Watch What You Eat! A Common Food Additive Can Cause Bowel Cancer

Emulsifiers: Used in almost ALL processed food could be increasing bowel cancer cases & the FDA is totally unaware.

Processed foods are killing us slowly and we have to do something about it. For the first time ever food additives, deemed safe by the US Food and Drug Administration have been analysed in a research and the result is scary. (Photo: iStock)

Around the world, more than seven lakh people die every year from bowel cancer. It’s the fourth leading cause of death from cancer worldwide and the numbers keep increasing every year.

A new study thinks it knows the culprit behind the massive surge in bowel cancer numbers – emulsifiers, chemicals used in almost all processed foods to increase the shelf life, make sauces smooth, keep ice-cream from melting, desserts from separating and bread from crumbling, can trigger colon cancer in mice.

Emulsifiers are used in everything packed in a tin, can or box – butter, bread, pizzas, cake, sauces, mayonnaise, namkeens, ketchup and anything processed you can think of.

Food Additives Can Change Your Gut, Cause Cancer

According to the UN, India will have 100 million diabetics and twice that number of blood pressure patients by 2030 - our changed food habits are a disgrace and a public health disaster. (Photo courtesy: Tumblr/Beneo)

The report published in the prestigious medical journalCancer Research found that emulsifiers can disrupt the healthy balance of gut bacteria, cause inflammation in the intestine and that in turn aids the growth of tumours.

Emulsifiers are chemicals which blend oily and water-based items in processed food and give them a longer shelf life. It’s not just in processed food but also some of your gel capsules and the worst part is that there is no regulation on the number of emulsifying agents which can be present in your food.

Scientists at Georgia State University fed mice with two commonly used food emulsifiers, also known as e-numbers, mixed with water and directly in their chow. They found that these chemicals drastically changed the healthy bacteria in the mice gut, caused inflammation and created a perfect environment for cancer tumours to thrive.

The incidence of bowel cancer has been markedly increasing since the mid-20th century. The dramatic increase of this cancer has occurred amidst constant human genetics, suggesting a pivotal role for an environmental factor. A key feature of this disease is the presence of an altered intestinal bacteria which happened in the experiment.

Emilie Viennois, Lead Researcher, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Georgia State University

Now what happens in mice might not necessarily be replicated in humans but it’s a startling development and the first of its kind study to find the dark side of food additives. What’s more worrying is that researchers tested only two of the tens of emulsifiers available in the market in all price ranges.

Also Read: Are You Sure Your Brown Bread Is Healthier Than the White One?

Did You Know, Even the FDA Is In the Dark About the Chemicals In Your Plate?

The loophole in America’s 1958 Food Additive Amendment, allows for 10,000 food additives to make way in your food without any review. Of course, the Indian FDA has no teeth to fix this hole.

Experts in the study say, nearly 10,000 additives can make way to your food when you factor in the direct and the indirect additives like BPA and BPS.

These additives avoid spoilage, keep your food from yellowing and the oils from turning rancid, but besides a few like BPA and BPS, they have NEVER been tested by the US FDA for safety. In fact, according to Food Additives Amendment Act, 1958 in the US, additives are clubbed in the “generally recognised as safe (GRAS)“ category and the apex food agency passes these unknown food chemicals without any review or safety test.

Do you really know the chemicals in your food? (Photo courtesy: Reddit)

In 1958, it made sense to not analyse these chemicals – technology and research were poor and there were only 800 known food additives at that time. Today there are nearly 10,000 chemicals which can be added in packed foods, they might be harmless, and after the Georgia State University study, who is to say that these additives are safe in combination?

A recent four-year analysis by a Dutch University, the National Food Institute, found that even in minuscule amounts, these additives can amplify each other’s adverse effects when taken together.

The research project on cocktail effects in foods has established that when two or more chemicals in food appear together, they often have a significant negative effect. Going forward this insight has a profound impact on the way we should assess the risk posed by chemicals we are exposed to through the foods we eat.

Professor Anne Marie Vinggaard, National Food Institute, Denmark

From the farm to the fork, lot of chemicals are added to our food to make it look and taste better, some are familiar and safe, many are not. A lot of decisions about what goes in your plate are made without your consent. So if the FDA is left in the dark about the safety of these chemicals, how can you be sure of what’s in your food?

Also Read: Are Your Plastic Containers Making You Sick?