Washington – The use of brominated vegetable oil, widely used in beverages like Gatorade and Mountain Dew but has been gradually phased out due to its link to possible health risks, including damage to the liver, heart, and brain, was proposed to be outlawed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently. The FDA declared them as no longer safe to use following research on rodents that revealed the chemical is harmful to the thyroid, a hormone that is essential for controlling metabolism, blood pressure, and heart rhythm.