Two years ago, I was consulting for a start up company when I was contacted by the company’s consumer affairs department. They had just received two questions asking if dihydrogen monoxide was present in their food products . I looked up at the calendar…. April 1st. “They’re messing with us to see if anyone here knows chemistry”, I said. Consumer affairs, however, insisted these were serious inquiries that they had received before. I rolled my eyes a bit, then wrote up a serious response to send to them.
Dihydrogen monoxide is H20, otherwise known as water. Of course the company’s products contained water, all food products do. Even dehydrated products contain small amounts of water. It sounds like a scary chemical name though, doesn’t it? Even scarier, too much water can kill you, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t drink it, cook with it, or bathe in it.
Chemophobia
Chemophobia is the irrational fear of chemicals. It is a common public reaction to scientific or media reports. Why is our society so afraid of chemicals? Our food, our bodies, and our world are all made of chemicals. They are not scary; they are essential for life. Some are dangerous, yes, but it is important to remember that the dose makes the poison. Over 500 years ago, Paracelsus, the father of toxicology, said this: “All substances are poison. There is none which is not a poison. The right dose makes the difference between a poison and a remedy.”
Food companies are not trying to poison you, I promise. Do you know who eats crazy amounts of those chemicals in food? Food Scientists. I guarantee you the food scientists developing the products aren’t willing to put anything dangerous in foods, because they will eat a ton of it before it reaches the store shelves. I cannot tell you how many pounds of mac & cheese powder I ingested a few years ago. Yep, that means I ate a lot of sodium phosphate, potassium chloride, acetylated monoglycerides, and medium chain triglycerides. They all have a very good reason for being in the product. Phosphates help bind water and fat, keeping cheese from getting all greasy and separated when melted. It also helps make the sauce creamy.. The other three ingredients I listed are in the white powder you find in microwave mac and cheese cups. They thicken and change the tension of the water, so it doesn’t boil out all over your microwave.
Yes, there are potentially dangerous chemicals in fruits and vegetables too
You might be surprised to learn all of the scary sounding chemicals in fruits and vegetables too. Author and chemistry teacher James Kennedy has created some great infographics that show all the chemical components of common fruits and vegetables. See below for what bananas and lemons contain. Thankfully when produce is used as an ingredient, the chemical components don’t have to be labeled, if they did, the public would probably cry foul.
Source: https://jameskennedymonash.wordpress.com/
Peach pits, cherry pits, and apple seeds contain amygdalin, which breaks down to hydrogen cyanide when ingested. Should you avoid peaches, cherries, and apples because of this? No. You will never consume enough to be harmful. The dose makes the poison.
The dose makes the poison means that it takes a certain quantity to be lethal. Below are items most of us consume regularly. Drinking too much water, coffee, or alcohol can be deadly, but you rarely see viral warnings about them on social media like you do other food chemicals. Here’s another fun fact, caffeine is a natural and potent pesticide! Check out the link below to an article on pesticides we commonly consume. Humans can safely consume amounts that will kill pests.
Don’t be fooled by the term “natural”
The term “natural” does not mean safe either. “Natural” ingredients can be just as toxic if not more than those created by chemists. There are plenty of toxic natural substances (see water, caffeine and alcohol above). The marketing of organic and non-gmo products often imply to us that human made chemicals are more dangerous than natural ones, but this simply isn’t the case. Please also note that there is legal definition for the term “natural” in food. Anything can be called natural, but consumers have been given a perception of what that means by advertising.
The point is, just because you aren’t familiar with an ingredient or have read that a particular one can be toxic, doesn’t mean it will be toxic in the amount you consume. Don’t be afraid of chemical names and unfamiliar ingredients. Look them up on a reputable website if you are unfamiliar with them. If all ingredients used their chemical names, labels would look very different. Take the following label for example:
DIHYDROGEN MONOXIDE, SODIUM CHLORIDE, SODIUM HYDROGEN CARBONATE, ACETIC ACID
What you just read is actually; water, salt, baking powder, and vinegar. Chemophobia is unfortunately becoming more prevalent as we get our news on the internet. The articles and stories we read don’t always give proper context as to what it means in our own lives and almost always leave out the details of what a truly toxic dose is. In reality, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does this research for us, and we need to trust them. They make decisions based on quantitate human health risk assessment to determine if exposure to a chemical is safe based on the dose.
Eating chemical free isn’t possible. Everything in life is made up of chemicals. Trust food scientists. Trust the FDA. Both want you to have safe, healthy food. Most importantly, remember that the dose makes the poison.
Thank you for sharing a different perspective, too often we are scared because we are not educated on these things.
It’s sometimes hard to realize that not all chemicals will kill us. I mean, even in things picked from the forest have natural chemicals that may interact with our bodies in adverse ways as well.
This is so informative! Thank you for sharing.
Very informative post, it is in fact in the quantity ingested. People often scare others by pointing out chemicals listed on the labels, while they are very important they are not all we should be careful about.
What a fun read, I think most people are not aware that lethal poisons are lurking around in plain site at all times. Carcinogens ( like black pepper, processed meats and alcohol) that we consume daily do more damage than these items.