Fast food chains ditch unhealthy additives -- why did it take so long?

    

Recently, a multitude of fast food chains and other food companies have announced their transition toward healthier ingredients. However, it is immensely disturbing to learn about the ingredients being removed before making a switch to cleaner food.

Food giants such as Chipotle, Dunkin' Donuts, McDonald's, Coke, and more have been boasting about their transition to natural ingredients, (Chipotle even went completely non-GMO). Although the switch to healthier alternatives is a highly admirable gesture, it makes us wonder, well... what were we eating in the first place?!

To answer that question — we've basically been eating flame retardant, paint, sunscreen, and other common household items. Yup.

No, we kid. Or do we?

Surprisingly — and quite disturbingly — we actually HAVE been eating ingredients that can, indeed, be found in the aforementioned items.

For the sake of delving into the specifics of the most concerning findings, here it goes:

Dunkin' Donuts will be eliminating what is known as titanium dioxide — a chemical that can be found in sunscreen, cosmetics, paints, and so on — from its products. Dunkin' Donuts used TiO2 (its scientific name) to give its powdered donuts a whiter and brighter appearance. Yum!

Coke will be discontinuing its use of brominated vegetable oil (BVO), which is pretty much flame retardant. Sounds thirst-quenching, right? Well, before you respond, let it be known that this chemical has been linked to several negative health effects once it has been built up in fatty tissue.

Other additives from these major companies include dyes, artificial spices (i.e., fake black pepper), and antibiotics which have been linked to a growth in drug-resistant bacteria, just to name a few.

Again, making our food healthier is a big step forward — and it is applaudable. But these startling discoveries lead us to wonder why some of these artificial ingredients and additives were deemed safe in the first place — and why it's taken so long to begin eliminating them.