Although meant to protect citizens from harmful substances appearing in food and medicine, the FDA fails to regulate unhealthy additives to food. The United States has higher obesity rates than most other developed countries worldwide, with an obesity rate of about 42 percent, according to the World Population Review. Meanwhile, other countries in Europe, such as Germany and Italy, sit comfortably at a 10-20 percent obesity rate.
One cause of this high percentage is the presence of food deserts, areas often inhabited by people in extreme poverty where getting healthy fresh food is difficult. Another factor is the FDA’s inability to regulate and ban preservatives and additives in most foods. One of the most well-known additives is Red 40, a food dye linked to hyperactivity and other brain changes in children and adults. While neither the U.S. nor the European Union have completely banned Red 40, Red 40 concentration is heavily restricted in Europe and warnings are required on all foods with this dye.
While there has been very little scientific evidence that Red 40 is harmful in moderate amounts, it has proven harmful in large quantities. With the large number of foods in the U.S. containing Red 40, such as popular snacks Doritos, Twizzlers, and Skittles, it is likely that the average American is consuming high amounts of Red 40. According to research by the National Health Institute, snacks contribute to around 20 percent of the average American adult’s energy intake, further increasing the likelihood of a dangerous amount of Red 40 intake.
Another additive that was recently banned in the E.U. but has yet to be addressed in the U.S. is titanium dioxide. This substance, linked to lung cancer, is found in certain types of inks, ceramics, paints, toothpastes and boxed macaroni and cheese.
Although the organization certainly needs to improve additive regulation, the FDA does a much better job than the E.U. at restricting the sale of cigarettes. According to Cancer Atlas research, the U.S. has a lung cancer rate of around 0.0401 percent of men and 0.0308 percent of women. Meanwhile, E.U. member-state Hungary has a lung cancer rate of 0.0774 percent of men and 0.0414 percent of women.
In 2009, the FDA signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act into law, allowing the FDA to regulate the manufacturing, distribution and marketing of tobacco products. The European Union, however, took an additional seven years to pass a similar bill.
Overall, the FDA and the U.S. government are better than the E.U. at regulating certain addictive substances such as cigarettes; however, their regulation of unhealthy foods and additives pales in comparison to that of European countries. This failure to regulate these foods has led to a large obesity rate in the U.S., which has led to premature deaths and higher heart disease rates in Americans.
