Brominated Vegetable Oil aka Soybean Oil :-(

Many of you many not know that I have a soy allergy/sensitivity. I think it's one of the worst things to be allergic to...it's in everything, and often not labeled.

For instance, tonight after coming home from the gym I pick up a red PowerAid. After 2 gulps, I start to feel weird and worried I read the label. It has the dreaded "vegetable oil" which usually means soybean oil.

Thank God for the Internet. Turns out brominated vegetable oil is not only soybean oil in disguise, but it's been outlawed in 100 counties, and is on the FDA's toxic additives list. Companies are also not required to label it on their products. Yeah!

It's in most or all citrus flavored drinks, so those are now off my list of foods I can eat.

To make it, you add Bromine to soybean oil. Here's the best part:

"Bromine is extracted from sea water. You don't want to know how. In its liquid or vaporous form, it's lethal. But once you've got the stuff, you're set to make light-sensitive surfaces for photographic paper, lead-eating additives for gasoline, fire-extinguishing material, agricultural fumigants, and lots of other handy stuff. Until 1975, you could make sedatives too."

And it's oil soluble, can built up in fat cells like PCBs and can cause reproductive issues.

For crying out loud! I don't want to ingest that junk!

Ok. I'm done venting. I'll go back to my benadryl induced haze....