Comments on: Just when you thought McNuggets couldn’t get more disgusting

By: Kara

Kara — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 01:27:34 +0000

@Mistress Krista
Be careful! You drink some H20 with an extra O in there, it’s actually acid! Let’s swear off breathing too, since there’s so much nasty nitrogen in the air! :)

If you’re interested in that sort of food science, BBC just finished airing a 3 part documentary called “E-numbers”. I had to find a download but the minute the dvds come out I am buying a copy. Here’s the link to the “sweeteners” episode synopsis page. Wish I could give you more (legal sources) than that!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tr8j7

By: Mistress Krista

Mistress Krista — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 13:27:35 +0000

@Kara — thank heaven you posted! I quit drinking water three days ago because of all the hydrogen! Boy do I feel silly now! :)

Seriously, I love your point about how manufacturers view food as a product, not something that nourishes us.

By: Kara

Kara — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 03:02:37 +0000

Just so you know, processed food isn’t terrible for you because it’s processed; It’s terrible because it’s cheap ingredients stretched out with fillers like corn or wheat type products. That’s because the companies are selling these as PRODUCTS to be bought and maximize profit, not FOOD to be eaten and enjoyed.

Secondly, a lot of the things we use in manufacturing for construction, toys, make up, etc. sometimes don’t even come from “synthetic” sources. Many emulsifiers used to replace oils in low fat foods are from lotus beans or from a certain type of algae. Some food colourings are taken from natural sources, like a certain bug, when dried and crushed into powder, creates the most common red food dye. Many other food colouring comes from synthesizing coal, the stuff we use to bbq our meat. Funnily enough, hydrochloric acid that is used in manufacturing and chemical reactions is created by our stomach to digest foods. Many, if not the vast majority, of other food additives can be made from natural sources.

A lot of food additives also exist to keep us safe. Cured meats need nitrates in them because it’s the only substance we know of that will stop botulism from growing past the spore stage and excreting toxins that can kill us within the day of consuming infected meat.

It’s cool if you want to eat fresh produce and meats as often as possible; It’s a good idea to. However, having a basic understanding about why these things are in our foods and identifying them and their uses rather than screaming ” OH GOD THIS SALT HAS “SODIUM CHLORIDE” IN IT, TELL EVERYONE THE SHADY MEN IN TRENCH COATS ARE POISONING US!!!”

(if you didn’t know, NaCl, or sodium chloride, is the chemical makeup of table salt!)

By: Website link Time! Fad diets, Emily Dull, and more

Website link Time! Fad diets, Emily Dull, and more — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 03:08:21 +0000

[...] you’ve completely got to have a Poultry McNugget , you should test the particular English variation as an alternative. Wine beverage McNuggets in [...]

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 01:51:47 +0000

The point is that food additives in general are at best inert and at worst actively harmful. Moreover, foods that contain additives are highly processed and lacking the nutrients that would be better provided by something you *can* pronounce, like beef or cabbage, so the presence of a food additive is a strong clue that the item in question is Not Good. I think what is being advocated here is not ignorance so much as innocence – being untouched by these things by not consuming them.

By: Raikha

Raikha — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 19:44:53 +0000

From the article: “As a general rule, though, she advocates not eating any food with an ingredient you can’t pronounce.”

I don’t know about this, I think a much more helpful general rule would be, “If you don’t know what it is, look it up.” It’s not as if it’s hard to do; Wikipedia is a surprisingly useful resource in this case. And avoidance of the unknown just breeds ignorance.

By: Trishy

Trishy — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 12:20:06 +0000

Ha! I’ve always said that one of the reasons I don’t eat processed food is that I have no desire to consume the same chemicals that are on my lab bench.