CSPI urges ban of 3 common carcinogenic food dyes

Dyes in foods are one of those things I will never understand (save for decorative purposes, like cakes and stuff). It doesn't alter the taste and has been proven to have negative side effects. I don't remember back this far, but my mother said that she wouldn't allow me to have red dye #40 when I was a kid because I'd turn into a raging monster if I ate it (me? *innocent eyes* XD). I don't notice anything now, but I'm not paying as much attention as I should be, either.

We don't need this stuff! I commented on the CNN blog as well, and I'll just reiterate it here. Someone asked why food in non-American countries doesn't have all these additives, and I said that I believe it's because we're so used to our food being super sweet (with high-fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners that often aren't used outside of the States) that anything natural tastes bland in comparison. These other countries also don't have the space and/or soil to grow the enormous amounts of corn that we can, either. I know that when I converted to a mostly organic diet, it took me a while to adjust to the tastes of natural food because I was so used to the strong, artificial flavors that are in mass-produced food products. It's not easy to change your taste preferences, and we live in an instant-gratification society. Not to mention that healthy food costs a lot more than crap food.

Our priorities are so screwed up in this country.

Agree with most of what you said. I'm not really all that well informed about food in other countries, but everytime I read anything about it, it seems that in many cases they are just as bad if not worse.

In the U.S. it seems its a constant battle between some food producers who are only interested in maximizing profits (whch includes adding things like HFCS and other forms of sugar to keep us addicted) and some consumers who are aware and are fighting them.

The difference in many other countries is that , believe it or not, their regulation is often more lax than in the U.S.! (generalizations are misleading. It depends upon the country-- the third world is generally the worst I believe-- the Scandinavian countries I think are generally much better).

Our priorities are so screwed up in this country.

I used to think that too-- until I did a bit of traveling :-)

In some circles its become quite fashionable to bash the U.S. and Americans for all the ills of the world-- while we definitely are to blame for many things, we're not the only ones. (See, for example: The 15 most toxic places to live-- any of these remind you of your home town? How many of the 15 are in the U.S.?)

Is there not still an issue as to whether organic foods are safer to eat?

http://blog.oup.com/2010/05/organic-food/

Yes-- there's still controversy.

I have done a fair amount fo research, and come to the conclusion that organic foods are not only safer, but also (and this is even more controversial) healthier. However, at this point my focus is not political activism as it was in the past. I am no longer "out to change the world". Rather, I 'm now focusing on myself-- and my own health. IMo I think its a good idea to eat organic. And yes-- I could be wrong! :-)

Is there not still an issue as to whether organic foods are safer to eat?

To address the article you linked to-- IMO there are two issues:

1. Do some of these organizations have a vested interest in protecting food industry groups? That would take a lot of research, which I am not willing to do at this point...but the FDA is, IMO, certainly not to be trusted.
2. My second concern-- there is still a lot we don't know. Science doesn't accept any hypothesis 'till proven. I beleibve in several things (for example, the validity of astrology when done by a talented expert) that have not yet been proven to the satisfaction of science.
In such cases one must weight the risk/rewards. And its my health...vs extra expense. (Other than expense, there's no downside to eating organic)

I can recall the days when margarine first hit the marketplace. It did not sell well because it was white, rather than yellow like that which it was meant to replace, i.e. butter. There was a huge controversy about colouring it yellow. At first there was a little capsule of yellow dye in the package, which purchasers had to knead with the margarine to turn it yellow, then eventually the margarine was permitted to be yellow in colour. What a lot of much ado about nothing.

Actually I believe one of the selling points re Margarine was that it was better for your health than butter because butter was saturated animal fat.

Later they realized that margarine has trans fats-- which are much worse than animal fats!

(Corn oil is hydrolized to make it solid-- producing transfat-- which ios very bad). However, some more modern types now have healthy alternatives.

As I am somewhat of a "health nut' I use neither. I use mainly olive oil-- even use it to dip bread into in place of butter.

I usually use sunflower spread made in Holland, but I don't know how bad that is.

I am not familiar with that specific one-- but generally I believe the Dutch are much stricter about what they allow in food then the U.S.

In China, the cheapest oil, that which is used by the majority of people, is fish oil.

Fish oil is great of course-- omega 3's-- very heart healthy type of fat. But-- its usually contaminated with Mercury-- sometimes PCBs. My guess is the stuff the poorer Chinese use is toxic....

Do you dip your lobster chunks into heated olive oil?

Aha-- you got me! I don't have any butter in the house-- but when I go out to eat lobster (which isn't often)-- I love to dip it in butter!

I workout, and take fish oil capsules (all the advantages of fish oil but its fractionally distilled, so the toxins are eliminated)-- this counter-acts unhealthy saturated fats to some degree (I don't eat anything with transfats). So eating butter or beef occasionally is probably OK for me.

if you have good health habits, especially good foods and exercise, you can occasionally eat "unhealthy" food. Although butter, in moderation, isn't too terrible (trans-fats are worse-- the ones that say "hydrogenated"). Of course people vary greatly-- there's the factor of genetic predisposition and other factors.