9 Things Americans Eat That Are Banned in Other Countries

Americans Gulp Hormones With Milk

Despite America is a country with high quality standards, but when it comes to food, the Americans must be more careful. Their food may contain dangerous ingredients that are banned in many other countries. Even the American milk isn’t safe. They give a special hormone bovine somatotropin (bGH) to cows in order to fasten their maturity and get more milk from them.

They started using this hormone which is produced by cows’ pituitary gland in 2013. And this practice reportedly helps them to increase milk production by 10 percent. This hormone is being suspected in breast, colon, and prostate cancers. Because after cows are injected with this hormone, allegedly start producing another harmful hormone called insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1).
This practice has a bad perspective. As this hormone makes cows more vulnerable to illness (reproductive problems, lameness, and udder infections), it means that they will receive more antibiotics. Americans drink these antibiotics with milk. As the antibiotic intake increases, we get more and more resistant bacteria. Now using bovine hormone for stimulating caw milking is banned Israel, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the European Union (EU).
Although Food and Drug Administration see nothing harmful in such milk, there is a rule in America that every bottle of milk containing this hormone has to be labelled appropriately. So, if you live in America and want to protect your and family’s health, you must choose organic milk or that labelled “bGH-free.” Now your health is your responsibility. So think twice when you are choosing milk for your toddler.

BHA and BHT Preservatives in Snacks and Cereals

American cookies, chips, sausages, and cereals… Yummy, yummy, yummy! But do you know what makes these foods remain so delicious and fresh while they lay in their packages for months? Have a look at the ingredient list and on every package you’ll see – BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) and BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) which are banned in UK, Japan, and some parts of EU.

The point here is oil. Oily foods spoil too fast because their oils oxidize and become rancid. This process changes the favour, color and even odor of foods. BHA and BHT are used to prevent oils from oxidizing and store them fresh. These ingredients even have some antimicrobial features. They are good for your favourite food, but not for you.

• These preservatives are made of petroleum, and according to The National Institutes of Health, it may cause cancer in humans. The tests on rats already proved it. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers these ingredients as “generally recognized as safe.” Other health organizations are still not sure about BHA and BHT. This topic requires additional studies, but they don’t hasten to conduct them.
  
  

• Fat Free Chips Featuring Olestra

  
  
  For those people who can figure out the difference between healthy and fattening Olestra was invented. This fat substitute made by Procter & Gamble can be found in chips like Pringles Fat free, Ruffles Light, and Lays Wow. The idea is that Olestra adds no fat to your diet because human bodies can’t break down big molecules. So you can tuck away fat free chips as much as you want, but you have to know about some Olestra’s insidious features.
  It is said that Olestra impacts human body ability to absorb some nutrients. Despite it blocks fat absorption, it also cease your chances of receiving enough nutrients like vitamins, beta-carotene and lycopene.
  The UK and Canada have already banned Olestra. But America has its own way. In 1996 using of Olestra was approved by FDA for pre-packaged ready to eat snacks like chips. As far as FDA takes care about appropriate food labelling, you will be warned on the pack that the product does contains Olestra this way: “This Product Contains Olestra. Olestra may cause abdominal cramping and loose stools. Olestra inhibits the absorption of some vitamins and other nutrients. Vitamins A, D, E, and K have been added.”
  So it’s up to you whether to eat these chips and suffer from diarrhoea or to cut down on eating rubbish. Because Olestra really turns chips into rubbish. They are fat free, yes, but they are also free from any crucial nutrients. Manufacturers try to add some nutrients back, but there are few chances they will be replaced correctly.

