By Heather Callaghan
(NaturalBlaze) Brominated vegetable oil, aka BVO, a common citrus drink ingredient in the United States, is banned in Japan, India and the European Union. Actually, it’s banned in over 100 countries.
The questionable emulsifier is supposed to keep components of sports drinks and soda pop from separating, but is often called flame retardant for bromine’s industrial uses as a flame retardant, gasoline additive and in pesticides.
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Health concerns of anything bromine-related involve heavy-duty thyroid and neurological damage. The Iodine Project lists more. Bromine toxicity is serious. According to one naturopath, the effects of potassium bromate in modern refined breads are not only damaging to the thyroid – but combine that with chlorine in city tap water and you’ve got a weak thyroid that cannot properly uptake the iodine necessary to protect the body against radiation. Back to BVO…
BVO in beverages has been known about for awhile, even earning write-ups from the well-known Dr. Mercola – but it was a Change.org petition made by a 15-year-old Mississippi girl that got America’s attention. Especially after she was brought on television by Dr. Oz.
Sarah Kavanaugh is pictured above and amassed over 200,000 signatures which convinced PepsiCo to phase BVO out of Gatorade. We featured the move in our “13 Ways Foodies Are Changing the Food Industry.” Her Powerade petition had over 59,000 signatures and it looks like Coca-Cola might be imitating the Pepsi move.
The argument for the petition was that these drinks exist in other countries, yet the food companies had no issue swapping banned ingredients for alternatives – so why not in the U.S.? Also, the drinks are marketed as healthy (they’ve got electrolytes?) and great for the athletic types.
Did you know that a non-GRAS ingredient can still be used in food?