Food from US that are banned in Rest of the World

Americans are slowly realizing that food sold in the US doesn't just taste different than foods sold in other countries, but it’s created differently. Sadly, many U.S. foods are BANNED in Europe — and for good reason. Take a look at the plummeting health of Americans; what role might toxic foods play in our sky rocketing disease rates? Below are 10 American foods that are banned elsewhere.

Farm-Raised Salmon

Where it’s banned: Australia and New Zealand

Farm-raised fish is usually fed an unnatural diet of genetically engineered (GE) grains, antibiotics and chemicals unsafe for humans. To mask the resulting grayish flesh, they’re given toxic and potentially eyesight-damaging synthetic astaxanthin.
To determine wild from farm-raised salmon (sold in most restaurants), wild sockeye gets its red color from natural astaxanthin and carotenoids. The white “fat strips” are thin, meaning it’s lean. Pale pink fish and wide fat marks are a sign of farmed salmon. Avoid “Atlantic Salmon.” Look for “Alaskan” or “sockeye,” which is illegal to farm and has very high astaxanthin concentrations.

Genetically Engineered Papaya

Where it’s banned: The European Union

Most Hawaiian papaya is genetically engineered to be ringspot virus-resistant. But research shows animals fed GE foods like corn and soy suffer intestinal damage, multiple-organ damage, massive tumors, birth defects, premature death and/or nearly complete sterility by the third generation. Dangers to humans are unknown.

Ractopamine-Tainted Meat

Where it’s banned: 160 countries across Europe, Russia, mainland China and Republic of China (Taiwan).

About 45 percent of US pigs, 30 percent of cattle and an unknown percentage of turkeys are plumped with the asthma drug ractopamine before slaughter. Up to 20 percent of ractopamine is still there when you buy it.
Since 1998, more than 1,700 US pork lovers have been “poisoned” this way. For this very health threat, ractopamine-laced meats are banned in 160 different countries! Russia issued a ban on US meat imports, effective February 11, 2013, until it’s certified ractopamine-free. In animals, it’s linked to reducedreproductive function, increased mastitis and increased death. It damages the human cardiovascular system and may cause hyperactivity, chromosomal abnormalities and behavioral changes. Currently, US meats aren’t even tested for it.

Flame Retardant Drinks

Where it’s banned: Europe and Japan

Mountain Dew and other drinks in the US contain the synthetic chemical brominated vegetable oil (BVO), originally patented as a flame retardant.
BVO bioaccumulates in human tissue and breast milk; animal studies report reproductive and behavioral problems. Bromine alters the central nervous and endocrine systems and promotes iodine deficiency, causing skin rashes, acne, loss of appetite, fatigue and cardiac arrhythmias. The featured article explains: “The FDA has flip-flopped on BVO’s safety, originally classifying it as ‘generally recognized as safe,’ but reversing that call, now defining it as an ‘interim food additive,’ a category reserved for possibly questionable substances used in food.”

Processed Foods and Artificial Food Dyes

Where it’s banned: Norway and Austria. Britain advised companies against using food dyes by the end of 2009. The European Union requires a warning notice on most foods containing dyes.

More than 3,000 preservatives, flavorings and colors are added to US foods, many of which are banned in other countries. The featured article noted:
“Boxed Mac & Cheese, cheddar flavored crackers, Jell-O and many kids’ cereals contain red 40, yellow 5, yellow 6 and/or blue 2 … (which) can cause behavioral problems as well as cancer, birth defects and other health problems in laboratory animals. Red 40 and yellow 6 are also suspected of causing an allergy-like hypersensitivity reaction in children. The Center for Science in the Public Interest reports that some dyes are also “contaminated with known carcinogens.”
In countries where these food dyes are banned, companies like Kraft employ natural colorants like paprika extract and beetroot.

