat freezers to their winter ski homes for their holiday table. The first I knew of these organic 'farms' was on Mt. Desert Island for a Rockefeller, back in the 80's. The British Royals do the same.
11
@jm
By jingo if there's a way to raise just the heads I want to know; think of the savings on feed !!!
It’s important to look at chemical regulation as it concerns food in the US. A corporation first has to be sued and the chemical proven to cause a problem. In the EU, the chemical has to be tested first before it’s released to the public for use/consumption.
23
We can effect change by voting, starting with getting rid of these monsters from the Republican party and:
1. Overturning the nonsense that "corporations are people".
2. Candidates should be provided a specific amount of money to campaign with, and that's it. No more campaign contributions.
3. Term limits for Supreme Court judges.
4. Medicare for all who want it.
5. Making sure that there are consequences for polluters.
6. Encouraging non-pesticide, herbicide use, including GMO's, and mandating that foods in school meals be organic.
These are just a few ideas - let's take back our country and really make it great again.
43
@IonaTrailer
Dream on. This country is bought, paid for, and ruled by corporations. The only answer is emigration.
1
"These monsters from the Republican Party...". Really, all of them? So only Democrats in the Government? Wouldn't that be, more or less, a dictatorship? One side re-installing their own guys over and over?
Yes, all of them. The Democrats are in cahoots with the corporations as well. Examples... Schumer- Wall Street, Obama... no public option, no prosecution of Wall Street banksters , and then there are the Clintons and the DNC seeing to it that Sanders couldn't prevail. That resulted in Trump who in the end will upset the whole apple cart and irony of ironies will
lead to the restoration of democracy.
1
When I eat at U.S. restaurants the area under my eyes swells up. When I eat rich foods in Italian or French restaurants - in Europe - I wake up to puff-free eyes. Now I know why.
24
it iss so much cheaper to eat a clean diet in Europe. I was shocked that my son's German school didn't have a nut policy. when i asked about it, they were confused. But in California, children are dying from fatal food allergies. i truly believe it is the toxic chemicals in food. Americans aren't allergic to gluten, either. we are allergic to the dough conditioners. find an artisanal bakery that allows dough to rise on its own and bakes with organic flour, and you will be able to eat bread again. as the idiot in the white house continues to roll back regulations, he is insuring that corporations will place profit over health. big corporations have no incentive to clean up the food. government regulations must ensure a safe food supply, just like in Europe. Oh, and Europe banned most gmos. coincidence? probably not...
47
Lobbying is successful in the USA, peoples health never enter into the picture unless the FED steps in
Its been this way in America since day one, profit over everything
11
Same question for herbicides and pesticides...
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/20/business/paraquat-weed-killer-pesticide.html
"...HUDDERSFIELD, England — The factory here, set amid a brick campus in a green and hilly industrial town, recently celebrated its centennial...
"...It produces paraquat, one of the world’s most enduring weed killers — but not one that can be purchased in this part of northern England, in the rest of Britain or across the Channel in the rest of the European Union...
"...So it will be sent to the United States, or another part of the globe that still allows paraquat to be sprayed on weeds...
18
So, I guess it's OK to produce and sell to other countries, this chemical found to be harmful to humans, as long as you are making a profit off it? Or to produce it near where you live? What about the effects on the people producing it? Or their kids?
5
I never understood how a product that is banned for good reasons can be produced in a country where it is banned and sold to another country This is deeply criminal as they know what they do and unethical from the country of origin as they are the cause of the misery. We have to held companies responsible for all the damage their products do regardless where it happens on the planet.
11
Not at all he only points to another scandal!
1
The FDA keeps saying that all these substances are perfectly safe. So, we are to believe that the Europeans are just randomly banning them? How stupid do they think we are? It's a dangerous business, living in the US. Milk is a good example. In Europe, it goes sour after a few days. Here it somehow keeps for two weeks even if organic and it does not spoil in the same way.
20
@The Hawk, Same with breads.
3
I buy lactose free milk and it keeps for months!
@The Hawk.....How long it takes for milk to go sour is an indication of the amount of bacteria it contains when it brought to market.
#Jts suggests “voting with your wallet”. The farm animal drugs banned in Europe are also banned here in Canada. Your despot Mr. Trump and his cronies pressured us to permit more of your dairy products laced with these drugs that work their way into milk and cheese. But our domestic producers are beginning to label their products as Canadian so consumers can indeed vote with their wallets. Mr. Trump can’t force me to drink cancer causing milk produced from a sick and perverted society that puts the interests of big business before the health of its citizens. And America will be sorely chagrined when it sees the poor sales of its unhealthy food. One wonders if the health care industry has had a hand in the continued American use of cancer chemicals in food? Thankfully we have free care in Canada but all those Americans getting cancer pay for the hugely expensive care. Just wondering....
29
@Cranford
Thank you Crawford
We also wondered if the American government’s reluctance to provide adequate health care for all its citizens is because of the strong corporate links and placing profits before health. Why aren’t Americans voting to kick out governments with so little regard for their wellbeing? Ah yes - education is not valued either! An ignorant populace is a compliant - and sick - one. Trump and his cronies just want stupid people who pay exorbitant health fees and die young. Nobody cares - as Melania pointed out with her jacket....
14
If everyone ate healthfully, there would be almost none of the lifestyle-related chronic diseases that are the bread and butter of our for-profit, fee for services, pills and procedures medical system.
3
Informative, relevant, well-written.
10
Our nannies are not as powerful as their nannies. Good.
2
I would love to read a more thorough reporting on this subject. This article is just barely grazing the surface.
15
The title is misleading, it should read what "food additives..."
1
Watch the movie “Stink” for more information on how chemicals are killing us. Chemicals in children’s pajamas. Many of the unregulated chemicals are hidden in the ingredient “fragrance” which is in many, many products beyond pajamas.
Perfume, of course, is the worst for health, and the story of the teenager with anaphylactic reactions to Axe body spray will cure you of any perfume use.
3
So are cancer rates lower in Europe? ESP stomach, esophagus and colon related? Give us an outcome follow up please.
10
well, we definitely live much longer on this side of the pond....
1
@Jason
Our health care costs are significantly higher, despite not having universal/single-payer coverage.
@Jason
Fair point.
I've found this source: https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/u-s-life-expectancy-compare-countries/
--
It's no information about cancer.
But maybe a helpful indicator of health status in general.
The US having poorer standards than the EU is nothing new.
Arsenic in your water?
Not in the EU for a very long time, but only regulated to not be in US water within the last 20 years:
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/01/us/epa-to-adopt-clinton-arsenic-standard.html
6
Not everything is worse in the US we all have corrupt politicians and lobbyists look for instance at the diesel scandal. To fight for an healthy environment is global challenge but we can learn from each other. Real progress is possible.
4
Yet another reason to prefer living in Europe.
10
....and yet, the author fails to tell us just exactly what brands and types of foods those are....thanks for nothing.
5
Go look in your pantry. Nesquik, Wheat Thins I have found thus far.
@Jay Havens
Read labels. You have to take some of the responsibility for your own health. Also, do you own research. Nothing is topping you from going to the library or the internet.
6
@Carol....Isn't Nesquik produced by a Swiss company?
When arriving back to the US from a flight from the EU, one immediately notices how big and overweight everyone looks, starting with the TSA/customs officers and others in the airport. We look really terrible, on average, much fatter in comparison with Europeans.
Anyone ever notice how fit and trim the police are over there?
23
@jm
I also noticed that their senior citizens look much healthier. They have much better posture, walk more briskly (even those using a cane), seem more alert and in generally better shape. They even look happier. I guess you would too if you felt better.
13
Helps to have a safety net and access to health care throughout one's life, not starting at age 65. Probably more opportunity for social interaction and more activity built into one's daily life--fewer cars, more public transportation.
6
Why have the EU and China banned ractopamine? Here's the rationale. Ractopamine is a β-adrenergic agonists, a type of chemical that has been extensively used as a growth promoter in livestock production, yielding the advantages of increasing the animal's lean meat and reducing the number of days to bring the meat to market. Consumption of animal tissues with high β-adrenergic agonist content, ractopamine and others, by humans leads to symptoms such as muscle tremor, muscle pain, nausea, and dizziness, posing a serious threat to life. The wide variety of these beta-adrenergic compounds and their extensive use in farm animals leads to enormous challenges of daily supervision and routine monitoring for the government. Detection and quantification of β-adrenergic agonists can be difficult. Because of the illegal use of β-agonist, difficulty in regulation of their use, and its potential hazardous effects on human health, a ban on the use of these chemicals in livestock is warranted.
20
NYT....please keep us informed on this topic. I, along with an endocrinologist friend, have have been convinced for some time that the many additives to American food are a major factor in the obesity epidemic in the USA.
11
We as a country are a disgrace. Nothing is as important as the almighty dollar. The new administration is making it even worse
by relaxing environmental laws. California has stricter regulations on food and plumbing then the rest of the US. They are not nearly as comprehensive as in Europe but at least they are making an effort. What’s wrong with the rest of the US?
17
Here's a great example. I was driving a truck with 2 motorcycles in the back, in Bay City, Michigan. Both bikes and the truck had California license plates. A very overweight woman, who had noticed my California plates when I stopped for lunch at a little restaurant, felt the need to tell me, very loudly in fact, that she wouldn't live in a state where they went allow you to smoke in a restaurant. Uh, yeah, ok. Thanks for telling me that. That explains a whole bunch about how some parts of the country, think.
8
I don’t know about California anymore after reading in the NYT about all the poison they spray on our country’s produce to make it look perfect.
Michigan banned smoking in restaurants and bars in 2010. I wonder if that woman moved.
It's because of the attitude held by successive US governments to food safety, that we here in Australia were and are adamantly opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which would have enabled powerful US lobby groups for US food and drink firms to force Australia to accept the very same adulterated food and drink from the USA that US residents consume.
Note that the NYT Editorial Board has itself argued forcefully for the TPP on many occasions.
It's not just your government that you have to worry about in the USA when the fourth estate takes the side of big business.
9
@Colenso It's also yet another reason why Brexit is a very bad move for the UK. Divorced from Europe, its trade partnership with the US will inevitably become closer and more important. And thus it will have little ability to resist pressure from the US to accept whichever products the US wishes to export thither,
9
I believe that man should and must eat what he wants, especially in America, where man is free.
2
Unfortunately it’s not so simple. We as consumers have few real choices. “Big food” controls the vast majority of food production and distribution in the USA. You are free to buy from one large conglomerate or another. The difference is negligible. We need protection from unscrupulous companies.
9
True you should be free to eat what you want but also be protected from stuff you never ever want to enter your body.
12
@Southern Boy
If you don't mind dealing with the cost and consequences of your chosen lifestyle. Just make sure I ( meaning taxpayers and government) don't have to bear your burden.
9
One wonders if the meteoric rise in food allergies and auto immune disease could be linked to our nation's abysmal diet.
23
It also seems that Europe and other parts of the world require better labeling, allowing consumers there to make more informed choices. Our system is a mess, thoroughly corrupted by business interests, big and small.
20
Why can't this article make a list of some of the foods that contain this toxic additives? Or why not at least those who which are cleaned up for markets in Europe but are sold in a toxic condition in USA markets? Or the companies that produce them? Are they also protected from exposure in an article that denounces these subpar practices and the toxic products they yield? If the brands and companies that produce dangerous food are also legally protected from disclosure, why not mention the kind of food in which these additives and coloring chemicals are used so the consumer can watch out? We cannot read the small print ingredients in every single processed food we buy but we can watch out for some kinds of food likely to have been subjected to these processes. I wonder what holds the author back from full fuller disclosure. It would be so much more helpful for the reader.
16
@tdb
I assume 80% of the food in an average grocery store could be labelled as unhealthy.
--
Besides: I don't understand why you're unable to read the ingredients list. You have to do it only one time per product.
You don't have to read everything at once.
Start with two products today.
Next time buying stuff you go on with two other readings.
--
I do it.
Most of my fellow European citizens do it.
It isn't rocket science.
1
One person shared in this comment section the ingredients in Kraft Macaroni and Cheese in USA compared to what they export to Europe. It is astounding plus our little kids are raised on it!
My favorite label statement is "This product contains ingredients known to the State of California to cause cancer." I always wonder what special knowledge the Nanny State has that the rest of us do not, to determine why they can place that on the label.
3
I’ve been wondering about that too! I don’t remember ever seeing that about California until recently. I bet it is related to trump and his cronies dropping regulations that have been keeping us safe.
Just below this article is a recommended article: “Is there an optimal diet for humans?”
The answer is: don’t eat highly processed foods.
14
Many European food regs are absurd. The US is rational about for dangers.
1
What is rational about eating growth hormones?? Are you still growing?
8
No. Sorry. You’re wrong.
3
@Daniel Korb
*lol*
That was a good one. You made my day :-)
I suggest we all start reading our food labels before purchasing items, and then email the companies regarding any suspicious ingredient we would like to be removed from the food product. Since my five-year-old started having severe reactions to blue and green synthetic food dyes, I have been emailing companies. Some simply don’t care. And some don’t reply. I feel that in at least one instance my email to a company resulted in a substantial change. I did have to write to this company multiple times and suggest to this company that my friends and I would start an online petition regarding removal of synthetic food colors and high fructose corn syrup from their product, if they didn’t take action. Within a few months they came up with a “clean promise”, promising customers in a new ad campaign the removal of synthetic food coloring and added sugars from their products. We have purchase power, and now, the threat (or reality) of starting an online petition, that would certainly have consequences for their company. Since our government won’t outlaw these suspicious ingredients, we need to pursue their removal ourselves. Online petitions have had good results in the past. We won the promise of synthetic food dye removal from m and m’s, and removal of a suspicious substance from gatorade. I believe the gatorade online petition was started by a middle school aged child. We can all help to make these changes!
9
These articles always seem to cite what works in Europe and then go light on the science. Where are the footnotes to the studies and why isn’t anyone explaining the mechanism of action for this particular additive to cause cancer? The audience needs to understand citing a rat study is not sufficient. Less than 8% of rat studies translate into humans - that is why they are the first step in a series of experiments to show whether something is safe. All these NGOs need to put their money into studies and stop with the simple associations that the Europeans did a rat study and piled on assumption after assumption to conclude nothing. The US is far better than that and we should be applauding the FDA.
3
I don‘t need a rat study to understand that eating growth hormones is not what I want Thank you.
10
Daniel, your entitled to your own opinion and can eat what you like. Just don’t tell other people your opinions are based on data or science.
1
Corporations run America at every level. If we can cancer from food additives, Big Pharma and the Medical Industrial Complex is there with expensive cancer treatments and drugs. Trump has now approved chlorpyrifos for farm spraying which causes nervous system problems and autism. Food additives, chemical laden foods, and GMO pesticide treated foods all flow into American children and adults daily. What could possibly go wrong?
4
About time! The FDA is in cahoots with food and chemical companies for profit! They don't care about us, the consumer. I say disband the FDA and have another organization oversee these companies.
1
Would be interesting to see comparisons on cancer rates between the US and EU.
7
@Amstel
You wish is my duty :-)
Here we are:
https://www.wcrf.org/dietandcancer/cancer-trends/data-cancer-frequency-country
1
Meanwhile, as Michael Pollan tells us, shop the perimeters at grocery stores and stay away from the processed foods in the center.
4
There are two problems here. First the lack of regulars addressing these toxins. Second the profound immorality of corporate management trading off human lives for a few cents of extra profit. Business as usual in predatory capitalism.
7
Rather one sided article. Will we see a companion article on the the food items and ingredients that are the EU allows to be sld in Europe but are banned in the United States?
Then we can get to question of enforcement and how well the laws are enforced, totally different systems.
2
My daughter goes into anaphylaxis if she eats red 40.
4
I experienced the same thing between the ages of 12 and 16. Doctors did not believe me or my family that this was the cause. I grew out of it around 17, after being hospitalized many times being told something was natural and it actually containing red 40. I developed hypothyroidism after I grew out of it. I feel for your daughter, it is a terrible thing.
3
Be an astute chessplayer. Review the chessboard according to the rules of orthodox libertarian extremists, who object to the use of gun-toting goons in bulletproof vests as weapons of violence and intimidation against somebody who is violating nobody's rights. First look for an orthodox libertarian extremist solution: If the makers export a EU formula, they can be pressured by a supermarket chain to sell the EU formula to USA chains that want them; and these, labeled EU formula can be offered by those supermarkets. Put consumer education and consumer choice first. If you think other people should eat a product that costs more, will you be paying the extra for them?
It goes for everything just not food. When the tobacco companies wanted to sell cigarettes in Canada they had to changed the formula. So who cares who gets sick in the US as long as a profit is made. I have never trusted the FDA. The FDA comes in when it has hit the news or a few have died. The whole system is corrupt, it needs to be reboot. The only things that matters in this country is money. The American people are the ones that have to say enough is enough. Stop experimenting on us and the future generations. We the people need to clean up the system, not just Washington but the whole thing, every department most be cleanse. There is way too much corruption. When people retire from this jobs they get cushy jobs at large corporations. That goes for the FCC too. All of them turn a blind eye when it comes to the ruling of the big Corporations.
If you don't believe me please look it up. Most people that were in charge of regulating things and left the job have nice jobs in the corporations they helped when they were government employee or there is a connection to them getting a good job. When is the American people understand and truly open their eyes? We are millions they are just a few thousands. If we want the best for us and the next generation we can't fall asleep on the job. We most stay vigilant and willing to fire the one that are not doing their jobs. We are the ocean they are just small ponds. Why is mere ponds drowning the Ocean?
6
They are the poison in the Ocean not mere water from a pond. not everybody is corrupt but money drives most decisions and yes we have to be vigilant In every country.
1
Knowing full well the pernicious effects of certain additives, preservatives, hormones, etc., the greed fueled food (and drug) industrial complexes (with the tacit approval of the US Gov't), continue to taint and poison our food supply. The powerful food lobby, much like the carcinogen peddling tobacco lobby/industry (particularly of the 50s/60s/70s), know exactly what they're doing. Call it blood money. This is not just wrong; it is a species of evil! The Europeans, for the most part, know better.
6
This is just another documentation of the need for accountability. We are seeing that our legislative and executive bodies are ill prepared for their responsibilities. The USA electorate can be depended upon to accept lies and other disingenuity. Ignorance is bliss....temporary satisfaction.
2
Like so much in the USA, this is a result of bribes paid by the food industry to politicians, judges, doctors, etc.
Of course, in the USA, bribes are called 'lobbyists'.
2
Get the money out of politics and this will sort it self out right quick.
3
@Wayne Spitze there is no reliable data and that is the crux of the GE or GMO debate.
Who contributes more money to US politicians, agribusiness companies or dead cancer victims? We know the answer and we know why US food has so many dangerous chemicals.
