Watching TV AGain

[Maya]

Yep... watching Food Detective again... hahaha. I find that show amusing most of the time. So last night one of the stories was about food coloring and how so much of the food has artificial coloring to be more appealing. So then the guy said... not all the coloring is artificial. Some of these red food colors are natural coloring, and he held up a plate of these black looking beads. I think the foods were some red velvet cake, cherry yogurt, and some type of red liqueur. He said the little beady things are actually beetles, and they are called Carmine on ingredient labels. He proceed to mash them and all this red liquid came out. It was kind of gross really... but he said they are safe, and we have probably been eating them for years. I was a bit horrified, and yet found the whole thing funny too... it just cracked me up. SIGH Anyone know anything about this?

Maya

 

 

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I've learned.... that it's those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular.
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[Gman]

No specifics, but I've suspected as much for as long as I can remember.
I've always said to folks who point at ingredient lines like 'natural
flavors' and asked "but aren't dirt, poop & bug parts all natural flavors?"

I also question the legal difference between "natural flavors" and "natural
flavorings'. Does one allow them to use processes that the others can't
apply? Once anything has been 'processed', it is no longer natural. High
Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is a perfect example of this. If it no longer
looks like it did in nature, my feeling is that it's no longer any good for
you. Heat processing, even of simple foods like milk, kill off all of the
'natural' enzimes and most of the vitamins that allowed us to evolve to
where we are (or where we were two hundred years ago). Once food processing
came into the picture, we've been on a backward spiral away from the things
that our bodies need. Nearly all of the businesses that stock our food
markets are now, more than ever, more concerned with keeping down costs
(their own, not ours) than with supplying us with healthy choices.

If you must shop at a supermarket, stay out of the isles and concentrate on
what's available outside of them. That's where the healthier stuff will be
found (non-frozen veggies, meats, seafood, dairy, etc.).

Peace,
Gman
http://www.bornagainamerican.org

"The only dumb questions are the ones we fail to ask"

[Maya]

"but aren't dirt, poop & bug parts all natural flavors?"

hahahaha... this is a great line! Cracked me up too. hahaha. Ah... so true. SIGH!

 

You are right... we should eat as much healthier stuff as we can. 

Maya

 

 I got this from Wikipedia about Carmine:

In the United States, carmine is approved as dye for foodstuffs. In January 2009, FDA passed a new regulation^[3] requiring carmine and cochineal to be listed by name on the label. This regulation is effective January 5, 2011.

In January 2006, the FDA evaluated a proposal^[4] that would require food products containing carmine to list it by name on the ingredient label. It was also announced^{[citation needed]} that the FDA will separately review the ingredient labels of prescription drugs which contain colorings derived from carmine. A request from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (article titled: "FDA Urged to Improve Labeling of or Ban Carmine Food Coloring" [1])^{[citation needed]} to require ingredient labels to explicitly state that carmine may cause severe allergic reactions and anaphylactic shock and that is derived from insects was declined by the FDA. Food industries were aggressively opposed to the idea of writing "insect based" on the label and they finally agreed to simply putting "carmine"^{[citation needed]}.

Although concerns over hazards from allergic reactions have been asserted,^{[citation needed]} the United States Food and Drug Administration agency (FDA) has not banned the use of carmine and states it found no evidence of a "significant hazard" to the general population.[2]

 

 

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I've learned.... that life is like a roll of toilet paper... The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.
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