Do You Know What You're Really Eating?

It’s no secret that processed foods contain an insane amount of chemicals. One could pick up almost any bag of chips or can of soda at the supermarket and see the hard-to-pronounce chemicals that are in our food. While this is common knowledge to most, some ingredients that compose popular foods are absolutely disgusting and incredibly unhealthy. Take vanilla ice cream. It’s the most plain and boring flavor, so nothing can bad can be in there, right? Wrong. Vanilla flavors are often enhanced by a chemical called castoreum, a chemical that is made completely of beaver urine and excrement. Not only is the thought of beaver urine in your food enough to make you stop eating ice cream forever, but you might not even know you’re eating it.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is legally allowed to classify castoreum as a “natural flavoring.” One of the worst offenders of pumping their products full of inedible substances is the dairy industry. Shredded cheese products have been shown to contain traces of sawdust within them; beetles are used to create the perfect pink dye of most strawberry yogurts; and of course, there’s the above-mentioned beaver urine in your ice cream. But, what does all of this mean for our health and our future? Processed foods have been deemed as the main cause of childhood obesity in the United States, thanks to chemicals such as the ones described above. If we continue on this path, our obesity rates will only rise. We must work together to become a healthier society.

Works Cited

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318630.php

http://www.businessinsider.com/gross-ingredients-in-every-day-foods-2015

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20171117-the-surprising-ingredients-behind-common-foods

#FDA #food #castor #eating #know