5
can't say i'm surprised by this given the obscene amount of money big bidness uses to lobby and buy politicians.
kind of surprising the usa hasn't just tried to punish other countries who don't do their bidding rather than being somewhat reasonable.
1
They are punishing Canada and forcing them to sell our dairy products but the Canadians read the labels and buy their superior products.
Ironic to read this the same day I heard the Trump EPA cost-benefit recalculation said its OK for coal plants to emit mercury, the profits outweighing the adverse health effects.
Also, I've heard that most European countries also have higher average life spans and overall better health. Maybe there is some cosmic justice in that we get sick more often because we vote for the politicians who are OK with making us sick!
4
Does Europe have lower cancer rates than the US? Does American consumption of these ingredients lead to shorter lifespans?
1
@appopt
The short answer to both: Yes!
Sources as follows:
--
Regarding Cancer:
https://www.wcrf.org/dietandcancer/cancer-trends/data-cancer-frequency-country
--
Regarding Age:
https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/u-s-life-expectancy-compare-countries/
I've often wondered why US meat is so unnaturally tender. To a European, it's the texture of marshmallow. No wonder oligarchs hate the EU. For all its faults, it's better than the alternative.
2
The title of the article is “...what foods...” then no foods, only banned chemicals are discussed. This could have been more helpful.
5
The US also soaks all chickens in chlorine to battle salmonella. In EU it is considered cancer causing and is not permitted.
3
It is infuriating that carcinogens banned in European food are allowed here. Well, it will just mean my cutting further back on packaged foods, I guess.
2
If you can afford it buy organic or have a garden .
I wrote this to agree with a commenter named "lj" but sadly cannot find that entry again.
lj
His-or-her last sentences said -- "...healthy ingredients. Sometimes it's hard to find them in a supermarket." So true.
Oddly (perhaps), I became a fanatical label-reader due to China’s adulteration of pet food w/inexpensive melamine to artificially boost its “protein” level in 2006-7.
From that, I segued into human food, and developed a few of my own “no-nos” -- including high-fructose syrup in place of plain sugar. Ex: catsup! As far as I know, catsup has never been used as a food “sweetener”, yet 99% of brands use high-fructose corn syrup...I read the label of every danged brand in my ‘regular’ preferred supermarket in the greater L.A. area & realized that with the exception of Annie’s Organic Ketchup (using cane sugar) -- which might be found in a regular grocery store -- one has to shop at Whole Foods or a similar type of store to avoid artificial colors/preservatives, GMOs, and high-fructose corn syrup.
3
$$$ - that’s all that matters in the US. Look around people — Americans are not a healthy crowd. Time to push back the corporations.
4
"Consumers can try to avoid the dyes by reading lists of ingredients on labels"
"Try" is the operative word here, since the ingredients are hidden down in a corner, of the back (or side) of the package, in tiny letters.
A simple proposition:
1. Any ingredient that wasn't used in food at the time the U.S. Constitution was written, must be printed in red on the front of the package in letters at least 1/4" high.
2. A white Skull and Crossbones, at least 1" high, must be printed above the list.
3. The words, "Not used by the Founding Fathers" should be printed in Red in letters not less than 1/2" high should above the Skull and Crossbones.
4. The message area must have a black background
This should delight Conservatives, and get them behind the clean-up effort. Up until now, they have tended to be big supporters of everything poisonous:
Poison in the Air we breath
Poison the Water we drink
Poison in the Soil our crops are grown in
Hate Speech in our Houses of Government
5
Wonderful post. I could only think of the lead poisoning of children in Flint Michigan. You ruined my day. Stop telling the truth. Haven't you heard the expression" the truth hurts"?
Then again there is a counter to that: "The truth will set you free".
That's consoling. My day is not despoiled. Thanks for your post.
1
Satire makes normalcy less ... fecesey.
I lived in America for decades and now live in Europe. While there is no doubt that the quality of food I buy here is far superior to US- less fructose corn syrup, even American chains like KFC and MacDonalds taste better- there is no evidence that rate of cancer incidence is higher in US than Europe, nore life expectancy vastly shorter.
3
@ali
Sorry to sadden your day :-(
--
The cancer rate in the US is higher than in the EU. Source:
https://www.wcrf.org/dietandcancer/cancer-trends/data-cancer-frequency-country
--
The Lifespan in the US is lower than in the EU. Source:
https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/u-s-life-expectancy-compare-countries/
It may be significant that European countries do not have protracted political campaigns that require candidates to continually raise enormous amounts of money from corporate and special-interest donors that, not unreasonably, expect return on investment.
European governments are thus free to consider science and consumer health in determining what chemicals food corporations can add to their products. And the constituents of European politicians expect the food they buy to be safe from harmful additives and contaminants. Conversely, American politicians mainly care about and represent the constituents who write large checks. And those constituents are only interested in maximizing their short-term profit, even if that means using harmful chemicals to reduce costs. Other constituents, who don't write large checks, are expendable, irrelevant, and ignored.
5
As Gore Vidal said, "We have the best government money can buy."
Not to mention the antibiotics given in the US to cattle so they won't get sick (this way creating antibiotic resistant virusses); or the chlorine used to clean meat....
8
@Johan....Antibiotics have no effect on viruses.
It isn't hard in the U.S. to eat whole foods with no additives. That would require Americans to plan and cook. It would require spending more on quality. It might require cutting back on luxuries like cable to purchase local grains, meat and vegetables. Depending on where you live, it might require having a small garden (if you have the space or convincing cities to create garden spaces).
This isn't rocket science.
8
Easy explanation. Corporate America in their greed to make maximum profits at the expense of public welfare bribes politicians legally through political contributions. This observation holds whether it's food additives and contaminants, affordable drug prices, and helpful drugs approved by the EU but not the US.
9
Yet, still no mention of bromine/brominated vegetable oil? What a disappointment.
3
I used to write contracts for a materials handling and machinery manufacturing company. Our contract template stated that all machinery was manufactured to American safety standards - the reason being is that it was the lowest standard and therefore the cheapest. If a customer was from Europe and wanted European safety standards then they were going to have to pay more money and all that was amended into the contract.
16
These consumer protection measures in the EU are part of what Brexit supporters resent. They do not want to submit to EU made restrictions and rules. They want to be free to poison themselves and sell toxic food products wherever they want and people will buy them. Maybe that is why they want so much to make trade deals with the USA where restrictions are low. And in the USA Republicans seem to want to be as "free" as in China where there are even less restrictions on the food and products that go to domestic market.
7
Lets say we ban all these items tomorrow
the manufacturers will replace them with some other chemical
how do we know the new chemicals are safer ?
says who ?
where is the data ?
1
If a manufacturer introduces into commerce a new food additive, FDA’ Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition has an office for Food Additive Safety. Industry has to submit studies to prove the product is safe.
1
@ezra abrams
There is such a thing as real whole foods, you know? As long as you think you can only have manufactured foods you will always be questioning how safe your food is.
1
Many people don’t understand what whole foods are. My iPhone wouldn’t even let me write “whole foods”. I learned how to eat when I attended Zen retreats where all the food was organic and whole food.
When you have a national health care system, the government has a huge incentive to keep its citizens healthy. The EU wants to keep people from getting cancer because they would be expensive to take care of.
28
When people refer to the system being rigged, this is one of the things that they are talking about in reality. There are simply no benefits to the consumer in including these additives to their food. It benefits only the companies that make the products by either preserving shelf life or appearance.
How the FDS can stand behind the statement "in limited quantities" knowing full well that they have no real clue what the consumer is actually consuming is a total cop out in favor of the companies that make the products. Government is supposed to protect people from harm, not perpetrate it. This seems like such a small issue, when we observe all the bizarre things that are going on right now in our government, but it does point out just how insidious is the quest for profit.
14
Corporate profit is not a carcinogen, clearly. Protecting consumer health is only a stumbling block to profit.
6
The food and pharma industries are just too powerful and they wield significant influence on food and health policy to the point where the US is known as 'the best democracy that money can buy'. The ailments caused by food ingredients are then addressed by pharma - it's a vicious circle. The US political and social culture is part of the problem - there needs to be more focus like Europe has on preventative medicine not prescription-based medicine.
6
Very good information, although I feel it would’ve been a much more effective article had it included actual brand and specific product names in it. For example, products such as “x and y” include this ingredient. This inclusion is not necessarily to limit the reader to only consider these products, but to really help the reader understand that these ingredients are in our everyday products, which might create more interest into what else is used that includes these ingredients.... perhaps leading to actual change.
15
All you have to do is read the labels which show the ingredients!
@Sarah
Well, you're free to understand the article as an impulse to start research on your own.
--
Nevertheless: I took a quick web search for healthy food in the USA. There was barely suitable information about the topic. I'm a little bit surprised.
I believe it is misleading to state the the dairy "industry" uses Bovine Growth Hormone to increase milk production. Every jug of milk I have purchased in the last ten years (at least) has this statement "our farmers pledge not to treat their cows with rBST." You can go to any grocery store in America and buy the most expensive milk in the cooler, or buy the store brand jug and it will say the same thing on the label, in fact I believe you'd be hard pressed to find ANY milk that doesn't have that statement. I agree with JTS from Minneapolis who said the best way is to vote with your wallet. If the market demands and supports it, the producers will meet that demand. I'd rather choose to do something (especially if it helps me market my product) than be forced by government regulation.
4
Does anyone have recommendations where we can buy “EU standards”-type food in the US? I agree with commenters who advocate cooking from scratch and producing as many home-grown and sourced foods as possible; however, I recognize my own need to purchase many items like vegetables, etc.
8
Buy local organic, go to farmers markets or join a CSA and you will have it delivered to your home. Good luck getting your kids to eat it if they have never been exposed.
1
On a related note, someone recently recommended the documentary (available on Netflix): Forks over Knives - or how food in the US is essentially killing us.
9
The consumption rate of this foods in the US is alarming, and i think it is high time we take actions. Maybe task the USDA and the department of education to conduct more researches and educate the masses on what the components in the foods we consumes are. Cancerous cells could even be triggered by organic molecules from our foods.
In contrast to what Jocelyn (Washington DC) said, i think it will be a great development if we can adopt the precautionary principle, while we still continue accessing our foods scientifically.
Politically, i think it is worrisome that the food department over-look the rate at which the consumed carcinogenic, non-nutriment, and under-nutrient foods causes health-related issues. Maybe is high time we need to step-up with thorough researches and inspections.
4
The word "food", and the word "additive" are two totally different things. Additives are not necessarily food, and it's more likely that the additives are addictive ingredients to keep us eating that concoction. Processed food is not necessarily food either. It's my opinion that when it comes to approving anything for consumption in the USA, it comes down to how much money the company can make off of selling its concoction. I don't think it has anything to do with safety or health.
6
We are a nation of chemical consumers. I think it is the absolute reason we here in America are sicker and heavier than our European counterparts. I eat and drink merrily when we are abroad; wine, pastry, bread. Oh, the bread. It is lyrical. But if I tried to eat that way here, I would puff up, my joints would ache, I would feel bloated and miserable. Why the difference? I used to think it was portions and walking more, but after extended time in Paris, I know it is just the food. No additives and preservatives. Meat without hormones and antibiotics. Better cheese. Flour without additives. No GMO in many areas. Less is best. No big fridges there; they buy fresh almost daily. We buy in bulk and eat things a week later. We think we are bigger and better. But not true. We are fatter and sicker. And don't get me started on much healthcare is here. It is like the food industry and insurance industry have a monopoly and we are just collateral damage because profits rule.
76
Raising a child on the autism spectrum is what first made me aware that our Medical Professionals and the FDA were not always in touch with what the rest of the world was discovering.
Food Coloring, specifically Red 40, is one of the first things fellow Autism families suggested we remove from our son's diet and it was amazing how much impact food coloring had on his behavior. Friends have seen the same impact on their children who were diagnosed with ADD and ADHD. And yet, the FDA does nothing.
I've lost all faith in the FDA where it comes to recommendations and permitted additives in our food. It makes it very hard on our wallet to eat clean but we are what we eat and if anything deserves better attention from all of us it is the garbage that passes for food on most of the shelves in our grocery stores.
23
It pays to pay attention to what you eat. People in the U.S need to wake up and make the shift away from processed foods ---- just cooking more at home and cutting out gluten can make a great deal of difference in a person's diet. I was forced to make dietary changes several years ago due to an autoimmune disorder; very glad I did. I no longer eat any of the foods mentioned in the article. My weight is way down, my health is good and I don't have to bother with concern after reading an article such as this one.
6
I share Pollan’s dictum to “eat real food” but I am dismayed about the logical fallacies and misdirection these kinds of articles use to whip readers into a frenzy of indignation.
First, harm to humans “cannot be ruled out.” Logical fallacy. Nothing can ever be proven safe, nothing. Things can be proven harmful. It only takes one case of harm. Every case of no harm adds only to confidence that something is safe but doesn’t prove anything. That is an impossible standard.
Second, what about outcomes? In comparing the populations of Europe and the US we have a big enough sample size, I think. Is the incidence of the relevant cancers higher in the US, controlling for other factors? I don’t know but it seems that is the question that should be answered.
Third, proportional harm. If a food preservative increases the number of people who die from a certain cancer by 1 per 1000 per year but reduces deaths by disease contracted from eating spoiled food by 2 per 1000 per year, should we ban the perservative?
Finally, the dose makes the poision. Every day we consume naturally occurring substances (that have scary-sounding chemical names) that woud kill us in sufficient quantities. I am NOT saying don’t worry about additives in food or there should not be regulation, just that food safety involves quantity, not presence or absence.
And, yes, the bread in Paris is wonderful!
12
@Art Steinmetz
Sounds like we have a food additive lobbyist in our midst. Great use of the "praise sandwich" technique (Micheal Pollan is great. Real food can kill you too! Paris bread, mmmm.) to make your point more palatable
3
Great points, but with regards to your third point please notice that not all the additives discussed in the article are actually used as preservatives. Many are used simply to make foods more visually attractive. Not the most compelling use case, I’d say.
Real food (vs. processed) is generally safer & cheaper. Yes, there have been recalls of spinach, romaine lettuce, etc ... but the processed foods - with all the unpronounceable additives - are almost always poison (of the cumulative variety). And, of course, avoiding meat & fish is also safer for many reasons. And cheaper!
2
Does anyone know of an App that can scan a barcode on products, then tell you if any of these or any other harmful ingredients are used in the product?
11
@Edward Great idea but I’m afraid gathering and maintaining the data would be a massive and ongoing undertaking — and expensive: just think of the liability around “but you didn’t tell me about ingredient X”. So I figure I’m stuck, at least for the foreseeable future, with my personal “read the label and try to ingest as little as possible of anything that includes ingredients from a chemistry lab” app.
1
For most of the 20th century, U.S. product safety standards, food hygiene standards, drug safety standards, and federal requirements for product labeling were all the envy of the world .... Unmatched in their objectivity and grounding in the latest scientific findings. The EU has left us in the dust as we've pursued a reckless policy of ever-lowering taxes (resulting in under-funding of federal inspection agencies and standards bodies) and putting government on the payroll of the very corporations whose products govt is entrusted with inspecting. As long as we are willing to be ruled by whatever or whomever corporate profits can purchase, I don't see how change is possible.
18
A sidelight to this is that countries with publicly funded healthcare have a vested interest in keeping people safer.
28
@rosy Excellent point. And insurance companies in the US have a vested interest in making them sicker.
4
I am a civil servant for USDA and have dealt with EU regulations for over 10 years. Theirs is not a safer system, but is is a hazard-based approach, meaning that they make decisions on whether something could be harmful to human health. The U.S. system is a science-based approach, meaning that we base our decisions on what the science tells us AND the amount of risk to human health. Food is inherently connected to bugs, pathogens and fungi. It would be impossible for the government to safeguard the public completely from all risks without an enormous invasion of privacy. So, the U.S. government's approach is to look at the critical points where contamination can occur, and ensure those points are regulated. The EU, on the other hand, uses the "precautionary principle," which means that if the product could be harmful, then even without doing a scientific assessment, they can ban it.
The EU's approach is detrimental to innovation. Take gene-editing as an example: CRISPR technologies can save indigenous species such as vanilla or cinnamon but is still not considered "safe" for human health (even though we use it in cancer drugs). A reader notes ractopamine as a drug that the EU bans. All the data presented to the standard setting body run by the Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization demonstrates racto is safe, AND increases pork production by 10% (which is good for the environment) but the EU maintains the ban despite the science.
11
Joselyn, Let's make readers aware that the USDA does not (or, shall we say, should not) run the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The USDA, for which you work, is a separate agency.
You suggest that you possess a considerable level of expertise in food safety, chemical side effects, and carcinogens. Accordingly, readers might like to know the type of position you hold within our government and the area in which you work? Are you, for instance, a research scientist, a child nutritionist, an entomologist, an agronomist? Is your area plant diseases, pest management, forestry or one of the other areas within the USDA? Do you hold a masters degree or a PhD in your area of expertise? How does your scientific expertise relate to the work of scientists within our FDA?
Given some of your remarks, this reader suspects that you do not hold a PhD in an area relevant to the judgments rendered by the FDA or the specific matters addressed in this article. And, given that you do not work for the FDA, you likely are not privy to the science and politics that impact their decisions.
You are free to provide your remarks just like the rest of us. You should tread carefully, however, when you hold yourself out as an expert and suggest that your position within a government agency provides you with specific knowledge about what takes place within a different agency. Again, you don't work for the FDA.
9
@Jocelyn
So innovation takes priority over health and taste? This is America, like everything else follow the money trail. Imo we shouldn't eat food that has more than 5 ingredients on the content label and if you can not pronounce it you probably shouldn't be eating it.
2
@Jan
Well argued.
More sorry examples of why corporations are not people and have become misanthropic entities parasitizing the citizenry.
More arguments for regulations that protect human life rather than continue exploitation for profit. End Citizens United, for starters.
13
Author Michael Pollan uses an interesting phrase to describe some of what we eat. He calls it "digestible foodlike substances." Cigarette manufacturers were exposed as considering their products delivery vehicles for nicotine. Perhaps many foodlike substances are just delivery vehicles for chemicals. Author Pollan also poses the rhetorical question, what in the food aisle of a supermarket would your (great) grandmother recognize as food?
7
I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma almost seven years ago. This kind of cancer is considered incurable as recurrences are inevitable, but can also be managed like a chronic illness for many people, in large part through chemo. When I asked my oncologist what’s in my control for keeping myeloma at bay, he rattled off the usual things: exercise, sleep, keeping stress in check, eating healthy foods. He also included avoiding processed foods as much as possible. For many, avoiding processed foods is a luxury they can’t afford. (The obvious example is those who rely on food pantries.) We should be able to have confidence in our government to be making sure these foods are safe.
10
I agree that our governmental agencies should place our health above profits. And we should work to end lobbying so that this is more likely to happen.
