Food Additives Guide

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Gwennaford
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Joined: February 5th, 2008, 7:50 am
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Food Additives Guide

Post by Gwennaford »

LET THE BUYER BEWARE:  We are supposed to carefully scrutinize food labels to make sure we know what we are buying, but the labels DO NOT tell us anything about safety and effects of the listed additives.  This chart really opened my eyes to potential dangers of many commonly used compounds.  I copied it into a Word document that, printed out with tiny margins, will still be more than 12 pages.  I believe it is important to keep it handy while label reading.  Please PM me if you want me to email you a Word formatted copy.

It is important to note that this is only ONE source and there may be many other sources that offer conflicting information.  Regardless, I think we can all agree that we would be better off consuming fewer food additives!

LOVES AND SAFE EATING -- Gwen



Food Additives
Shopping was easy when most food came from farms. Now, factory-made foods have made chemical additives a significant part of our diet. Most people may not be able to pronounce the names of many of these chemicals, but they still want to know what the chemicals do and which ones are safe and which are poorly tested or possibly dangerous.

A simple general rule about additives is to avoid sodium nitrite, saccharin, caffeine, olestra, acesulfame K, and artificial coloring. Not only are they among the most questionable additives, but they are used primarily in foods of low nutritional value.
Also, don’t forget the two most familiar additives: sugar and salt. They may pose the greatest risk because we consume so much of them. Fortunately, most additives are safe and some even increase the nutritional value of the food.

ACESULFAME-K
Artificial sweetener: Baked goods, chewing gum, gelatin desserts, diet soda, Sunette.
This artificial sweetener, manufactured by Hoechst, a giant German chemical company, is widely used around the world. It is about 200 times sweeter than sugar. In the United States, for several years acesulfame-K (the K is the chemical symbol for potassium) was permitted only in such foods as sugar-free baked goods, chewing gum, and gelatin desserts. In July 1998, the FDA allowed this chemical to be used in soft drinks, thereby greatly increasing consumer exposure. It is often used together with sucralose (see SUCRALOSE).

