A few days ago I read a piece in Epoch Health that introduced me to a new acronym … GRAS, which stands for Generally Regarded As Safe. If a substance is GRAS, it means that it underwent a less rigorous approval process by the FDA than products approved as food additives. While the FDA sets an allowable limit for food additives, it does not set one for GRAS substances.
As most of you are aware, RFKJr has been nominated as Secretary of Health and Human Services under the Trump administration.
“Americans are being poisoned,” former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. repeated throughout his campaign. He linked the nation’s poor diet to rising health care costs for chronic diseases and shorter lifespans.
(Americans have a life expectancy that is five years shorter than other developed nations and that may be because 50 to 70 percent of the American diet is ultra-processed foods—the highest consumption rate in the developed world. Many of the food additives and ingredients used in the United States are already restricted or banned in Europe.)
Kennedy has primarily scrutinized several key food ingredients, including high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), seed oils, and food dye.
During his campaign, Kennedy repeatedly emphasized the risks of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), the most common sweetener in American processed foods.
HFCS is a cheaper ingredient than sugar. Ultra processed food makers adopted HFCS rapidly in the late 20th century. Between 1970 to 1990s, HFCS consumption increased by more than 1,000 percent, the greatest change in the American diet over that time. This increase coincided with the emergence and rise of obesity in the 1980s.
HFCS is currently approved by the FDA as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS).
Kennedy has repeatedly criticized the wide consumption of processed vegetable oils, also called “seed oils.”
During his campaign, he said that seed oils are everywhere and are the most common ingredient in the processed foods that make up the American diet.
Seed oils also have a higher omega-6 fatty acid content than omega-3 fatty acids. Research has linked higher omega-6 fatty acid consumption with a whole host of chronic diseases like Type-2 diabetes, inflammatory diseases, and more.
Most seed oils, like canola, soybean, corn, and sunflower oils, are approved by the FDA as GRAS.
The GRAS system, introduced in 1958, is one of the most criticized aspects of American food regulation.
Food ingredients that are categorized as food additives undergo relatively rigorous premarket safety review, with the FDA setting an allowable limit.
But GRAS ingredients do not have to undergo this premarket review if the substance has a long history of use, or if there is a scientific consensus on safety.
In 1997, the FDA proposed a new regulation that allowed companies to self-determine GRAS status without submitting it for affirmation from the FDA. This change was gradually phased in and made official in 2016. As a result, companies no longer have to notify the FDA when they have a new GRAS substance.
This created a major loophole, with the primary one being that “there are unknown ingredients in the food supply that the FDA and the public doesn’t know about,” Jennifer Pomeranz, associate professor of public health policy and management at NYU School of Global Public Health, told The Epoch Times.
Congress may need to update the 1958 legislature to make it clear that the FDA should review GRAS applications, Pomeranz said.
I can hardly wait for RFKJr to get into office!
11/22/24