But, in the meantime, no one is forcing anyone to eat garbage food. As many commenters have suggested, vote with your dollars. Don't buy bread that has 20 ingredients you can't pronounce and don't recognize. Even at Walmart there are plenty of healthy choices to be had. But it takes time to read labels to find them.
More incidious are the additives that corporations have lobbied permission to omit from labels. Ever wonder how your brand of orange juice tastes the same, no matter the season? Juice companies add "flavor packets" to maintain consistent taste. Not on the label!
I am not rich and I don't shop at fancy stores like Whole Foods. My groceries come from Walmart, Trader Joes, and a grocery store in my town. But you will not find one thing in my fridge or cupboard with perservatives, artificial colors or flavors, or a chemical I don't recognize. (I don't eat meat.)
They world hasn't changed. It's always, from the beginning of time, been the same. You need to be watchful and look out for yourself and your family. Trust but verify.
8
All those "food additives that have been linked to cancer that are still used in American-made bread, cookies, soft drinks and other processed foods."
are good for pharmaceutical business in the US and we all know why.....
4
This will only get worse during the current administration, which plans to allow the release of more mercury, a known neurotoxin, into the environment. I agree with comments below-the best way to fight this is with our purchasing power. Research the products we plan to buy and avoid those with probable carcinogens. Educate our friends and neighbors about what foods they may want to avoid. Does the NYT have a list of those chains who do NOT use products containing these questionable chemicals that they could share with their readers?
13
A list of some of the actual commonly purchased products that contain these would have been useful.
30
@V B - I wouldn't be surprised to find that what you ask for might be illegal or protected from the public.
Too many to list, if you glance at labels.
2
"A 1958 amendment to the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act prohibits the Food and Drug Administration from approving food additives that are linked to cancer"
So let's get this straight: the regulations for food additives are from 1958, but those approved before this are "not regulated as food additives.” Well, that's a relief. I'm certainly glad we are up to date. Can I assume that cigarettes are healthy as well?
10
@kevo Ask Jocelyn about this, she works for them!
Chlorine-rinsed chicken: prohibited in the EU, not because of the chlorine itself, but because it enables the use of chicken-raising practices that are forbidden in Europe (intense over-crowding, over-use of antibiotics). And it doesn't always work. Sometimes pathogens make it through the chlorine rinse alive anyway.
22
The Guardian has run a number of essays over the last year or so detailing how freaked out many British are at the prospect of being forced to accept poultry imports from the US, thanks to Brexit problems.
7
I have spent a significant amount of time in Europe due to military service. Several times, I was on temporary duty in Italy. Every time I went, within about a week, I felt so much physically healthier. The food is all fresh and unadulterated. I remember returning to the States, and walking into a convenience store and realizing there wasn't any "real food" in there. The Green New Deal should address sustainable and organic agriculture.
49
The US Federal government has been in the pocket of big business interests such as the food industry for decades. In most other developed countries, the genuine public interest is generally better represented, on balance. The ideal of a government "For the people" has been long usurped and replaced by "For the lobbyists and vested interests".
The beginning of the answer is campaign finance reform, but don't hold your breath waiting for either the Dems or the GOP to willingly start down that path. Each is now long bought and paid for by their respective owners.
14
I can't recall where i read it, but the main difference between EU and US on this matter is that EU bans are preventive (so if something hasn't been proven to be safeor there is suspicion it's not, then It's banned), while the US bans come to action when something has been proven to be dangerous.
Then coal factories will be allowed to release more mercury in the US, so maybe even been proven to be dangerous is not a good reason any more.
15
Yes, this is the main difference. "The main difference between EU and US on this matter is that EU bans are preventive (so if something hasn't been proven to be safe or there is suspicion it's not, then It's banned), while the US bans come to action when something has been proven to be dangerous".
Can't we change and follow the preventive principle?
I'm from Italy and live in NY. I am appalled by how public opinion doesn't have awareness of these problems.
12
So let me get this straight. The FDA allows substances in food that can cause cancer and less serious problems-all of which may require using the country's bloated, inflated health system, often using government assistance to do so. What is wrong with this picture?
12
It's all rather simple.
Our government has pushed for inventing new foods in a quest to feed us as cheaply as possible.
Thus we eat Round Up in breakfast cereals, artificial sweeteners that destroy our microbiome, Milk where all the healthy fat has been replaced with sugar and HFCS that causes obesity.
We put detergents in ice cream and rubber additives in bread.
We have destroyed our food. and each step has been approved with no absolutely no regard for the sum total of all the short cuts and cost savings that are imposed on us. The result of all this is that 20 countries are healthier than we are and the FDA doesn't care.
They are poisoning us.
22
Who wrote the legislation and why isn't it revised to meet higher standards?
For a good look at how this type of legislation is written the last couple of chapters in "The China Study" by Campbell is a good start. Or his next book, "Whole" Yes, it all has to do with money not health.
4
The comment by Wayne Sptizer suggesting that people who are suspicious of the detrimental health effects of GMOs are silly and probably should be thought of as belonging to the flat earth crowd, is dead wrong.
Corporations such as Monsanto, Syngenta and others have created GMO crops that are resistant to glyphosate (Roundup Ready), that means that these crops will inevitably have this herbicide in their tissues at harvest, which humans then consume.
A similar situation has been created with GMO crops that produce the Bt toxin in the plant tissues (an EPA registered pesticide), which humans and animals then ingest. Despite claims it is harmless to humans directly, the deleterious effects on the human gut flora and fauna have not been sufficiently studied to support corporate claims that it is entirely harmless.
Perhaps it is those people who believe unquestionably in corporate propaganda that should be included with the flat earth crowd.
31
@Scientist, WBS...Of course you could deliberately create GMOs that are not safe, just as you can eat any number of non-GMO plants that are not safe. The point is that there is nothing inherently more dangerous about GMOs than there is from hybridization, grafting, or natural selection. The potential benefits from GMO are enormous and to reject GMOs simply because they are GMOs and for no other reason is beyond foolish. And sorry to inform you but I am in no way an apologist for corporate America. I am however opposed to people who are anti-science.
2
Well said !
@Wayne Spitzer Get real! The big agribusiness corporations do not, and refuse, without being forced, to tell the public which GMOs pose a possible significant risk to human health and which are as benign as crop varieties produced by the old fashioned means of hybridization, grafting etc.
Certainly, you can't believe that ingesting glyphosate and/or Bt toxin on regular basis is a good idea. In fact despite the government's lack of action, FDA emails show that Roundup has been found in virtually ALL food tested so far, including many "famous" products like Cheerios, Corn Flakes, Doritos. etc. It's been estimated that virtually all products that contain any trace of corn or soy in the U.S. also have measurable glyphosate levels.
Monsanto originally got clearance for glyphosate only on a theoretical basis (without testing), because mammals including humans don't have the vital shikimate metabolic pathway of plants and therefore should be unaffected. What was completely overlooked was the fact that human gut bacteria do have this metabolic pathway, which is disrupted by glyphosate. Need I say more, think about the emerging epidemics of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's epidemics in the U.S., not to mention implication with autism.
Roundup Ready GMOs can rightly be considered a crime against humanity for profits, and on that basis should be banned entirely as well as society requiring an order of magnitude more scrutiny to be paid to any existing or future GMO.
3
I would love to see any evidence demonstrating that these "potentially" cancer inducing additives have actually led to a measurable difference on cancer rates among similar populations in the USA and Europe.
Every single one of the examples given I this article is accompanied by mushy scare words... "linked to", "potentially", etc. By those standards, even DHMO ought to be banned.
We spend a lot of effort being afraid. Nobody notices that food costs a lot more in Europe. And there is little evidence they are healthier for it, once you equalize the demographics. (Comparing entire populations is apples and oranges.)
5
MrPete, a modified food should not be considered "innocent" until proven "guilty" but the way around. In a preventative way, any modified food should be considered problematic until studies prove it to be 100% safe. The burden of proof should be on companies who modify food and not on advocating associations.
As mentioned earlier: the main difference between EU and US on this matter is that EU bans are preventive (so if something hasn't been proven to be safeor there is suspicion it's not, then It's banned), while the US bans come to action when something has been proven to be dangerous.
5
@MrPete...."I would love to see any evidence demonstrating that these "potentially" cancer inducing additives have actually led to a measurable difference on cancer rates among similar populations in the USA and Europe.".....The cancer rates in Denmark, France, Belgium, and Norway are higher than the U.S.
2
@Mic
Would you also prefer a justice system wherein criminal defendants are required to prove their innocence, rather than the burden of proof being on the accuser -- the state? That's the precautionary principle in a nutshell.
1
I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that the EU has a universal healthcare system, and we don't. When the government is responsible for footing the bill, you better believe they are going to have a major vested interest in regulating what is available for you to eat.
I have always felt that if the U.S. adopted some sort of government based healthcare, so many of the health problems that we are experiencing as a nation would be disappear(from our obesity epidemic, to our opioid crises). This would then cascade into resolving issues like gun violence (a major public health issue), and climate change (this often ties into public health).
Conservatives are always complaining about spending, so naturally they would force funding on preventative health initiatives (than spend on curative care which is always more expensive). Our country would change overnight! Our elected officials would be forced into doing what they should be doing in the first place; fixing problems in our country.
Sadly, I am not so sure this will ever happen.
84
yes, thank you for saying this
2
This article is completely misleading, this article implies that Europe is generally stricter about food requirements than the USA, it is quite the opposite (although these assorted additives are already banned there not here). GMO foods have never been shown to be hazardous, in fact 80% of what we eat have some GMO component, these additives are mostly theoretical hazards too, mostly things that finicky organic-food worry warts care about. No they are not healthier nor live longer in Europe because of it, in most ways our FDA food standards are much more rigorous.
2
GSboy, what you say is defensive and not true. The inability to compare ouselves to other countries is an American major problem.
As said earlier: the main difference between EU and US on this matter is that EU bans are preventive (so if something hasn't been proven to be safe or there is suspicion it's not, then It's banned), while the US bans come to action when something has been proven to be dangerous.
5
EU is way more strict in meat processing than the United States. We don’t even know how much beef is mad cow infested because we simply don’t test rigorously until a problem has developed.
When the food and medical industries make money off of disease, there’s clearly an incentives problem to keeping people healthy.
1
@GSBoy "No they are not healthier nor live longer in Europe because of it"... Then why do they?
1
Hey, what is the value of human life when compared with a few pennies of profit for the company who values its shareholders above all else. Let's hear it for capitalism run amok.
26
At least, in the United States all the ingredients are listed on the label. (Just take the time to read them.)
How many other countries do the same?
3
I think you just made a joke.
30
@Minnie -- No, it is not a joke, just common sense. I do not have access to foreign-grocery labels but I can tell you that, back in the 1960's in France, the ingredients were not listed on the box. Have things changed? How about other countries? Does anyone have the answer?
Complaining that your food contains too much salt, or some additive you think is dangerous, that is just words. Read the labels before you decide whether to buy or not. I can tell you, for instance, that most Wisconsin cheeses contain more salt that the imported varieties. As for breakfast cereals, most cookies and crackers, canned soup, etc. ... read the labels and ask yourself if you really want to eat that stuff.
The government can do only so much, especially when private interests are powerful enough to tell elected officials how to vote, but consumers can just refuse to buy.
1
@Fran What makes you think all the ingredients are listed on labels here. Only the ones that are required are listed. Recent time in the EU found lists of ingredients on the labels. It is no longer 1960.
10
garbage in garbage out then its off to the doctors to see what you got. no mystery follow the $$$$$$ trail all the way to the top. then start the real investigative report!
7
"Potassium bromate is classified as a category 2B carcinogen (possibly carcinogenic to humans) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Potassium bromate has been banned from use in food products in the European Union, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Nigeria, South Korea, Peru and some other countries." Why is KBrO3 permitted in food in the US? Nigeria has higher food standards than the FDA?
31
Alcohol is a known carcinogen with the highest IARC carcinogen ranking.
Had a glass of wine lately?
8
Your comment would have equivalence if a warning were posted on potassium bromate products.
The dangers of alcohol consumption are widely distributed.
12
I agree that as consumers we should use our buying power to address this issue but that is not easy to do or adequate. For one, we can’t track every ingredient at every food retailer.
We should send this article to our member of Congress. These are exactly the issues they are elected to pay attention to... public health; public security; safety; education; environment; public infrastructure; etc. NOT their personal careers!
18
More than 80% of our foods are adulterated by GMOs (naturally banned in Europe), not including all of the deadly additives and drugs mentioned in this article. No wonder most everyone now has a chronic illness!
The truth is and always will be that Mother Nature knows best. Check out Dr. Patrick Gentempo's interviews with various scientists and experts (including MIT senior scientist Stephanie Seneff) in GMOs Revealed.
This is my resolution: to get all of the additives, including GMOs and food touched by glyphosate out of our diet.
8
@lechrist
"Mother Nature knows best."
Mother Nature created smallpox and polio. You're free to reject science, but not free to to force the rest of the world into ignorance and superstition. GMOs have saved millions from starvation. So much for your humanitarianism.
2
@Ed L. Actually, GMOs have not saved anyone from starvation, nice trope there, and thousands of farmers, particularly in India, have committed suicide over being forced to purchase patented seed. Yields are not greater beyond the first couple of years.. Learn about the devastation of mono crop farming and the soil.
Further, you should read the history of smallpox and polio and treatments for the same in the book by MD, Dr,. Suzanne Humphries, "Dissolving Illusions." You will find the Amazon reviews quite interesting.
2
One only need to look back on the results of the successful campaign to tweak the definition of chocolate by lobbyists to know that American style Capitalism is a destroyer of everything that use to be made simply & that tasted wonderful.... just to squeeze a few more dollars into the coffers of todays 21st century industrial robber barons .
https://www.ecori.org/public-safety/2011/3/14/enjoy-some-alphabet-soup-with-your-chocolate.html
12
The solution is to make your own food from raw ingredients. Sadly this is too expensive and time consuming for most people to do.
9
For years I had a host of increasingly annoying and alarming ailments: tingling, headaches/brain fog, joint pressure....I tried many things and doctors had few ideas for me. Then, in the middle of all of this I took a business trip to Warsaw to research vodka brands (tough job but someone has to do it). Imbibing aside, I'd never felt better in my life. My head cleared, my nerves calmed, and I felt entirely different. I attribute it to the food, which is very pure and strictly controlled; I am convinced that made the difference. Upon returning I did my best to stick to organic items, but most of our population does not have that luxury.
26
@Jennifer I had the exact same experience which indicates that it definitely isn't a one off. Very interesting!
2
@Jennifer
Travel overseas can produce an adrenaline rush that can be misinterpreted as a response to dietary change.
Lancet. 1976 May 8;1(7967):977-81.
Man in transit: Biochemical and physiological changes during intercontinental flights.
Carruthers M, Arguelles AE, Mosovich A.
Abstract
Fifteen members of the passengers and crew of a plane flying from Buenos Aires to London have been studied, before, during, and after the 20-hour flight. Even allowing for circadian variation, there were clear rises in the urinary excretion of noradrenaline in the first part of the flight, and of both noradrenaline and adrenaline in the 2 days afterwards.
1
The photo of the grocery store shelves in Nice displays a number of brand names familiar to Americans. What are the names of companies who omit additives to food in the European Union while doing the opposite in the US? These corporations should be identified and boycotted until they stop using food additives. Boycotts would likely be more expedient than waiting for the FDA to raise standards or the Congress to pass legislstion. People have to stop eating and feeding food with additives to their children. Decreased revenue and profits are the only thing corporations and shareholders undetstand. It's a shame Americans don't value public health to the same degree as Europeans and demand comparable standards.
24
Walu fish is banned in Italy and Japan. It's delicious but a deep bottom feeder by-catch and humans cant digest more than 6oz of it. the Japanese name for it is "exploding intestines."
5
That's what you get when the fox (aka big business such as Monsanta) is guarding the henhouse, and the population at large believes the propaganda that Europe is Socialist (aka Communist), and America is the Best Country in the World.
37
When will the FDA stop treating the general public as guinea pigs?
7
Let's remember the Brits thought it was a good idea to feed cow's brains to steer, which gave us Mad Cow. This led to a long ban on British beef in America, but now it seems the Brits have forgotten all about that sorry history. I also recall some horse meat getting into the food supply in the UK and Ireland and basically the reaction in both countries was to joke about it. But when it comes to chicken washed in chlorine solution, they're 100% deadly serious!
6
This is a blatant example of bureaucratic tyranny and the reason for brexit.
These are fringe political rules being crammed down European throats who can't tell the difference between free decisions and forced dogma.
1
@obummer
I'll take the bureaucratic tyranny of safe food any day.
One thing people are actually concerned about here in the UK is the prospective imports of tainted food from the US once we leave the EU. In fact, the government has had to promise to maintain food standards.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-fox-food/uk-wont-lower-food-standards-to-win-post-brexit-trade-deals-minister-idUKKCN1MQ33Q
2
@obummer This is the problem with conservatives. It is not a free decision when big business decides to adulterate food with toxic substances, and use their clout to conceal it from consumers. The government is not the root of all evil, but it certainly looks like capitalism is.
5
The sad fact is this. US Govt. and agencies are essentially overrun by corporate interests, to the point that the laws on labeling are ludicrous. Take the case of growth hormone use. Producers who labeled their product as growth hormone free were required to say it makes no difference; while those who did use it were not required to say anything at all about their use! Where is the right to information?
Today all they have to do is label the claim that their source has pledged to not use growth hormones! What does that even mean? Is it legally binding? Who verifies that those pledges are even adhered to?
7
Our government is in cahoots with cooperations and the health/medical industries. If you create an unhealthy population they will need health care, very expensive health care.
If your population dies before they get too old then you don’t have to pay out in Social Security or Medicare, even after they have paid into it all their working lives. It’s a win win for all involved except the American citizen.
Part of this “individualism” philosophy from the right and libertarians is really about brain washing the populace in believing they are free when the government doesn’t protect them. It’s Americans religion to believe this. But Americans have been hoodwinked, and beliefs are a very difficult thing to change.
It’s only getting worse here.
Brexit was partly about not wanting to adhere to stricter standards for consumers while allowing the robber barons to run amok. This is why Rupert Murdoch is so against the EU. He couldn’t own all the news outlets and push us propaganda.
6
People have a choice to what they choose to put in their mouths. No one forces anyone to eat anything. I choose to not eat red meat, consume alcohol or high fructose corn syrup etc and it's not difficult at all. Stop blaming everybody else for what you eat!
3
@Mr. Slater,
That's all well and good. But I like not having to make an all day trip to the grocery store to read an endless list of ingredients for every single thing I purchase. Maybe you have time for this, I don't.
And God forbid I make a mistake and miss something. Surely you'll be there to scream personal responsibility.
You're making a gross oversimplification of complicated things.
