Negative Effects Of Food Additives On People’s Health

“About 48 million people (1 in 6 Americans) get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die each year from foodborne diseases, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” (FDA). Food additives have been slowly added to food more and more each day. We need to control the amount we put in food and we need to find safer alternatives. Even though food additives can be beneficial, they can be very harmful and have severe effects on the body. The FDA regulates all of the food laws and they help keep us out of harm's way when it comes to food additives, sweeteners, food colors and preservatives. Although the FDA regulates food, should food companies be allowed to add artificial ingredients to the food they make or grow?

Not only do food additives affect our body greatly they also greatly affect our environment harming our livestock, oceans, and some of our crops. “Currently, the 'dead zone' in the Gulf of Mexico, where no fish or other animals can live, has grown to 8,543 square miles, the size of New Jersey” (University of Minnesota). These additives are being dragged into the Mississippi River from farm lands and garbage dumps and the river is depositing them into the Gulf of Mexico and making it inhabitable for animals and fish. A food additives main job is to make the appearance of the food more appetizing, to change the color, and to preserve it to make the product last longer and stay fresher longer. With the technological advances and the new research companies have discovered there are a multitude of food additives that can be combined to create a specifically planned result. Even though we put food additives in the food purposely there are the additives that are on food that is from the packing, storage, and handling from food companies. The food companies have told the FDA that everything coming in contact with the food is sanitary and safe.

Food colors should not be added in excess to food because they can be very harmful and certain ones have been linked to certain types of cancer and other diseases. In CSPI's summary of studies on food dyes, you can see that some of the most commonly used food dyes may be linked to numerous forms of cancer. Food color is a good thing though because it makes the food look more appealing, we just need to find safer food colors or have a tighter regulation on them. In total there are only seven dyes approved under the United States because all of the other ones have been linked to some form of a cancer. One type of additive is artificial food colors. An artificial food color is a type of additive that is added to a food for a desired color to make it more appealing to the eye.

There are only seven food colors initially approved in 1906 but many have been delisted and new ones have been found and put on the list. The reason the artificial food colors were banned is they were linked to many forms of cancer. Although this is an additive that is linked to cancer, there are actually thousands of food additives that are linked to cancer is some type of way. The UK has taken many precautions on warning the consumer of all the health risks such as placing labels on the food packaging. The United States of America has no warning labels nor do they have any warning rules or regulations for any of the food colors artificial or synthetic.

There is another type of food color and it is known as a synthetic food color. This type of food color is made in a lab out of petroleum and crude oil. Those ingredients are used in everyday fuels such as gasoline, diesel, asphalt, and tar. There are about 35 food dyes approved by the FDA for use in the United States. Out of the all of those the two main food colors that cause the food allergies are Yellow # 5 (tartrazine) and Red #40. As there is many food additives to enhance color and appearance to one's self there are additives to enhance the taste such as an artificial sweetener.

An artificial sweetener is added or can be added to many types of food that adds a sweet taste to it like that of sugar would. One of the main differences is an artificial sweetener does not contain no where close to the amount of food energy as actual sugar does. Many health professionals with many consumers believe that all artificial sweeteners are very effective in weight watching and reduction in risks associated with diabetes. Artificial sweeteners are found in sodas, gum, food and much more but are labeled as “sugar free” or “diet” but there is still the sweet presence of sugar. As of right now the FDA has five approved artificial sweeteners and one natural low calorie sweetener.

The five sweeteners are: saccharin, acesulfame, aspartame, neotame, and sucralose and the one natural low calorie sweetener is stevia. Now even though there are many benefits of artificial sweeteners there are many bad things such as causing bladder cancer. Researchers have discovered that some artificial cause cancer but they have yet to pinpoint the exact cancer causing agent because in every food and drink there are multiple sweeteners combined which makes things difficult. Artificial sweeteners have been proven to be so much more potent that it can cause a person to not taste food correctly. Another downside is even though you are getting the sweet taste from the artificial sweetener it is proven that people still crave actual sugar.

Food preservatives are added to foods, medicine, paints, and beverages to keep the products from spoiling, or decomposing and allows products to be stored for an extended period of time. Food preservatives are chemicals specifically added to foods to prevent the product from spoiling caused by mold. Dating back to the prehistoric days food preservation was always a must have because they might go and shoot an animal and want to preserve it and ration the meat. The depending on where the prehistoric people lived would have depended on how they preserved the meat. Some would make a fire and hang the meat up and let the meat smoke and almost make it into a jerky which would keep it longer. If they lived by an ocean they would soak the meat in the salt water to enhance the flavor and preserve it in the salt. Some of these methods are still used today even with the technological advances. Even though they have many benefits they also are linked to cancer.

Even though many preservatives have been linked to cancer but have not been approved but some of them however are still allowed as preservatives. Nearly everything that is edible in someone's house has had some type of preservation done to it because without it the product would spoil very easily and would become very costly to constantly buy stuff because the product bought previously spoiled.

Now after all of this a short reminder that thousands and thousands of people are being hospitalized because of these additives, and thousands of innocent people are being killed each year because of the loose food regulations and with all of the additives. These food additives such as food color, artificial sweeteners, and food preservatives are linked to cancer which is sad that food companies are trying to help us make food taste, and look better along with last longer but really they are hurting people and making them have cancer. Naturally people have food allergies but it doesn't help that all these additives are causing even more allergies in elders all the way down to Infants. Food companies should regulate the amount of food additives they add into our food.