Some of America's favorite foods are laced with super-bad ingredients and compounds found at levels concerning many scientists and health experts. But with the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) recent announcement that will lead to an eventual ban trans fats, one of the most potent heart disease promoters in the food supply, will the agency take initiative on these prominent food threats, too? Excessive Acrylamide
Discovered only 11 years ago in certain foods, acrylamide is a powerful carcinogen created naturally when starchy, carb-rich foods are cooked at temperatures above 248 degrees Fahrenheit. (Even coffee contains acrylamide.) Baking crackers and potatoes, frying up french fries and chips, toasting bread, and even manufacturing cereal all create acrylamide, the result of sugars and the amino acid asparagine forming in many fried, roasted, and baked starchy foods.
In 2010, the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization Expert Committee on Food Additives labeled acrylamide as a legitimate human health concern. And although the FDA recently issued guidance on how the food industry could curb acrylamide buildup in cereals and snack foods, organizations like the Center for Science in the Public Interest want the agency to take it a step further, actually setting a limit on acrylamide in food.
Avoid It: Avoid processed, starchy foods as much as possible. When making homemade fried potatoes, potato chips, or mashed potatoes, use this soaking secret: Before cooking, soak the raw, sliced potatoes in water for 2 hours before frying to reduce acrylamide by nearly 50 percent; if you're rushed, a 30-second rinse of sliced spuds reduces acrylamide by more than 20 percent. Or you can microwave the potatoes for 30 seconds before cooking, which slashes levels of acrylamide by 60 percent. Bonus tip? Since storing potatoes in the refrigerator can result in increased acrylamide during cooking, keep your spuds out of the fridge and instead store them in a dark, cool place, such as a closet or pantry, which prevents sprouting.
When toasting bread, stick to a light toast. Going darker increases acrylamide levels. But hey, you may find that giving up bread offers some other health perks, too.Antibiotics
We are in the midst of a crisis, entering into an era in which the common antibiotics we rely on to keep people alive will no longer work. In fact, The Lancet medical journal just published an alarming report highlighting that the miracle drugs of the 20th century are on the verge of collapsing. The article didn't mince words, either—it began with "A crisis looms."
And in fact, today, many bacteria can withstand all drugs that doctors throw at them. Why is this happening? "Despite warnings…that resistance would be a problem, antibiotics have been used with great profligacy—prescribed pointlessly for viral infections, added to animal feed to boost growth of livestock, and handed out like cough sweets in the community,"The Lancetpiece outlines.
A whopping 80 percent of antibiotics used in the United States go into animal feed for nonorganically raised farm animals, a practice that fattens the animals up faster and gets them to market sooner. Factory-farmed animals raised for meat—the kind sold in most supermarkets in the U.S.—swallow most of the nearly 30 million pounds of antibiotics used in farming a year. This results in the creation of hard-to-kill supergerms, including those found on supermarket meat. Although high-profile medical associations and public-health industry groups have lobbied hard to ban chronic feeding of low-dose antibiotics to farm animals, the FDA has yet to ban the dangerous practice.Avoid It: Choose meat, eggs, and dairy raised without the use of antibiotics. Organic bans the use of antibiotics, but you may also find a local farmer who doesn't use antibiotics in your area. Animal Welfare approved and Certified Humane products only allow short-term antibiotics if an animal is truly sick and needs it.