"just like, duh, stop eating that stuff"
No, that's not how it works. That's what we have a government for. To keep us safe, so we can go to work and be healthy. Or at least that's a large portion of what I want government to do.
3
As somebody who opposed the UK's misguided decision to leave the EU, I now have lower food standards to look forward to: chlorinated chicken, bovine growth hormones, and a long etc. Oh well, American cousins, see it as payback for us burning down the White House in 1812.
10
Are European cancer rates lower than in the US?
6
@turbot
Who knows..but I guarantee the treatment is cheaper..
9
Yes
2
@turbot
Theres a website called google which can assist in your research.
24. Italy
> Cancer diagnosis rate: 290.6 new cases per 100,000 residents
> Life expectancy at birth: 82.5 years
> Annual health expenditure per capita: $3,351
> Population 65 and over: 23.0%
13. United Kingdom
> Cancer diagnosis rate: 319.2 new cases per 100,000 residents
> Life expectancy at birth: 81.0 years
> Annual health expenditure per capita: $4,145
> Population 65 and over: 18.5%
5. United States
> Cancer diagnosis rate: 352.2 new cases per 100,000 residents
> Life expectancy at birth: 78.7 years
> Annual health expenditure per capita: $9,536
> Population 65 and over: 15.4%
1
You have to take your time to find the good quality food items and produce here in the US, and not simply take what is offered. We do have them here like the EU.
1
A far better question is what foods are not banned in Europe that are banned here -where we have much stricter standards in food safety!
@GSBoy Sorry, what? I’m from Europe and wished the US has as stringent standards on food as the EU does.
Which practices in particular do you object to?
14
@Jomathan
One Euro practice we should all object to is having eggs outside of the refrigerated section...
1
I don't think you do. Where did you get that impression?
Why can't our government regulate business to the same degree as the European Union to protect the health of our citizens? Must profits here take precedence over morbidity and mortality? The FDA's claim that in limited amounts something is safe is thoroughly disingenuous when these additives are ubiquitous in multiple products to the point of being unavoidable and these common foods are consumed over a lifetime that exposure is cumulative and not limited.
There is something very wrong with the values and purpose of our government when it places the interests of business ahead of the well being of its own citizens. Companies in Europe manage to stay in business without using these additives. Isn't it time Americans demanded the FDA have safety standards compatible with that of the European Union instead of acting as a shill for companies it should be regulating? It's disgusting that legislation designed to protect public health actually permits grandfathering these additives. Who wrote the legislation and why isn't it revised to meet higher standards?
1414
@Scientist
"Must profits here take precedence over morbidity and mortality?"
--yes.
"There is something very wrong with the values and purpose of our government when it places the interests of business ahead of the well being of its own citizens."
--again, yes
Your comments while being 100% correct are not new observations. This is the country in which we live.
Money moves and frustrates American politics where profit is always king.
184
@Scientist
"these additives are ubiquitous in multiple products to the point of being unavoidable and these common foods are consumed over a lifetime that exposure is cumulative and not limited."
I've wondered whether the cumulative effect of combinations of food additives and environmental contaminants in water contribute to obesity. And possibly even to the apparent decay in the ability think through complex issues. I would love to compare the diet of unswerving Trump loyalists to that of anti-Trumpers.
107
@Scientist: As I learned in a college American Government class many decades ago, most of our legislation actually is written by professional lobbyists, then introduced by Congress members so influenced. Nothing new.
181
It seems pretty clear that the consumer comes first in Europe, while the corporation has priority in the United States.
1892
@Nick Wheeler
"Citizen's United"......That legislation just by itself is crushing America.
84
@Nick Wheeler. "Corporations are people too, my friend."
39
@Nick Wheeler
Don't you know? Corporations are people too. Just ask the Supremes. Me, I'll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one.
375
I have an interesting example that flows in the other direction.
Once when my family was especially broke, I bought frozen mussels in a white wine sauce from, um, Walmart. I couldn't understand how they could be imported from Ireland so cheaply. At under $5, they were a tasty and inexpensive luxury during a hard time. The ingredients were simple and straightforward (mussels, white wine, butter, salt, maybe one other).
I bought them again when we had a family member visiting from Ireland—one who happened to be an exec with a consumer affairs nonprofit and who had worked with EU food laws. I showed him the package they came in and said I was curious how they could be imported here so cheaply. The alarming answer was that shellfish from that particular bay in Ireland couldn't be sold in the EU because it was considered too polluted.
I've often wondered since then what other products are dumped in the US to take advantage of our pro-business, exploit-the-consumers regulations.
1997
@C Wolfe
Just as we dump our banned pesticides (here in the US) on "3rd world countries" they get their retribution by exporting their "banned" foods to the US where most eat almost anything trashy.
Fresh foods in the US are marketed by "presentation"; uniformity, nice looking.......and so much is cast aside before marketing as undesirable because the product is not conforming to the US agri business laws.
58
@C Wolfe That story is very unlikely, because the shellfish would not be allowed to be harvested or processed under EU and Irish law. In short, I'm pretty sure your story is false.
Moreover, the biggest bay for raising mussels is called the Killary - a Fjord, notable for its very clean and deep water.
I am flagging your post to the NYT because they need to be concerned about something that may be considered defamatory in Europe, where this website is accessible.
88
@MacK
If the Times is interested, I can provide the name of my source and his organization, along with details of what bay the mussels were harvested from.
145
The US government is not doing all it can to protects its citizens' health. It's doing all it can to enrich corporations for the short term benefit of monetary profit. The US government is a sham due to the unguarded influence of money in politics.
7
One can avoid most of these compounds by not eating fast food and limiting the amount of bread consumed. Both of these changes are good, irrespective of the contaminants/additives in the otherwise unhealthily sugary or fatty food.
The other thing to note is that a lot of the potential carcinogen links are derived from animal studies where the animals are exposed to far higher quantities of the additive than humans ingest. Often these studies are not replicable (a major issue in many animal tests regardless of what’s being studied).
Regardless, It’s better to avoid this unnecessary junk and cook your own food. It’s not that hard, we’re just turned into a country of lazy bums over here in the US.
2
Since these food companies are making a healthy profit by not using these banned chemicals, why are they still using them here in the states? Can't be greed, for as mentioned above they're making a good profit without the chemical additives. Maybe laziness? Too lazy to adjust their manufacturing plants. That can't be it either, for they have already adjusted their process to comply with EU requirements. This one has me puzzled.
....and, the food tastes better there in addition to being healthier.
8
The French are way ahead of us on food safety and correctly advertised preparation. I suggest you read the bread laws in France if you want an education. When you walk into a bread bakery, you already know exactly how that bread was prepared...was the dough frozen? Was a 3rd party involved? etc. And their flour is different...pure. Makes the best bread and pastries!!
8
I can't wait for Brexit so our repressive government can agree to import this into the UK.
3
Re: yellow dyes No. 5, 6 and red dye No. 40.
Yellow No. 6 and Red No. 40 are in the flavored Pedialyte drinks given to children when they are sick.
The FDA acknowledges that yellow No. 5 can cause hives and itching.
4
Voting with your wallet is the best way to change things here , as companies can’t legislate how we spend our money (completely) nor make us eat the junk that requires those additives. Seriously, an ingredient to make food shinier?
345
@Jts Not to be nit picky but its this of philosophy that allows corporations, lobbyists, elected officials to etc to erode consumer, health and environmental protection the the agencies responsible for them. "Voting with your wallet" is what led to this article
6
@Jts Absolutely--we all vote 3 times a day with our forks. And notably it only takes 10--15% of market loss to make industry take notice.
1
my email address is [email protected]
1
I would be very interested to see a follow up article related to food additives and manufacturing processes related to obesity and diabetes in the US. Whenever I travel to Europe, I indulge in breads, butters, cheeses, enjoy wine and come home a few pounds lighter.
22
Food safety is a matter of political will rather than public health and the European Union is an example of having enough clout to keep big business in check.
I'm always struck by differences in food labelling standards, particularly since much of what's familiar to American shoppers is also on the shelves of Europe's supermarkets. US food product labels - whilst containing most of the necessary information - seem designed to obfuscate, baffle and intimidate the consumer. It's deliberate; in Europe, those self same manufacturers can provide clear, well laid out food information, decent font size, calorie content indexed both to weight and to product (per pie, per slice, per pastry) and also comply with additional regional/national laws such as the UK's 'Traffic Light' system which gives 'at-a -glance' warning about unhealthy levels of fat, salt, sugar and calories in any food product. It's perfectly possible to sell US market purposed food products in the UK, and from time to time these appear, but only with modified labels. Sadly, once they've been plastered with a whole load of extra paper, they tend to lose their appeal. A new variety of PopTart, shipped in from the USA and sold through the UK's largest food retailer was pretty much unrecognisable once it got to me. Not so much a cereal box as a sculpture about the evils of regulation. They did taste pretty good, though.
4
I eat a organic diet and use addictive free products from the EU and read labels carefully!
4
The main funding for Center for Science in the Public Interest comes from their newsletter "Nutrition Action". I have subscribed for years,as it supports all of their good work.The newsletter is packed with info about our food,and always includes great recipes.Highly recommend!
18
Does this surprise anyone in the US, as Congress Administrations, and the FDA are more beholding to corporations than their own constituents? I am always thankful for the regulatory powers of the EU as if for nothing else they embarrass the US's lack of interest in oversight, making decisions more transparent. Love deregulation?
19
I am very careful about what i eat. Yet, in the States i frequently have heartburn. But never or very rarely in Western Europe where i spend about 2 months/year (and do indulge in buttery pastries)
17
Here in Australia people shop much differently. The are few large grocery stores which mainly provide bulk items, paper goods, and some fresh items.
Neighborhood bakeries, butchers, fruit and vegetable purveyors, fish markets and others provide the fresh day-to-day products. Everything bought in these markets typically spoils thin a few days given there are no additives.
There is little junk food,no” processed food” outside of snack foods like chips, and no heaping portions at restaurants.
The vast majority of Australians are fit, health conscious, and healthy. Haven’t laid eyes on an obese child or adult. Health insurance is very reasonable.
Most food is raised here with some speciality items imported from the UK. To date, I haven’t seen any food items from the U.S.
Producing healthy food and meat without additives is possible. And reasonable. And it tastes so much better!
It appears the U.S. is lagging in this metric along with so many others when compared to other developed economies. Money does talk.
32
28% australians obese 62% overweight- seems similar to u.s. rates
4
Their average life expectancy is 83 years old which is considered high (above US, Canada and UK).
@LJB The stats on obesity on Australia don't exactly corroborate your claims.
2
Europeans are heavier smokers than Americans with obviously a higher death rate - should have been included in the overall health statistics.
8
@rudolf
obviously higher death rate....
Not so. Many European countries have average life expectancies considerably above those enjoyed by Americans.
Furthermore, the tobacco consumption thing is not straightforward. In some countries - Greece and Italy for example, cigarette related deaths e.g. lung cancer and heart disease, are markedly lower than other European countries in which tobacco consumption is much less.
It's alleged that the 'Mediterranean diet' - one rich in fish, olive oil, nuts and fresh fruit and veg - coupled with moderate consumption of wine is protective against cancers generally and also cardiovascular disease. This has never been well proved, though.
Americans, some of the least healthy people in the 20th century 1st World became, in the 80's and 90's, some of the fittest but are now sliding back down the league. It's happening here in UK too. Male life expectancy has dropped a whole 2 years possibly as due to the consequences of 2008 and subsequent austerity. There is a strong, irrefutable, link between poverty and ill health.
13
@rudolfI think you missed the point of the article, which is our government favors profit over the health of its citizens. And actually, the death rate is NOT higher in Europe, even if people do smoke more.
5
@rudolf
US life expectancy is below most European countries.
1
Why would this be surprising in this “anything for a buck” nation?
23
The moment we switch to universal healthcare is the moment our government bans dangerous chemicals in food.
148
But think of all that yummy money those lobbyists get for making y’all put up with the cheap and nasty stuff!
15
Pepperoni: BHT and BHA
Posted what you discover
2
@Mike
Pepperoni: nitrites and nitrates - everywhere it is made (as most other sausages and hams as well). Well-known to WHO to be proven carcinogens. Euro rules oppose most anything that appeared in foods after 1950, no problem with the "traditional" poisons.
1
@cobbler
Not really, the EFSA (European Food Safety Agency) published this finding in 2017:
https://www.efsa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/corporate_publications/files/nitrates-nitrites-170614.pdf
@Anton Lauridsen
Sorry, that's a recent one... basically, (a) lots of equivocation about the carcinogenic effects of nitrites despite well known bad effects of nitrosamines that they form on processing; (b)setting up a limit for nitrites instead of zero tolerance like any other known carcinogens, and (c) lots of talk about what a minor role added nitrates play in the overall nitrate balance [yeah sure - much more is from the fertilizers being sucked into your veggies...] . Finally, the line about eating is bad for you, in general..."In 2015, IARC classified processed meat as a carcinogenic hazard to humans (Group 1), with the formation of carcinogenic nitrosamines as one contributing factor"
We need a progressive government more common to Europe. The Conservatives here are not into public safety and improving our lifestyle. They are about complete freedom of action by business regardless of the outcomes. The Republicans are dangerous to our universal health.
85
I guess I’m glad I have celiac disease protecting me from adulterated baked goods. I consume very little candy or soda. Just need to be careful about meats. This info is scary.
9
I've lived in both the USA and Europe over the past 5 years, and have been fascinated by this topic, so am happy to see it explained here. Here are my observations:
1) Food DOES taste better in Europe. I suspect it is also more nutritious. I don't have definitive proof but base this on the fact that many more varieties are available, it is more seasonal, and natural flavors are 'stronger'.
2) Food goes bad MUCH more quickly in Europe, by orders of magnitude. In the USA potatoes can last a couple weeks in my potato drawer, in Europe maybe 3 days. Same with anything fresh.
3) In the USA people buy food mostly based on appearance, in Europe it is more about quality (a nebulous concept, but seems to be based on reputation of seller/provider and the taste of the food itself).
4) People spend more time shopping for food in Europe. It's often a family affair, with mom, dad, kids, grandma whoever along. I especially notice there are a lot more dads in the supermarket.
In all, I guess what I'm saying is that in the USA our food looks better and doesn't spoil as fast, and we once again equate less regulations/rules with more freedom/choice, but ultimately we end up with diminished and even harmful options. Most of us seem willing to accept that tradeoff.
169
@jm
I grow potatoes in my back garden and I buy them in the shop and I have never seen a potato last 'maybe 3 days'.
If you expose them to light they go green over a few weeks and sprout shoots.
8
@Lawrence in Buckinghamshire
I just mean that the potatoes I buy at the supermarket in France start to sprout in about 3 days (I keep them under the sink). Keeping supermarket potatoes in the same place in the States? They will go weeks before sprouting. A lot of people I know in the USA will chuck sprouting potatoes and not eat them. Lettuce bought in the USA will last at least a week or two, but will wilt or start to get slimy by day 3 in France. I used to think it was the refrigerator--that they just didn't work properly in France. I know better now--ethylene gas is used much more stateside.
7
@jm
If you keep them somewhere dark dry and cool they will last from summer time depending on the variety and when they are harvested, to February / March.
I collect old gardening books and there are descriptions in books from the 1940s of how to make 'clamps' which meet all the above specifications.
I have also been told shop ptatoes in the UK are sometimes sprayed with a chemical to prevent them sprouting.
Happy New Year!
If we consider those ingredients not included in our list of regulations, maybe the unpredictable man in the White House could surprise everyone and restrict their use. It would be a new way for him to countermand what a previous administration (any previous administration) ruled.
4
@Joan In California
I agree -- t. seems to have made it his goal in life to overturn everything Obama set up, but in this case I wouldn't bet the rent.
1
The US government in service of large corporations is the root of the country's health problems ranging from obesity and all kinds of illnesses.
51
How about a list of foods banned in the United States but not in Europe?
Does one exist?
Or does this article merely point out what is becoming clearer as the 21st century progresses - The United States is becoming a comparatively worse place to live than many parts of Europe; unless you an immigrant from Latin America.
29
@Jake
"The United States is becoming a comparatively worse place to live than many parts of Europe;"
Unfair - and a surprising statement from a Texan.
It's true to say that the United States is becoming an ever more DIFFERENT, rather than 'worse' place to live than many parts of Europe. It was ever thus - there's no particular 'European Dream' (except collectively one of peace, humanity, fairness and co-operation) for a citizen to aspire to, no wilderness pioneer spirit, no 'new-nation' fervour, little healthy disrespect for authority and few people want to own guns or crave great wealth. Don't forget that modern Europe was forged on a series of truly horrendous events which also affected the US but differently. Europe seeks to move away from that past and increasingly, it appears that the US does not. Truly, we grow more foreign to each other.
Don't get me wrong. I'm 65 now. I have huge respect for the USA and its history. I, generally, like Americans. But, just because we look similar and speak a similar language, I don't make the mistake of thinking...
6
@Jake
What does that mean?
Surely the United States would remain 'a comparatively worse place to live than many parts of Europe' regardless of whether one was a Latin American immigrant. Are you trying to say that the US is a better place to live than Latin America? Surely Europe would still remain better (if you are right and it is becoming better than the US).
@Jake Kinder Eggs.
What foods are banned in the USA that are not banned in Europe?
5
Horse meat, haggis, raw milk.
14
@Rick
Three very good examples. Are you in the food industry?
The rules relating to the retailing of raw milk and horse meat vary considerably across European Union member states. Horse flesh is freely sold in France and Germany. It may be sold in the UK but only under control - meaning that retailers have to prominently sign that horse meat is being sold on the premises. It is strictly illegal across the EU to covertly adulterate meat products with horse flesh.
Raw milk can only be sold to the UK public direct from the farm gate, in farmer's markets (and only by farmers) and bizarrely, through internet sales. Does anybody here buy milk online? Raw milk may NOT be sold in UK stores.
No haggis? Banned from the US for 71 years and all because of sheeps' lungs. As an Englishman once resident in Scotland, I'm a complete convert. It's delicious - particularly since it's often used there as an excuse to also drink vast quantities of good whisky.
2
I can understand raw milk. I don't see the purpose of exporting milk to a country with as many cows as you have.
But horse meat and haggis? Weird. Not my taste at all, but where's the logic?
What do you say about a government, ours, that approves cancer-producing foods and beverages, condones water and air polluters that negatively affect our health, and approve for sale pharmaceutical drugs that may, or may not be good for you? I would call it a form of state-sponsored terrorism, even human rights violators.
82
@JLM When you consider avoidable childhood cancers as one of the outcomes, it actually kinda feels like a crime against humanity.
Every single one of these specious claims has been debunked and the actual science is easily found. The IARC has never been considered credible because they do not consider dosage and risk in their pronouncements, many of which are close to nonsense any way.
