{"id":1090,"date":"2009-03-01T19:49:04","date_gmt":"2009-03-01T17:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ultimatefatburner.com\/?p=1090"},"modified":"2015-12-03T11:16:26","modified_gmt":"2015-12-03T16:16:26","slug":"sketchy-additives-sketchy-reporting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/sketchy-additives-sketchy-reporting\/","title":{"rendered":"Sketchy Additives? Or Sketchy Reporting?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although my bio on the “About Us<\/a>” page doesn’t mention it directly, I have an M.S. degree in Food Science from the University of California (Davis).\u00a0 Most people I talk to\u00a0assume “Food Science”\u00a0= “nutrition” –\u00a0but they couldn’t be more wrong…it’s about food technology<\/strong>.\u00a0 As I once described it to a\u00a0mechanic\u00a0(who was confused by the concept),\u00a0Food Science teaches you how\u00a0to turn an ear of corn into a box of Corn Flakes, and ensure that every single box of Corn Flakes looks, tastes and crunches exactly like every other box.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The problem with all that seemingly neat, hygienic, commercial\u00a0conformity, however, is that\u00a0the average person is\u00a0detached from food production, and\u00a0has grown\u00a0accustomed to the idea that food is completely aseptic and pristine.\u00a0 Nothing could be further from the truth.\u00a0 Food production\u00a0is – and ALWAYS HAS BEEN – a messy business.\u00a0 In the good ol’ days that various health food-types pine for, farmers slaughtered their own animals, and made use of all the “parts” – including the brains, eyes, ears, tails, intestines and blood.\u00a0 If grain was infested with weevils, they ground them up into the flour too (it’s extra protein, after all).\u00a0 Untreated manure was used for fertilizer; and you didn’t waste precious water (which had to be taken from a well and dragged inside) washing the grit off the veggies from your kitchen garden.\u00a0\u00a0Nor\u00a0were there any\u00a0antiseptics\u00a0available to clean off the dairy goats’\/cows’ dung-and-urine-flecked teats, either.<\/p>\n

These\u00a0less-than-sanitary conditions\u00a0are still with us, of course, but we Food Scientists have found ways to limit them…and in\u00a0the process,\u00a0we made\u00a0the\u00a0“ewwww” factor disappear – at least as far as the consumer is concerned.\u00a0 But – because we work with\u00a0this stuff\u00a0all the time – and have strong backgrounds in relevant disciplines like chemistry\/biochemistry and microbiology – we don’t share the modern consumer’s distaste for “icky” things…in fact, we’re more like the “good-‘ol-daze” types described in the previous paragraph.\u00a0 We’re a practical bunch of folks, and we’ll make use of whatever we can get our hands on to create the effects we desire.\u00a0 These may be natural or synthetic, but as long as\u00a0they’re reasonably pure, readily available, cost-effective\u00a0and demonstrably safe for most, we’ll use it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And why not?<\/p>\n

Which brings me to this utterly ridiculous online article<\/a>, by a wilting wildflower named Sally Wadyka. Evidently she’s discovered that – GASP! – there are certain additives “lurking” \u00a0in our food that are derived from horrors like bugs!\u00a0 And seaweed!\u00a0 And slaughterhouse waste!\u00a0 And microorganisms!\u00a0\u00a0The poor child was obviously shocked, as she uses\u00a0scare words like\u00a0“sketchy,” “icky” and “disturbing” to describe these revelations.<\/p>\n

And what are the additives that\u00a0made Sally clutch her pearls and lurch towards the fainting couch?\u00a0 Here’s her list:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Carmine (derived from a South American insect, Dactylopius coccus costa – used as a food\/cosmetic dye).<\/li>\n
  2. Carrageenan (derived from seaweed- used as a thickener)<\/li>\n
  3. Shellac (derived from an Asian insect, Kerria lacca – used as a cosmetic coating agent)<\/li>\n
  4. Gelatin (derived from animal hides and bones – used as a gelling agent)<\/li>\n
  5. Bacteriophages (viruses that target and destroy bacteria – used to prevent bacterial growth on food)<\/li>\n
  6. Xanthan Gum (produced by a bacterium, Xanthomonas campestris – used as a thickener)<\/li>\n
  7. “Natural Flavors” (produced from a variety of substances that might not be related to the food being flavored…for example, fenugreek is a natural source of maple flavoring for pancake syrup)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    What’s\u00a0her problem with these?\u00a0 Beyond the “ewwww” factor, her only other “beef” seems to be that\u00a0items like gelatin or carmine\u00a0might be distressing to vegetarians.\u00a0 But she fails to\u00a0consider why extracting, purifying and using a\u00a0compound from\u00a0insects or seaweed is somehow different than extracting it from – say – soybeans or pomace<\/a>.\u00a0 And she completely misses certain real world concerns, such as the fact that some people can be allergic to carmine, xanthan gum or carrageenan; and the latter was once implicated as a potential carcinogen<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    Thus,\u00a0certain additives might truly be “sketchy” for certain people, while others NOT mentioned (like nitrates and benzoates) are questionable for a lot of people.\u00a0 But instead of using the opportunity to inform, we get\u00a0this sensationalized, mush-for-brains, popular-media trivia.<\/p>\n

    The only thing that I find “decidedly more disturbing” about this article,\u00a0is that\u00a0Ms. Wadyka\u00a0got\u00a0paid to produce it.\u00a0 Nice work if you can get it, I suppose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Although my bio on the “About Us” page doesn’t mention it directly, I have an M.S. degree in Food Science from the University of California (Davis).\u00a0 Most people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13,19,28],"tags":[328,331,673,698,701,733,1130,1816],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1090"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10244,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090\/revisions\/10244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}