More from Rodale News: 10 Freaky Facts about Your Chicken
Arsenic The FDA made an uncharacteristically bold move by withdrawing three arsenic-based feed additives from the market. These arsenic-laced animal feeds are used in most poultry feeds. If you're asking yourself, wait, why would chicken and turkey growers use a carcinogen in feed in the first place, here's why: Like antibiotics, there's something about the toxic metal that seems to speed animal growth. Unfortunately, recent testing detected arsenic in supermarket poultry, too. There's still some work to do…FDA is still allowing a fourth arsenic-based additive, meaning it's potentially still in the food supply. Even with arsenic seemingly on its way out in animal feed, it's still a problem in other foods. Rice is really good at pulling arsenic out of soil and into the part of the plant that people it. Because of that, the metal has been detected in rice and rice products like brown rice syrup sweeteners and some baby cereals. Public-health advocacy groups like the Center for Food Safety are pressuring the FDA to create a cumulative arsenic exposure guideline so people can better figure out if they're reaching dangerous arsenic levels based on their entire diet, not just on a food-by-food basis. After all, the heavy metal—a neurotoxic brain damager—has also been detected in apple juice, seafood, and infant formulas. Children, infants, and fetuses are most at risk because their brains are still developing during this critical time. "Consumers are likely to be exposed to arsenic from multiple sources, such as rice, water, and chicken; therefore strict regulation of cumulative exposure is vital to protecting public health and is already standard practice in other areas of food regulation," says Paige Tomaselli, senior attorney for Center for Food Safety.Avoid It: Environmental Working Group researchers recommend the following methods to lower your arsenic exposure in food: • Choose brown rice, and rinse it well when preparing it. Rinsing your brown rice with water can lower its arsenic levels by 30 to 40 percent. (White rice doesn't hold up to cooking when rinsed well, unfortunately.) Try working alternative grains like quinoa into the mix at meals, too. • Limit products listing rice syrup as a sweetener. This natural sweetener could contain higher levels of arsenic due to the grain's natural ability to absorb the compound. • Instead of rice cereal as baby's first solid food, try sweet potatoes, squash, bananas, and avocados For older children and adults, opt for real oatmeal or mixed-grain cereals. • Limit certain fruit juices to a maximum of ½ to 1 cup a day. Why? Orchards used to use arsenic as a pesticide, and it lurks in the ground decades later.
More from Rodale News: 10 Freaky Facts about Your Chicken
Arsenic The FDA made an uncharacteristically bold move by withdrawing three arsenic-based feed additives from the market. These arsenic-laced animal feeds are used in most poultry feeds. If you're asking yourself, wait, why would chicken and turkey growers use a carcinogen in feed in the first place, here's why: Like antibiotics, there's something about the toxic metal that seems to speed animal growth. Unfortunately, recent testing detected arsenic in supermarket poultry, too. There's still some work to do…FDA is still allowing a fourth arsenic-based additive, meaning it's potentially still in the food supply. Even with arsenic seemingly on its way out in animal feed, it's still a problem in other foods. Rice is really good at pulling arsenic out of soil and into the part of the plant that people it. Because of that, the metal has been detected in rice and rice products like brown rice syrup sweeteners and some baby cereals. Public-health advocacy groups like the Center for Food Safety are pressuring the FDA to create a cumulative arsenic exposure guideline so people can better figure out if they're reaching dangerous arsenic levels based on their entire diet, not just on a food-by-food basis. After all, the heavy metal—a neurotoxic brain damager—has also been detected in apple juice, seafood, and infant formulas. Children, infants, and fetuses are most at risk because their brains are still developing during this critical time. "Consumers are likely to be exposed to arsenic from multiple sources, such as rice, water, and chicken; therefore strict regulation of cumulative exposure is vital to protecting public health and is already standard practice in other areas of food regulation," says Paige Tomaselli, senior attorney for Center for Food Safety.Avoid It: Environmental Working Group researchers recommend the following methods to lower your arsenic exposure in food: • Choose brown rice, and rinse it well when preparing it. Rinsing your brown rice with water can lower its arsenic levels by 30 to 40 percent. (White rice doesn't hold up to cooking when rinsed well, unfortunately.) Try working alternative grains like quinoa into the mix at meals, too. • Limit products listing rice syrup as a sweetener. This natural sweetener could contain higher levels of arsenic due to the grain's natural ability to absorb the compound. • Instead of rice cereal as baby's first solid food, try sweet potatoes, squash, bananas, and avocados For older children and adults, opt for real oatmeal or mixed-grain cereals. • Limit certain fruit juices to a maximum of ½ to 1 cup a day. Why? Orchards used to use arsenic as a pesticide, and it lurks in the ground decades later.