Revealed: Shocking list of popular foods and drinks readily available in U.S. grocery stores that are BANNED in other countries because their chemicals are deemed 'dangerous'

  • In Singapore, you can get sentenced to 15 years in prison and a $500,000 fine for using a chemical in food products that's common in frozen dinners
  • Mtn Dew and products used to keep carpets from catching on fire are made from the same chemical
  • A chemical found in Chex Mix is known to cause cancer in rats

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 22:06 EST, 20 June 2013 | UPDATED: 09:43 EST, 21 June 2013

If you enjoy snacks and drinks like Mtn Dew, Chex Mix, Hungry Man frozen dinners, or roughly 80 percent of all the packaged foods sold in your average, American grocery store, you may want to sit down before reading this.

Many of the chemicals found in America's most common foods are considered to be so unhealthy that they're actually ILLEGAL in other countries.

A new book on nutrition lists six food additives that are found in a wide range of popular groceries sanctioned by the Food and Drug Administration, but foreign governments have determined to be too dangerous to allow their citizens to consume.

Extreme! Mt. Dew is made with a chemical that also is used to prevent carpets from catching on fire

Extreme! Mt. Dew is made with a chemical that also is used to prevent carpets from catching on fire

Bubble gag: Bubble Yum contains a chemical that is known to cause cancer in rats

Bubble gag: Bubble Yum contains a chemical that is known to cause cancer in rats

'Rich Food, Poor Food' by Doctor Jayson Calton and Mira Calton, a certified nutritionist, features a list of what the authors call 'Banned Bad Boys' - a list of the ingredients, where they're banned and what caused governments to ban them.

One of the most common 'Bad Boys' is different variations of food coloring, which actually is made from petroleum and is found in everyday items like soda, sports drinks, mac and cheese, cake, candy and several other common, American products.

The chemicals used to make these different dyes have proven to cause various different cancers and can even potentially mutate healthy DNA.

Olestra is a fat substitute. It also causes a dramatic depletion of fat-soluble vitamins and carotenoids

Olestra is a fat substitute. It also causes a dramatic depletion of fat-soluble vitamins and carotenoids

Petroleum Loops: fruit loops are delicious - and made from a product that's made out of the same stuff that makes gasoline

Petroleum Loops: fruit loops are delicious - and made from a product that's made out of the same stuff that makes gasoline

European countries like Norway, Finland, France and Austria all have banned at least one variation of petroleum-containing food coloring.

Another common additive banned in other countries but allowed in the U.S. is Olestra, which essentially is a fat substitute found in products that traditionally have actual fat.

For example, low-fat potato chips like Ruffles Lite, Lays Wow and Pringles fat-free chips all contain Olestra - which is shown to cause the depletion of fat-soluble vitamins. Different brands of fat-free ice cream and mayonnaise at one time also contain the chemical. 

Olestra has been banned in several countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada.

In 2003, the FDA lifted a requirement forcing companies that use Olestra in their products to include a label warning consumers that the food their eating could cause 'cramps and diarrhea,' despite the fact that the agency received more than 20,000 reports of gastrointestinal complaints among olestra eaters.

 

More...

Do you like citrus drinks, like Mt. Dew, Squirt or Fresca? Then you also like brominated vegetable oil, which is banned in more than 100 countries because it has been linked to basically every form of thyroid disease - from cancer to autoimmune diseases - known to man.

In Singapore you can get up to fifteen years in prison and penalized nearly half a million dollars in fines for using an ingredient found in common U.S. bread products

In Singapore you can get up to fifteen years in prison and penalized nearly half a million dollars in fines for using an ingredient found in common U.S. bread products

Hungry? 1 1/2 pounds of food (and chemicals used to make bleach and rubber yoga mats)

Hungry? 1 1/2 pounds of food (and chemicals used to make bleach and rubber yoga mats)

Other products made from bromine: chemicals used to keep carpets from catching on fire and for disinfecting swimming pools.

Other food products made from brominated vegetable oil include New York brand flatbreads, bagel chips, Baja Burrito wraps and other bread products.

Of brominated vegetable oil, the FDA says it is approved 'for flavoring oils used in fruit-flavored beverages, for which any applicable standards of identity do not preclude such use, in an amount not to exceed 15 parts per million in the finished beverage.'

Then there's things like Hungry Man frozen dinners, which will fill you up - with azodicarbonamide, a chemical used make things like bleach and rubber yoga mats.

Most frozen potato and bread products - like different varieties of McCain brand french fries - contain the chemical, as well as several store brand bread products.

Azodicarbonamide is known to induce asthma, and has been banned in Australia, the U.K. and most other European countries. If you were to use it as a food ingredient in Singapore, you could face up to 15 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

According to the FDA, Azodicarbonamide is 'approved to be a bleaching agent in cereal flour' and is 'permitted for direct addition to food for human consumption.'

The final chemicals on the list - butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) - are found in everyday products like Post, Kellogs and Quaker brand cereals, as well as Diamond Nuts, Chex Mix and gum brands like Wrigley's, Trident, Bazooka and Bubble Yum.

Both BHA and BHT are waxy solids made from petroleum and are known to cause cancer in rats. It's banned in Japan, England and several other European countries.

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That's OK, the US will got to WTO to get these bans lifted.

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I recently learned about a chemical called Dihydrogen Monoxide which is used for everything from nuclear power and gas to plastics and the FDA allows this stuff in our food, medicines and given to the animals we eat. With prolonged exposure it can cause tissue damage and death if inhaled and is found in all forms of cancerous tumors. Lets all join together and insist on a worldwide ban of Dihydrogen Monoxide!!!

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Yes, I grew u on much of this stuff. During the 70s & 80s processed foods really surged into the market but people weren't aware of their harm. In my house, we try and just buy as many raw fruits and veggies for my kids to snack on, I really avoid processed foods, but we still end up with some. We also started our own vegetable garden this summer and I can't say enough how utterly wonderful it is to sit down and eat lettuce, peas, spinach, etc. that we know exactly where it came from and everything it WASN'T treated with. It's wonderful, I hope backyard gardening picks up more in the US, growing your own food makes you realize how pure food is SUPPOSED to be and how unnatural processed foods are.

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Im from New Zealand, the country that promotes, lean, green and healthy living. Most of the animals are fed growth hormones, then there is the GE (genetically engineered) products, and the millions of tons of chemical sprays that is sprayed on almost all of he fruit and vegetables grown.... More so for the export products, to make them last longer.... It's a BIG YUK all round these days... Farmers should be ashamed of themselves!

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We are treated like idiots in England but your government seems intent on killing you all off early. Chemicals in your water, food, air and pumping you all full of med's for any illness. All your foods been genetically altered. It seems profit for large corporations is more important than YOU.

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That's why we Americans are turning into mutants.

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"shocking"

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British "cuisine" is inedible. Developed early in a sea-locked country. Kidney pie????? Mother of God! Surprised you don't eat hedgehogs. Or do you? - stymie, south san francisco, United States, 21/6/2013 10:10 Of course we do!! Poached hedgehog and cucumber butties are lovely!

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I live in the Midwest, so I pay horrific prices for organic fruits and veggies and do not buy processed foods. I'd never depend on the government to protect me from Anything.

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they serve those fruit loops to very young children as part of a free school breakfast scheme at my children's school in Maryland and I told the teacher I did not want my children to eat those. I give them a healthy and natural breakfast at home. It does break my heart to think that serving such food is deemed acceptable. such crazy world we live in!!

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