Just because a food is allowed in the U.S., that doesn't make it ideal. Here's what to buy instead. Nutritionist Danielle Smiley asked her client to read the ingredients on a box of cheese crackers she ate almost every day. The client got to BHA and stopped. “She had no idea what it was,” said Smiley, a registered dietitian nutritionist based in Maryland. BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) is a synthetic preservative the National Toxicology Program lists as reasonably anticipated to be a human