The safety tests of acesulfame-K were conducted in the 1970s and were of mediocre quality. Key rat tests were afflicted by disease in the animal colonies; a mouse study was several months too brief and did not expose animals during gestation. Two rat studies suggest that the additive might cause cancer. It was for those reasons that in 1996 the Center for Science in the Public Interest urged the FDA to require better testing before permitting acesulfame-K in soft drinks. In addition, large doses of acetoacetamide, a breakdown product, have been shown to affect the thyroid in rats, rabbits, and dogs. Hopefully, the small amounts in food are not harmful.
ASPARTAME
Artificial sweetener: "Diet" foods, including soft drinks, drink mixes, gelatin desserts, low-calorie frozen desserts, packets.
Aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet), a chemical combination of two amino acids and methanol, was initially thought to be the perfect artificial sweetener, but it might cause cancer or neurological problems such as dizziness or hallucinations...The bottom line is that lifelong consumption of aspartame probably increases the risk of cancer. People—especially young children—should not consume foods and beverages sweetened with aspartame, should switch to products sweetened with SUCRALOSE (Splenda), or should avoid all artificially sweetened foods. Two other artificial sweeteners, SACCHARIN and ACESULFAME-K, have also been linked to a risk of cancer.
MALTODEXTRIN
It’s made from starch and consists of short chains of glucose molecules. Normal maltodextrins are easily digested and absorbed by the body. But companies also use “resistant maltodextrin” to simulate dietary fiber. That form of maltodextrin is made by treating starch with enzymes, heat, or acids and cannot be broken down by digestive enzymes. That makes the additive an “isolated fiber.” Resistant maltodextrins may help lower blood sugar levels, but don’t help prevent constipation.
See also HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP and HIGH MALTOSE CORN SYRUP.
STEVIA
Natural, high-potency sweetener: powdered dietary supplement and used in diet beverages. Also called rebaudioside A or rebiana (brand names Truvia and PureVia).
Stevia, which is about 100 times sweeter than sugar, is obtained from a shrub (yerba dulce) that is grown in Brazil, Paraguay, southeast Asia, and elsewhere. The actual sweet chemicals are the closely related stevioside and rebaudioside A. Stevia and its derivatives are said to be the holy grail of high-potency sweeteners, because they are naturally derived alternatives to the often-controversial synthetic sweeteners (saccharin, aspartame, acesulfame-K, sucralose, cyclamate). Stevia has been used in Japan and several other countries. Still, many people perceive stevia and its sweet derivatives to have a foul taste in certain foods.
Just because a substance is natural, does not mean that it is safe. In the 1990s, the U.S. FDA rejected stevia for use as a food ingredient. Likewise, Canada did not approve stevia, and a European Community scientific panel declared that stevia was unacceptable for use in food. High dosages fed to rats reduced sperm production and increased cell proliferation in their testicles, which could cause infertility or other problems. Pregnant hamsters that had been fed large amounts of a derivative of stevioside called steviol had fewer and smaller offspring. In the laboratory, steviol can be converted into a mutagenic compound, which may promote cancer by causing mutations in the cells’ DNA.
In the 21st century, Cargill and Merisant (which marks aspartame-based Equal) developed extracts of stevia that are 95 percent pure rebaudioside A and 200 times as sweet as sugar.  The companies call their products Truvia and PureVia, respectively, with the nickname of rebiana.  In 2008, Cargill and Merisant told the FDA that rebiana should be considered “generally recognized as safe,” or GRAS.  (GRAS substances are given less scrutiny by the FDA than standard food additives.)  A third company, Wisdom Natural Brands, declared that its stevia-related product to be GRAS without even notifying the FDA.
UCLA toxicologists and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, however, urged the FDA to reject the GRAS claims for rebiana.  They reported that FDA’s guidelines call for major new food additives to be tested for two years on both rats and mice, but rebiana had only been tested on rats.  The toxicologists and CSPI said that testing of rebiana in both rats and mice is particularly important, because several tests found that rebiana-related substances caused mutations and damaged chromosomes or DNA.
Despite the disagreement about rebiana’s safety, just before Christmas 2008 the FDA agreed that the chemical could be considered GRAS.  Shortly thereafter, beverage companies started marketing rebiana-sweetened products.  If consumers find the taste acceptable and future tests do not find major risks, rebiana may well be the elusive natural non-caloric sweetener that industry has sought for decades.
SUCRALOSE
Artificial sweetener: No-sugar-added baked goods, frozen desserts, ice cream, soft drinks, tabletop sweetener (Splenda).
Approved in the United States in 1998, sucralose — marketed as Splenda — is used in soft drinks, baked goods, ice cream, sweetener packets, and other products. It previously had been used in Canada, Europe, and elsewhere. Sucralose is safer than saccharin, acesulfame-K, and cyclamate, but it is often used in conbination with acesulfame-K. Unlike aspartame, sucralose can be used in baked goods.
When sucralose was first being considered for approval by the FDA, the Center for Science in the Public Interest objected. A study in rats had indicated that the additive might cause premature shrinkage of the thymus gland, which is part of the immune system. However, a subsequent study did not find any problem. Likewise, studies designed to detect whether sucralose could cause cancer in lab animals did not find any problems.
The manufacturer, McNeil Nutritionals, long advertised Splenda as being "made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar." That statement may be literally true, but is misleading, as the Sugar Association charged in a lawsuit. In fact, the sweetener is a synthetic chemical made by chemically reacting sugar (sucrose) with chlorine. However, the fact that sucralose is synthetic does not make it unsafe.
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Gwennaford
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Posts: 2776
Joined: February 5th, 2008, 7:50 am
Location: Oklahoma

Re: Food Additives Guide

Post by Gwennaford »

You are very welcome.  I thought it was an important "find".  I hope everyone goes to the website and either prints or copies the chart into their document files.

Gwen
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CodingQueen
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Joined: May 9th, 2009, 10:47 pm
Location: North Tampa

Re: Food Additives Guide

Post by CodingQueen »

I wanted to bring this back to the top for the newbies to read.

CQ
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