Could your morning toast give you thyroid or kidney cancer?
Could eating a simple sandwich — or a slice of toast — have you on your way to cancer?
Our government has waged a secret, decades-long war to keep you from ever finding that out.
But it’s true.
Major food companies are loading hundreds of breaded products we eat every day with a deadly poison called potassium bromate. It’s supposed to make bread appear whiter and fluffier — but it’s also been linked to some of the most dangerous types of cancer.
The FDA has been trying to convince us that there’s very little potassium bromate left in the food we’re eating and feeding to our families.
But new research has proven that’s a lie. And it’s never been more important to take a few simple steps that can keep this health menace out of your diet.
Well, that Hormel breakfast sandwich you can buy in the U.S. with potassium bromate in the bun flour couldn’t be sold in Canada.
The same goes for China, Brazil and much of Europe.
If you live in California, you’ll find a cancer warning on packages of any baked goods that contain potassium bromate.
And if the FDA actually did its job in protecting consumers, this additive would have been banned in the U.S. decades ago.
You see, nearly 20 years ago the International Agency for Research on Cancer found that potassium bromate can cause tumors in the thyroids and kidneys of laboratory animals.
Even worse, it can damage your DNA, which could set you up for a host of other cancers.
That’s some price to pay for fluffy bread, isn’t it?
This research should have been the end of potassium bromate in our food, just as it was in other countries around the world.
But instead of protecting us, the FDA and Big Food launched a campaign meant to trick us into thinking they were keeping our food safe from this poison.
First, the food companies started making ridiculous promises that when potassium bromate is used “properly” no traces of the additive will end up in your toast or cookies.
Even the FDA knew that was a crock. As far back as 1992, the agency’s own research found dozens of baked goods with dangerous levels of potassium bromate.
Second, the FDA asked food companies to voluntarily stop using the additive.
Want to guess how that’s going?
The FDA will tell you — with a straight face — that its program worked and that you’d be hard pressed to find any food manufacturers that still use potassium bromate these days.
But that’s not what the Environmental Working Group has found. It recently compiled a list of close to a hundred varieties of bread, rolls, frozen dishes, and cookies that contain the additive.
And that’s not counting bakeries in every corner of America that use bromated flour.
In fact, General Mills alone produces 22 different varieties of brominated “professional” flour!
And testing in the UK found levels of potassium bromate in all of the bakery breads tested, as well as well as seven of 22 packaged breads.
Obviously, the FDA has had enough time, even by its own snail’s-pace standards, to cut the cord on potassium bromate. But apparently, making baked goods softer and fluffier is more important than protecting us from cancer, so again, we’re back to taking matters into our own hands.
Here’s what you need to do in order to avoid ingesting this dangerous additive:
- Check ingredient labels on fresh and frozen baked goods for brominated flour or potassium bromate. And that includes refrigerated dough for making cookies, rolls and pizza.
- Watch out for breaded products where it might be hidden. For example, the EWG list includes several items such as chicken patties and meatballs that contain the additive.
- If you shop at a bakery, ask if they use brominated flour. And if they do, find one that doesn’t.
To read the EWG report along with a list of products to avoid, click here.
Sources:
“Is there a cancer-causer in your bread?” Leah Zerbe, October 14, 2015, Rodale Wellness, rodalewellness.com
