Controversial food colouring agent Titanium Dioxide (TD) – found in many processed foods – has been definitively associated with oxidative stress, organ damage, and even cancer…
It’s long been suspected that TD was connected with increased risk of developing a range of condi-tions and diseases, not the least of which were several types of cancer. Now, new research has con-firmed a direct association.
Mainly anecdotal evidence
Up to now, anti-TD advocates have warned that the officially ‘inert’ substance was connected to a whole bunch of chronic illnesses commonly associated with consumption of processed foods. The stuff has traditionally been used to brighten and gloss the artificial colours of many processed foods, particularly in the candy and confections sector.
Forward-looking lawmakers in the EU and UK banned the substance in 2022 based massive lobbying by healthy-eating advocates and persuasive anecdotal evidence. Not to mention ‘official’ university-based studies that ‘could not rule out‘ the connection between TD and serious illnesses.
New research conclusive
Now, the additive, commonly found in more than 11,000 processed foods sold in the US, has been directly connected with reduced levels of endocrine cells that excrete critical gut hormones. Those hormones, in turn, normally regulate systems that protect against oxidative stress, systemic inflam-mation, organ damage, and other chronic conditions.
This conclusive new evidence linking TD with hard-to-fight chronic conditions and diseases will un-doubtedly prove a significant factor in the ongoing US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asses-sment of a 2023 petition calling for the banishment of TD from all US foods.
My take
The arrival on the clinical scene of evidence that, “one of the most commonly used food additives may be far more dangerous to human health than previously thought,” is clearly an important ad-vance in the decades-long war on TD.
It comes at a time when the Trump Administration’s secretary of Health and Human Services czar, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, is calling for bans on a wide range of processed food additives, removal of flouride from drinking water, and suspending vaccination programs.
Stirring up many pots…
The danger is, given the state of unrest over health and well being issues under Kennedy’s ‘mandate’, TD may continue to be viewed as just another safely simmering pot that’s been needlessly stirred up. And won’t be accorded the attention it deserves.
Popular and ‘expert’ opinion both remain sharply divided over many of Kennedy’s opinions and pro-clamations. It’s a situation that may persist through the remainder of the second Trump term. And continue to fester for a long time after Trump and Kennedy are consigned to the history books.
The tragedy is, the longer those issues remain unresolved, the longer folks will continue to suffer from the diseases and conditions at their roots…
~ Maggie J.