1974:

the U.S. FDA approves the artificial sweetener aspartame after its manufacturer, G.D. Searle, submits study results showing its safety. A year later an FDA task force finds evidence some of the data submitted by Searle had been falsified to hide results showing animals fed aspartame had developed seizures and brain tumors, but no recall or ban is enacted.

1975:

a report by the World Conference on Animal Production estimates that factory farmed animals contain up to 30 times more saturated fat than animals raised just three decades earlier.

1976:

the director of the National Cancer Institute, Arthur Upton, tells a committee of the U.S. Congress that half of all cancers are caused by diet.

1977:

The National Institutes of Health issues the first of three warnings that an epidemic of obesity is looming in the U.S.

From this date forward to 1994 the number of children in special education programs as a result of learning disabilities increases 191 percent.

Testing by the FDA finds 38 percent of all grocery foods sampled contain pesticide residue; by 1998 the FDA will discover that 55 percent of all foods sampled contain pesticides.

1982:

From this date to 1992, the annual death rate from asthma among young people increases by more than 40 percent.

1985:

a Smithsonian Institute cancer scientist publishes scientific papers demonstrating that historical outbreaks of cancer in fish only began after the widespread distribution of synthetic chemicals in the early 20th century.

The medical journal Lancet reports a study in which 79 percent of hyperactive children improve when artificial colorings and flavorings are eliminated from their diet.

Between 1976 and this date, reports the U.S. General Accounting Office, more than half of the 198 drugs approved by the FDA turned out to demonstrate serious health risks that included organ failure and death.

1986:

The National Academy of Sciences releases a report estimating that up to 15 percent of the U.S. population suffers from multiple chemical sensitivities causing various degrees of discomfort; by 1993, just six years later, the Academy will estimate that figure has doubled to 30 percent of the population.

1988:

the British medical journal The Lancet publishes a study showing a correlation between vitamin/mineral supplementation and intelligence scores among British schoolchildren. Dietary deficiencies were found to be hindering school performance.

1989:

a division of the National Academy of Sciences warns that the use of antibiotics in factory farms will create antibiotic resistant bacteria that will seriously undermine human health.

A laboratory study in Boston finds that rats given moderate amounts of fluoride in their drinking water give birth to hyperactive babies, while baby rats exhibit retardation and other cognitive defects. Many Americans are routinely exposed to higher relative levels of fluoride than the levels administered to the rats.

1990:

from this date forward, more than 120,000 NEW processed foods and beverages will be introduced into a marketplace already filled with 320,000 food products competing for shelf space.

From this date to 1998, the incidence of diabetes in the U.S. will increase by 33 percent.

1992:

The FDA announces a finding that 65 percent of women's cosmetics sampled contain carcinogenic contaminants.

1994:

the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves the marketing of genetically modified foods. Within seven years, genetically modified varieties will account for 26 percent of the corn, 68 percent of the soybeans and 69 percent of the cotton planted in the United States. Food processors will use ingredients from transgenic corn and soybeans in 60 percent of processed foods on grocery store shelves.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that the number of low-birth-weight infants rose 6.6 percent in the U.S. between 1981 and 1991.

1997:

a study in the medical journal, Pediatrics, reports the results of a survey of 17,000 girls that finds by the age of eight about one in seven white girls and one out of every two African-American girls are starting puberty with breast growth and pubic hair. Even more startling, one out of every one hundred white girls and three out of every one hundred African-American girls show these characteristics at the age of three years old! The explanation for this early onset of puberty seems to be in their diets.