It ends up bringing a pretty interesting questions like does this mean that our country has less standards then 3rd world countries when it comes to human health? And will they even address the issues or will they find new ways to hide the truth by hiding ingredients in symbols. If we look at fast food on a whole many of the other chemical's are just as bad as azodicarbonamide. So what exactly is in subways bread?
Enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, yeast, whole wheat flour, sugar, contains 2% or less of the following: wheat gluten, oat fiber, soybean oil, wheat bran, salt, wheat, rye, yellow corn, oats, triticale,brown rice, barley, flaxseed, millet, sorghum, yeast nutrients (calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate, ammonium sulfate), vitamin D2, dough conditioners (DATEM, sodium stearoyl lactylate, potassium iodate, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide), caramel color, refinery syrup, honey, yeast extract, natural flavor, enzymes.
Of course this is just the basic wheat bread. One thing you notice right away is everything listed above is pretty difficult to even pronounce. Most of these chemicals give me a headache just looking at them let alone try to pronounce them. What i will do is explain about what these chemicals do and some information about them.
Enriched wheat flour: You might be thinking this is just wheat flour right? Well what you most likely don't know about enriched wheat flour is that the way it is processed is by removing all of the naturally occurring vitamins and mineral's and replace them with chemicals. On top of that they only ever use about 5% of actual whole grain in the process of making food to save money but it does not contain the nutritional value of products made with whole-wheat flour. The other issue with products made using enriched wheat flour is that these quickly raising blood sugar levels and contain higher amounts of fiber and other complex carbohydrates which makes them take longer to digest. And in the quotations they put all the vitamins that they have to add to it since the natural versions of these vitamins are removed and they are required to put a certain amount of these.
The vitamin niacin does have some side effects as well including birth defects possible consequences for infant development in pregnant women of course we would hope that in all of our breads since this is found in all of them we aren't getting over dose's of these vitamins since that isn't really healthy for us either since it has to be added into food.
High doses of Folic acid might cause abdominal cramps, diarrhea, rash, sleep disorders, irritability, confusion, nausea, stomach upset, behavior changes, skin reactions, seizures, gas, excitability, and other side effects. There is some concern that taking too much folic acid for a long period of time might cause serious side effects. Some research suggests that taking folic acid in doses of 800-1200 mcg might increase the risk of heart attack in people who have heart problems. And yet they have to add this into breads as well again because of the lack of these vitamins.
Calcium carbonate is something that you would find in rocks around the world some of the main component of shells of marine organisms, snails, coal balls, pearls, and eggshells. It is commonly used medicinally as a calcium supplement or as an antacid, but excessive consumption can be hazardous. Of course to find side effects I turned to a government file which says that calcium carbonate dust is a physical irritation of the nose eyes and mucous membranes and skin of humans.
It also says that exposure to impure limestone calcium carbonate containing 3% to 20% quartz may pose a silicosis risk. You can view the information here.
Calcium sulfate is another very interesting chemical especially since it's used in the process of making sulfuric acid. It is made from the chemical compounds gypsum and anhydrite which occur at many locations worldwide as evaporites. Evaporites are water-soluble minerals such as ocean deposits. Now the side effects associated with these are:
- Feel Like Throwing Up
- Intense Abdominal Pain
- Incomplete or Infrequent Bowel Movements
- High Amount of Calcium in the Blood
- Loss of Appetite
- Kidney Stone
- Swelling of the Abdomen
- Gas
Ammonium sulfate this one is a non organic salt which can be found in soil fertilizer. Ammonium sulfate is apparently is a safe use for food but it has been banned in parts of Pakistan by NWFP government because it was being used to make explosives.
DATEM is a chemical that really hasn't been tested so to speak but it also known as Monoglycerides which are trans fats linked with heart disease, raised cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, immune system problems, and cancer. Monoglycerides have been banned in Japan in 1958, and it was recommended that it be banned in the UK, but because of industry pressure it was not. But the DATEM symbolization makes it very easy to hide the fact that the bread contains monoglycerides without having to actually list them as a chemical in bread.
