Thursday, August 23, 2012

More Insight into Food Ingredients

Check out this YAHOO! article titled "8 Ingredients You Never Want to See on Your Nutrition Label"

It appears to be an article taken out of Men's Health magazine.  It's nice to see some of this go mainstream, as it makes me feel a little less crazy in my everyday quest to avoid food additives and preservatives.  It would be so much easier if the food we ate was viewed differently by the public. For instance, shouldn't "organic" food be the normal everyday stuff "aka conventional", and the other food be referred as "chemically laced food."  If we called it what it was, it would be a make it much less appealing, don'tcha think?

This article covers BHA, parabens, nitrates, carmel coloring, and a handful of others.  Although the most digusting might very well be a natural ingredient known as castoreum.  Apparently, according to the article "this is one of the many nebulous “natural ingredients” used to flavor food. Though it isn’t harmful, it is unsettling. Castoreum is a substance made from beavers’ castor sacs, or anal scent glands. These glands produce potent secretions that help the animals mark their territory in the wild. In the food industry, however, 1,000 pounds of the unsavory ingredient are used annually to imbue foods—usually vanilla or raspberry flavored—with a distinctive, musky flavor.  You’ll find it in: Potentially any food containing 'natural ingredients.'"

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