• White and Fluffy Bread Due to Potassium Bromate

  
  
  Potassium bromate made a revolution in bread baking by strengthening dough and decreasing baking time. It is successfully used in the United States since it was patented in 1914. The question is why Canada, Brazil, China, and the EU banned this magic ingredient?
  Potassium bromate reportedly cause kidney and nervous system problems. Tests on rats and mice proved its carcinogenic features. Japan was the first country suspicious to magic ingredient. Their studies made in 1982 proved that Potassium bromate causes cancer in the thyroids and kidneys in rats and mice. A lot of countries all around the world banned using this ingredient in baking bread. But American FDA resists this panic insisting that the amount of potassium bromate in the final loaf of bread is tiny: less than 20 parts per billion (ppb).
  Everyone who bakes knows that it is important for dough to hold together. Gluten, a wheat protein, is natural glue that strengthens the dough, but it unluckily causes digestive problems for some people. That’s why some manufacturers avoid gluten in their products. Oxygen is a powerful and absolutely natural aging agent that makes dough hold together. You have to enrich flour with oxygen with sifting before adding to the dough. But it takes time and efforts to play with sifting. Why waste time when there is an even more powerful aging ingredient – Potassium bromate?
  Except this advantage Potassium bromate also bleaches dough (we know that natural dough is beige) and improves its elasticity. The result is a white, fluffy, and soft bread loaf.

• American Poultry Eats Poisonous Arsenic

  
  
  Americans have been using poisonous arsenic to feed their chicken for years since 1940’s. Only in October 2013 FDA rescinded approval for three of the four arsenic drugs used in pouldry and hog feeding. The notorious drug that is banned in the EU was successfully used in order to make the meat of chickens, turkeys and pigs look pinker. If consumed with food, arsenic promote poultry’s growth, helps heal some diseases and impacts the tissues of animals making them look more appealing to buyers.
  The poultry was feed this way for years in America, so it is unlikely that roxarsone, carbarsone, and arsanilic acid which are used in 101 drugs will be totally and quickly removed from the system. FDA was persuaded by the fact that although arsenic drugs aren’t carcinogen themselves, they convert into that form after being consumed.
  Using arsenic in feeding poultry creates a dangerous chain when arsenic consumed by poultry is being passed to the animal waste. As this waste is often used as fertilizer, it gets to the soil and then water and crops.
  Arsenic is a dangerous poison that causes cancer in humans. It can be found even in contaminated water. Since 1900s arsenic-based pesticides are being used in most fruit orchards, so juice you buy in the store may contain arsenic. That’s why paediatricians do not recommend juices for babies and little children. But the vegetable product that has the highest level of arsenic is rice because of pesticides. Rinse rice properly before cooking.

• Colourful Life: The Americans Consume More Than 15 Million Pounds Of Food Dyers Yearly

  
  
  American food manufacturers pour 15 million pounds of artificial food dyes into their goods every year. And it proves that America “loves” its kids very much. Dyers of all colours of rainbow are used to make food and sweets appealing for kids. They have wildly coloured sweets, fluorescent blue “juice,” orange cheese and many other motley foods. Parents often can do nothing with this “rainbow” fashion and buy these goods not knowing that some artificial colours like red 40, blue 1, blue 2, yellow 5 are banned in, for example, Norway in Austria.
  In European Union artificial food colours at least have to be labelled with a warning like this one: this food “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.” But America doesn’t require such labelling at all, whereas artificial colours can be very harmful for kids. They cause children hyperactivity, allergic reaction and even cancer (according to studies on animals).
  Before 20th century, food dyers were got from natural sources. But today’s acidic colours have nothing in common with nature. The dyer Blue #1 (or Brilliant Blue) that can be found in baked food, beverages, cereal and desert powders reportedly causes kidney tumours in mice. Blue #2 (Indigo Carmine) that is used in candies, drinks, and even pet food is responsible for tumours, especially brain gliomas, in rats. Red #40 (Allura Red) causes trigger hyperactivity in kids and allergic reactions. Yellow #5 (Tartrazine) is even more popular. We can find this dyer that badly affects children’s behaviour in bakery goods, gelatine desserts, cereal… almost everywhere.

