Five More Potentially Harmful Foods and Food Ingredients in the American Diet

Some of the most troubling products in the American diet are some of the most common.

6. Beef and dairy products from cows routinely given antibiotics in their feed.

American farmers have used antibiotics to treat beef and dairy cows at least since the 1950's. At one time, antibiotic use was basically a matter of being kind of a cow. If your cow cut her udder trying to jump the fence, or a calf injured its hoof while playing in the pasture, a quick injection of penicillin was used to prevent infection and discomfort.

But by the 1990's, mega-producers of beef and dairy products looking at the bottom line noticed that giving cattle antibiotics in their feed prevented infections and reduced the amount of time needed to take of cows. Knocking out udder infections (mastitis) before they started increased milk production, and giving cows confined to feed lots, sometimes literally eating each others' manure, prevented gastrointestinal infections.

Inhuman treatment of cows has implications for humans. Bacteria that survive antibiotic exposure are deemed "antibiotic resistant," and bacteria can transfer genes that make them antibiotic resistant from one to another through a process analogous to sex. The result is more and more infectious diseases that respond to fewer and fewer antibiotics, making human diseases harder to treat.

7. Dairy products from cows treated with growth hormones.

In the 1990's, scientists learned how to harness the power of bacteria to make synthetic versions of the hormones that encourage meat and milk production in cows. Although the use of recombinant bovine growth hormones in beef and dairy cattle is not universal, it is commonplace, and the increased growth of the cow leads to an increased need for antibiotics to fight infections, causing the problems mentioned above. Certain dairy products from cows given growth hormones, particularly sour cream, contain insulin-like growth factors that are known to stimulate the growth of human breast and prostate cancer cells.

8. GMO corn and soy.

At least 80% of the corn and soy products sold in America come from genetically modified plants. Proponents of genetic engineering point out, correctly, that farmers have been "genetically modifying" plants and animals by breeding for thousands of years, and that in any case, the human digestive tract breaks down corn, soy, and all other foods into their basic components, also breaking down plant DNA. And at any rate, a corn or soybean gene shouldn't "fit" in human DNA.

There are some indications, however, that sometimes the stomach doesn't produce enough acid to completely break down the DNA in plant foods, sometimes snippets of genetically modified genes find their way into the human body, and sometimes they cause "allergic" reactions of varying severity. Despite what you may read online, the connections between GMO and human disease are iffy and poorly researched at best, but most countries in the European Union don't want to take a chance.

9. Olestra (also known as Olean) in fat-free potato chips and French fries.

For potato chips and French fry connoisseurs, "fat-free" seems to miss the point, but some American food manufacturers make fat-free foods with the addition of a "fat-free fat" called Olestra. The problem with Olestra is that the human digestive tract isn't set up to digest it. Eating foods made with Olestra can lead to an especially unpleasant and potentially embarrassing complication called anal leakage, which is essentially bowel movements between bowel movements, bloating, and gas. Olestra also interferes with the absorption of fat-free vitamins A, D, E, and K.

10. Red 40.

It isn't just yellow dyes that may cause health problems. Austria and Norway ban the addition of a common red dye known as Red 40. Like yellow dyes, this red dye can produce allergic reactions and seems to be connected with hyperactivity in children, but it is found in foods ranging from ketchup to cinnamon-flavored "red hot" candies in the USA.