If you haven’t yet made the switch from chemical-filled, processed foods to more natural, unprocessed foods, a recent study suggests you may be doing yourself more harm than previously known.
The Danish study has found that the effects of chemicals in food can be made worse by the presence of other chemicals, and that even small doses of chemicals can cause significant negative consequences when combined together. This phenomenon is often called the “chemical cocktail effect.”
Traditionally, the safety of food additives is determined by testing them in isolation, but this method doesn’t recognize the fact that additives may mix and react with other chemicals in unforeseen ways. Researchers have long been concerned that substances can intensify each other’s effects, making their combined effect more powerful than their effect individually. The Danish study suggests that these concerns are well founded, and the combined effects of food additives should be researched further to promote public health and safety.
“Our research shows that indeed, little strokes fell great oaks also when it comes to chemical exposure. 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,” stated Professor Anne Marie Vinggaard from the Danish National Food Institute.
Although the study was focused on chemical additives in food only, its findings have implications for the safety of all sorts of products. Household cleaning products and personal hygiene and cosmetic products are other examples of items that contain ingredients tested individually for safety, rather than in combination.
It’s crucial for public health and safety that our regulatory agencies like the FDA begin requiring a more rigorous and holistic testing process for these products and ingredients, which also includes testing how they mix with other chemicals. But don’t hold your breath!
Here are some steps you can take by yourself to keep you and your family safe from potentially dangerous additives and chemicals:
1. As much as possible, purchase organic foods, wild-caught fish, and free-range meat.
2. Stay away from packaged, boxed, canned, and plastic bagged foods as much as possible.
3. Avoid storing food in plastic containers.
4. Use a water filter on your faucets.
5. Switch to natural household products, toiletries, and cosmetics.
6. Avoid products with synthetic fragrances.
—The Alternative Daily
Sources:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150319080136.htm
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es011055j
http://www.industrysourcing.com/article/new-study-reveals-additive-effects-chemicals-food
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25135154
http://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003518
