The Pros And Cons Of The FDA

Margaret A. Hamburg, a FDA Commissioner who is credited with a master’s degree once said, “A safe global food supply can only be achieved through development of effective food safety management systems, which are essential to the well being of consumers, farmers, processors and manufacturers.” Food is a fundamental desideratum for survival, and the safety of food has been a controversial issue elevating up in America. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the organization which governs food in America. It has been queried rather the chemical in our food are linked with obesity and other health quandaries. Should the FDA crack down on more stringent laws and implement other solutions in order to ascertain that future health issues are eliminated?
It has been proven that in America that added chemicals in our food carry agents that can interrupt our body’s processes and cause health issues in the human body. Studies have reported cases in which people from outside countries come to the United States and can see natural processes in their body being altered.
The whole stereotypical phrase that “America is obese” strikes up the argument rather the FDA should implement more laws controlling the chemicals. Before actually jumping to conclusions, understanding the laws and regulations behind the FDA will be essential to understanding what can or cannot be done.
The FDA is an organization that through a governmental system, they monitor food, drugs, and medical devices. According to Beatty and Lim, the regulations that the FDA follow are outlined in the FD&C Act; the food, drug, and cosmetic act. (10-14) Part of the process of governing the safety and quality of our foods involves the process of inspections. The FDA has three different inspections that can take place in order to ascertain quality safety. The first inspection is the establishment inspection, which is the most routine inspection, ascertaining the product’s facility meets the standards outlined in the FD&C Act. The second inspection act is the comprehensive act; this inspection is risk predicted and is a result of the FDA suspecting a risk in the product that they are inspecting. During this inspection, the inspector will evaluate every component of the product and probe for smallest quandaries in order to ensure that it will pass
the inspection. The last inspection is the directed inspection and this action is a result of a complaint filed. As a result of a complaint made pertaining to a firm or product, this inspection will take place, and the FDA will investigate the complaint and take further actions if needed. Beatty and Lim stated, during inspections, the inspector utilizes the document 483, which records and communicates issues between the FDA and the organization of the product. (10-14). Through the document 483, the FDA can issue a warning letter, injunction, recall event, recall products and seizures. According to the table 1 in the article Understanding FDA Regulations for the Food, Drug, and Medical Device Industries, ranked as the second highest citation, right behind recall products is warning letters. This should be a red flag to the FDA because warnings are given additional chances, and this apprises the public that the FDA optically discerns an issue in the inspections done. However, the warning sanctions time in order for the organization to react the quandary. This can become an issue because with a warning, an organization can find a find a temporary fix instead of a permanent fix and get away with the warning. After understanding that a substantial amount of FDA citations are warnings, one could question rather the FDA is controlling the chemicals in our food precisely. Withal is there a link between the rise in obesity and the chemicals in our food? Obesity is the disorder that because of excess body weight, an individual is overweight and this disorder can lead to additional health problems. Currently, obesity is on a rise and for years now, the roots of obesity have been a controversial issue. Studies have linked environmental factors to obesity. (Oliver and Lee 2015) Some of the environmental factors that have a major impact on obesity include farmers, grocery stores, governmental policies, and restaurants, which are all monitored by the FDA. In the article, Who is to blame for the rise in obesity? Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist from the University of California at San Francisco states, ‘‘Everyone talks about personal responsibility, and that won’t work here. These are things that have to be done at a governmental level.” (Allday, 2012) After learning that obesity is rising and considering the views of some highly edified people who believe that obesity is linked back to environmental factors such as the government, what causes obesity? Is the FDA missing chemicals in our food that is causing obesity? Professionals credited in food science question the physiology of food, including the chemical additives that are integrated.
