By Ava Nicols
The United States single-handedly has the most preservatives, deadly chemicals and processed food products stocking its shelves.
After recently traveling to Spain on a school trip, I noticed a significant difference in the way I felt eating a similar diet to the one I do at home: predominantly pescatarian and whole foods.
It’s beyond ironic that clinical obesity has surpassed world hunger as the leading health concern in America. Looking at Los Angeles County specifically, one in four people suffer from food insecurity, and there is no way to be sure that the other three are being fed nutritiously.
The FDA is responsible for creating and enforcing food regulations in the U.S. With a current budget of $8.4 billion, the organization is tasked with safeguarding public health. This is a comparatively large sum of money, with the budget increasing 34% from 2022 in an effort to upgrade medical device safety protocols and enhance food safety. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which oversees meat, poultry, and eggs, and the FDA overlap, yet health consequences like obesity, heart-disease, and diabetes are ever increasing. To know that health threats like these are on the rise, awareness of younger generations is more important than ever.
In Europe, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has the task of aligning and enforcing food regulations for all 27 member nations of the European Union, while the US relies on a federal entity. A range of chemicals and substances banned in Europe are permitted in the U.S; these include Titanium dioxide (E171); Brominated vegetable oil (E443); Potassium bromate (E924); Azodicarbonamide (E927a) and Propylparaben (E217).
It is up to the younger generations to be conscious of potentially life-threatening ingredients. The FDA and government must make changes regarding these harmful chemicals in order to reduce the amount of health consequences that come as a result.
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