This series examines common artificial food ingredients and their health effects.
Please note: This is not meant to be an exhaustive analysis. It is simply a quick overview of some of the negative health effects associated with Titanium Dioxide as well as a repository of resources for further research.
What is Titanium Dioxide?
While this article and series are food focused, it should be noted that Titanium Dioxide has a wide range of applications beyond food.
For the food angle, let’s go to the food babe for Titanium Dioxide’s food applications.
From foodbabe.com
Titanium Dioxide – E171
What it is: Food color used to brighten and whiten.
Commonly found in: Yogurt, cottage cheese, powdered sugar, candy, chewing gum, pudding, drink mixes, marshmallows, mayonnaise.
For more details on what Titanium Dioxide is and what applications it’s used for, here is a bit from wikipedia.
Titanium dioxide, also known as titanium oxide or titania, is the naturally occurring oxide of titanium, chemical formula TiO2. When used as a pigment, it is called titanium white, Pigment White 6 (PW6), or CI 77891. Generally it is sourced from ilmenite, rutile and anatase. It has a wide range of applications, from paint to sunscreen to food coloring.
It is also important to note that it is used in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, health supplements, and toothpastes.
Now let’s take a brief look at some of the health effects that Titanium Dioxide is associated with.
Lung Damage
Possible Carcinogen
Cell Damage – Cell Death
Inflammation
Neurological Damage
Concerning possible lung damage from Titanium Dioxide, let’s have a look at material published on Dr. Group’s website, globalhealingcenter.com
Titanium oxide nano particles have been shown to induce emphysema and lung redness in adult mice. Furthermore, exposure of developing lungs to nano particles may lead to chronic irritation and negative effect on lung development, increasing the risk of respiratory disorders.
We’ll now look at a compendium of various statements from scientists at the National Institutes of Health regarding other health effects.
TiO2 nanoparticles predominantly cause adverse effects via induction of oxidative stress resulting in cell damage, genotoxicity, inflammation, immune response etc. ….
….TiO2 nanoparticles are classified as “possible carcinogenic to humans” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and as occupational carcinogen by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO(2) Nps)…….can enter directly into the brain through the olfactory bulb and be deposited in the hippocampus region……. TiO(2) NPs had a cytotoxic effect on glial cells, suggesting that exposure to TiO(2) NPs could cause brain injury and be hazardous to health.
We come to a conclusion that nanosize titanium dioxide causes neuronal apoptosis…..These results show that a relationship between nanoparticle exposure and pathogeny of neurodegenerative diseases may exist.
It is also interesting to note that, according to material on Dr. Mercola’s website….
Titanium dioxide nanoparticles are capable of moving from your lungs or gastrointestinal tract to other organs.
Very interesting, I’d say. This ability of Titanium Dioxide nanoparticles, along with their ability to cross the blood brain barrier, makes them especially troublesome.
Based on these findings, I have made the personal choice to try and avoid Titanium Dioxide as much as possible.
In conclusion, I’d like to pose a question.
In recent decades, neurological diseases and chronic lung diseases have gone up significantly.
Could the prevalence of Titanium Dioxide in so many applications, specifically food and pharmaceuticals, play a role in this?
Resources used in this article
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_dioxide#Applications
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3423755/
https://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/health-risks-of-titanium/
https://www.naturalnews.com/027000_titanium_dioxide_vitamins.html
http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9925268
https://foodbabe.com/ingredients-to-avoid/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23044362
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18662496
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22933961
Thanks for your time and attention!
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vvery useful!
I am FOR healthy food, and I try to study all ingridients carefully, your info will help me to know more about trash in our food
actually, when I start to discover what all ingrieidents in market food mean, I am just shocked..
try to make most food by myself at home
or do you think it's useless because we can't stand away from all harm in our life?
Thanks for the comment! Yeah, it's hard to 100 percent avoid harmful things in the environment, but I think it's definitely worth trying!
I agree! if we can make smth better, why can't we try?
I am surprised when people say: "Ah, you can't avoid all chemistry around, just relax".
Relax? and kill myself with pleasure?
People are strange creatures...
Yes, well said. No shortage of strangeness in this world, that's for sure.
EXCELLENT post. The only thing I would add is this: I am of an age where I am having dental problems. The standard of care now is to pull the teeth of the elderly and put titanium implants in their jawbones. I am EXTREMELY sensitive to titanium dioxide, and so refuse to have titanium stuffed into my BONES.
Modern dentists have no good options, everything they put in our mouths is toxic. Talk to them about pulling oil, colliodal silver or horsetail and you will get a blank stare. They know NOTHING about healing teeth, only about destroying them quickly and passing out drugs.
Great comment. Thanks. Yeah, that angle didn't occur to me. I've got problems with my teeth, too, but have been oil pulling and it seems to help quite a bit. Finding a good dentist is a very cumbersome process. Good luck, and thanks again for your input.
Fairly, I am a true victim of the artificial food. For the last few years I am suffering some weird allergies that have no cause.
Only for the last few months I realized that it was because of the food, and not from anything else.
Thanks for sharing that and I'm sorry to hear of you allergy issues. Yes, that's another illness that has become much more common in recent decades, food allergies. Have you had any success reversing your symptoms through diet change and/or detox?
We gave up many fun hobbies so we could buy organic food, the side effects of the additives were slowly killing me.
Scary how much our modern world is style over substance, to the point we risk our own health to create more visually appealing food. Ridiculous. Thanks for sharing this. It's important for people to made aware of what we consume every day. Also, just wanted to stop by say, hi and thanks for your recent support of my work. THANKS! and here's a small upvote in return!
Hey Mark, great to hear from you. Thanks for your support. You mentioned "visually appealing food", which is an interesting coincidence, because I was actually thinking of doing my next post in this series on Blue 1, aka "Brilliant Blue", something used to make sugary snacks all the more appealing.
Kinda makes you look around and shrug your shoulders when you walk around a grocery store knowing most of the stuff for sale in there is or can be harmful to your health. Almost impossible to avoid it all.
This is one I had never heard of until now. I try to buy organic whenever I can, but it’s not always possible. As I get older I seem to do a better job eating healthy, but I could improve a lot of things.
Thanks for sharing, was a learning experience for me.
Thanks for reading. Yeah, there are so many things to watch out for, it's nearly impossible to avoid it all. It's definitely worth the effort to eat more natural and organic foods, though. Do what we can, right?
very useful @steeminganarchy
Thanks for sharing,