Artificial Colors and Flavors
Look at the ingredients list on processed foods and you may see ‘artificial color’ and ‘artificial flavor’ there.
But what are these mystery ingredients? Their name gives no clue what they’re actually made of.
Up until the late 18th century, if you wanted strawberry flavor in a food, you needed fresh strawberries. Then about 130 years ago, chemists found a wonderful new solution for food companies; coal tar. Mine coal from the ground, crush it, mix with water, cook it to make a thick soup, heat it up, evaporate the vapors, cool them and one of the (many) things you get is . . . artificial strawberry flavor.
It was a boon to the food industry. For the first time in history, they could have strawberry flavor year-round. Or, at least something that fools your taste buds into thinking it’s strawberry.
Years later, an even better source was found. Crude oil. That’s right, Texas Tea. Black Gold. Petroleum. Yeah, that stuff.
Chemists found they could distill a whole army of new products from crude oil, and coal tar fell from favor. Gasoline, kerosene, jet fuel, diesel fuel, motor oil, axle grease, anti-freeze, insecticides, pesticides, mildewcides, rodenticides, bike helmets, pharmaceuticals, food wrap, toys, CD’s (and their cases), vinyl siding, trash bags, plumbing, lawn furniture, artificial strawberry flavor, artificial blueberry flavor, almond flavor, banana, grape, orange, vanilla, yellow coloring, red, green, blue . . . You name it, the list just goes on and on and on. It’s really very versatile stuff.
But it’s not food. Artificial colors and flavors are made from crude oil.
Put it in your gas tank? Stinky. Put it in your mouth and eat it? You can do better.
Strangely enough, this branch of chemistry is called “organic chemistry“ while everything else is called “inorganic chemistry.” Organic food producers must really love this little irony.
Crude oil is simply all the plants and critters that were growing a long time ago, all smooshed together. If we did that today, it would be like filling a giant blender with everything around us – corn stalks, poison dart frogs, mosquitoes, bacteria, sunflower roots, oak leaves, poison ivy, tree bark, sulfur, arsenic, lead, poison mushrooms, cherry blossoms, some stuff that’s good for us, some stuff that isn’t, plants that slow our heartbeat or make our hair fall out (or grow thicker), quite a few things that cause cancer, probably a few that cure it. Everything. Blend well, cover with dirt and let it brew for 65 million years.
So, the next time you read a food label (you do read ’em, don’t you?) and you see artificial color, artificial flavor, BHA, BHT, propylene glycol, or almost anything else you can’t pronounce, at least you’ll know where it came from, even if you still won’t know what it is. You’d need an advanced chemistry degree to really understand it. And it won’t be strawberry, even if they can fool you.
It’s not food. It’s not good for you. That’s why they won’t list “made from crude oil by-products” on the label.
Charlie Gosh
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Tobacco has a big secret that will astonish you . . . http://www.charliegosh.com/?p=48
Learn a simple trick to take advantage of the next recession . . . http://www.charliegosh.com/?p=97
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