6
@James Cooper Please cite your sources. Because you may not consider them credible but if the European Union does I would beg to differ.
Pleas enlighten us all so we can make better food choices.
21
Where are these sources to which you refer?
I suspected as much. Whenever I go to Europe, I can eat anything and my stomach never gets upset and I never get an acidic stomach. Here, I have to stay away from anything with flour like bread and pasta. I cannot even tolerate potatoes. Disgusting how in this country citizens are not worth anything, except to hand over their money in taxes and insurance premiums for the benefit of the top 1%.
41
@ART -- If you have trouble with American-made pasta, why not buy imported Italian pasta?
1
The question, 'What foods are banned in Europe that are not banned in the United States, and what are the implications of eating those foods?' was never answered with precision. Where is the listing of banned foods? I don't want to spend my time trying to associate the listing of food additives with food products available in the U.S. Please answer the question as posed. Thanks, Terry
43
Terry, you pose a simple question which doesn’t have a simple answer. As far as I am aware the practice of chlorinating chicken is banned in EU and not in USA. But there are a host of more subliminal rules, for example a can of beans in Europe can have no larvae contained within, whereas the US beans are allowed to contain up to 1.75 larvae per can. How you measure 75% of a larvae I’m not sure. So it’s areas like this where the major discrepancies are. So up until Brexit I can stockpile larvae free beans, afterwards.... well who knows!!
11
@Terry Startzel,
I agree where is the list???
4
@Terry Startzel Right!!?? A headline and then a
list would have been swell, and most sufficient.
Americans and the American Food Industry is far removed from nature. The whole and sole purpose of this industry is to enhance flavors artificially and increase shelf life to maximize profits.
The American contribution to world cuisine are burgers from McDonald’s and Pizza’s from Pizza Hut! I don’t think an American has eaten a real natural meal, cooked with natural ingredients and traditionally. Not just food, the whole lifestyle is artificial and hence the obesity and opioid crisis, high cancer rates etc and of-course destruction of the environment.
It is a strange paradox that the leader of the western world with its high per capita income and affluent lifestyle perhaps spends the highest amount on medicine. But perhaps the worst part of all this is that they try to influence the rest of the world to follow their practices!!
90
It doesn't help that, in many cases, the only family friendly and open on Sundays restaurants in France are the fast food chains. Even if families with small children wanted to eat out in a healthy resto, (especially outside Paris), they can't. Maybe it's the same in America too?
9
@nicole: No, a lot of non-chain restaurAnts are open on Sundays. Going out for brunch is a well-established custom in cities.
5
@Arjun Mehta
"I don’t think an American has eaten a real natural meal, cooked with natural ingredients and traditionally."
Obviously, you have not spend much time in America, otherwise you wouldn't spout such stereotypical nonsense. Yes, fast food is common and so is obesity. However, this is also rising very fast in Europe, including my native Germany. There are many Americans (this one included) who eat good food, cook with fresh ingredients and are conscious of where their food comes from. The fastest growing food items in the US are organic foods. Farmer's markets are springing up everywhere and are extremely popular.
51
EU. Argh. Many EU countries ban GMO foods, but there are no studies showing they are harmful. National Academy of Sciences, published a study reporting this. (Yes, the same organization that we reference when ppl say global warming has no fact based science supporting it.)
The logic that we should follow the EU’s lead is missing logic.....if the EU does this or that, then so should we.
15
@Dan
There are plenty of ways GMO foods are harmful. Read Dr. Stehen Gundry, one of the world's top heart surgeons in his book,"The Plant Paradox", on what he found out about the damage they do
11
Why should the threshold be to prove an ingredient is harmful? New/altered ingredients should be proven to be safe BEFORE being given to people and animals. Lots of Americans want to choose healthy ingredients. Sometimes it's hard to find them in a supermarket.
40
@Dan. The main problem with GMO food isn't its immediate effect on the people eating it. It's the kind of agriculture it encourages. In spite of all the talk of the miracles of GMO techniques, productivity to feed the hungry, pest resistance, even medical uses, etc., the main use of GMO techniques IN ACTUAL USE TODAY is to make agriculture more profitable, especially for the producers of GMO seeds, fertilizers, weed killers, as well as huge industrial farms, while sometimes reducing the quality of the food. Seeds from GMO plants often cannot be used for the next year's crop, but more seed must be bought by the farmers from the multinational producers. This is a huge problem for small farmers who produce food for local markets in poor countries. Do your research; there is way too much information out there for a newspaper comment.
111
Restrictions in EU only cause that food in the US is far better and tastier than in EU.
How much the regulations impact our heath cannot be said as most of this nonsense wasn't held good until ten years ago or so, so there was so little time to document any changes this might have.
By the way, there is no way to prove or disprove whether the regulations have an effect as today's people travel across the world and eat both in the US (or rest of the world) and in EU
5
@Martin
Can you point to any studies that show US food tastes better than EU food without all these EU banned chemicals?
Or is it just a subjective opinion based on no facts?
10
@Martin
"Restrictions in EU only cause that food in the US is far better and tastier than in EU. "
Huh, come again? I am an American and native German, and I can assure you that you can find good food in either place. It is really just up to you.
7
@Martin
You may be describing food in the Czech Republic as less tasty than in the US, but I assure you from half a century of experience that you are not talking about Italy. In both countries, Italy and the US, there is excellent and tasty food, but also tasteless dreck. Again, perhaps all food in the Czech Republic is tasteless, though I doubt it. In any event, food safety and food taste are not the same thing.
4
I never took concerns about food dye seriously until I saw its effect on my children. My daughter had reactions after we began giving her Skittles as a reward for potty training. At first I couldn't believe it was the food dye, but it didn't take long for the pattern to become obvious. 15 minutes after she would eat a couple of Skittles, she would break out in a rash and her behavior would be terrible. When we completely removed food dye from her diet she no longer had that problem anymore. If we gave her food that we didn't realize had dye in it, the rash would come back. When the rash appeared unexpectedly we would check our food labels and, sure enough, we would discover we'd given her something containing dye. I am so grateful for companies that have replaced dye with natural coloring.
101
@Emily As an MD, I am skeptical about a lot of claims but have patients who do not have celiac disease but have problems with bread in the US tell me they have no problems when eating bread in Europe. Makes me wonder.
2
to better understand the issue, just compare life expectancy in Europe and in the US. nothing changes: Mens sana in corpore sano
5
And quality of life.
A long but unhealthy life isn’t exactly one to brag about.
8
@exo
Compare the health care costs.
3
@exo
For information sake - according to the The Peterson Center on Healthcare and the Kaiser Family Foundation whose ‘work places a heavy emphasis on data and evidence, addressing key questions through collections of charts, which provide data with additional context and synthesis of the latest research and developments’ the US life expectancy is one of the shortest in the developed world – 78.8 compared to 83.9 in Japan, 82 for ‘Comparable Country Average’ and 81 for my country.
(https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/u-s-life-expectancy-compare-countries/#item-u-s-lowest-life-expectancy-birth-among-comparable-countries)
3
There was a documentary on the swiss tv, that showed how people, who live in small southern villages in the US, where a lot of fruit and vegetables are cultivated, have no access to fresh produce, unless they drive for at least 20 minutes to a grocery store. What they can get is chips, soda, deli meat... seven eleven “food”. How is that possible? People in those villages were watching trains full of produce go by. It is to me very sad and I wonder, why this is possible in a country like the USA?
68
@Nicole Generally speaking, small "Tante Emma Laeden" are not economically viable in small communities where everyone has a car and drives to shop for just about anything at the Walmart, Shopko, or Costco (big, warehouse stores). You can find these little stores in bigger cities, usually in ethnic neighborhoods.
3
@Nicole
That documentary would have been far more accurate if it had highlighted the dearth of fresh foods in inner cities where grocery chains do not want to open stores. People living there are forced to buy the cheapest and unhealthiest "food" at the corner convenience store, or take three buses for hours to get to a grocery store. Access to transportation is a primary obstacle to healthy food. As 'Katrin' from Wisconsin notes, it is not at all unusual for people to drive 15-20 minutes to the grocery store where there is an abundance of fresh foods. But for those without transportation, what does it matter how affordable fresh food is? They can't get to it.
There are groups in inner cities, such as South Central L.A., who cultivate community gardens to improve healthy food consumption, but they meet a lot of resistance from local governments. Go figure!
10
The stench of American capitalism is worse than a bag of rotting potatoes on a hot day. With so many of these issues its long past tine to change the messaging for the broader public considering the current idiotic dislike of regulations..
Perhaps eating healthily (which is probably branded as elite in certain circles) could be reframed as avoiding deliberate poisoning by corporations who scam the system.
Food costs are another issue and this I understand.
61
As much as I respect (and support) the good Center, there is another side, most effectively expressed by Steven Pinker in his new book. The other side of containment of anything new or in the least suspect in any quantity is: hunger. Easy for NYT readers to be elitist about bread or milk but not so easy for poor countries.
A difficult topic is GMO which is severely restricted in the EU but for which we are still and long awaiting research that diss's it.
My point is that we need some restraint in our dismissal of every substance not known to our grandparents.
9
@Ben Being poor doesn’t mean you’ll accept anything you’re handed. In Ghana, considered a ‘poorer country’,( Don’t like that term ) where I’m from, there’s a debate raging about introducing GMO. The Monsanto lobby is so strong in the debate, pushing for laws to allow GMO. We don’t NEED GMO. We have plenty of produce varieties growing already , that work fine. How about investing in growing those in greater quantities?
41
@Ben The U.S. does not have this problem. We are not a poor country, but the among the richest in the world. The article is not about a poor country struggling with famine weighing the pros and cons of banning these substances..
8
@yup Keep up the resistance! you'll enjoy better food.
1
a decade or two ago, one would constantly run into the wine snobs who drank nothing but French wines because they were considered vastly superior. No one would touch California wines. Now the snobbishness has expanded to include everyday foods.
Rich New Yorkers have always been Europe-obssessed. Apart from the flavor of wine or nutrition of the food, it is an important way to distinguish oneself from the lower classes.
7
Have you read the article? The artificial chemicals added to processed foods in the US are linked to cancer. They are added for aesthetic reasons or for minor taste. Many of those foods are reformulated without the cancer causing substances and sold in Europe where people’s health seems to be given priority over corporate profits.
199
@Asher B If eating foods that aren't linked to cancer makes me a snob..I'm happy to accept the label. I would argue that every American deserves the ability to avoid carcinogens though..you disagree?
25
So what have been the identifiable health benefits? There should be measurable consequences of good or bad policy - not just conversation fodder for one’s current ideology.
3
My wife is European and we visit her family about every other year. I assure you, there is no shortage of sugary breakfast cereal or plastic-wrapped snack cakes at Grandma's house. I am not happy, however, that my favorite soft drink now includes sucralose in addition to the cane sugar that made it soooo good. Now I can't even bear to swallow a mouthful. Thanks for nothing, EFSA.
9
Unfortunately, lobby interests so often trump the people's interests in the USA. We need to fix that.
27
As taste buds die off in we elderly folk according to a Ph.D NP Gerontologist I know who mentioned at a clinical lecture I atended "Older people often increase sugar and salt as those are the taste buds in our wagging tongues that are the last to go due to age which helps us realize pleasure from taste".
I now do need strength to stay away from pretzels & candy ,foods I never wished for in younger days.
7
@Carlyle T.
Oh come on. I'm in my 70s, as are most of my friends, and you're not describing our experience. Try an apple or a pear or... But don't deal in ridiculous stereotypes , no matter if a PhD is marketing them.
2
You could do a companion article about foods banned in the United States, but allowed in Europe. Raw milk cheese and haggis are two.
10
@Rick Haggis is horrible. Raw milk cheese made correctly as it is in France is fabulous- I don't eat it any other way.
6
Yes and the cheese tastes like cheese. We even drink raw milk, fresh from the cows. We never get ill, my children are healthy, since they were babies and I would not want it any other way.
6
Horse meat is also banned in the United States but popular in Europe.
10
There is always the option, provided you have a green thumb, a small patch of land and time, of growing your own berries, fruits, and vegetables, and raising your own chickens and harvesting their eggs. Flour and sugar can be bought because fields of grain and sugar cane and beets take up a lot of real estate. You can cook and bake from scratch, and can, dry or freeze the excess. That way, you can control the amount of pesticides, eliminate the additives, and eat a lot more cheaply, as well as eat a lot more, cheaply. It's what our ancestors used to do.
14
@Jackie For those starting a garden, first make sure your soil is tested for contaminants, especially lead from lead paint and other poisonous substances, so you know what you are (literally) getting into. Also some vegetables absorb contaminants and pollutants faster than others - I believe leafy greens are in this category but the local ag school or state agricultural office should be able to help on this one.
16
Vote with your dollars and only shop at stores that support accountability in food ingredients and labeling. Cook everything from scratch so you know what the ingredients are, and freeze single portions for later consumption. Processed food is poison. Gut health is the foundation of well-being.
18
@Kim Yennerell There is a lot of processed food sold in Sweden and it's amount is increasing. So, it's not just a problem of the United States but of people in affluent societies in general, people who don't have time or don't want afford time for cooking. And there is too much sugar consumed everywhere. Sugar is consumed at levels constituting a health problem much worse than the consumption of food additives. Of course, both should be avoided as much as possible.
6
All Sulfa containing chemical compounds which are used in American "deodorizing" or "smell masking" products found in "air fresheners" and "fabric softeners" are banned in Europe. Here due to our brilliant FDA, inhalation of such allergen producing products does not warrant a label.
As many as 120 chemicals are used in US American deodorizers, scented candles, and air fresheners. Though Sulfa is an Element, it combines to make very active compounds which but most people have severe allergies. Even using the gum like product of sulfa in makeup, "Mascara" can cause an allergic reaction.
13
@RR Sulfur is an element, not sulfa.
1
Just eating a hot dog on a white roll with ketchup, yellow mustard and green relish will kill you.
9
@Phantom....Yes, but it will probably take eighty years.
8
@Phantom A Chicago-style hot dog! Otherwise known as a garden dog. Very delicious and a worthwhile, once-a-year treat.
1
@Wayne Spitzer
Depends if you are at all sensitive...
Corporate grip on the United States Government is the problem here. It always has been and will continue to be as long as we accept the notion of acceptable risk. With current shipping and blockchain networks putting same day orders on my doorstep there's no reason with proper education that all Americans can eat better food. The links to obesity, cancer, weight gain, just to name a few, are directly linked to what Americans eat.
31
Should we change the compliment an appreciative diner might give to a waiter after a meal? Diner to the waiter, "My compliments to the chemist."
13
The author mentions GMOs only briefly, but also seems relevant to mention the tariffs that Monsanto lobbied the U.S. government to enact on all European cheese in retaliation for the EU's ban on GMO hormones used to boost milk production. It didn't used to cost an arm and a leg to buy Parmesan and Gruyere.
20
@Paul ....The WTO has ruled that the EU ban on GMOs is illegal because it is without merit. Bovine growth hormone is not a GMO and has nothing at all to do with Monsanto. Incidentally, bovine growth hormone is a protein and therefore is reduced to its component parts (amino acids, and di and tri peptides) when it is eaten. Unless you take milk by injection there is no way the intact functional hormone can get into your body.
5
Europe can ban what they want......has not bearing on what we do here. Who cares....
@There
Millions of Americans would rather not be poisoned. We care.
68
@There those of us who travel to Europe care when we experience eating great food. Their butter! WoW
6
@There
Yah - THAT'S the American Way y'all!
3
most americans just...don't care.
this is why governments exist - to protect people.
people don't want more government - let them gorge themselves on this garbage...
10
FDA is as dysfunctional as the health care system. All you get is stupid answers from the FDA.
15
I can’t buy salty licorice Swedish fish in the USA! Some stupid poison the FDA says.
As if poison matters. Bring me my fish!
4
@Pellenyc Says a fellow salmiak-obsessive: You can find it on the internet. It is imported by several companies. Google "nordic sweets" (also: "licorice international").
2
Ever get the impression that Americans are a vast pool of guinea pigs?
John~
American Net'Zen
39
We Americans are just hopelessly stupid.
However, look at the bright side. U.S. corporations enrich themselves by creating and selling ultra-expensive anti-cancer therapies, even though many of us can't afford them.
25
@Jay David
Read Dr. Hiromi Shinya on how to avoid cancer.
1
@Jay David:
We may be hopelessly stupid; we are certainly purposefully uneducated, not only in what constitutes good food and how to plant, raise and cook it.
We do need to work on that first.
1
This shows that the EU is more concerned with its citizens' health than lining lobbyists' pockets. Americans should be outraged.
43
@Minnie
That's why Trump and his British admirers want to get the UK out of Europe.
3
It’s a wonder: this list is like a catalog of the biggest mystery “ailments” in the USA and yet there is no link. When do Americans sue their government for killing us slowly?
9
if it comes in a bag, a box, or a can, don't buy it and don't eat it
15
Nuts, dried fruit, oatmeal, brown rice, sardines, salt, coffee.
6
@PeppaD
Yes. And potatoes, whole-wheat pasta, beans, split peas, lentils, cocoa.
It’s very simple folks: Europe actually cares about its people while America only cares about the money. Is that really a surprise when you live in a dog eat dog culture? In America it’s about business not people.
83
@Mike L
Business, not people. It’s killing us physically, mentally, spiritually.
10
This should be a feature article. Not a throw away Q&A.
29
The bread that is on sale in local supermarkets and corner shops is disgusting and doesn't resemble, in any way, the real thing.
I'm always amazed that Americans eat this unhealthy rubbish.
I know you can find good bread in expensive bakeries but you have to go out of your way to find them.
Why!!!?
24
@mary
Try making the no-knead bread that was in the NYT. You have to plan ahead but it’s very easy and only a few ingredients!
7
The bread from the bakery still isn't as good as the sourdough bread we make at home. Same goes for pizza.
3
@mary
My daughter just showed me how to make the no-knead NYT bread---it was fantastic. I will never buy bread again.
1
No surprise for a country beholden to big corporations especially those in big ag and the chemical industry. Life in the matrix...
27
@Buck
Sadly true. I saw a video of a meeting of the Dept of Ag. One thing that stands out in my mind. Milk sales are down so they want to add flavored milk to school lunches. Flavored milk is probably more sugar and additives. All to uphold the dairy farmer. Instead of forcing more milk on us and Canada, why not find something else for those dairy farmers to do?
9
What is it with the US and washing your food before selling it? I'm not looking forward to your chickens or eggs post Brexit.
https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/buying-and-supplying/food-safety/chlorinated-chicken-explained-why-do-the-americans-treat-their-poultry-with-chlorine/555618.article
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nadiaarumugam/2012/10/25/why-american-eggs-would-be-illegal-in-a-british-supermarket-and-vice-versa/#67f915c74050
9
@Paul, like your linked article says, it's about chemically obviating the need to practice good hygiene all along the food supply chain. Thank the gods we have much better alternatives in the USA to what the deplorable (for many more reasons than just chlorine "washes") commodity producers want to cram down our throats.