Arsenic-Laced Chicken

Where it’s banned: The European Union

Arsenic-based drugs are approved in US-produced animal feed because they cause animals to grow quicker and meats products to look pinker and “fresher.” The FDA says arsenic-based drugs are safe safe because they contain organic arsenic … But organic arsenic can turn into inorganic arsenic, run through contaminated manure and leach into drinking water.
The European Union has never approved using arsenic in animal feed; US environmental groups have sued the FDA to remove them.

Bread with Potassium Bromate

Where it’s banned: Canada, China and the EU

Bread, hamburger and hotdog buns are “enriched” with potassium bromate, or bromide, linked to kidney and nervous system damage, thyroid problems, gastrointestinal discomfort and cancer.
While commercial baking companies claim it renders dough more tolerable to bread hooks, Pepperidge Farm and others use only unbromated flour without experiencing “structural problems.”

Olestra/Olean

Where it’s banned: The UK and Canada

Olestra, or Olean, created by Procter & Gamble, is a calorie- and cholesterol-free fat substitute in fat-free snacks like chips and french fries. Three years ago, Time Magazine named it one of the worst 50 inventions ever. MSN noted: “Not only did a 2011 study from Purdue University conclude rats fed potato chips made with Olean gained weight … several reports of adverse intestinal reactions to the fake fat include diarrhea, cramps and leaky bowels. And because it interferes with the absorption of fat soluble vitamins such as A, D, E and K, the FDA requires these vitamins be added to any product made with Olean or olestra.”

Preservatives BHA and BHT

Where it’s banned: Both are banned in parts of the European Union and Japan; the UK doesn’t allow BHA in infant foods.

BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) and BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) are common preservatives in foods like cereal, nut mixes, chewing gum, butter spread, meat and beer. The National Toxicology Program’s 2011 Report on Carcinogens says BHA may trigger allergic reactions and hyperactivity and “is reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.”

Milk and Dairy Products Made with rBGH

Where it’s banned: Australia, New Zealand, Israel, EU and Canada

Recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), a synthetic version of natural bovine hormone is injected into cows to increase milk production. Monsanto developed it from genetically engineered E. coli bacteria, marketed as “Posilac.”
But it’s banned in at least 30 other nations. Why? It converts normal tissue cells into cancerous ones, increasing colorectal, prostate and breast cancer risks. Among other diseases, injected cows suffer exorbitant rates of mastitis, contaminating milk with pus and antibiotics.
In 1997, two Fox-affiliate investigative journalists, Jane Akre and Steve Wilson attempted to expose thedangers of rBGH, but lawyers for Monsanto – a major advertiser with the Florida network – sent letters promising “dire consequences” if the story aired.
In 1999, the United Nations Safety Agency ruled unanimously not to endorse rBGH milk, resulting in an international ban on US milk.
The Cancer Prevention Coalition, trying for years to affect a dairy industry ban of rBGH, resubmitting apetition to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg in January 2010, but the FDA sticks to its false position that rBGH-treated milk is no different than milk from untreated cows.
Action: Look for products labeled “rBGH-free” or “No rBGH.”

Take Control of Your Health with REAL Food
If you value your health, avoid foods containing harmful ingredients and ditch processed foods entirely – even if they are permitted in the US. Opt for fresh whole foods, organic, grass-fed/pasture-raised beef and poultry, dairy products and eggs.

Note: Post is the version of similar post already posted in my website http://www.jailive.in

7 ways to improve infrastructure in Indian cities

The challenge for India is to write a new chapter in low-cost urban development, the way it has done in wireless telephony and automobiles, says Subir Roy.

Most of the additional 250 million Indians who will look for an urban habitat in the next 20 years will do so in existing towns and cities whose healthy and orderly growth will define the quality of Indian urban life.

McKinsey & Co has estimated that this will cost a colossal $1.2 trillion in capital expenditure alone (about India's current GDP).

