Cancer causing chemicals in cola should be banned says CSPI

By Aimee Keenan-Greene

The Center for Science in the Public Interest says the 'caramel coloring' used in Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and some foods contains two cancer-causing chemicals and should be banned.

Chemical reactions result in the formation of 2-methylimidazole and 4 methylimidazole, which in government-conducted studies caused lung, liver, or thyroid cancer or leukemia in laboratory mice or rats. 

Federal regulations distinguish among four types of caramel coloring, two of which are produced with ammonia and two without it. 

CSPI wants the Food and Drug Administration to prohibit the two types made with ammonia. The type used in colas and other dark soft drinks is known as Caramel IV, or ammonia sulfite process caramel. Caramel III, which is produced with ammonia but not sulfites, is sometimes used in beer, soy sauce, and other foods. 

The CSPI also says the phrase 'caramel coloring' is misleading when used to describe colorings made with ammonia or sulfite. The terms “ammonia process caramel” or “ammonia sulfite process caramel” would be more accurate, and companies should not be allowed to label any products that contain such colorings as 'natural',  according to the group.

“Most people would interpret ‘caramel coloring’ to mean ‘colored with caramel,’ but this particular ingredient has little in common with ordinary caramel or caramel candy,” CSPI executive director Michael F.Jacobson said. “It’s a concentrated dark brown mixture of chemicals that simply does not occur in nature. Regular caramel isn’t healthful, but at least it is not tainted with carcinogens.” 

California state health officials have added 4 MI to the state’s list of 'chemicals known to the state to cause cancer'. Under Proposition 65, foods or other products containing more than certain levels of cancer-causing chemicals must carry warning labels. For 4-MI, that level is 16 micrograms per person per day from an individual product. 

Popular brands of cola contain about 200 micrograms of 4-MI per 20-ounce bottle, and many people, especially teenage boys, consume more than that each day. If California’s regulation is finalized, Coke, Pepsi, and other soft drinks would be required to bear a cancer warning label. 

CSPI says the ten teaspoons of obesity-causing sugars in a non-diet can of soda presents a greater health risk than the ammonia sulfite process caramel. But the levels of 4-MI in the tested colas still may be causing thousands of cancers in the U.S. population.

The CSPI has been urging the FDA to ban synthetic food colorings, such as Yellow 5 and Red 40 saying the dyes cause hyperactivity and other behavioral problems in children, and Red 3 and Yellows 5 and 6 pose cancer risks, according to CSPI.

The FDA is holding a Food Advisory Committee review March 30–31.

Also this week, new study says people who drank diet soda every day had a 61 percent higher risk of vascular events, including stroke and heart attack, than those who didn't,  according to researchers who presented their results at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference in Los Angeles, reported MSNBC.

The study followed the diet and soda drinking habits of more than 2,500 New Yorkers for nine or more years.

WebMD says the analysis took into account a host of cardiovascular risk factors including age, sex, smoking, physical activity, alcohol and calorie consumption, metabolic syndrome, and pre-existing heart disease. Still, the study doesn't prove cause and effect.

“[This study] was motivated by previous research that has suggested a relationship between diet and regular soda consumption and the metabolic syndrome which is an important risk factor for vascular events,” said Hannah Gardener, ScD, epidemiologist at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, and lead author of the study, in a press conference, later adding in an interview with Cardiology Today that she and fellow investigators “found a statistically significant increased risked of vascular events including stroke and heart attack among those who drank diet soda daily as compared with those who didn’t drink either diet or regular soda.” 

The American Heart Association says 82 million adults, that's 1 out of 3, people have some kind of heart disease. About 2,200 people die each year because of cardiovascular disease.

More women diet of heart disease than the next 4 leading causes of deaths combined - including all forms of cancer, says the American Heart Association.

90 percent of all women have at least one risk factor for heart disease says the AHA. It is the number one leading cause of death for women over 20.