If you believe that the old adage, ‘You are what you eat,’ is passé you may need to think again. The Food and Drug Administration is charged with ensuring that food manufacturers follow certain rules to ensure that what ends up on your dinner plate is indeed safe to eat. Autism rates have been skyrocketing, children are going through puberty at earlier ages, and cancer rates have gone up tremendously. All of these medical factors have been linked directly to what’s going into food products. Students taking an NAACLS accredited medical laboratory scientist program have seen brain scans and medical reports that detail how sick the U.S. population is becoming. So, should you go vegan or start growing your own food? It may be helpful to simply pay attention to FDA protocols and learn what is being allowed into food sources.

The FDA and International Food Sources

More than a decade ago there was a Mad Cow disease scare in the United States that led other nations like China to ban beef imports from the U.S. All of the poultry products that are purchased in the U.S. are domestically manufactured. Although U.S. food manufacturers aren’t always known for having the best practices, they are typically thought to be safer than many third world countries. Sometime in 2018, the U.S. will start accepting poultry from China on a large scale. That means that FDA inspectors won’t be on-site to see how the chickens are fed, raised, or even slaughtered. Even still, those international food products will likely end up with an FDA stamp of approval on the label.

Food Preservatives and the Risk of Cancer

There are a lot of ingredients that you wouldn’t expect to be found in any type of food product. If you care about your physical health, then you probably wouldn’t use glue to thicken your soup or add aluminum to your cupcakes to help keep them fresh. Unfortunately, the FDA allows food manufacturers to include ingredients in foods that don’t seem like they would be for human consumption. Many believe that the inclusion of these ingredients has increased cancer rates and even impacted the way in which the general population thinks.

Why Eating Out Is Like Taking a Gamble

Even if you go to nothing but independently owned restaurants run by families, a good deal of what appears on the menu is going to be pre-packaged. Your favorite Italian restaurant likely doesn’t make its tomato sauce from scratch and anything breaded or fried was probably made off-site at a manufacturing plant. You may not go to fast food restaurants or order takeout, but eating at restaurants will leave you questioning what is going into your digestive systems. Online bachelor of science degree in medical laboratory science students can spend years patronizing restaurants close to their homes because their spare time is limited. Aside from gaining weight, there’s a real risk associated with dining out and eating foods that you haven’t prepared from scratch yourself.

It’s been proven that eating too much junk food causes you to have difficulty concentrating, but why is that the case? It is just because too much sugar is bad for your health, or is there something more dangerous about the foods the FDA allows people to eat? Try eating a healthier diet if you want to preserve your brain functions.