Processed foods contain healthier ingredients in foreign markets than they do in US

Wednesday, November 06, 2013 by: Ethan A. Huff

It is bad enough that many processed foods currently on the market today still contain artificial dyes, chemical stabilizers and preservatives, refined sugars and various other toxic, yet FDA-approved, ingredients. But a recent investigation by FoodBabe.com reveals a shocking double standard within the food industry: processed foods created for the American market are often far worse nutritionally than those created for foreign markets, despite claims by the food industry that there are simply no acceptable or safe alternatives to their current U.S. product formulations.

Many popular processed foods, such as Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, Ritz Crackers, McDonald's French fries and Pizza Hut Garlic Cheese Bread, to name just a few, are intentionally formulated much differently here in the U.S. than they are elsewhere. Foreign varieties of these and many other processed foods are generally healthier, contain fewer or no toxic additives and are all-around more appealing from a health standpoint than their American counterparts.

Kraft, McDonald's, Quaker and many other popular food brands are feeding Americans questionable ingredients
Take Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, for instance. The American version of this popular processed food product contains a laundry list of unhealthy ingredients, including enriched flour, artificial cheese flavors, chemical preservatives and synthetic, petroleum-based dyes like Yellow 5, which has been linked to triggering behavioral problems in children. The U.K. version, on the other hand, known as "Cheesey Pasta," contains simple ingredients like durum wheat semolina, which is much healthier than refined flour, real cheese and natural colors derived from paprika and beta carotene.

You can view a shocking comparison of the two ingredient lists, courtesy of FoodBabe.com, here.

The same goes for McDonald's French fries, which in the U.S. are loaded with hydrogenated oils, synthetic flavoring agents and dangerous chemical preservatives like TBHQ and dimethylpolysiloxane -- this anti-foaming agent, as we previously reported, is a key ingredient in children's Silly Putty. In the U.K., however, McDonald's French fries contain only natural potatoes, salt, a little bit of sugar and non-hydrogenated vegetable oil.

The ingredient list comparison for McDonald's French fries in the U.K. versus the U.S. is available here: http://foodbabe.com.

What about Quaker Oats breakfast cereal? Surely this popular "healthy" food item is limited to simple oats and fruit, right? Wrong. In the U.S., Quaker Oats strawberry flavor oatmeal cereal contains poisonous additives like partially hydrogenated soybean oil, artificial strawberry flavor, Red 40, a slew of chemical preservatives and even more artificial flavoring agents. The U.K. version of this same product, on the other hand, contains no hydrogenated oils, no fake strawberry flavor and actual freeze-dried strawberry pieces.

You can compare the ingredient lists for Quaker Oats cereal yourself here: http://foodbabe.com.

"Using banned ingredients that other countries have determined unsafe for human consumption has become a pandemic in this country," explains Food Babe, noting that her investigation led to feelings of "outrage, unfairness, disbelief, and ultimately grief."

"The U.S. food corporations are unnecessarily feeding us chemicals -- while leaving out almost all questionable ingredients in our friends' products overseas," she writes.

If you care about your health, stop buying processed foods
Why, exactly, is the American food industry doing this? It is difficult to say. But the proof is literally in the pudding that Americans are being intentionally targeted with toxic food products by major food corporations that continue to provide cleaner, safer and healthier alternatives of these same products to people living in other countries.

"The point is the food industry has already formulated safer, better products, but they are voluntarily only selling inferior version of these products here in America," adds Food Babe. "The evidence of this runs the gamut from fast food places to boxed cake mix to cereal to candy and even oatmeal -- you can't escape it."

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/042804_processed_foods_healthier_ingredients_foreign_markets.html#ixzz2kNmIJ5w1