ARTIFICIAL FOOD: Taking A Closer Look At The Ingredients And Their Health Effects - Part 4 - Preservatives BHA And BHT

This series examines common artificial food ingredients and their health effects.

Please note:  This is not meant to be an exhaustive analysis.  It is simply a quick overview of some of the negative health effects associated with BHA and BHT as well as a repository of resources for further research.

BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) – E320

AND

BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) – E321

We’ll start off with BHA

What is it and where is it commonly found?

From foodbabe.com

What it is: Synthetic preservative.   

Commonly found in: Sausage, pepperoni, pizza, canned soup, boxed potatoes, potato chips, drink mixes, canned refried beans, spaghetti sauce, chewing gum.

While these are some of the main foods that BHA is used in, it should also be noted that BHA is used in other products, such as….

Food Packaging 

Petroleum Products 

Rubber

MMMM, sounds delicious, right?

So what are some of the negative health effects associated with BHA?

Harmful to blood and circulatory system 

Carcinogenic 

Anti-androgenic (Testosterone blocker) 

Anti-estrogenic (Estrogen blocker)

This is not me saying this.  This is information taken from scientists at the National Institutes of Health.  The following is taken directly from various reports on the nih.gov website regarding BHA.

The existing in vitro studies indicate that BHA presents a weak estrogenic effect and also anti-androgenic properties while an in vivo study found it to have antiestrogenic properties.
 

Concentrations of 0.75%, BHA and BHT are harmful to the blood.

Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) is reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen based on sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity from studies in experimental animals.   

Now let’s have a look at BHT.

What is it and what is it commonly found in?

Again from foodbabe.com 

BHT

What it is: Synthetic preservative.   

Commonly found in: Cereal, packaged nuts, pepperoni, cake mix, granola bars. 

What are some health effects associated with BHT? 

Kidney Damage 

Liver Damage 

Toxic Effects On Lung Tissue 

Carcinogenic

The following information is sourced directly from National Institutes of Health reports.

Renal and hepatic damage was seen in male rats. 

Short-term repeated exposure to comparable doses produced hepatic toxic effects in male and female rats. 

In view of the widespread human exposure to BHT in foods, evidence of its hepatotoxicity, and a suggestion of its tumorigenic effect in the lung, it was moved that the compound be considered for retest by the NCI Chemical Selection Working Group.   

It is also worth noting that BHA and BHT have been banned in some parts of the world, but are still widely available in the US.    

Am I saying that absolutely nobody should ever eat this substance? No.  It's your body and you can do what you want with it, as long as it doesn't harm another person.  

I'm simply putting information out there to help people make informed choices.  I will ask this, though.  

When given the option between a product that contains these chemicals and a product that doesn't contain them, why would you choose one with known toxic effects?

The following resources were used in the creation of this article.
 
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4462476/

https://foodbabe.com/ingredients-to-avoid/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3757972

https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/roc/content/profiles/butylatedhydroxyanisole.pdf

https://tools.niehs.nih.gov/cebs3/ntpviews/index.cfm?action=testarticle.toxicity&cas_number=25013-16-5

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12396675

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/07/10/banned-foods.aspx

https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/htdocs/lt_rpts/tr150.pdf 

Thanks for your time and attention!

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