• Toxic Brominated Vegetable Oil in American Soda Drinks

  
  
  America uses brominated vegetable oil (BVO) in their soda and sports beverages. This emulsifier that is used for their Mountain Dew, Fanta, Fresca, and even Gatorade, is banned in more than 100 countries in the world, and even American FDA treats this ingredient as unsafe, but still makes nothing to finish with its usage.
  The reason for such caution is in fact that vapours of bromine are toxic and corrosive. Bromide is being suspected in different thyroid diseases. Once it was used in pharmacy for making sedatives, but it was banned back in 1975 because it triggered many psychiatric disorders.
  Brominated vegetable oil is being added to American drinks in order to prevent citrus flavouring from separating. Sediments and everything that floats on the surface of drinks looks not very appealing, so manufacturers add BVO to keep beverages unified. Without this ingredient the drinks would look turbid and cloudy. Many drinks manufacturers don’t announce their customers on labels that their drinks contain BVO.
  FDA insists that moderate quantities of such beverages don’t harm at all. But it is proven that bromide can accumulate in human fat cells, so with the lapse of time it can show up its toxic side effects. And they are really horrifying. Abdominal cramps, convulsions, cyanosis (skin blueness), diarrhoea, headache, weakness, and tremors of the tongue and eyelids are toys in comparison with birth defects, growth problems, memory loss, and fatigue. Kids are wild about soda drinks, but regular consumption of them causes rehydration, because instead of crucial water kids consume toxic junk drinks.

• Where to Find Ractopamine-free Meat in America?

  
  
  In February 2013 Russia banned American beef, turkey and pork because it contained ractopamine, and ingredient that is added to pigs and cattle food to help them grow muscles quickly. This stuff is banned in Russia as you see, as well as in Europe, Taiwan, and China. But the U.S. still uses it because its authorities aren’t sure that they will supply the Americans (which are famous meat buffs) with enough meat.
  Before slaughter, the Americans give their cattle and pigs different amounts of ractopamine depending on their goal: either they want cattle to be lean or they want it to increase its weight. Ractopamine is being found in the meat, of course. And while international limit for this stuff is 10 parts per billion, American FDA set its limit of 50 parts per billion.
  It is hard to say exactly how ractopamine impacts human body because there were seldom human studies. But state of the art says that ractopamine is being suspected in behavior changes and chromosomal abnormalities. The study on six healthy men showed that ractopamine affects heart health, and one man was even withdrawn from the study because the dose of 25 mg worsened his heart work dangerously.
  During the study it was figured out that ractopamine causes tachycardia (over 100 beats per minute), blood vessel widening, nervousness, high blood sugar, and lower than normal potassium in the blood. Now that you know how your favourite beef was grown, would you continue to tuck away it thoughtlessly? Protein is a great stuff, but where to find clean meat?

• America Doesn’t Succumb GMO Hysteria

  
  
  While more than 40 countries of the world require labelling for GMO products, the U.S. authorities suppose that all this hysteria around GMO is groundless. 70 percent of American processed foods have GMO-Genetically Modified Ingredients. And America treats all rumours about their jeopardy as misinformation.
  The idea of breeding plants and animals that would have most desirable traits is very appealing. You choose the gene you like and paste it into the crop you like and you receive a brand new product which traits that are more advantageous. It simplifies human life dramatically. But is it safe for humans to eat food which DNA was changed in the lab? The notion of consumption something genetically strange stirs up a lot of conjecture and fiction dreads about mutants. But we don’t have any clinical proves that GMO affects humans somehow so far.
  GMO technologies are basically used for breeding crops that are tolerable to drought and can easily resist herbicides. The first genetically modified organism in America was Flavr Savr tomato. It was about 20 years ago. Since that time the Americans consumed GMO on regular basis for years. They probably suppose that if there were some dangers in such food experiments, they would emerge so far.
  So which exactly American foods are proved to contain GMO? Corn and everything that is connected with this crop is GMO. Canned soups are in this list because they contain corn syrup. Beets sugar is the half of all sugar the Americans consume. 95 % of sugar beets were grown from genetically modified seeds. So everything that contains beet sugar is GM. 94 % of American soy is GM. So, even baby formula contains GMO. It’s useless to continue the list.