rBGH (in milk and dairy products)
- Recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) is injected into dairy cows to increase milk production, but is banned in 30 nations including the EU, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand because of its dangers to human health including increased risk for colorectal, prostate, and breast cancer.
Ractopamine (in meat)
- Ractopamine, a drug that increases protein synthesis, is used in livestock farming to reduce the overall fat content of meat. Ractopamine is currently used in about 45 percent of US pigs and 30 percent of cattle.
- Due to its harmful health effects, Ractopamine is banned from use in food animals in no less than 160 different countries, including countries across Europe, Russia, and China. Effective February 11, 2013, Russia issued a ban on US meat imports, slated to last until the US agrees to certify that the meat is ractopamine-free; at present, the US does not even test for the presence of this drug in meats sold.
Brominated Vegetable Oil (in sodas and sports drinks)
- If you live in the US and drink Mountain Dew and some other citrus-flavored sodas and sports drinks, then you are also getting a dose of a synthetic chemical called brominated vegetable oil, which was originally patented by chemical companies as a flame retardant.
- BVO, banned in Europe and Japan, has been shown to bioaccumulate in human tissue and breast milk, causing reproductive and endocrine problems in large doses. Bromine toxicity can manifest as skin rashes, acne, loss of appetite, fatigue, and cardiac arrhythmias.
- “The FDA has flip-flopped on BVO’s safety originally classifying it as ‘generally recognized as safe’ but reversing that call now defining it as an ‘interim food additive’ a category reserved for possibly questionable substances used in food.”
Farm-Raised Salmon
- Farmed salmon, besides being fed a wholly unnatural diet of grains (including genetically modified varieties) and antibiotics, are also fed synthetic astaxanthin (to attempt to emulate wild-caught salmon’s natural bright red color) made from petrochemicals. Synthetic astaxanthin, which has not been approved for human consumption and has well known toxicities, has been banned in Austrailia and New Zealand.
- Tip: Avoid Atlantic salmon, look for Alaskan and Sockeye. Wild salmon is bright red and very lean, so the fat marks, those white stripes you see in the meat, are very thin. Farmed salmon looks pale pink with wide fat marks.
http://www.realfarmacy.com/10-american-foods-that-are-banned-in-other-countries/#wStwbDSko06hJupq.01