Last week, the LA Times ran a conspiratorial story headlined, “How the FDA allows companies to add secret ingredients to our food.”
The article ultimately explains the problem this time is not so much the FDA, since a law passed by Congress established a sneaky category of processed-food ingredients acronymed GRAS — “generally recognized as safe.”
Without diving into that particular problem, which lets companies self-regulate potentially harmful novel ingredients, there does seem to be a quiet revolution underway. Last week, top FDA officials testified at a Senate committee hearing and made a number of remarkable concessions.
For example, the New York Post ran a story after the hearing headlined, “FDA may outlaw food dyes ‘within weeks’: Bombshell move would affect candy, soda and cakes, revolutionize American diets.”
At that Senate hearing, the FDA’s deputy director said the agency was reviewing a citizen petition to remove Red Dye #3, a common chemical and food additive made from petroleum and linked to cancer in several studies.
Both articles mentioned, without making any direct connection, the appointment of Robert Kennedy, Jr., as the next Director of Health and Human Services. I’ve noted before the rising of what appears to be the “MAHA Effect.” If nothing else happens, we are already witnessing a huge improvement; just from all the new attention sketchy processed-food ingredients are receiving.
They say politics is downstream from culture. Maybe the politicians just realized where the health culture is headed. Progress!
