- Posted by kimh on October 8, 2009
There is a
new threat to our health from synthetic food ingredients. And like
Aspartame, the regulatory approval process that is suppose to protect
us is failing again. You may have noticed lately a growing number of
products that claim in their ads and on their labels that they have
“Less Salts”, “Less Sugar”, “Less MSG”. This type of
claim should make you think, “What are they putting in to let them
take this stuff out”. It should be obvious that they are not just
going to remove some of the salt, sugar and MSG. These three
ingredients are the key to increasing sales. So they are the geese
that lay the golden egg of the processed food industry.
What they
are putting in is a new class of food ingredients that are novel
molecules, never consumed by humans before. And you may have already
eaten them because they don't have to be on the label. These
chemicals turn off bitter receptors on the tongue and enhance the
salty, sweet and umami (savory) receptors. Companies like Kraft,
Nestle, Coca Cola and Cambell's Soup are already putting these
chemicals in their products. These chemicals are so powerful that the
amount of salt and sugar can be cut nearly in half, yet the same
level of salty or sweet flavor is maintained.
While some
food companies will admit they are contracted with Senomyx, they will
not reveal which foods have these chemicals added. The foods most
likely to contain these chemicals are soups, vegetable and fruit
juices, ice cream and sauces. Senomyx CEO Kent Snyder has said, “We
are helping companies clean up their labels”.
The company
that developed these new chemicals is called Senomyx. They took data
from the human gnome project and used it to analyze human taste buds.
This has allowed them to develop multiple chemicals that work in very
low concentrations, often less than 1 ppm. By comparison, artificial
sweeteners have concentrations of 200-500 ppm. These new chemicals do
not have to be separately listed. Instead they are allowed under
“artificial flavors”.
The fact
that they are used at concentrations of less the 1 ppm means they
don't have to through the rigorous FDA approval process for novel
chemicals. Instead they automatically get Generally Recognized as
Safe (GRAS) status. It only took Senomyx 18 months to get GRAS status
on their MSG replacer and they did this with a single safety study on
rats for 3 months. A study like this is not generally considered
adequate to determine safety. A minimum of two years on multiple
species will produce more realistic results.
This is
just another reason to avoid processed foods, especially if they
contain salt, sugar or MSG and “artificial ingredients”.
-Paul Ericson, contributor Liberation Wellness