what is it about this hormone?

For some reason Estrogen is a hormone that loves to be mimicked.  Add to that the fact that we (The United States) love to add this mimickers into our food and water supply.

We have already discussed, at length, the addition of Bisphenol-A and phthalates to a variety of items and the affect they are having on our infants and children.  Now, scientists have identified two food additives that could be possible hormone mimickers, as well: propyl gallate and 4-hexyl resorcinol, according to Environmental Health News.

In the study, the scientists used computer models to test 1500 chemicals for estrogen mimicking properties, which brought the potential culprits down to thirteen.  When those thirteen were exposed to cells, two of them (listed above) were confirmed as “xenoestrogens”.

Propyl gallate is the more common additive which is used to prevent fats and oils from spoiling that can be found in a range of foods including baked goods, shortening, dried meats, candy, fresh pork sausage, mayonnaise and dried milk.  4-hexyl resorcinol is a chemical used to prevent shrimp, lobster and other shellfish from discoloring.

It is important to note that of the 3000 food additives used none of them are required to go through stringent testing, per the FDA.  In fact, just over half that have actually been tested for toxicology reports.  

Globally, the market for additives is expected to reach more than $33 billion by 2012. There are five main reasons that companies add compounds to food: to emulsify, to preserve, to add nutritional content, to add flavor or color and to balance alkalinity and acids.

 

“With some 3,000 compounds being used in food formulations there may be other additives with estrogenic properties that come to light with these types of studies,” Hicks said.

 

Using the traditional animal testing system, “it would be impossible to test all of the additives in a short time,” Cozzini said. “Every day we discover new molecules, and we must continue to identify new ways to study them.”