American Foods Chockfull of Ingredients Banned in Other Countries | Hacker News Reader

American Foods Chockfull of Ingredients Banned in Other Countries

articles.mercola.com

9 pointsvindicated6 comments

There's a lot of nonsense in this article, and it's important to take this source in context. Joseph Mercola is a crackpot who claims that microwaving food is dangerous[1], that HIV is not the cause of AIDS[2], that vaccines cause autism[3], and a lot of other patently false bullshit. That doesn't mean everything he says is false, but it does mean that what he says has about as much chance of being true as what you hear shouted by a crazy guy on the subway.

[1] http://www.mercola.com/article/microwave/hazards2.htm

[2] http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2001/07/1...

[3] http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/08/0...

Thanks for the information! I didn't know that about Mercola or I wouldn't have posted in the first place. I should have done some background research though. It seemed like he was talking about a genuine contradiction that I thought was troubling.

However the headline does appear to be true.

brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, olestra -- all banned here in the EU, but not in the US.

Trivially, yes, it is true. You can also find additives that are approved in the EU but not the US. What we're looking at here are additives that fall close to the "safe" line in terms of supporting research, and that's why different regulatory bodies disagree about them. A fair analysis would be "Differences in banned substances between the EU and the US", but a sensationalist quack like Mercola has no interest in fairness or honesty.

The article also includes a section where he says "here are some of the most common food additives to watch out for:", followed by a list of ingredients many of which are harmless (unless you have a specific sensitivity), and most of which are not banned in either the EU or the US. But because of the context in which they are presented, a casual reader could easily conclude that sucralose and MSG are dangerous additives banned in the EU.

Mmm, "oily anal leakage".

This quack does not belong on HN. Flagged.

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