Booz & Co has estimated that the government will have to spend $1 trillion in capital expenditure, not in 20 but 10 years! Plus a sharp improvement will be needed in urban governance.

While the latter is not negotiable, the former is, and the challenge for India is to write a new chapter in low-cost urban development, the way it has done in wireless telephony and automobiles (Nano).

Conventional urban solutions put in place so far are high-cost - metro rail, elevated expressways, flyovers and bringing drinking water to cities over large distances - and also ineffective. Traffic congestion keeps getting worse, water remains scarce and slums, despite some redevelopment, keep growing.

The first pillar on which low-cost urban development can be built is to look not at the top cities but the bottom ones.

The hierarchy of cities in terms of size - from metros at the top to say tier III cities at the bottom - also holds in terms of costs. McKinsey estimates that Mumbai will need more than twice the per capita investment than Patna will in the next 20 years. So, strengthen smaller cities first. Precisely the opposite is being done today with enormous Central government help for metro rail in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai.

Linked to this is the second pillar - make mass bus transit, not metro rail transit (the latter costs ten times more), the cornerstone of the solution to traffic and transportation, the number one problem afflicting Indian cities today.

With an efficient public transport system, the need for cars will go down, reducing the pressure on roads and need for flyovers, etc.

More and more Indian cities over time will have to get their drinking water from faraway places via costly water transportation systems (pipelines plus pumping stations), something in which Bangalore is the unfortunate leader today.

So, the third pillar is an affordable water solution based on extensive rainwater harvesting and recycling of waste water.

The fourth pillar is a different solid-waste disposal system. The compostable part of it has to be turned into energy and the rest incinerated to the extent possible. This will truncate the huge problem of locating adequate dumping grounds for waste.

The solution has to begin with waste segregation at the household level. Commercially successful, simple, off-the-shelf solutions are available for households to use their biodegradable waste to make compost at home.

So, tomorrow's affordable city will be relatively small, where the roads will be full of buses, bicycles and walkers and relatively fewer cars, with every building having a rainwater harvesting system, most with solar power panels on the roof and streets made bright with LED lighting.

Its leitmotif will be a Ginger hotel, not a Taj or Oberoi property. Booz outlines a range of "intelligent" IT-enabled, cost-effective solutions across sectors for Indian cities which are city-size neutral. But the big plus of a small city is that it is softer - less built up - and, therefore, cheaper to rebuild. It is cheaper to widen a road or build a bus terminus in a small city than a big one because land prices are lower in the former.

Incremental urban growth implies notifying over time more and more peripheral areas of existing urban bodies for inclusion in them. Currently, as a city spills over into a non-urban area beyond its limits and gets built up (de facto urbanised), its boundary is extended to include the new reality.

Solution (fifth pillar): keep notifying swathes of non-urban land beyond a city before these get built up, that is while they are still soft, so that there can be some planned development. This is cheaper than trying to reshape a hard area.

The sixth pillar is for city planners, in both mega and smaller cities, to promote as much of mixed-use development as possible. Incentivise developments which have both office and residential spaces, so that some of those who work in the new offices can live next door and not have to make long commutes. This is easier done in urban peripheral areas and smaller cities as developing residential space in large cities and central business districts is prohibitively costly.

The seventh pillar and perhaps the most critical is promoting low-cost housing within cities. This is easier said than done. The first step is to redo inner city slums (install sewerage, sanitation, water supply, etc.) and then build living units of maybe 300 sq ft carpet area which those with records of residence there can own by paying the construction cost through housing loans.

EMIs will be paid with what was paid earlier as rent. Success will hinge on keeping builders out and getting contractors to deliver to specifications on a cost-plus basis.

The new owners will sell off and go to newer slums? No matter, develop them too. Public expenditure will be manageable as slums are usually on public land or owned by slumlords who hold either fake titles or none at all.

The key is to trigger development with little public investment and city dwellers, there for jobs, largely paying for their electricity, health care, education and the like.