1963: 

The drug thalidomide is given to pregnant women for morning sickness. More than 6,000 babies are born with severe deformities as a result of using the drug. Six years go by before this drug is finally withdrawn from the marketplace.

From this date forward, scholastic aptitude scores for U.S. high school children plummet every year. By the end of the century a possible link will be drawn to their consumption of food additives and other synthetic chemicals.

1964:

from this date to 1992, according to the USDA, chemical pesticide use in U.S. agriculture increased by 300 percent, though total cropland under cultivation remained virtually the same.

1965:

a worldwide study of heart disease called the International Atherosclerotic Project studies 20,000 autopsied human bodies from throughout the world and finds clear evidence that people who consumed more saturated fats had more heart attacks and more strokes.

A chemist working for G.D. Searle Company discovers aspartame, an artificial sweetener.

1968:

a Washington University in St. Louis scientist gives doses of MSG to laboratory mice and discovers widespread brain damage, especially in immature and newborn animals.

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration report reveals that lab animals fed irradiated foods “showed increases in pituitary cancer, testicular tumors, reduced fertility, and shortened life spans.”

1970:

in this year Americans spend $6 billion on fastfood provided by McDonald’s and other fastfood chains; by the year 2001, Americans will be spending $110 billion a year on fastfood, more than on music, videos, newspapers, magazines, movies and books combined.

1971:

an association is found between mothers who took DES and a rare form of vaginal cancer in their daughters. Apparently the DES taken during pregnancy affected fetal development.

The U.S. Congress declares war on cancer with the National Cancer Act; 30 years later, the overall death rate from cancer will remain the same as the date this war was declared.

Japanese food scientists syntheize in a laboratory a cheaper sweetener called high-fructose corn syrup that can be used in frozen foods as protection from freezer burn, as well as in baked goods and vending machine foods to hold freshness. An unanticipated discovery in later years is that fructose, once consumed, arrives almost intact in the human liver, not breaking down. No one can yet guess the health implications.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture prepares a publication called “Human Nutrition, Report No. 2, Benefits from Human Nutrition Research,” that attributes most major health problems to nutritional deficiencies found in the modern diet. For 21 years this report will be suppressed from public view, allegedly at the behest of the food processing industry.

1972:

the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) bans the pesticide DDT for its cancer-causing potential in humans.

1973:

from this date until 1991, a 126 percent increase in prostate cancer is reported by the National Cancer Institute.

From this date until 1996, childhood leukemia increases 17 percent, childhood brain cancer increases 26 percent, breast cancer in women increases 25 percent, and testicular cancer increases 41 percent.

A pediatric allergist tells a conference of the American Medical Association that food additives acount for half of the hyperactivity cases he sees among his child patients. These children improve dramatically when they no longer consume foods with synthetic colorings, flavors, or preservatives.

The FDA bans the artificial coloring agent Violet No. 1 as a carcinogen. This cancer-causing dye had been used for the past two decades by the U.S. Agriculture Department to stamp every piece of meat sold in the U.S. with grades of “Prime” or “Choice” or “USDA.”