Sodium stearoyl lactylate while this chemical says has no side effects or negative effects from most of the online resources excessive amounts of sodium stearoyl lactylate can potentially lead to abnormal sodium levels in the body which can cause dehydration, hormonal imbalance and excessive or deficient dietary sodium intake that comes from food.
Potassium iodate is used to fight of radioactive iodine in the thyroid and is also used along with antithyroid medicines to prepare the thyroid gland for surgical removal, to treat certain overactive thyroid conditions (hyperthyroidism). It works by shrinking the size of the thyroid gland and decreasing the amount of thyroid hormones produced. The question though is why the need to even add this into bread maybe I'm missing something secret here but I'm pretty sure unless they are adding radiation to our food to make it radioactive you shouldn't need potassium iodate in bread.
Ascorbic acid is vitamin c but at the same time they shouldn't have to add all of these extra additives in the first place the only side effect having too much vitamin c can do for you is put you at higher risk for kidney stones.
Azodicarbonamide of course is our banned food additive which isn't allowed in Europe or Australia. It is a possible cause of asthma and allergies at places that it is manufactured with. But they have no full side effects because they didn't do a whole lot of testing on the subject but its better to just approve it for use and see what happens I guess.
Caramel color is a food dye that is used and recently there has been reports that it can cause cancer. The FDA thinks that it is safe to use and see no reason for restricting this food dye but the question is why even use it if the purpose is just to dye food colors. If food is made properly it's just as appealing without someone taking a marker and coloring it.
Refinery syrup is a refined version of sugar another sweetener which is used in place of corn syrup or honey and also used for people suffering with low blood sugar level's. Higher doses of refinery syrup results some side effects like headaches, stomach upset, dizziness and insomnia.
Yeast extract while it sounds harmless enough something that most people don't know is yeast extract is a natural occuring glutamic acid which means it contains monosodium glutamate. Many companies use yeast extract as a way to replace monosodium glutamate with yeast extract since it doesn't require E-number labeling and since it makes it easier to hide the additive MSG. Many other chemicals are also high in glutamic acid which they sneak into products on a regular basis.
Natural flavor this can be anything from MSG to aspartame we have no way of knowing what exactly they mean by natural flavor since its made in a laboratory from various plants, animal's ect. But if your still paying attention at this point I'm pretty sure your already seeing the trend we have here.
The creation of food is now a laboratory experiment. Now it's how can we hide the real ingredients and some people might think your just over thinking it or your a health nut and such. But think about this when you sit in the kitchen and make stuff from real ingredients do you pull out some high fructose corn syrup and soak the food with that or use a beaker and mix chemicals to make dinner? I would think not its done with a knife and a cutting board.
Sure the convenience might outweigh for people that don't really care about health but when you go to eat out you used to expect that food was being made in-front of you and if that was the case they wouldn't be using all these ingredients like they are. We aren't even talking about the processing that's done with the meat either this is just the bread you use for the bun.
The other thing is all of the food you eat has all these ingredients so how do they control what is too much and too little of vitamins, chemicals and mineral's they don't sit with you and ask how much your eating and because everyone has different appetites and such you will either eat more or less then another person so how do they judge if your getting overdose's of various chemicals which causes side effects. All of these things is what you have to ask yourself about it.
If Vani Hari didn't start a petition for azodicarbonamide subway would still have that ingredient in it's bread but what stops them from putting something else in it's place some bread companies use silicon by products in bread and I'm pretty sure most of the other chemicals I posted above are just as bad or worse then azodicarbonamide in terms of what they do to the body.
What I will be doing with this blog though is researching each of the chemicals you find in food and making a database for the health conscious people. You don't have to use it. And you don't have to agree with anything I've said but some of us care about our health and want to protect our families the best we can so that's what this blog will be for.
