Processed foods Trick of Treat.

jkleman79

Link to website of former big food executive. http://www.brucebradley.com/

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

These verses uttered by the Three Witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth have become legendary, and the weird ingredients they talk about make us shake our heads in disgust. But at least we know what’s in the witches brew. The same can’t be said for most of the foods in our modern-day grocery store. Unfortunately big food companies have cast a spell over most regulators that allows them to manipulate us with advertising, make deceptive claims, and mislead us with ingredient labels.

All natural is one of those claims that makes most people feel better about the food they eat. After all, if it’s natural it’s got be be good, right? Well, as we’ve learned in my series “All Natural … Really?”, natural doesn’t mean anything. In fact, buying all natural foods may involve playing your own home version of the reality game show, FEAR FACTOR. Why? Check out some of these frequently used food additives that qualify as “all natural.” They might be a little more than you bargained for:

■Beaver Anal Glands: This bitter, very smelly, orange-brown substance is also known as castoreum. In nature it’s combined with the beaver’s urine and used to mark its territory. In the processed food world it’s commonly used in both food and beverages, typically as vanilla or raspberry flavoring. Watch out though, you won’t find it on the ingredient list since processed food manufacturers can legally call it “natural flavoring.”
■Cow’s Stomach: Known as rennet and derived from the mucosa of veal calves’ fourth stomach, this ingredient is frequently used in the production of cheese to curdle the milk. Often listed simply as “enzymes” on an ingredient panel, it can be very hard to know exactly what you’re eating when you buy cheese.
■Hair and / or feathers: Called L-cysteine or cystine by the processed food world, this non-essential amino acid is made from human hair or duck feathers and is used as a dough conditioner to improve the texture of breads and baked goods. Again, since cystine comes from natural sources, you can eat “natural” and still have hair in your food.
■Beetle Juice: No, I’m not talking about the 1988 movie starring Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis. This beetle juice is used in our food and is often called shellac, resinous glaze, or confectioner’s glaze on ingredient labels. Made from the secretions of the female lac bug, this substance is scraped from trees and branches then processed to be used on some of your favorite shiny candies and sprinkles.
■Crushed bugs: Known as Carmine, Crimson Lake, Cochineal, or Natural Red #4 on ingredient labels, this red food coloring additive is made from insects like the cochineal beetle. Frequently used in yogurts and beverages to give them a ruby-red color, a cochineal beetle can be a tough to spot on ingredient labels since it can be listed as a natural color.

joseph9

That's kind of better than what I was assuming, to be honest. I mean, if you think about it, cheese, yogurt and honey are all essentially gross, and that's before we even get to artisanal sausage or whatever. I'm oddly kind of pleased to find additives that are not petroleum or chemical byproducts.

jkleman79

This is true really...I see your point of view as well. In this situation it is as they always say transfering one energy into another, and not using a lab to do so.

That's kind of better than what I was assuming, to be honest. I mean, if you think about it, cheese, yogurt and honey are all essentially gross, and that's before we even get to artisanal sausage or whatever. I'm oddly kind of pleased to find additives that are not petroleum or chemical byproducts.

DWilbanks

:sick: I think I threw up a lil in my mouth

murf19

This is why I try to be Primal!

jvolpert

This doesn't seem bad to me. That list is more stuff that might make a child say "eww" than something that makes me fear for my health.

Is there something unhealthy about consuming beaver anal glands? It sounds gross, but that doesn't mean it's bad for you.

Justjoshin

■Beetle Juice: No, I’m not talking about the 1988 movie starring Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis. This beetle juice is used in our food and is often called shellac, resinous glaze, or confectioner’s glaze on ingredient labels. Made from the secretions of the female lac bug, this substance is scraped from trees and branches then processed to be used on some of your favorite shiny candies and sprinkles.

WTF, Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis?
I hope Michael Keaton pops out of a train set and punches you for this.

Kidding aside....should I care if I eat secretions from a beetle instead of organic milk that comes out of a cows utter?
Explain what negative health benefits there are to eating beetle secretions other than that it is then "processed" for our foods.

UpEarly

Hmmm... somehow I don't really find any of this troubling or shocking. I already knew most of it.

jakejacobsen

:noway:

Justjoshin

This is why I try to be Primal!

Yeah, because eating primal definitely means that the animal you are eating hasn't ingested beetles, fur/hair/feathers, excrement of other creatures, beaver anal glands, etc?

Not knocking primal diets here, but that was a terrible example

mom2lyla

Beaver anal glands...YUM.
But truthfully, I agree with PP's. I'd rather eat these things than chemicals.