An ingredient that was commonly used in citrus-flavored soft drinks to maintain the refreshing taste may be banned across the United States, a report has revealed.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed deregistering modified vegetable oil, known as BVO, in the wake of recent toxicology studies that make it difficult to support its continued use.
“The proposed action is an example of how the agency monitors emerging evidence, when needed, conducts scientific research to investigate safety issues, and takes regulatory action when science does not support the continued safe use of food additives,” says James Jones, FDA deputy commissioner for human foods. ".
BVO, or brominated vegetable oil, has been used as an emulsifying agent since the 1930s, to ensure citrus flavoring agents do not float to the top of soft drinks.
Animal studies have indicated that the compound can slowly accumulate in our fatty tissue. With its potential ability to prevent iodine from doing its very important work within the thyroid gland, health authorities around the world have been skeptical of the dangers of the emulsion for decades.
In fact, BVO oil is already banned in several countries, including India, Japan and European Union countries, and was banned in California just last October, with the legislation set to take effect in 2027.
In the 1950s, the FDA deemed the ingredient Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS).
That changed in the following decade when questions were raised about its potential toxicity, prompting the US Food and Drug Administration to revoke the GRAS classification of BVO and temporarily limit its use to relatively small concentrations of no more than 15 parts per million exclusively in citrus-flavored beverages.
Data on the risks posed by even these small amounts of crude vegetable oil have not been easy to collect over time, relying largely on long-term studies that re-evaluate health effects in large sample sizes of people.
A British study conducted in the 1970s found that BVO accumulates in human tissue, with animal studies linking high concentrations of BVO with heart and behavioral problems.
On the back of recent animal studies based on the relative concentrations of BVO likely to be ingested by humans, the FDA was finally convinced that there was sufficient evidence to ban its use completely.
Jones announced that the agency is reviewing regulations that allow the use of certain food additives, with the goal of automatically prohibiting the approval of any food coloring agents found to cause cancer in humans or animals.
The final call on the FDA's reclassification of BVO still needs to go through a lengthy review process that is unlikely to be completed before early 2024.
8 simple factors that can “slow down biological aging by six years”
A new study finds that those who adhere strictly to a set of simple health metrics may age more slowly.
Researchers believe that following the American Heart Association's Basic Life Principles can reduce up to six years of biological age.
Measures on the checklist, known as the Life Essential 8, include eating healthy, exercising regularly, not smoking and getting enough sleep.
The other four health factors relate to staying thin, keeping cholesterol low, and maintaining healthy blood pressure and sugar levels.
Experts say the eight measures promote good heart health, which in turn may slow the pace of biological aging.
Academics at Columbia University in New York analyzed data from more than 6,500 Americans, who were about 47 years old on average.
They calculated the participants' phenotypic age, an empirical measure of biological age based on the results of nine biomarkers, including those that monitor metabolism, inflammation and organ function.
The scientists also gave each participant a high, medium, or low cardiovascular score based on how well they adhered to the Life Essential 8 checklist.
Factors that may lead to a change in results, namely income, education and ethnicity, were taken into account.
Higher cardiovascular health was associated with lower biological age, meaning these participants were younger than physiologically expected.
For example, the actual average age of those with good cardiovascular health was 41 years, while their biological average age was 36 years.
In contrast, those with poorer cardiovascular health had a positive acceleration in phenotypic age, meaning they were older than biologically expected.
The actual average age of people with poor cardiovascular health was 53 years, while their biological age was 57 years, four years higher than expected.
Further analysis indicated that having the highest health scores was associated with being biologically six years younger.
Study author Professor Nour Makarem, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia University in New York, said: “We found that higher cardiovascular health is associated with slower biological aging, as measured by phenotypic age. We also found a dose-dependent association - with higher cardiovascular health, Biological aging is reduced.
She added: “Being more committed to all eight essential lifestyle measures and improving cardiovascular health can slow the body’s aging process and has many benefits in the future. Reduced biological aging is not only associated with a lower risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, but is also associated with a longer life.” and lower risk of death.”
“These findings help us understand the relationship between chronological age and biological age and how healthy lifestyle habits can help us live a long life,” said Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, chair of the Life's Essential 8 writing group and former volunteer president of the American Heart Association. "For longer, but more importantly, we want to live healthier for longer so that we can truly enjoy a good quality of life for as many years as possible."
The researchers said the participant's cardiovascular health was measured only once, which does not take into account changes over time.