3
@Paul
I'm reminded of the mad cow disease in the UK some years ago. At the time, there were many reports on British farming practices. Freaked us all out pretty good. I'll continue to buy the cleaned eggs, thank you, but you don't have to.
2
If they can reformulate the food to be sold in Europe without these potentially-harmful chemicals, why can't they just sell the same food here? Disgusting example of corporate greed and kowtowing to the chemical companies' lobbyists.
58
@Roberta
How do we get our grocers to carry the European versions?
9
Thank you for enlightening us. That is exactly what the NYTimes does best.
7
The headline asks “What foods are banned....,” but the article is about chemical additives and drugs. This is indicative of the way we describe food in the United States these days.
7
corporations are people, and money is speech much?
9
Open the floodgates for the anti-American "everything is so much better in Europe" crowd. It is all mostly elitist nonsense.
3
@Asher B
Not everything, but SOME things are.
Howz your broandband/cable bill these days? And your health insurance doing?
37
Or you could just not eat of the toxic food manufactured by food companies, and not worry about your health all the time.
3
Here's something not many know about. JUUL, which produces vaping supplies, adds 40+ micrograms to a single smoking pod. This is the equivalent of about two packs of cigarettes. Europe limits this to half of that. Imagine what that does a teen brain, no wonder millions are addicted. It is shameful, if not criminal.
21
@Paulo
Micrograms of WHAT? Sheesh........
I'm presuming nicotine, but it could be kryptonite.
7
@Jus' Me, NYT Occasionally you really do have to presume a few things in life. He's talking about vaping pods, not about superman attributes.
2
The FDA, with this administration, will side with industry and not the American People. Nothing new there because a lot of money is at stake.
10
@AV, the FDA has sided with corporations over people under every administration since it was created.
6
the issue isn't just food additives and drugs.
how we feed and treat ourselves and the animals we eat
is still a shame - even in europe ...
- mass incarceration of poultry, cattle, pigs,
- transnational shipments of animals under hellish conditions,
- millions of 'useless' chicks shredded daily,
- tail-biting pigs, feather-pecking laying hens under stress,
- cows dehorned to limit injuries while stocking density increases,
- piglets being castrated w|o anesthesia,
- ...
- increasing numbers of people are immune to antibiotics
that are used to treat animals while multiresistent germs thrive!
- more and more people preferring meat over vegetables
= increasing amounts of methane etc overheating the globe,
- more soy beans are grown to feed animals rather than humans
= methane and other gases rapidly overheat the globe
[not to forget all the small farmers who lose their land],
- ...
- obesity,
- lack of physical activity,
- diseases of so-called civilization
befalling nation after nation after alienation.
34
That's why some of us buy free range organic.
1
@°julia eden
I wholeheartedly agree. The only real solution I can see is buying less meat and insist on the quality of life of animals whose meat you buy.
This has a number of advantages:
* Healthier living, too much meat isn't good for you,
* Better quality of life for farm animals
* Reduced climate impact. Meat has up to ten times the climate impact of vegestables.
1
As we can all see, nothing is more important than money in the good old USA. And the present administration is making it worse by relaxing many environmental laws in the name of making more money. This all literally makes me sick.
654
This alarmist puff piece could be straight from the Food Babe! I’m dismayed to find the agenda of the advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest regurgitated chapter and verse in a NYT article. The “banned in Europe” argument does address safety in the least, the author confuses ingredients, conflates warnings with bans, and makes an equivalence between bans and scientific rigor. Who cares what the EU does? Safety should be the only concern and good evidence the only foundation for a ban (not speculation or the precautionary principle). Each of the ingredients and other items considered here deserves a case-by-case weighing of evidence, not vague conspiracy mongering.
11
@Jeremy Sterritt
Yep. All those unnecessary chemicals must be good for us.
8
@Jeremy Sterritt Yes agreed and well put! You are brave to wade into this! The comments are indicative of our times. "Speculation", reliance on "precautionary principles", lack of interest in or ability to weigh evidence is a way of life for most folks in the USA today. We see it from folks -- like those posting here who label themselves liberal - and likely educated and we see it from the conservative side. Fear mongering and ignorance on both sides. We're doomed at it's not because of food dye or bread.
1
@fragilewing
Your straw man argument is what makes the NYT piece so unhelpful. I’m not saying that one or another food ingredient is “good for us” — that’s your dumb straw man. But the article implies, against evidence and regulatory oversight, that the drugs and food ingredients discussed sicken us. A conspiracy is framed in the article and amplified by commenters: hard-to-pronounce ingredients (and agricultural practices) are bad, and their unsafe presence in our food is protected by government, corporations, and other interests for nefarious reasons, whereas in Europe they are “banned” for virtuous reasons. In reality, both the US and EU take regulation seriously, but with less of a precautionary approach in the US where an evidentiary approach is favored. You don’t know any more than I do about food science, agriculture, and the vast schema of food and drug regulation in either system. So you buy into the Food Babe narrative of “chemicals are bad” (which is so silly it’s not even wrong). All I say is that I’m glad regulation and best practices are left to the experts, not trendy wellness puff pieces in the paper or easily manipulated emotions that run high around the food we eat.
1
Regarding the paragraph about brominated vegetable oil (BVO): BVO is not required for taste or enjoyment, it is a manufacturing aid, i.e. it helps reduce costs for the makers of the soft drinks (Mountain Dew, others) that contain it. The key concern here is not that we ingest bromine without need, but the fact that bromine, when attached to a hydrocarbon like in BVO is what is called a "good leaving group", i.e. it can split off spontaneously. Once the bromine leaves, the hydrocarbon (here: fatty acids in BVO) becomes a quite reactive alkylating agent that can chemically modify, for example, DNA. In fact, smaller brominated compounds such as methyl bromide are routinely used in the laboratory to induce random mutations in DNA. In other words, brominated organic compounds such as BVO can be mutagenic and carcinogenic. So, why would I want that in my soft drink, even in low concentrations?
41
@Pete in Downtown
That must help explain Mountain Dew Mouth which is so disgusting it makes me cry/cringe.
3
@Pete in Downtown Thanks for explaining the science.
7
No wonder we spend so much money
on health care. It is almost half in
European countries. A study was done
comparing health of Americans and
British of the same race. Health outcome
was better in England, yet US spent
twice as much on health care. Food
loaded with harmful additives and the
stress resulting from hyper competitiveness and the race to get
ahead take greater toll here than Europe.
28
Computers/robots can replace most of us. Humans are unnecessary. What better way to shorten our lifespan/reduce the population than messing with our food supply? Remember with every layoff of humans the market goes up....
9
@SW
Unfounded conspiracy theories are no more reasonable, no less harmful coming from the left than from the right.
There's no need to imagine a conspiracy when personal greed on a massive scale can account for the same phenomenon. (See Occam's Razor.)
11
@Sixofone
I didn't mention a conspiracy you did. As you pointed out profits over people.
American government has always been largely controlled by corporations through under- and now uncontrolled corporate campaign contributions (and post-term job offers and outright bribes). In Europe, less so-- because the people demand more regulation to protect them from corporate greed (and in many cases have tighter rules on campaign contributions).
The American people lack the will to keep corporations on a tighter leash. That's the only reason they bite as many people as they do.
23
Our food makes us sick because profits are more important than food safety. Our for-profit healthcare system goes lock step with this appalling phenomena. One could wonder if it is a coordinated and thought out effort at population control.
24
The government agencies tasked with ensuring safe food, water, air and drugs have been corrupted by related industries. Congressional oversight of these agencies is practically absent. I don't see a path out of this disgraceful and dangerous circumstance. But this article is a welcome addition to this section, and I hope to see more like it.
60
The fact that our economy depends on low-wage workers means we have a large population that works too many hours to pay the rent; cooking all our meals becomes the privilege of the well-off. Stores which provide a wide array of fresh, healthful foods locate only in affluent areas, to maximize profits. Someone with two jobs, or without a car, cannot shop outside of their neighborhood. Maximization of profits will motivate fast-food corporations to sell inexpensive and unhealthy foods, and the lack of choice will do the rest. The lack of government protections for the public's health means it is deeply complicit in this travesty.
51
Another good reason to keep programs like Family & Consumer Science classes in public schools. Students need to learn how and why to read all labels along with how to plan, budget and cook at home.
34
My folks in FL are sometimes laughed at when they order fresh NYC bagels online, shipped fresh overnight for $44.
But that's the true cost of fresh bagels there without bromides and monoglycerides. And they taste mych better too!
13
@R.A.K. I would still laugh - bagels are easy to make and even with top ingredients free of bromides and monoglycerides, the cost is much lower than ordering from another state where the vendor may or may not be truthful about the ingredients used in their products. Homemade baked goods, particularly bread, are best consumed in 5ish days because of the lack of preservatives that can be found in commercial products. If your parents' bagels last longer than that, I would suspect something is amiss.
5
The key difference between European and US regulatory rules and agencies boils down to this: In Europe, food additives have to be proven to be safe (no evidence to the contrary). In the US, food additives are allowed, unless strong evidence against their safety emerges. This permits the grandfathering or grandmothering here in the US of additives that are either suspected or even strongly suggested to possibly cause harm. This current attitude to food safety regulation increases our risk as consumers to be harmed by the food we eat, as it can take years or decades for proof of an additive causing harm to emerge. The other way (used in Europe) puts the onus of demonstrating safety on the companies who want to use or sell it. I am not a "everything is better in Europe" (it isn't), but, for food additives, their approach makes more sense to me.
139
@Pete in Downtown
Well I have to say everything is better here, at least in Vienna (voted to be the best City in the world by the Economist).
Food, public transportation, bike lanes, health care...I drink water from the Alps here, streaming down in viaducts all the way from Wildalpen up there to this city. In our FL-home we filter it 4 times before use. So yes, everything is better here!
3
The US is a low-regulatory nation. This creates a power vacuum. Enter class action lawsuits with huge payouts. That’s our regulatory system. Corporations caught on long ago and force arbitration, which doesn’t allow gathering suits together, so no one can afford to sue individually. Republicans lie that we have too much red tape, but we do not have nearly enough, and what we have isn’t enforced.
59
@Daniel Mozes. ....we set the bare minimum quality standards here in the USA while in France they have standards for outstanding excellence...such a different POV.... when will Americans wake up? Eat real food all the time....it's better in every way. Chemicals do not make food better. You are what you eat and there are consequences for consuming junk that offers no nutrition only empty calories.
When I moved back east, I asked my local supermarket to have a candy/junk food free, checkout aisle that I could take my kids through without task. They looked at me like I was some radical parent from Mars. Why would they want to do that? Product placement on shelves is at eye level for kids too, like those gummy candy 'fruit' flavored snacks, high in fructose corn syrup. Used to drive me nuts trying to shop well and healthy.
Take a look at what we're up against in the junk food advertising dept. It sets kids up against their parents.
48
I had a chronic cough for a number of years. At the suggestion of a friend I stopped eating products manufactured in this country that were made with wheat. I did continue to eat products manufactured in the US if they were labeled organic. It took approximately two weeks for the cough to almost completely subside. Now I will only buy pastas from Italy as well as refraining from buying products manufactured with wheat domestically. After consulting with an allergist who had no way of testing this theory I can only assume that I am allergic to additives or pesticides that are added in this country and forbidden in Europe.
93
@Sandy
In addition to the additives mentioned in this article, Glyphosate (round-up) is often used as a desiccant on domestic, non-organic wheat, so it likely persists through the process of grinding the wheat into flour.
1
@Sandy:
While it is certainly possible you are allergic to additives or pesticides used in the US, your "experiment" does not prove so. You left out the placebo effect - which is a very major issue in self-reported "studies". It is MORE likely that placebo affected your results than additives.
Another way to look at it: nearly the same additives/pesticides used in the US in food products are also used in non-food products. Things like (aerosols, cleaning agents, laundry detergents, cosmetics, medication (their coloring, binding agents, etc), natural clothing/cotton underwear/socks, etc.). So if it was the additives/pesticides, they would remain all over your home (we don't have to only ingest chemicals... many are inhaled and absorbed through our skin). So they would continue making you sick.
Since you reported an improvement... it points to at least one placebo effect.
@Sandy I have the same allergy to US grown wheat. A couple of decades or so ago, wheat growers shifted to growing wheat hybridized to be much higher in gluten. This is entirely for the profit of commercial bakers, who don't care if this wheat makes many of us sick.
I get hives when I ingest a yellow food dye so I'm forever asking "Do you have an ingredient list?" when I eat out. It is so much easier in Europe where I don't have to read labels or try to figure out how to ask about food dye when ordering gelato. I can even drink orange soft drinks. I wish the US would get on board. (Quaker, are you listening?)
39
@Northshore No, Quaker is not, nor ever will, listen to you. Your hives are a matter of indifference compared to profits.
8
In Europe junk food is way more expensive too. A bag of chips can set you bag more than 5 bucks. Whereas fruits, veg, breads, real cheeses/dairy and meats are mostly all affordable.
I say tax the heck out of junk food here. Make it almost unaffordable and people will buy less of it or none at all.
Our fruits/veggies prices are getting super high where I live.
A dollar for a piece of fruit of decent size, like an orange.
Not too long ago, I bought a week's worth of groceries for 2 people in Krakow for a little less than 20 US dollars. Real good, healthy, delicious food. I can't even walk out of my local grocery store with one bag of food that cost less than 20 bucks. Who can afford to eat well in the US anymore? And no, not eating just beans and rice, sorry.
270
@jm
20 US$ may be enough in Krakow but not in a Western European country. The U.S can be compared to countries where household incomes are similar, e.g. France or Belgium but not to Poland.
And a bag of chips 5 bucks?? Must have been in Norway, one of the most expensive countries in the world; in my supermarket I pay, depending on the label, between 1.20 and 2.20 euros (US$ 1,40 - 2,50).
26
@jm We live in Slovenia. I am a U.S. citizen and my wife has dual U.S. and Slovenian citizenship. Our adult daughter, also a dual citizen, lives and works in D.C. We and she eat well and yet she pays more for food for a week than we do in two weeks. Especially fresh fruits and veggies. Meat in general is significantly less expensive here than in the States. We are often shocked at today's prices as we haven't lived in the States for 8 years now.
29
@jm
The US is a "junk food" nation/system. Without "junk food" or the less regulatory atmosphere we would have less spending on curing poor health conditions etc.
21
From the point of view of an expat living in Europe, I would say that much of the food we get here is adulterated with various additives, preservatives, and other chemicals. Even many of the artisanal products - such as bread produced by bakers and sausages produced by butchers - are made with numerous additives and intermediate products (bread mixes, etc.). There would be even more were the agribusinesses and agricultural lobbies to have their way every time, and it is a constant battle for consumer advocates and citizens groups.
19
I eat plant based whole foods, which means no animal products and minimal slightly processed foods. I started baking bread 5 years ago out of desperation, when I read the list of ingredients on commercial bread loaves, and had no idea what many of them were -- but now I like my sourdough whole grain breads so much better than anything I can buy. Plant based eating means that I have few options for eating out -- and even though I am a middling cook, my meals are almost always better than restaurant ones, and healthier, as well. Plus, I don't have to worry about this list of ingredients banned in Europe.
Big Food does not care about their customers' health and well being, only their bottom line -- so cheaper, faster, manufacture of engineered "appealing" "tasty" long-lasting edible products. The executives know enough to know better than to feed their company products to their own families.
57
@Dr. J
I can help you get beyond being a "middling" cook. My husband and I post whole food, plant-based cooking videos to help folks like you. Check out our YouTube channel under the name Happy Vegan Couple. All free content. We have a bunch of videos of tasty, recipes that we eat in our home. As an educator of the benefits of plant-based nutrtition, we are happy our dietary style inherently eliminates much of the toxic chemicals that most people get when eating their processed and animal food.
10
add rBST which seeps into all layers of diary products and Glyphosate which is in almost all non organic wheats (used for harvesting?).
Big Ag profit over common sense thinking introduces unnecessary chemicals into the bottom rungs of the US food chain. Consumers 'eat' the health impacts & health costs.
Time to raise awareness and make improvements.
21
I avoid a lot of processed products, but generally the quality of food here is in my opinion much better than I have experienced in the US.
One of the things that worries me about Brexit is that we may be forced into a trade deal with the US that involves importing chlorinated chicken, bleached flour and the like. I'd never eat those myself and fortunately can afford to make good food choices regardless of cost, but many can't.
The food culture in the UK is already closer to that of the US than Europe. Nothing wrong with that of course, but I hate the thought that we'll
end up importing the more harmful aspects of your cuisine.
68
@katy890:
You make salient observations.
Another element, if Brexit were to complete, would be that your nation's healthcare costs would rise due to the inferior US-made foods you would begin to import/consume.
You will see many additional societal costs imposed by Brexit.
2
This is merely reflective of a major difference between the US and the more intellectually advanced nations of the world. We also are the only country in the world that is unable to adapt to the world standard metric system of weights and measures. It is deemed too difficult for our populace to master. Perhaps so.
Look at whom we have elected and put in control of the White House, the Senate and the majority of our state legislatures.
Check our student scores vs. those of the more advanced nations in STEM subjects. Duh!
179
@Penseur I have to disagree on your statement about weights and measurements. As a machinist I can tell you metric is way simpler, increments of 10. While in the US we use increments of 16. While I can rattle off most decimal equivalents to the 16ths, 32nds would require a moment, a combination of memorization and a math trick I can assure you I could do metric without even thinking. It is quite a problem with new hires who have not dealt with it before.
29
@Penseur Well stated. Thank you.
12
@Norman: Thanks for the response. I worked in pharmaceuticals -- in international sales mostly -- so I am much the same. My Dad was a machinist in the days before folks here thought in metrics. What you do sounds like a great improvement.-- especially if anything you make is for export. Kind of a shame, though, in this day and age, that anyone has to bother learning the old system in addition to the world standard metric system. I still cannot fathom pecks, bushels, etc. and have difficulty in trying to go from liquid measure to cubic measure in our old system.
12
The actual poisons are easy to spot. More nefarious is the ubiquitous additive hiding in plain sight: unnecessary sugars, (plural: maple syrup, honey, cane juice, etc.) Even among the artisanal breads made by well meaning bakers it's hard to find a bread that doesn't contain sugar. Always you hear the answer: "Sugar is needed to promote the yeast". Always I reply, "Then why is it possible for the French, where sugar is illegal in bread?"
But if you still down a layer you'll see that there is sugar in the bread so that it tastes more like the ham (sugar, always), the mayo, (sugar, always), etc. If you ask an "artisanal" ham maker, with hand written labels and all natural ingredients, if they'd consider making a ham without sugar (like they do in Europe, where ham tastes like ham), they look worried and reply: "Why would we do that?"
