What are the ingredients in McDonald’s fries?

[proverbialwisdom]

19. Ok, read NRDC Switchboard: "Thyroid and kids' brains: Using modern tools to screen food chemicals"

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/mmaffini/_chemical_name_cas.html

Thyroid and kids' brains: Using modern tools to screen food chemicals

Posted June 17, 2014
Maricel V. Maffini, PhD’s Blog

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The American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Environmental Health has just released a policy statement noting that “Adequate thyroid hormone production is critical in pregnant women and neonates because thyroid hormone is required for brain development in children.” Studies show that children born to mothers with low thyroid hormone have slow cognitive responses and impaired mental and motor development. The poster chemical for toxic effects on the thyroid is perchlorate. Perchlorate interferes with thyroid hormone function, likely causing neurodevelopmental problems in children. Even though the science behind perchlorate’s adverse effects on the thyroid is indisputable, and its mechanism is well understood, FDA approved its use as an anti-static agent in food containers in 2005. Want your confectionary sugar not to stick to the bag? Perchlorate does the trick!

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Previously, we showed that there are 24 chemicals used as food ingredients that FDA identified in its own database as having adverse effects in the thyroid gland. But we know that less than 22% of the thousands of chemicals used as food ingredients have relevant toxicology information in FDA’s database. One alternative to fill in this massive data gap is to screen chemicals using new technologies that do not involve traditional animal testing, such as those developed under the Tox21 program — a multi-agency (including FDA) effort to quickly and efficiently identify potential toxic effects for thousands of chemicals that lack information.

To date, Tox21 has run nearly 8,000 chemicals (including chemicals in food and consumer products and drugs) through hundreds of tests (including interactions with the thyroid receptor), and has made these data available to the public. Nearly 1,800 chemicals reacted with the thyroid hormone receptor, and we checked to see how many of these chemicals were allowed in food and whether they were inhibiting or activating the receptor.

We identified 259 chemicals allowed in food or food packaging that the Tox21 data indicate were active in the thyroid receptor assays (based on data published in PubChem here and here):

26% (66 chemicals) were direct additives or food ingredients (these are chemicals added on purpose to the food and commonly listed as ingredients);

41% (107 chemicals) indirect additives or food contact substances (these are chemicals that can get into the food through the manufacturing process or leaching from packaging material); and

33% (86 chemicals) were pesticides used in agriculture that can end up in our food (more on food contact substances and pesticides on follow-up blogs - stay tuned!).

Of the 66 food ingredients that were active, 59 inhibit and 7 activate the function of the thyroid receptor. Fifty-nine percent (39 chemicals) of these ingredients were flavors (See the full list below). Four of the 66 food ingredients that were inhibitors of the thyroid receptor —ethoxyquin, FD&C Red No. 3, heptyl paraben and vitamin D3 — were already identified by FDA as having an adverse effect on the thyroid in animal studies. Some of you might be thinking, “Wait, isn’t vitamin D3 good for me?” Yes, in the right amount it can be good for you. Vitamins, like many other natural and man-made chemicals may have a range of safe doses outside which too much may cause harmful effects. Toxicology helps us identify the highest amount of an additive that can be consumed without causing adverse effects.

It’s worrisome that at any given time, a pregnant woman or a child may be assaulted by a slew of chemicals, all affecting their thyroid system. Each individual chemical may or may not have a harmful effect, but the real concern is that we know next to nothing about the cumulative effect of how being exposed to multiple chemicals can impact thyroid hormones and their ability to support the healthy development of a child’s brain. A cumulative effect occurs when two or more chemicals affect the same tissue, organ or system in the body.

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MORE:

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/mmaffini/
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2014/05/20/peds.2014-0900.full.pdf+html