I have always asserted that there is no “balance” to petrochemicals in your food. “All things in moderation” applies everywhere, but only inasmuch as something has a proper place. In the same way that “adding a little permanent marker” to your friend’s wedding dress is a no-go, adding petrochemicals in a food adds nothing useful, and is likewise unwelcome. One might respond, “well, one can add a minimal amount, and enhance color, texture, taste, etc.!” – in which case it is no longer a minimal amount added, anymore than that permanent marker on your friend’s white wedding dress. If it’s discernable, it’s detrimental and no longer “in moderation.”
Let’s understand why.
Refined petrochemicals are mind-blowing, seemingly magical compounds. They are chemical skeleton keys of material or chemical-compound construction, almost a “universal matter” that can be seemingly turned into anything chemical-related, including:
- Plastic
- Nylon
- Rubber
- Epoxy
- Fiberglass
- Insulation
- Fuel additives
- Herbicides and pesticides
- Artificial flavors
- Artificial food colors
- Pharmaceuticals
- Explosives
In other words, you can take a base-compound like benzene or naphthalene, react it or process it in certain ways, and voila – come up with literally thousands, perhaps millions, of different end-products. Truly, a “universal matter” for industrial production.
They’re incredibly flexible, widely-available, and most importantly: cheap. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that when industrial food producers are searching for cheaper alternatives to real living food sources, they turn to petrochemicals to fake these living food sources. Very often, you’ll hear the claim that “chemically, these compounds are the exact same as [given compound]!…” After all, you’ll find all sorts of scary petrochemical-like compounds in natural food sources: formaldehyde, benzene, terpenes, 2-butanone, etc. (*leaving aside the reality that most of these probably wound up in the natural food source because of agrochemical contamination – but let’s skip that part for now).
Additionally, you might hear another claim: these compounds are incredibly stable – hence their usefulness in industrial production! Benzene, for example, is the most chemically stable hydrocarbon. Hooray for stable compounds – yes?
So let’s dig in, because once you understand the why, you realize that the above “debunks” are not points in favor of petro-foods – they’re dramatic strikes against them.
It’s true: typically, petrochemical compounds are not technically toxic until they are metabolized by the liver (e.g. in animal studies where the animals had their livers removed, no toxic effects were observed. So if you don’t have a liver, you’re good to go here, carry on). In other words, the compounds themselves are not by themselves unusually reactive as chemicals. However, they are highly highly “compoundable” into an innumerable number of different modified biomolecules. As noted above, this is why they are so popular as industrial starter materials: chemically speaking, you can react them with anything to create anything. The sky is the limit.
Great for producing custom-made plastics or solvents. Bad for your body’s organic balance. Very very bad.
Think about it this way: when you eat sea salt (NaCl + presumably minerals), that sea salt is fairly predictable in your body: it does alot of things, but your body handles it predictably to enhance cellular processes – fluid balancing, nerve signal transmission, nutrient absorption, etc. When you eat salt, your body says, “ah, this is salt,” and it performs one of the many salt-related balancing tasks in the body.
But unlike salt, the body does not have extensive and immediate uses for powerful petro-compounds, like benzene or toluene. These compounds are called “xenobiotic” – foreign compounds that have no typical use, and the ultimate goal with these compounds is expulsion (note that often this isn’t possible, due to the expulsion pathways having too much to expel, too much traffic – in which case, these compounds are stored – usually in fat – to be expelled later). Note that “xenobiotic” just means “not used.” “Not used” compounds range from bioaccumulating toxins to benign waste.
As xenobiotic compounds, these petrochemicals are tagged for expulsion by the body as soon as possible. However, once absorbed, these compounds are unavoidably metabolized by the liver (i.e. where compounds are broken down or built up). Here’s where the plot thickens. As noted above, these petrochemical compounds have a unique character: they can be combined with virtually anything to then turn into virtually anything. The sky is the limit.
A compound like NaCl (sea salt) has comparatively few, and well-defined uses in the body. But a “universal matter” petrochemical can and will combine with just about anything – depending on your liver, depending what else is present in your bloodstream, depending on a zillion factors. And now, instead of Dr. Jekyll, you now have Mr. Hyde – and there’s no consistency whatsoever as to the character of the Mr. Hyde metabolite. It could be a ghastly metabolite that makes you weepy, tired, or angry. It could be a gristly metabolite that wreaks epigenetic or bone marrow damage. It could be a powerful tumor stimulant or immune disabler. It could be a little of each. But chances are good, given that this compound starts as a xenobiotic, that the resultant metabolite will be somewhere between nasty and horrific, causing a rampage of random damage on your system, sometimes visible and tangible, often not.
Note that I’m not merely ideating with this description: what I’ve described here is the general toxicity profile of a petrochemical according to widely-available research: while usually the base compound is stable, the resulting metabolites are anything but, and wreak a wide range of random and unquantifiable damage. Typically these papers study only a single injury; however, they recognize that, because of the vast permutation of metabolites that can result, the type of metabolite – and therefore the type of damage – generated by these compounds are known only to a limited extent. But these compounds are the ones associated with (almost) everything bad you’ve ever heard: genotoxic, neurotoxic, cytotoxic, endocrine disruptors, carcinogen, blah blah blah. This is it; the parade of horribles. Ever heard of how bad phthalates are? Petrochemicals. How bad BPA or BPS is? Petrochemicals. How bad dioxins are? Petrochemicals (a byproduct). “Forever chemicals?” Petrochemicals. You get the idea.
To describe this a little more tangibly: petrochemicals metabolize to generate random compounds in your body. Generating random unstable compounds in your bloodstream are about as safe as eating random plants in a swamp: if you believe it’s unsafe to go out to a swamp and eat random plants, stick to your guns: I support you in this decision. Apply that same wisdom to petrochemicals too.
Something worth noting is that there are several helper compounds that can often conjugate (join with) toxic petro-metabolites and allow the body to quickly sweep them out before damage can be done (often deactivating them). Compounds like glutathione or glucuronic acid fall under this category. Note that common antioxidants (e.g. vitamin C, resveratrol, etc.), while possibly protecting against some of the toxic effects here, won’t necessarily conjugate or neutralize these petro-metabolites. (In fact, eating sodium benzoate or benzoic acid together with ascorbic acid could cause an interaction and convert the benzoic acid into benzene in your digestive system).
This isn’t something you’ll find on google. There’s a vast industry with a very dollar (and power)-heavy incentive to bamboozle you into eating their garbage, including petroleum. You have to dig. But hopefully, this digging is like the digging in your garden: we may not always understand why it’s so valuable, but we can and should trust our instincts that the created order of nature does it best. That’s always the defining balance: maybe I know exactly and mechanically why eating petroleum is bad for me. Maybe I don’t. But ultimately, I don’t need to: I can look at the world around me; look at none of the other creatures eating or drinking petroleum; look at what kind of thing I am; what I need and how God made me. It’s sometimes hard to see from a textbook or website – but it’s not hard at all to see if you spend enough time around chickens and dirt.
*Incidentally, pretty much all petroleum-derived compounds, or similar highly-refined hydrocarbons (e.g. whether from petroleum, natural gas, coal tar, etc.) are VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) – meaning they evaporate easily, and are breathed directly into the lungs (and from there, undiluted into the bloodstream). This is less relevant to their dietary impact, but illustrative of the damage they cause: if you’ve heard of how nasty “VOCs” are in paint (or experienced the instant headaches, respiratory yuck, etc.) – well, that’s what’s in your food. Yum yum, eat up.
