In the U.S., everyday foods may contain additives, hormones, and antibiotics that have been banned in other countries. The European Union is often the first to act on unhealthy foods, and the U.S. generally lags several years behind if we ever do it at all.
It’s often easy to lose our sensibility when it comes to eating right. But regardless of your past, now is as good a time as any to get back into a smart and healthy routine. Although you may be eating the right kinds of food, you may need to look further into the nutritional choices that you are making. Some healthy foods are laced with substances that are illegal in other parts of the world.
Here’s a list of banned foods that you should look out for:
Meat Marked “Lean”
To make meat leaner and reduce fat content, ractopamine is used in American livestock, creating a poisonous meat product. The drug ractopamine is a re-partitioning agent that increases protein synthesis, responsible for hyperactivity, muscle breakdown, and other harmful effects. Meat with ractopamine is illegal in 160 countries. Most of the meat containing this drug comes from the United States.
Eating food containing synthetic drugs is always a danger. In the United States, most grocery stores include genetically modified ingredients and hormones that could harm your health.
Human side effects of this drug include tachycardia, which will quicken your heart rate by up to 100 beats per minute, and systolic blood pressure, which measures the pressure in the veins when your heart beats.
One of the most healthy and nutritious ways to consume meat products without the dangers of eating ractopamine is to try grass-fed meat. These foods can be found at local farms and in health food stores.
rBGH Dairy Products
Milk, cheese, yogurt, and other dairy products are commonly laced with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH).
The hormone is injected into cows to increase the production of milk, but the dangers associated with rBGH include risk for colorectal, prostate, and breast cancer.
In 1993, the FDA in the United States approved the hormone, but it is not legal in the European Union, Canada, and other countries. The hormone, also known as somatotropin, promotes growth and cell replication.
Consuming products with bBGH is a danger to your health due to the risks of colorectal, prostate, and breast cancer. Promoting the conversion of normal tissue cells into dangerous ones causes this. In 1997, a Fox News team broadcast a news story that shared the dangers of this hormone, but only after a messy legal battle. The FDA continues to back the product despite its risks.
The alternative to rBGH injected dairy products would be to consume raw milk that comes from untreated cows. Look for labeling that says “rBGH-free” or “No rBGH.”
Raw milk is a living whole food that helps protect against allergic reactions and boosts the immune system, providing you with nutrient-absorbing living enzymes, unprocessed, cell-nourishing, cell-repairing raw fats, and proteins. These nutrients are exactly what your body needs to function. When your cells receive the proper amount of nutrients, your body becomes more functional, giving you more energy to lose weight.
Chemically Altered Food
We are told to eat salmon due to their nutritional value and omega-3 fatty acid content. Typically, you’ll find beautiful pink pieces of salmon at your local food market, but you may notice traces of discoloration, including grey spots. This is because they are raised on farms.
Throughout the United States, salmon are raised in farms, in which they are fed dangerous chemicals and unnatural diets. The fish within the farms consume genetically engineered varieties of grains, antibiotics, and other chemicals that could be harmful to humans.
In Australia and New Zealand, farm-raised salmon are banned due to the associated toxicity, which has been linked to eyesight damage.
Wild-caught salmon is pink, fed a diet of fish, and contain zero drugs or chemicals. In order to stay healthy and avoid disease, look for wild-caught salmon at your local grocer.
Another example of mass-produced, chemically altered food is the Hawaiian papaya. Papaya is generally considered a healthy fruit, but Hawaiian papayas are genetically engineered to be resistant to the ringspot virus, one of the most widespread and harmful diseases found in the fruit.