10,000+ Food Additives?!
Jul 07, 2024
Safe or Not Safe?
There are over 10,000 food additives currently approved by the U.S. FDA. Food additives are added to food to modify texture, taste, and appearance, to extend shelf-life, or improve packaging.
I just read an article that came out on the safety of a food additive that has been used for about a hundred years. BVO (Brominated Vegetable Oil), is a food additive included in various fruit-flavored beverages to keep citrus flavoring from floating to the top. In the late 1960s, after forty years of use, some questions arose regarding the safety of BVO, but the evidence was not conclusive. So, the FDA went ahead and removed BVO from the Generally Recognized as Safe list (GRAS), but still allowed its use in a limited capacity as a flavoring oil stabilizer in fruit-flavored beverages.
Longterm Effects
The available data at the time did not conclusively indicate immediate health risks for limited use, so it was still allowed in drinks. It was not until 2022, over sixty years later, that the FDA published a study suggesting that oral exposure to BVO had a negative impact on the thyroid.
The thyroid is small but it does so many things in the body! It produces hormones that regulate growth and development. It helps regulate body temperature, heart rate, and blood flow. The Thyroid is involved in brain development and muscles and bone health and it plays a major role in metabolism.
On July 3, 2024 the FDA officially revoked the ruling that allowed the use of BVO in food. Companies have one year to comply.
100 Year Experiment
We have no idea what these things are doing in our bodies over time. BVO has been in products and on store shelves for 100 years before its effects were conclusively determined to be detrimental to health and development.
This is one more reason to GO REAL. Real food doesn't contain chemicals, preservatives, or additives and your body knows exactly what to do with them.
Regulating and monitoring over 10,000 food additives is an impossible task! Just because an immediate adverse effect is not apparent in the body, does not equate to safe. There is no better time than now to take your health into your own hands.
By: Kristi Taylor
https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/brominated-vegetable-oil-bvo
https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/changes-science-law-and-regulatory-authorities/fdas-origin
https://www.healthychildren.org/English/healthy-living/nutrition/Pages/Food-Additives.aspx
