ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Could you be cooking up more than you imagined for dinner tonight? The FDA tested 307 different food products. Lead was found in sweet potato baby foods and in teething biscuits.
It was also found in white wine and ranch salad dressing. Exposure to lead can cause brain and kidney damage, anemia, and fatigue.
“That’s the really tragic thing about lead is that once a child is lead poisoned, then they have some permanent deficits,” says Dr. Janet Currie, Director of the Center for Health and Well Being at Princeton University.
Uranium was found in some baby foods and some cereals. This cancer-causing chemical was also found in American cheese.
Your favorite snack may not be just full of fat, but also cadmium! This potentially cancer-causing chemical was found in potato chips and French fries, as well as leafy greens, and while the link between mercury and foods like canned tuna, baked cod, salmon, and shrimp may not be new, the FDA study found arsenic as well. The chemical is tied to lung and skin cancers.
The FDA did not state a cause for the chemicals, but experts say you can avoid many of them by avoiding canned food. Store food in glass or stainless-steel containers. And check the labels for food dyes, 90 percent of which are made from petroleum.
Results of the FDA study were not all bad. Calcium, a crucial vitamin for bone development in children is found in nearly all the foods tested, iron, another crucial mineral for development, is also very prevalent in baby foods like dry rice cereal, mixed cereal and oatmeal.