Europeans call Americans 'big children'. We’re a nation of children feeding ourselves while the parents are away. Only they're not away, They’re gleefully watching us poison ourselves, counting the profits, and saying "Keep the change: We like things just the way they are."
Here's a great way to start an argument among foodies: propose that, all things considered, American food was much better fifty years ago. They'll tell you about the great Shiitake mushrooms you can get in Kenosha, and you'll tell them that we're far fatter, sicker, and live less long. Yes, we had a food revolution all right, and the wrong side won.
212
Sugar isn't needed to get a good rise in bread. I bake bread all the time without any sugar, just organic local four, water, salt, and my own sourdough, which is just water and whole grain flour on which wild yeast thrive. I'll get the loaves mixed in the evening, and by morning, they are plump and ready for the oven.
22
@Sera
France has some of the sweetest foods you can find. Have you seen a yoghurt aisle in a French supermarket? Shelves of highly sweetened yoghurt which is little more than a candy food.
This is replicated across the EU.
Australia and New Zealand do a far better job at this.
6
@Sera
I expect that the food has improved for the wealthy and those in the know, but has declined for the vast majority who must choose based on limitations.
5
My country imports defense gadgets from Europe and planning to open dairy sector to US, so we have happy combination of both the worlds.
1
I cannot see Americans buying milk from India. we have an over supply of dairy in north America, and like our dairy fresh (not weeks on a boat getting here).
3
This isn't surprising. With Big AG running the industrial food complex in this country, food is so highly processed, that it's a completely man-made product. You need a PhD in chemistry to understand the label.
53
As usual, the business of America is and always has been (big) business. The interests (i.e.) profits generated by the big players in the food industry clearly trump those of the general public, which is being fed chemicals and additives that are not found in honest food, anywhere else in the world. We have become guinea pigs for food scientists, who seem to delight in producing 'frankenfoods' that look and taste great, but have little nutritional value, and very often, a poisonous aftermath. And, we wonder why there's a surge in cancer and other odd, uncurable afflictions in the US?
20
The food in Europe usually tastes better than the food in America.
37
@Bailey T Dog, Not usually, it seems like always.
I'll never forget when my kids first tasted 'real' ham in Portugal. They were young and even noticed the difference.
8
It’s insane the copious amounts of toxins, carcinogens are in numerous products Here in the U.S . Still baffled o. why can’t we emulate the same regulations and protocols that Europe is following. This issue is just exacerbating every single American’s health even if we don’t realize it. FDA take notes, It’s time for a drastic change in 2019.
20
@Jennifer Glen Vote accordinly. Ask your candidates what their views are. In particular ask them where their funding comes from.
6
The irony is that food in Europe tastes so much better. Every time we go, we are amazed at how food tastes ... like food! Lemon flavored things taste like lemon and peach flavored things taste like peach. The textures are better--crunchy, velvety, etc. And nothing has that oily, slimy film that American food has.
192
@Ritch66, just get away from Safeway, etc., and shop at your local food co-op. Everything there is as healthy and tasty as anywhere in the world. Plus, you'll be encouraging clean, sensible agriculture by adding to the demand.
14
We eat great. But we don’t live in a major metropolitan area. We live in a semi rural part of New England where you can’t drive five miles without passing an organic farm. Our meat, cheese and fruits/vegetables in season are much admired by Parisians of my acquaintance. We also have artisanal bread galore.
18
Under the heading "Potassium bromate and ....", the author discusses addition of potassium bromide to flour. Potassium bromide and potassium bromate are two different compounds with different biological, chemical, and hazard properties. Is this a mistake that slipped by in the editing process, or is the author really discussing both potassium bromide and potassium bromate?
14
Thank you for this. I lived in the U K and europe for about 8 years. I never worried a single day about what i ate. But here, all food is contaminated...theUS markets itself as a mecca where small entreprepreneurs can make it big. But the reality is that it is an oligarchy, where corporate interests have hollowed out its democracy, its markets and are also damaging the health of its consumers...long live Europe because the European project truly has been one aimed at uplifting its citizens....
54
I thought this was going to be a list of products not a list of obscure ingredients which are in "many things". Very informative and very unhelpful
15
I think it’s impossible to put a list of products because you will find these “ingredients” are in every product in our country. Unless it’s a raw vegetable.
5
I believe Europe also regulates the chemicals used in their soaps, shampoos, other body products and cleaning products. People are more aware of what is bad for you. We are slowly being poisoned as well through our largest organ, the skin.
58
@B, Canada is stricter in these regards, also including household cleaning products.
20
@B, the Environmental Working Group has a very helpful database of questionable and outright harmful substances in personal care, household cleaner, and other categories of consumer products, including the tap water provided by different cities : www.ewg.org.
11
@B You're correct. As an MD, I didn't pay attention to these issues even as I knew that the skin can absorb a lot of chemicals. After all, we prescribe topical substances for varying reasons and in varying doses. Over the last few years, however, our family has gradually switched many of our personal care products as well as things like laundry detergents that touch our skin. We also use dryer cloth balls and the sun - no dryer sheets -- to fluff and dry our clothes.
The bloated obesity rates and falling life expectancy in the U.S. suggest there is something fundamentally amiss with the American food supply.
112
This Christmas my Asian wife decided she wanted to cook lasagna for the first time. We went shopping and she had her list of ingredients. I decided that all of them or as many as possible should be “ organic”. In collecting those ingredients the astronomical price differences between the “organic” and the “others” was astonishing ! “Organic” did prevail and the lasagna was delicious !
5
@John Taylor: i'm glad you enjoyed the organic version.
too bad that 'organic' is still unaffordable for a majority.
"industrial" food is so very cheap bc customers
don't pay for the environmental damage it does.
factor that damage in ... and people will wish they had
a patch of land to home-grow stuff in their backyards.
2
@°julia eden: i'm glad you enjoyed the organic version. too bad that 'organic' is still unaffordable for a majority.
Two points: First, you're not comparing like with like. The junk at Safeway barely deserves to be called food.
Second, the price difference is becoming smaller to neglible across several product lines, as organic scales up to provide for the demand. See, for example, Field Day Organics, which has become a sort of house brand for the national network of food co-ops; the aggregate demand enables them to offer actual decent food for similar prices you'd pay for the mega-corporate garbage.
This is another situation of a failed political system, a failure of government to protect its citizens. Those of us who are aware of the carcinogens that corporations use and the US government condones in children’s cereals, cake mixes and numerous other popular foods need to speak loudly and support organizations that educate the public and advocate for change in government policy and regulations. Given the bleak outlook for change in govt, we should boycott the companies that continue to poison our people in the name of profit.
32
My son reacted very badly to red dye 40. He needed antibiotics once for an infection. That's when I discovered that every single antibiotic on the market contained red dye 40. This wasn't so long ago: 2003.
It's not just in your food.
48
@Citizen
why would anyone put red dye (40) in antibiotics?
I guess I can understand the (un) logic in food so it "looks" good but antibiotics???
all those dyes are listed at the bottom of ingredient lists on not just food or body products but also PET FOOD
WHY??? like pets know the difference if their food has color?
if not plant-based & natural, don't eat it
only vegs & fruits- NO junk food w/ no nutritional value - (kale)chips, cookies, breads etc. only made by you-
5
In the US "safe" means there is a market for it.
28
I spent the last 2 years in Mexico (in the Peace Corps) and was amazed at the access for seasonal fruits and veggies. Even the poorest regions seem to have a local market and the costs were low. I didn’t find any food deserts in big cities like I do here in the US. I know that companies like Monsanto and other chemical companies are making there way into everyday life and tainting that food supply. My little pueblito was showing up as a cancer cluster and the town was fighting back with programs for sustainable farming. But the processed food is such as powerful lure.... it was sad to see the traditional healthy choices falling away and people getting sicker from these western, man-made diseases. I saw same thing working in Samoa .... traditional diets replaced by processed non-food.
21
Until we hold our politicians accountable for failing to protect us, the incorporation of unnecessary and potentially harmful substances into US foods will likely continue.
20
Eating home cooked food with more vegetables and fruits helps. It is economical too. Though concern over use of pesticides and fertilizers persists, which can be partly resolved by washing and soaking for a while in water. This diet also cuts down a lot on other chemicals (food additives, preservatives and taste enhancers).
11
Food additives is one thing, but another issue is how lack of standards in the US is used to defraud consumers. One example is how olive oil is peddled as extra virgin in the US that would never qualify for that designation or labelling in the EU.
Another vital issue is the impact of the vast amounts of antibiotics and other drugs being used on products people in the US consume. Yet another is chemical pesticides, including some forbidden in Europe.
28
@LT73
The same adulterated so called extra virgin olive oil is sold in Europe!
i worked for the earthy crunchy groceria for 15 years, working t store level making cakes and pastries. there was a long list of what were called "unclean ingredients" and i was constantly on the peek for them. one supplier claimed to have clean macaroon paste so i ordered some. before i even had a chance to open it i noticed the label said "1/10 of 1 percent potassium sorbate added to preserve freshness." couldn't use it.
another vendor who was looking for business was wandering around the shop one day and said, "hmmph. my walnuts don't have BHT." that had slipped by the same supplier as the macaroon paste. couldn't use them.
i had to make a birthday cake over the weekend and i chose to buy cake flour, which has been treated with chlorine. i don't even like the smell of it, but the cake came out beautifully.
now i'm all confused.
7
1. Sadly, in the era of Trump and Citizens United, who can trust the FDA or any government agency for that matter? We are on our own.
2. Did I read this correctly? Additives that were approved prior to 1958 (1958!) are considered safe because, well, they were in use prior to the 1958 regulations?
3. Read all food labels. Even though they tell only part of the story, and conceal much more, at least they can help one avoid the worst stuff.
36
@Jane
One of the greatest and most valuable personal assets is the ability to cook. I can't imagine living my life without that skill which I've been "practicing" since I was a child. As an 88 year old I still enjoy those activities; adds to the interest of my life and helps protect my life.
11
Once again a superficial science article that fails to describe the important details of how EU regulations differ substantially from the US, and not necessarily for the better. The EU bans based on what is called “hazard,” which means it is purely precuationary and not based on exposure. This generally means that the EU bans without data, not much different from Prop 65 in California.
9
@LTJThe big difference in the EU is that officials who are less sensitive to lobbying from industry are responsible for assessing safety and for standards setting. This was one of the reasons it is slowly emerging that various rightwing US billionaires were helping to fund the Brexit campaign.
By contrast, in the US the FDA and Department of Agriculture are very open to political pressure and lobbying - and that is the main reason why things remain legal in the US after they have been banned in the EU.
19
@LTJ - One of the things that amazes me about how we in the US regulate these things is that in order to ban something, we first have to prove that it is harmful (usually battling with some entrenched interest somewhere).
Since the FDA is supposed to advocate for us citizens, why aren't the additive producers required to prove safety first?
It has always seemed to me that the cart is before the horse.
24
And this is a problem because...?
3
The health of humans in many parts of the world including Asia and Puerto Rico as well as Native Americans have been suffering from the American diet with its additive laden, highly processed and high calorie foods, just like those here who eat American fast food every day.
Any given food may, by itself, not cause much of a problem, but add them up and the consequences of consuming them all are obvious. The mega food industries need more regulation so they make us less sick as they make more profits.
7
The American system is deliberately designed to keep us sick and the food and pharmaceutical industries rich and powerful. Our food makes us sick, so then we have to take medicine for diabetes or cancer. And if you have large swarths of people who are sick, you have a population in survival mode, and people in survival mode don't agitate for change.
Every time I move back to Europe, I lose 10 lbs. even though I eat foods there that I normally avoid in the U.S. like cheese, bread, pasta and sugary desserts. And every time I come back to the U.S., I put that weight right back on, even though I don't eat those types of foods here. Every time.
217
@Elsie, An obese population can't physically fight back either. When it's hard to get off of the couch, one won't be revolting in the streets as easily.
27
@Elsie
People who get sick may die young and forfeit accrued Social Security.
11
@Elsie Same, I eat all I want when I travel and typically loose weight-then I get home and put it back on. I now go through serious "food" shock as well as the typical culture shock, but after 50 years of international travel that shock is wearing off, it's only shocking to me how far we have slipped in those 50 years away from any similarity we once had with the other countries.
11
The safest, healthiest and tastiest food comes directly from naturally grown plants eaten simply and as close to the time it is picked. I'm a foodie and cooked in the most expensive restaurant in the SF bay area years ago. My favorite meal is and will always be going out to the garden and munching on baby Romano beans (my favorite food), awesome tomatoes, the best celery, carrots and cucumbers. To many people these are the building blocks of great dishes but to me they are the great dishes. When I have guests over I invite them in the backyard to watch their faces glow when they taste what food should be.
This is the way that humans have eaten for thousands of years and is still the best way. It's cheaper, better for you and tastes better.
There is a 3-Michelin starred restaurant near my house whose most well known dish is called 'A Walk in the Garden' featuring produce from their farm down the road. I haven't spoken to anyone who lives in this area who thinks the $$$$ is worth it to eat at Manresa. I left there confused and was until friends told me that most people don't have a vegetable garden and it's a thrill to eat food that is so fresh. To me it's a sad state affairs.
22
@Sal Fladabosco We're lucky in CA to have access to fresh and even organic produce year around. Even barring $$, people living in other states and countries don't have that access. I've lived in other states.
1
In a nutshell, the laws of the United States protect the interests of corporations rather than people. This is true across the board, not just in the food industry.
394
@Rob D Corporations are people. Or was it Soylent Green is people. I get confused. Probably due to something I ate.
10
Rob D is right. Look at what passes for "safe" in medicines and medical devices. Beyond that, supplements aren't regulated at all.
6
@Rob D Not true, the people who run corporations are consumers too, they consume their own products despite major flaws. The problem is their culture, they believe that more is better and science is for weaklings. The idea that the "corporation" trumps people is silly, it's the culture of more stuff, more profits, bigger appetites and bigger profits that is killing us, the old, flawed American Dream.
1
So, cigarettes are sold behind counters, in gated cages (Costco), but breads, pastries, additive-laden goodies are often the first thing you see walking into the grocery store. Our one designated carcinogen takes the hit, and all the other bad guys walk free.
And many are sold in those nice little plastic trays- no longer recyclable. Another win-win for corporations, agribusiness.
54
@Jo Williams
Yep. That's probably the main reason for the anti-nicotine hysteria: to give the impression that there are no other culprits and that governments "care" - so they can keep peddling seriously harmful junk on unsuspecting people.
1
My brother lives in Europe, and it is shocking to see the difference between the American government and the European Union when it comes to protecting citizens from harm.
When it comes to food, for example, EU laws are based on the "precautionary principle." This means that because the union governments believe they have a social responsibility to protect the public from harm, when scientific investigation has found a plausible risk that a food or other substance may cause cancer or other negative effects, it is banned.
These protections can be relaxed only if further scientific findings emerge that provide sound evidence that no harm will result from the use of such foods or substances.
In our country, on the other hand, the only principle operating is that of the 'Almighty Dollar." Public harm? It's only collateral damage -- the justifiable cost of doing business.
Most European governments still operate --for the most part-- on behalf of their people, although cruel capitalism is beginning to erode the systems.
The majority of Americans have no idea what it means to live under a government that is not beholden to a few rich and powerful persons or corporations or other "big monied" interests, but is instead a government that is meant to serve and care for its citizens.
How tragic is that? More important, how did We the People let it come to this, and how do we fix it???
574
@SamsaraThe European Commission people doing the assessment are also much less vulnerable to political pressure and lobbying than the FDA and Department of Agriculture
44
@Samsara
How did we come to this? Well...it started with St. Ronnie.
38
@Samsara How do we fix it? Vote for Bernie,
9
Of the 28 countries in the EU, only Ireland has a higher cancer rate that the US. Assuming other factors (e.g., smoking) are roughly equivalent, it looks like the EU’s prohibitions may be working.
36
Sadly, this is partly a class issue. Go to an upscale food store in a well to do community, and you'll see people buying fresh fruits and vegetables, organically produced meats, and very little that comes in a box or a can with a shiny label featuring a cartoon character.
But then try a store where the MAGA crowd shops, and all you'll see will be packaged pastries, cold cuts, white bread, frozen dinners, and multiple 24 packs of carbonated sugar water.
The American diet had the civilized world laughing at us even before we elected a condo salesman as our 'precedent.'
144
I agree that it's a class issue but it has more to do with culture than money. I can go into the most expensive market in Silicon Valley and spend $5 and make a great dinner out of it. Most people these days don't know how to do that so they pay $5 for an order of fries to go with their burger or sit home and order junk delivered.
31
@Sal Fladabosco those nice markets don't exist in poor neighborhoods. There's the problem of access. Then the lack of a living wage makes it impossible to cook all meals. There's a danger of blaming the victim if we draw unrealistic comparisons between what well-off people can do because of access / privilege, and what non-affluent people can do.
30
@Green Tea
our so-called "president" is the leader of the MAGA mentality & low class junk food habit-
he eats fast food & is not afraid to admit it- guess he's not into helping himself to fresh product from the WH garden Michelle Obama started. SAD (diet)..
whatever is easy = salty, sweet with lots of meat -that's what's wrong with his brain & those that support him -
you are what you eat. meat makes you aggressive-
17
Let me understand this. There are elements in our food that are linked to cancer. But because they were put there before the enactment of the Delaney amendment the FDA allows them.
So, the FDA, which we unsuspecting citizens thought was in place to protect us is instead protecting the profits from the processed food industry.
Why don't we just pass a law that says if you want to sell anything that we inject into our body the manufacturer must prove to a high level of scientific probability that it will not cause any harm?
100
I bet you never worked for the government. I did for 2 weeks and couldn't take it anymore. It was unbelievable. The highest paid person in our department was the cousin of the manager, hired as a computer consultant. She called me at home to ask me a very complicated question: which side of the floppy disk goes into the computer first (HINT - they only went in one way. you couldn't put it in the wrong way). it would be like hiring a mechanic and they ask you what an oil filter does.
22
@drspock:
What you said is somewhat true, but the "Divil's in the details"...
Q: "the FDA, which we unsuspecting citizens thought was in place to protect us..."
A: Government agencies (like the FDA) ARE in place to protect us (though trump is weakening them all). And these agencies do as much as the laws permit. However, they are required to follow all laws (even laws that help companies). I am sure the FDA has many staff who want to ban food additives that were "grandfathered in". However, laws like the Delaney Amendment say that they cannot ban them. It is this law - the Delaney Amendment - that was passed by Congress, that forces the FDA to do this. The problem is Congress - who pass/approve laws. We have always had politicians "on the dole" of Big Corporate America. They create such "business friendly/citizen-harming" laws.
