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RFK Jr wants bright artificial dyes out of food. Are Americans ready to let go?
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2025
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https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23026007/
Just one of many studies that raise concerns. Yes, they pump rats full of a fuckton of these chemicals that no normal human being will ingest. You could say the same thing about tons of other chemicals that have turned out to be carcinogenic. We don't have the funds to give rats/animals normal doses over the course of a normal human lifespan, so pumping high amounts to shorten the duration is the next best thing.
Red has proven to be the most difficult color to synthesize due to how red colors oxidize or break down in the environment. The natural red colors all fade rapidly which makes them poorly suited for industrial purposes.
It's why carmine is a godsend because it's both stable but it breaks down in the environment. It also has an incredibly long history as a food dye and has proven to be safe. Unfortunately it's derived from insects so it's regarded as being... gross? Weird how consumers prefer health consequences over bugs
Well, that and it makes it non-vegitarian. I remember when Starbucks used insect derived dyes and vegetarians were pissed off when they weren't told their drink technically had bug in it.
That said, we eat bugs (and poop, etc) all the time since there's a legal amount you can let slip into food when processing. So eh.
One of the most striking quotes I’ll always remember from a documentary is “natural peanut butter has more bugs in it because natural ingredients always will”. When you’re eating processed peanut spread, the ingredients have gone through a lot more filtering and processing steps and allowed insect parts are lower.
I still eat natural peanut butter though
Gotta love that extra crunch!
And protein. It helps make the peanut butter slightly leaner and have slightly more protein!
Hydrogenated oil vs having to mix? Mix, definitely, unless physical limitations preclude it.
Is the food industry doing this research the way fossil fuel and tobacco did research?
I dont know but didn't big tobacco become a big food company and it then used its discoveries on addiction to enhance its food products
Like a true satan
Are you referring to Philip Morris/Kraft?
ETA idk if Staryucks is still doing it, but several years ago, they were adding extra caffeine to their coffee to make it more addictive.
Lol 😆 @ staryucks
https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2023/09/08/did-tobacco-companies-also-get-us-hooked-on-junk-food-new-research-says-yes/
They mostly divested but the addictive technology remains in their scaly hands. But yes its something like that because they still own some food producers
"Dosage make the poison" comes to mind. If it's safe below those levels... Then it's not harmful. "BUT IT MIGHT BE" is not a coherent argument. I'm not necessarily against banning a substance that has little functional use out of an abundance of caution - but lets not pretend that it's going to save any lives since it's very unlikely to do so.
Just because some turn out later to be carcinogens doesn't make it a valid way to find them.