An explanation of monosodium glutamate: proteins broken down by cooking release glutamic acid, which combines with sodium to give the savory umami taste, so MSG forms naturally in cooked, salted food. Cheese, meat, fish, soybeans, mushrooms, ripe tomatoes, broccoli and peas are rich in it.
Section archive
Food Safety
Contaminants, chemicals, genetically engineered food and what is really in the food supply.
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Biotech
Are Cloned Animals on the U.S Dinner Table?
Six years after the BBC reported cloned products had entered the U.S. food supply, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in 2010 he could not say whether cloned cattle or their offspring had reached it. A 2008 FDA report describes Large Offspring Syndrome in cloned newborns.
Chemical
The GMO, glyphosate and autoimmune disease connection
A promotional notice for a seven-part online documentary series on autoimmune disease, featuring Jeffrey Smith, G. E. Seralini and Stephanie Seneff discussing GMOs and Roundup, with links to sign up for free access.
Chemical
Chromium-6, the cancer-causing chemical
A new EWG report says chromium-6 contaminates water supplies serving more than 200 million Americans in all 50 states. The writer, who first investigated the chemical in 1991, asks readers to press the EPA to set a national safety limit.
Chemical
What is Datem in bread?
Datem — diacetyl tartaric acid ester of mono- and diglycerides — strengthens bread dough and stabilizes texture in foods from biscuits to ice cream, at 0.375% to 0.5%. It is approved in the U.S. and Europe, though some animal studies showed heart muscle fibrosis and adrenal overgrowth.
Chemical
Titanium dioxide damages the brain
In rats, high doses of anatase titanium dioxide nanoparticles lowered acetylcholinesterase production, raised plasma and brain interleukin-6, and increased GFAP immunoreactivity in the cerebral cortex. The authors conclude the particles can induce neuroinflammation and may be neurotoxic.
Chemical
Fluoride causes more than bone cancer
The piece reproduces a researchgate report's lists of harms attributed to fluoride, from neurological damage, lowered IQ and dental and skeletal fluorosis to respiratory, heart and digestive disorders, alongside a second list of conditions named in the NHMRC 2007 report.
Chemical
Is your ice cream flavored with a poison banned in Europe?
A fundraising appeal from the Organic Consumers Association, which says Vermont dairy farmers applied more than 2.5 million pounds of metolachlor, atrazine and simazine to cornfields between 1999 and 2012, and asks for donations to fund testing of dairy products for those chemicals.
Chemical
Fluoridation Useless for Low-Income Children, Federal Data Shows
The New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation reads 2011/2012 NHANES data as showing decay rising among children in poverty, reaching 74 percent at ages 13 to 15, while 58 percent of children aged 6 to 19 show dental fluorosis. It argues poor children need dental care, not fluoride.
Chemical
Video: Fluoridation Debate Reveals Fluoride Lowers IQ by 7 points
Paul Connett debated Professor Mike Berridge on New Zealand television. FAN says Connett showed that a review Berridge relied on used misleading language to obscure a 7-point IQ difference between children with elevated fluoride exposure and those without.
Chemical
Televised Fluoridation Debate & Our Shirt Sale Ends at Midnight
A Fluoride Action Network newsletter promotes a televised New Zealand debate between Paul Connett and Professor Mike Berridge airing August 17, a closing shirt sale, and recent decisions in Hardin, Montana and Saukville, Wisconsin against fluoridation.
Chemical
Prescription Drug Effects Seen in Many Fish
Drug residues in waterways are turning up in fish. By 2014 all male smallmouth bass at some polluted sites were intersex, and a study of wild gudgeon near a French Sanofi steroid plant found about 60% with both male and female characteristics. Metformin is also named as a culprit.
Chemical
Trans fat intake linked to epithelial ovarian cancer
In a New England case-control study of 1,872 women with epithelial ovarian cancer and 1,978 controls, the highest trans fat intake came with 30% greater odds of the disease, while the top quartiles of omega-3 and omega-6 intake came with 21% and 23% lower odds.
Chemical
Endocrine-Disrupting "Food-Additive"?!?
EWG asks readers to tell the FDA to stop allowing phthalates as food additives. The chemicals leach from plastic packaging and vinyl tubing into food, run highest in fatty foods like milk and cheese, and research shows the average infant diet exceeds EPA safe levels.
Chemical
Aluminum boosts Alzheimer's disease risk
A review in NeuroToxicology argues aluminum, common in tap water and processed foods, may be a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, citing epidemiological and experimental work and laboratory findings that aluminum exposure raises inflammation and oxidative stress in the brain.
Chemical
More than 18 million Americans drink lead-tainted water
A Natural Resources Defense Council report says more than 18 million Americans were served in 2015 by water systems that violated the Lead and Copper Rule, and that over 90 percent of violations brought no corrective action or penalty. The piece suggests a tap filter to remove heavy metals.
Biological
Scientists, Groups Urge National Academy to Reverse Decades of One-Sided GMO Science
A letter from 39 public-interest groups and academics urges the National Academy of Sciences to correct the imbalance in its taxpayer-funded study of genetically engineered crops, noting at least six of 13 committee members have financial conflicts with industry, four of them undisclosed.
Chemical
Could chicken nuggets get you too much fluoride?
A short note pointing readers to an Oregon State University repository paper on the fluoride content of foods made with mechanically separated chicken as a potential risk factor for dental fluorosis in infants and children.
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