A food additive is any substance that is not considered a food by itself that enhances the quality of food. Food additives enhance taste, texture, flavor, oxidative stability, shelf life, and suppressing spoilage. According to Yu, Wang, and Sun, the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) and European Commission, the nutrition value of food additive is disregarded. (254) There are two types of additives, natural additives and synthetic additives. Natural additives are additives that derive from plants and animals and aren’t human made. The second additive, synthetic additives are more commonly found in our food. Synthetic additives are man-made and are engendered from commixing chemicals. Synthetic additives are customarily engendered in a lab setting, and the composition of synthetic additives can be pernicious. If synthetic additives are pernicious to engender, how is it affecting us biologically? Once the FDA has reviewed a chemical and believes it is safe to consume the product is marked as GRAS, which means generally recognized as safe. According to Nelter and Maffini in the article, Generally Recognized as Secret: Chemicals Added to Food in the United States, studies across the world have proved that additives marked as GRAS had opposing results. (9-10) The four main additives done in the study were Epigallocatechin-3-gallate, Theobromine,
Gamma-amino butyric acid, and sweet lupin protein, fiber and flour. Epigallocatechin-3-gallate was studied by a Japanese company and detected in teas, sport drinks and juices. Between the company DSM and Kemin, the additive was found in 25 different food products. Epigallocatechin-3-gallate showed links to leukemia in fetuses as well as issues in thyroid, testis, spleen, pituitary glands and gastrointestinal gland. Theobromine was found in bread, cereal, beverages, chewing gum, tea, soy milk, gelatin, candy, yogurt, and fruit smoothies. Theobromine was found in 20 different products. Theobromine had cases of testicular generation when lab rats were habituated to test this additive. Although the FDA marked this additive as safe, they became apprehensive with Theobromine being found in baby food and the biological effects starting at a young age. When the FDA studies how additives and other chemicals effects the biological process of the human body, they study acute quandaries. The studies disregard the effects of the chemicals that appear after years. While these additives seem to affect only a minute part of the human body, there have been some additives that through hormones, have effected throughout the whole body.
Hormones are chemical messengers that are conveyed through blood and other tissues into the human body. These messengers control most major bodily functions, from simple rudimentary needs like hunger to intricate systems like reproduction, and even the emotions and mood. Hormones are located in the endocrine system and play a very consequential role in the human body. According to Kato, Tada-Oikawa, Wang, Murata, and Kuribayashi, studies have proven that additives in our food carry endocrine disrupting chemicals causing a hormone imbalance. (10-18) Since hormones are the messengers of our body, a hormone imbalance can lead to cancer, reproductive issues, allergic asthma, and increment or decrease of hunger. According to John Rock’s Error, Gladwell explained that studies analyzed blood samples from women in rural Japan and China. Reports found that their ovaries, because of diet, were engendering about seventy-five percent of the amount of estrogen that American women were engendering. (58). In addition, John Rock learned the percent of breast cancer was higher in America than in China and Japan. Estrogen is an important part of maintaining the chemical function of a woman’s human body. If a hormone affected estrogen the way it did, is there a possibility that hormones can negatively affect hunger and cause obesity? Obesity is on a rise in America and in America, one of the stereotypes is “All Americans are Obese.” As stated earlier, one cause of obesity is environmental factors such as the lack of controlling additives and other chemicals. The additives in our foods are messing with the biological processes of the human body. A prime example of this is a hormonal imbalance, which can cause weight gain and lead to obesity. Hunger is controlled by three hormones, ghrelin, leptin, and neuropeptide Y. Pradhan, Samson, and Sun explained that ghrelin is a hunger hormone that monitors food intake by increasing hunger, fat deposition and is also a growth hormone. (619-624) Ghrelin also regulates glucose which controls insulin secretion and regulates glycogenesis and glycogenesis. Ghrelin and Neuropeptide have the same function; they both increase hunger. Leptin is a hunger hormone that monitors food intake by decreasing hunger. The three hunger hormones collaborate in order to control food intake and outtake. All of our food is converted into glucose, which is the blood sugar of our body. When glucose gets low, the body responds to the hormones with hunger turning on the three hunger hormones. However, if the chemicals in our body produce a hormone imbalance, our body is incapable of recognizing hunger and therefore, the human body will signal a response in order to remain in the hunger stage. Continuous hunger will lead to increased intake and eventually result to obesity.