Many chemicals are problematic because they can disrupt the endocrine system.
Americans are worried about the chemicals in their food, and some politicians are expressing the same concerns. In January, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asserted that the food supply is "poisoning" people, while Dr. Marty Makary, the new Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said during his Senate hearing in early March that chemical additives in food are "drugging our nation's children at scale." He promised to "look at" chemicals as causes for inflammation and disease. Advertisement Advertisement Just 150 years ago, most food came from local farms and markets down the road from people's homes. Today, it materializes from thousands of miles away, filled with cryptic, unpronounceable ingredients, many of them chemicals. Research points to potential consequences. "There is extensive evidence that synthetic chemicals, unintentionally and intentionally added to food, contribute to chronic disease across the lifespan," says Dr. Leonardo Trasande, professor of pediatrics at NYU School of Medicine. He and other experts want people to know the risks of chemicals in food and what to do about them. Why are there so many chemicals in our food supply? Companies can add risky chemicals to food without independent tests to find out if they're safe for consumption. It's done without FDA approval through a loophole in federal regulations called the Generally Recognized As Safe exemption, or GRAS. This means the chemicals are innocent—and free to enter your diet—until proven guilty. "About 10,000 chemicals have been added to foods, many of them under GRAS," Trasande says. Read More: Why Some Food Additives Banned in Europe Are Still on U.S. Shelves In January, the FDA ruled one of these chemicals guilty, a coloring agent called Red Dye No. 3. It had been in food since the 1960s. The FDA's decision came about 25 years after the dye was banned from cosmetics due to links to cancer. Trasande wasn't impressed by the ban. "It's a drop in the…