Q: "Why don't we just pass a law"...
A: Citizens cannot pass laws. Only Congress can (though trump is expanding presidential powers to pass more "Executive Orders" which are like laws). The problem is Congress and trump - politicians who are greedy.
Politicians cause these problems. Our government agencies had honest hard-working concerned citizens. But as we see the EPA being decimated by trump & his sycophants, this is occurring throughout our government.
That is the biggest problem with trump/trumpies. They are destroying our govt from the inside-out.
We need to impeach trump and pence!
3
In my five years living in London in the 2000s, I noted that the grocery stores carried fresh produce from all over the world, except the U. S. One day in a Waitrose store, which displayed signs as to the origin of produce, I was surprised to find yams from America. The only time and the only item.
35
@Dkhatt as a USA expat who has lived around the world (England, Singapore, Taiwan) I have seen very very little US products on sale, and when I do, they carry significant (and required) notifications on GMO inclusion, ractopine (which has led to bans in Asia of American beef) and other warnings. Needless to say, the overseas sales for American companies are hurt by the policies in the USA, and rightly so - I like to eat what is healthy and unadulterated.
42
@Dkhatt Waitrose is possibly the most upmarket grocery chain in the UK - owned by the John Lewis Partnership - i.e., by its employees. It is weirdly, the socialist (or at least Fabian) institution where the posh people and plutocrats prefer to shop (no one actually buys groceries at Fortnum & Mason or Harrods); the John Lewis department store chain is where they buy household furnishings and White Goods. Waitrose/John Lewis "own brand" products and food are uniformly of better quality than most independently-branded counterparts.
If you were to venture to say Iceland, you'd notice a rather poorer selection of vegetables and fruit - though admittedly better than its US counterparts.
4
@MacK Waitrose is excellent but very expensive. The best shops (other than street markets, which can be variable) to get good fruit and vegetables are actually the German-run supermarkets Lidl and Aldi. I dread what's going to happen to them if Brexit really happens. And the thought of doing a trade deal with Trump is simply horrific.
18
This is not a problem we can lay at the feet of The Government or Greedy Corporations and move on. We (Americans) care far too little about what we're putting into our bodies as long as it tastes good and is cheap. Those of us who read articles like this and understand the implications, and yet fail to take action, must shoulder some responsibility for the problem. Literacy, ability to afford nutritious and safe food, and political engagement are becoming luxuries in the U.S.--I don't think that these declines are unrelated.
87
@H.L. read about "regulatory capture."
2
Unbelievable. This is precisely where we need government to step in. Private companies are motivated by profit. We cannot expect them to be altruistic or even care about our long term health. Government needs to protect us here, we as non-technical individuals have no ability to discern what is safe or not safe for consumption, and shouldn't have to. No doubt agri-industry has bought off Republicans. All hail the almighty dollar.
105
As you understand, Joe, a government purchased and owned at every level by those for-profit industries is of ZERO protective value to mere citizens. This holds true through GOP/Dem administrations alike.
Anyone who eats had best stay vigilant against the many addictive and deleterious products promoted by these death industries as food.
Bill Clinton and DJT might be seen joyfully chowing down together at the local Burgerama, but you wouldn't want to see either in a bathing suit.
5
An interesting comparison is US McDonald's fries have 19 ingredients whereas UK McDonald's fries have 3 ingredients. Why on earth are they using 19 to make a simple potato chip? Talk about overdoing it.
650
@Ben,
Leave a plate of these US fried potatoes at room temperature for a few days, a week, a month, and you might have the answer to why little change is noted in the above.
30
@Miss Ley, I like your comment: it makes me wonder what effect the US fries have on our gut microbes, if they are filled with preservatives -- which means that they prevent the food from spoiling due to the growth of naturally occurring bacteria and other microorganisms. No thank you! I'll eat my potatoes plain, oven-roasted, steamed, or mashed -- wonderful with cauliflower!!
42
@Ben
Is "potato chip" British for fries, or is "fries" British for potato chip?
2
Folic acid supplementation is not used in all of Europe. Its used here -- on all that eat enriched grain products -- in hopes that mothers who don't eat nutritiously will benefit. In reality, it causes cancer.
11
@ARP Please provided a reliable citation for your assertion that folic acid "causes cancer". Do NOT cite the 2009 Norway study using 1998-2005 data that suggests that the combination of high dose folic acid AND B12 "might" slightly increase the risk of cancer. FYI there are a variety of other studies suggesting folic acid reduces cancer risk. Note I have zero ties to any related industry.
34
That too many vitamin supplements cause more harm than good has been widely reported... Vitamania is a recent book, and Frontline did a documentary a couple years ago.
1
@R that’s a very different statement than “folic acid supplementation causes cancer”.
Potassium bromate and potassium bromide are mentioned in this note as if they were the same substance. In fact these are two different chemical compounds. The one used in baking is potassium bromate. I consider a precision must be done about this little chemical detail.
40
Potassium bromate and potassium bromide are mentioned in this note as if they were the same chemical substance. In fact they are different chemical compounds. The one currently used in bakery is potassium bromate. I guess a correction is worth.
8
Another thing not added to food or water in the majority of Europe is fluoride. Although approximately 75% of Americans consume fluoridated water, only about 2% of Europeans do, and that is mostly in the Republic of Ireland. In a handful of EU countries, fluoridated salt is an option but holds a minority share mostly being used in institutional settings like the military and prison. Europeans also have fewer cavities than Americans without consuming fluoride. Europeans also have better health and live longer than Americans per 2013 IOM report "U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health." Could it be because Europeans consume less poison?
95
@K Spencer
Adding fluoride to water is common in the US, as the fluoride makers pushed the adding -- to increase sales of their product.
Fluoride has been shown to reduce cavities when applied topically to teeth (e.g. in toothpaste). But not when consumed systemically. Better would be to swish the fluoridated water around in one's mouth and then spit it out.
Another problem with tap water in the US is the trace pharmaceuticals it has, due to people flushing their old drugs down the toilet. This is extremely hard to remove. So it is still in purified tap water. Poland Spring certifies that their water is pharmaceutical-free. It is collected in the mountains, with no toilets above.
11
@Don Wiss Toothpaste has over a thousand times the concentration of fluoride as tap water. At that concentration, toothpaste effectively inhibits cavity causing plaque for a couple of hours. There is absolutely no benefit from fluoridated tap water which results in over half of American teens having dental fluorosis, which will proved costly for many of them.
10
See 2018 interview w/European scientist on why Europe does not fluoridate: https://youtu.be/fwukipamdxQ
“Fluoride: The Freedom Fight” by H. C. Moolenburgh (May 1987) details the objections that resulted in fluoridation ending in the Netherlands with the ruling below. A 2014 interview is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw3xbtS4vpM
FINAL RULING: “The Crown finds this licence in conflict with the principles of decent government, as these are based on the general awareness of what is right. This means that the caution which should always be observed by the government had been violated, preventing consumers with objections to fluoridation to obtain non-fluoridated water in a practical way.”
9
In trade negotiations with Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, the US has consistently insisted on these countries allowing more imports of US beef and pork before other areas of trade can be discussed. Taiwan has long objected to beef and pork raised using ractopimine, citing the EU ban for confirmation. The US claims this is unscientific. When Taiwan gave ground a bit in the case of beef, there were major street demonstrations. The government compromised by requiring all markets and restaurants to clearly identify the source of their beef. I remember 40 years ago when restaurants here proudly proclaimed that they used only USDA top grade beef. No longer. If they want customers, they advertise that their beef comes from Australia or New Zealand, not the US. What happened? Do people in the US know what they're eating?
480
@Alicia I know firsthand as an American expat in Taiwan the avoidance of USA beef. If you want good beef in Taiwan, Australia is the source! The population knows of ractopamine and avoid the risk, even when uncertainty is present. Simply, why eat something is adulterated when you can have a purer food source from elsewhere? If American farmers stop injecting ractopamine into their livestock, they would open larger markets globally.
75
@Alicia Lloyd I remember in the 1990s explaining to a US entity on trade issues when we represented Taiwan that it would be foolish to use trade measures to try to force Taiwan and the EU to import this beef and pork (and the ones with hormones) because in doing so they would raise the profile of the issue, undermining US products in general, and lead US customers to start asking hard questions too.
55
As someone who gets hives from many food additives (given up trying to figure out which ones) and who cooks rather than buying processed foods, it would be helpful to divide such lists into processed and non processed IF possible. The number of times I get a reaction has gotten much worse over recent years except when I am in Europe. I also have to wonder how many pesticides creep into food. Recently in Europe there are islands where all pesticides are banned (if followed). I plan to try one of those for a stay. I agree with the post about what harm can it do to ban this stuff from our food here.
51
There is more than one way to protect a country's national industries from foreign competition. One way is to impose tariffs. Another way is to ban foreign products in the interest of "safety". This has been widely done by various countries for many years. Two obvious examples in this list are bovine growth hormone and GMOs. A healthy suspicion needs to be employed on a case by case basis before people leap to what may be an erroneous conclusion.
12
@Wayne Spitzer
This may be the case in some instances, but certainly with regard to GMOs there is much more scepticism in Europe compared to the US. Here in I Switzerland there was a referendum demanding a 5year moratorium on GMOs in 2005. It was accepted and has been prolonged ever since. Fear of foreign competition had nothing to do with it.
94
@Andrea....That the people of Switzerland voted on a referendum. does not mean that the people understand GMOs and how genetics work. And it does not mean that the anti-GMO vote was not being promoted by Swiss industries that benefit economically from the ban. Fear of competition has everything to do with a ban on GMOs as it makes no scientific or safety sense.
38
@Wayne Spitze
Have GMOs been proven safe then? Things don't always work the way science says they do, after all that is science -- always new discoveries, always new pieces fitting together, always new variables to discover. As a price point product, why buy it if it may not be safe and its not necessary.
56
We can't trust the FDA to ensure the safety of our food. Like the rest of our government, they are in the pocket of corporate America. The answer is to go back in time--cook your own meals, grow your own vegetables (if possible) or buy from farmer's markets. Corporate America has sold us on the idea that it is "too hard" to bake from scratch, to cook healthy meals from scratch. I started baking from scratch when I was six and my mother taught me to cook when I was twelve. It is really not all that difficult. I've been cooking (from scratch) my whole life.
When Americans stop buying the processed food and avoiding the meat and poultry raised with chemicals and antibiotics, the markets will be forced to change their ways and follow the example of the European Union.
337
@Jacqueline Gauvin
I agree, Jacqueline.
In my experience the source of main meals for many Americans is prepared food and in many cases the customer has no awareness of the contents of those meals.
This "take-out" culture comes, I think, from their being so hard-pressed with work and other commitments and their perception that cooking takes too long and/or is too much effort.
It would seem that even a little education might convince them otherwise.
39
@Jacqueline Gauvin
Americans who work and are trying to raise children can't cook from scratch. And while it's nice to be able to afford to buy "organic" food, it's more expensive than regular food and many Americans can't afford that either.
We shouldn't be to quick to judge those whose opportunities don't match our own.
31
@Josh Hill, I dunno; when I was a single working mom (17 years), I prepared most of our meals at home -- as a vegetarian, there were few other options. (I still cook at home, and now eat plant based whole foods.)
Yet there are still a lot of junk vegetarian foods -- think sodas, chips, pretzels, cakes, cookies, doughnuts, candies, pizzas, etc -- so I still managed to gain weight. Which I also managed to lose by making healthier choices (more veggies, fruits instead of sweets, etc) and practicing portion control.
And it's not necessary to eat organic food: A LOT of processed "organic" food is still junk food: think chips, cakes, brownies, etc. Eating unprocessed whole foods, cooked at home, is the best way to eat, even if the food is conventionally grown.
31
Would that we all could afford to eat organic food. But that's not possible, so second best is living in the European Union where some humanitarian regulations still exist.
If the UK adopts Brexit they will be giving away this important health benefit. And if Bannon et al get their way, everything goes unregulated in a EU dismantled for the benefit of profiteers.
What does this have to do with us in the US? It paints a clear picture of where we need to fix the FDA and a whole host of regulatory agencies who have been influenced by big business in the past and are being trashed by this administration.
95
I would think any European politician looking for Bannon’s advice would have to start by hiding any connection with Bannon. His name would be poison for the vast, vast majority of Europeans.
9
Who would be hurt if the Federal gov't banned these ingredients? Would the food they are used in become too buy? Would the producers go out of business? Based on the European markets it appears that the answer to both those questions is no, so why not err on the side of caution and ban them in the US?
155
You have to look carefully at who is paying for "safety" studies and who is backing research. For decades now the USDA and other government "health" agencies have said cats found in food is bad for us. Yet it really is the sugar that is expanding our bodies. Soy beans were going to feed the world and replace meat. Yet soy mimics estrogen and increases the risk of estrogen driven cancers. These estrogen-similar compounds are harming human and animal reproduction.
Even in the face of research from around the world and truly independent US teams, the USDA and FDA refuse to even review their policies. So a word to the wise. If you want honest information as to what is healthier, gather information from around the world and draw your own conclusions.
61
@skramsv
You demonstrate your own problem: misinformation and misunderstanding of the available information.
It is not sugar that makes our bodies fat (and sugars are a type of carbs btw), it is the processed meats, especially poultry, as well as eggs, and dairy. Beef, of course, is quite awful as well. (And most studies touting their benefits come from eggs, dairy, meat are funded by those industries - oh, and I am not even touching on the pollution caused by these industries from contaminated waste that reaches the air and water, or climate change).
Soy is extraordinarily healthy for the vast majority of people - so your comment is way off base.
That being said FDA and USDA are, sadly, highly political organizations and it is correct to question their work.
11
@BMD
You couldn't be more badly misinformed. Low carb diets are used to *lose* weight, not gain it. It is virtually impossible to gain weight on a low carb diet.
5
@Stephanie Wood, it depends on the soy. All soy is nit the same. Like everything else, the U.S. food industry has found a way to ruin soy. Now, there was a study on soy that was quickly swept under the rug. https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/soy-alert/soy-and-the-brain/
2
Who is the FDA protecting? The food and drug producers!
And why is bread delicious everywhere but in America where a chemical broth of unpronounceable additives is mechanically kneaded into overprocessed flour? Most of what passes for bread on supermarket shelves are the relatives of the Twinkie.
829
@Prunella Arnold One way to improve the taste of bread is to use whole grain with the wheat germ included in the flour. I bought a home flour mill a few years ago and am quite happy with the improved taste. My sister-in-law claims a similar result can be obtained by adding wheat germ from a jar to commercial flour.
8
@Prunella Arnold
Come to Canada, Prunella, where every supermarket is stocked by non-GMO bakeries and hormone-free beef and pork.
23
@Prunella Arnold
You are correct. But, Americans are too lazy to learn how to bake good bread themselves. Convenience has its price.
17
Read the Southampton Report, a 3 year study on the effects of FD&A 5 and 6 (coal tar food dyes) involving thousands of children. The evidence strongly suggests that these plastic dyes cause hyperactivity in children. This was a huge study that like the climate science was torn apart by pharmaceutical companies in the USA. Follow the money; big pharma makes over 15 billion on medicating (just) children for ADHD / ADD in the USA. It is important to recognize that children react differently to environmental hazards- the FD &A are regularly lobbied (and paid millions) by big pharma companies (check out how much they received when the Southampton report came out).
Why is it that the NYT is so selective in its investigations when it comes to big pharmacy corps? What goes on there?
115
Some of those ADD/ADHD tablets are yellow or pink: would it not be interesting to check the ingredient list to see which dyes are used in them?
13
@Helen Roussel
They publish findings from ProPublica, which has done extensive investigations on the pharmaceutical industry, bribing of doctors for example.
6
@Helen Roussel
What makes these dyes "plastic"? Do you know what "plastic" means? Please explain. (It does not mean "made from coal tar".)
This is not intended as a defense of dyes, but of language.
2
Anyone who has enjoyed the privilege of traveling to Europe knows how real food tastes when it is not filled with preservatives and chemicals. Big agribusiness is the US is but one example of how our government has been hijacked to serve the interests of their wealthy owners/stockholders and not the interests of the people. Big business in all areas, from fossil fuel behemoths to technology firms like Google, now have most of the political power in the country and can—and do—bend government to their will, usually to the detriment of consumers. Until we get the money out of politics, we will continue to support government for the sake of big business, which is an oligarchy and not a democracy. We desperately need public financing of politicans with serious limits on campaign spending and time frames.
710
@BG
One doesn't need to go to Europe to taste real food. But anyone who has traveled to Europe also knows food can taste bad no matter where it's from.
15
@BG Very well put, BG.
6
@BG Here in the Valley of California, the best imaginable produce is harvested and sold at very very pricey, beyond Whole Foods, pricey stores.
The irony is that Stores like Trader Joes sell Mexican and Canadian produce instead of good and tasty produce from California. The Mexican produce is entirely substandard.
9
The FDA has approved as "safe" well over 100 drugs and medical devices which they've later withdrawn from the market. There have additionally been 100's more drugs which have had black box warnings attached to their labels after they were found to have dangerous and often life-threatening side effects. These drugs are also considered "safe" presumably, once you've read the black box warning. If they were "unsafe" they would be removed from the market. I guess safe, when uttered by the FDA really means "safe or sort of safe for now, until more thorough research reveals the truth. The FDA is a wonderful example of what's wrong with government today -- industry controlling the message and tying the hands of regulators to assure that regulation is often in name only.
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@Samantha.... "These drugs are also considered "safe" presumably, once you've read the black box warning.".....There is a difference between what the FDA approves and considers to be "safe" for treating cancer and what is "safe" for treating a common cold. In taking any drug there is always a risk versus benefit consideration. An example might be a blood thinner, which obviously if it performs as it is designed helps to prevent dangerous clotting, but also increases the risk of bleeding. If you don't have a perceived problem with clotting, you should not be taking it. I would add that the decisions made by the FDA are regarded as the gold standard by the rest of the world.
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@Samantha Yet here in the UK we're deprived of many drugs found to be far better than what was available in the '60's on the NHS.
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@S Blur....Please name one.
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The FDA needs a house cleaning. The food industry and not the public health is the main driver of policy. The science showing the negative impact that meat and dairy has on human health is suppressed by the meat and dairy lobby to promote consuming more disease promoting animal products,
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@John Raffaele
You sound like a vegan pushing their own agenda.
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@Joe
And you sound like a profoundly threatened lobbyist.
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@John Raffaele
The FDA, like all government agencies involved with food is a classical case of regulatory capture by industry. Just look at the revolving door linking FDA regulators and industry.
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But most importantly, the U.S. government’s regulations are protecting us from delicious milk and butter.
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@Christie
That will kill you just as quickly, if not faster, than many of the other additives.
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@BMD
Butter has been used in herder societies for several thousend years. If butter were so dangerous, these societies would have gone extinct long ago!
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