When combined with ascorbic acid in soda, sodium benzoate can form the potent carcinogen benzene.
Is Sodium Benzoate Harmful?
4.9/5 - (33 votes)
And speaking of soft drink additives, the preservative sodium benzoate. Harmful, harmless, or helpful? I’d go with harmful—in part, because of a little thing called benzene. When ascorbic acid and sodium benzoate get together, they can form the potent carcinogen benzene.
The FDA and EPA—the Environmental Protection Agency—measured and reported benzene levels in about 200 brands last year. More than 60% of the beverages were contaminated, with about a third exceeding safety levels set for drinking water. What’s even more shocking is that an internal memo was discovered showing that the soda industry knew—for the last 18 years—that their products contained benzene, but they chose not to reveal this fact. In a company statement, Coca Cola responded, saying that there was “much more benzene in cigarette smoke, car exhaust, and canned tuna.” But when you have to compare your food product to cigarettes, tuna, and gasoline to make it look safe by comparison, there’s probably a problem.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
Image thanks to kimiadasar.com
And speaking of soft drink additives, the preservative sodium benzoate. Harmful, harmless, or helpful? I’d go with harmful—in part, because of a little thing called benzene. When ascorbic acid and sodium benzoate get together, they can form the potent carcinogen benzene.
The FDA and EPA—the Environmental Protection Agency—measured and reported benzene levels in about 200 brands last year. More than 60% of the beverages were contaminated, with about a third exceeding safety levels set for drinking water. What’s even more shocking is that an internal memo was discovered showing that the soda industry knew—for the last 18 years—that their products contained benzene, but they chose not to reveal this fact. In a company statement, Coca Cola responded, saying that there was “much more benzene in cigarette smoke, car exhaust, and canned tuna.” But when you have to compare your food product to cigarettes, tuna, and gasoline to make it look safe by comparison, there’s probably a problem.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
Image thanks to kimiadasar.com
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Title
Is Sodium Benzoate Harmful?
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
For more videos on the potent carcinogen benzene, check out:
Food Industry “Funding Effect”
Benzene in Carrot Juice
Also, see my associated blog posts: Vitamin B12: how much, how often?; Is Caffeinated Tea Really Dehydrating?; Soy milk: shake it up!; and Should We Avoid Titanium Dioxide?
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