Food Dyes: The Toxic Situation

Over the decades, Americans have become riddled with disease, obesity and cancer. Most of these problems stem from the lack of unaltered food in our diets and nothing is being done to stop additives, and genetically modified foods that are massed...

February 3, 2011 | Source: Food Freedom Network | by Matt

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Over the decades, Americans have become riddled with disease, obesity and cancer. Most of these problems stem from the lack of unaltered food in our diets and nothing is being done to stop additives, and genetically modified foods that are massed produced for American consumption. Keep in mind that the United States is one of the only civilized nations that does not have strict regulation on nutrition labeling. Which gives companies free reign to lie about what goes into their food. The European Union (EU) recently placed regulations on labeling food dyes to inform consumers of the health risks he/she will take by ingesting food dyes: “the European Union required foods sold in Europe to include a warning label if they contain artificial food dyes, which said have been linked to health and behavioral problems, especially in children.” Please don’t take this as a promotion of the EU as a whole, the EU itself is a debate of it’s own. The EU is presently in the process of banning the growth/sale of many beneficial medicinal herbs. All in all, the EU and the UN are a big problem for the world as a whole. But for the sake of the article at hand, we will continue.

Food dyes are one of the most widely used and dangerous additives that have been around for a long time, and took a turn for the worse in the early 1900s. They are often added to foods to mask poor product quality or spoiled stock; ‘natural’ variations in color; protecting foods from color loss; temperature; moisture; air; and storage conditions. “The bulk of chemically synthesized colors were derived from aniline, a petroleum product that in pure form is toxic. Originally, these were dubbed “coal-tar” colors because the starting materials were obtained from bituminous coal”. The following website describes the Toxicity of Aniline which is a man-made chemical that is still widely used in food dyes today. As you scroll through the site, nothing indicates that this chemical is safe in any regards for human consumption at any level. Food dyes are used in baked goods, beverages, candies, gelatin, sodas, juice, pet food and things you would not suspect such as Florida oranges and salmon.