Health and Wellness Blog

What do Yoga Mats and Submarine Sandwich Rolls have in common? The answer recently went viral with dozens of news agencies, including CNN, CBC and Global News covering this story.

The potentially carcinogenic chemical, azodicarbonamide, is used in the production of yoga mats, rubber soles and industrial foam plastic.  Azodicarbonamide is also an ingredient used by several fast food restaurants, including Subway, in its loaves of bread.

Food Babe Blogger Vari Hari’s petition against Subway to stop using azodicarbonamide has pushed the chain to announce they will stop using this compound in their bread. Bread requires only 4 base ingredients, flour, yeast, salt and water — yet there are more than 30 ingredients in some Subway rolls.

Subway’s basic Deli Style Roll contains the following ingredients: “Enriched wheat flour (flour, malted barley flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, high fructose corn syrup, contains less than 2% of the following: soybean oil, salt, yeast, vital wheat gluten, sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate, dough conditioner (acetylated tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides, ammonium sulfate, calcium sulfate, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, potassium iodate, amylase [enzymes]), corn flour, dried honey preparation (honey powder, invert sugar, wheat starch, soy bran flour, silicon dioxide, [anti-caking]), artificial color, mono-and diglycerides, soy lecithin, natural and artificial flavor, mineral oil.”

Want to learn to bake your own loaves? Take a look at the library’s nearly 350 items on bread and breadmaking.

 
Want to delve deeper into issues of Food Additives? Toronto Public Library has more than 160 titles on Food Additives and 65 titles on Genetically Modified Food. A good place to start reading about the stuff in our food is Melanie Warner’s book Pandora’s Lunchbox. Warner highlights the history and issues in modern food production and how food shifted from whole food to chemically manufactured products.

Update: Subway has announced its bread with be "azo-free" by mid-April 2014; while some major brands companies are switching to more natural ingredients.