FDA Failure? Unpacking Toxic Chemicals in Your Food - AI Podcast

Dr. Joseph Mercola - Take Control of Your Health

Briana Mercola

Health & Fitness, Health, Alternative Health

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Story at-a-glance

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows U.S. food companies to use nearly 1,000 chemicals banned in Europe, many of which are linked to DNA damage, hormone disruption, or cancer
Thanks to a legal loophole called “Generally Recognized as Safe” or GRAS, manufacturers are allowed to self-declare additives as safe without FDA approval, review, or even disclosure on the label
Hidden additives are often disguised as “natural flavors” or “spices,” masking substances you’d never knowingly eat but are consuming regularly
Ultraprocessed foods make up 73% of the U.S. food supply, designed with chemicals that increase cravings, damage gut health, and disrupt brain signaling
Even after hospitalizations and deaths linked to hidden ingredients, the FDA rarely takes meaningful action — leaving your health in the hands of corporations

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom. Stay informed with quick, easy-to-listen
0:06.1	summaries of our latest articles, perfect for when you're on the go. No reading required.
0:10.5	Subscribe for free at Mercola.com for the latest health insights.
0:14.1	Did you know nearly a thousand chemicals that Europe has already banned are still hiding
0:20.0	in the foods you eat every
0:21.2	day in the United States. And most of those chemicals slipped in through a loophole called
0:26.0	generally recognized as safe, or G-R-A-S, which lets manufacturers declare their own additives safe without
0:33.3	telling you, or even the FDA. Welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom.
0:38.6	I'm Ethan Foster, and today we're asking why U.S. regulators allow substances linked to
0:44.0	DNA damage, hormone disruption, and even cancer to stay on your plate.
0:49.4	I'm Alara Sky.
0:50.8	Together we'll unpack how grass weakens FDA oversight, why ultra-processed foods dominate
0:56.0	73% of the American food supply, and what concrete steps you can take to protect yourself.
1:02.0	Let's start with the scale of the problem. The FDA acknowledges that U.S. food companies
1:07.0	use almost 1,000 chemicals that Europe has rejected for safety reasons.
1:11.6	Many of those chemicals never faced an FDA review at all.
1:15.6	Under GRAS, companies can introduce additives, keep the safety data private, and conceal the
1:21.6	ingredient behind vague label terms like natural flavors, artificial flavors, or spices. In practice, that means you may be
1:29.7	biting into substances you'd never knowingly choose. Yet there's no requirement for disclosure,
1:35.4	no mandatory FDA approval, and no public database to track what you're eating. Consider titanium
1:41.5	dioxide. The European Union banned it in 2021 because of DNA damaging
1:46.4	concerns, but you'll still find it brightening candies and processed snacks across U.S. shelves.
	...

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