The SHOCKING Ingredients In a Mountain Dew

When I wrote the popular blog entry, The SHOCKING Ingredients in a McRib Sandwich, I figured that the chemicals I found were mostly limited to fast food restaurants. I then began to look at some of the foods in my home explored the ingredients. I was shocked at what I found.

FEATURED BOOK ON MOUNTAIN DEW:  Mountain Dew: The History

I believe that we have become accustomed when selecting food to do so based on name brand, taste, type of food, and perhaps a glance at the nutrition label (e.g., calories, fat, salt content). If we do look at the ingredients, we may see some with some long names, shrug our shoulders, and figure they are safe. They may be safe in small quantities, but I have to wonder if consuming large quantities of artificial chemicals over time causes health problems. Most of us are busy and want food that is already prepared to speed things up. But in order for that to happen, many manufacturers also cut corners to deliver foods and drinks in mass because it is much more efficient to do so. This is why all natural products usually cost more money.

I am going to begin documenting on this blog some of the troubling ingredients in foods and drinks I have had in my house, have regularly consumed in the past, and that I have now thrown out and replaced with other natural products. Most people do not have the time or energy to research what these products are, so I will do the work for you. All you need to do is spread the word (email, Facebook, Twitter), consider the information, and make an informed decision about what you want to put in your body. Without further ado, the product I am going to begin with is…

MOUNTAIN DEW: This popular drink is known for its high level of caffeine and fruity taste. But it also contains…

1. EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid). This is sometimes uses as a preservative in foods (under the name calcium disodium EDTA) to prevent food discoloration. I remember hearing about it in the OJ Simpson when it was discussed as chemical used in test tubes to prevent blood from clumping together. To be fair, EDTA has some positive health benefits in specific situations (e.g., treatment of lead and mercury poisoning), since it removes metals from the body. However, the chemical is known to be a persistent organic pollutant, which means that they do not naturally degrade in the environment, are capable of accumulating in living tissue, and causing negative health effects. Studies with laboratory animals have found that EDTA is toxic to cells, is slightly toxic to genes, and that consuming the material orally has negative effects on reproduction and development.

2. BROMINATATED VEGETABLE OIL (BVO): This is a perfect example of a tricky ingredient because most people will read it and thing it is not a problem since it is vegetable oil, skipping over the word "brominated." Brominated means that this is vegetable oil that contains the chemical, bromine. It is used as an emulsifier in many citrus-flavored soft drinks. An emulsifier is a substance that allows foods to mix together. It does this by thickening the oil so that it is as dense as the water in the drink. India has banned the use of BVO from its soft drinks and it is not an approved additive in Europe.

Bromine and/or forms of bromine are used in pesticides, disinfectants, flame retardants, as a gasoline additive, and for swimming pool maintenance. Its use has been limited in the U.S. but is still contained in some food products. Bromine has no known essential role in human health.

3. SODIUM BENZOATE: A food preservative that has been inconsistently associated with hyperactivity and is theorized to cause cell malfunction. In response to health concerns, the Coca Cola company is phasing it out of Diet Coke and some of its other beverages.

4. YELLOW # 5: This is a type of man-made chemical food coloring. Many companies try to avoid using it because of potential health effects. First, it is known to cause allergies, particularly among people with asthma and aspirin intolerance. It is associated with anxiety, asthma attacks, hives (fewer than 1 in 10,000 people), clinical depression, migraines, blurry vision, itching, general weakness, heatwaves, feeling of suffocation, purple skin patches, and sleep disturbance. It may also be associated with hyperactivity, irritability, restlessness, thyroid tumors, and chromosome damage. Health effects can occur even in very small doses. About 360,000 Americans are sensitive to yellow #5, which is about 0.12% of the population. Although yellow #5 is associated with the problems above, whether yellow #5 causes some of the more extreme health effects is controversial, especially among people who are not intolerant to it.

In laboratory animals, yellow #5 affects behavior, inflames the stomach lining, and affects and alters chemical in vital organs (e.g., liver and kidney). The latter is true even at low doses. In England, the Food Standards Agency called on the voluntary removal of yellow # 5 from food and drink due to concerns over possible health effects. In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration is so concerned about yellow #5 that it mandates that it be listed as an ingredient, insists on the batch of coloring be pre-approved by the FDA, and will actually seize products that do not list it in the ingredients when they soon have or did not have the batch pre-approved. Yellow # 5 was banned in Norway, Austria, and Germany but the ban was eventually overturned.