Diet & Fitness: Nutrition

You're Eating … What?

A guide to 7 sketchy additives that may be lurking in your food.
You're Eating … What? // Strawberry yogurt (© Lenora Gim/Getty Images)
By Sally Wadyka for MSN Health & Fitness
Want some dead bugs with your dinner? Well, that's just one of the freaky ingredients involved in making some popular processed foods. And while all seven of these sound incredibly icky—though presumably used to help make your food tastier or look better—some additives are decidedly more disturbing than others. Here's what you're eating—which may inspire you to start contemplating those ingredient labels a lot more closely.
Carmine
According to the FDA, this red food coloring (also known as cochineal extract) is made from dried, ground bugs . The Dactylopius coccus costa insect is native to Peru and the Canary Islands, where it feeds on red berries. The berries accumulate in the females' stomachs and in their unhatched larvae—which is what gives the extract its red coloring. Carmine is one of the most widely used coloring agents, and food manufacturers routinely use it to turn foods shades of pink, red or purple. Chances are it's what makes the color of your strawberry yogurt or that cranberry drink look so appealing.
But the problem is that at the moment, you have no way of knowing if you're ingesting these little red bugs. Instead, the label will simply read, "artificial color" or "color added." But the Vegetarian Legal Action Network petitioned the FDA to disclose the presence of carmine, and  in 2010, that requirement will go into effect. "But it will still be listed only as carmine or cochineal extract, with no mention of the ingredient's source," says Michael Jacobson, Ph.D., executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "The onus will be on the consumer to know what carmine is, and that's asking a lot."
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Tuesday, May 05, 2009 11:48:21 AM
This makes me queezy.  I cant believe the food we buy in the stores and eat has rot and bugs and bacteria.  This is NOT OK!!  Just emagine what else is in our food that we dont even know about yet.
Monday, May 04, 2009 5:51:35 PM
This is wrong! Sad
Sunday, May 03, 2009 8:21:45 PM
How about Blue cheese or penicillin? They're fungi, same as rot, right?
Sunday, May 03, 2009 7:46:03 PM

Since someone on the first page brought religion into this conversation, I just thought I'd mention...I believe it is in The Old Testament (and therefore probably the Torah also) that we are NOT supposed to eat bugs. 

About the Carmine: they should HAVE to declare the source!

About the Xanthan Gum, if it causes the disease *black rot* in trees, it cannot be healthy for us to consume.  Can you think of *any* other "rot" sources that are safe for humans to consume? 

Sunday, May 03, 2009 6:39:04 PM
The rats fell in the vat during processing. Imagine falling into a hot vat of soup.
Sunday, May 03, 2009 6:35:06 PM
huh?
Sunday, May 03, 2009 6:07:47 PM
Big deal!! I found out about Carmine years ago when my cousin told me that what was in my Campari and Soda.  It was used for years in textiles to color fabrics red.  It goes through so much processing that the color is most likely completely separated from the abdomens of the beetle or other bugs it actually is harvested from.  If you actually had a leg in that yogurt then I see the big deal; otherwise, it seems to be much ado about nothing at all.  Go find another molehill to make a mountain out of.
Sunday, May 03, 2009 5:00:28 PM

Ah, little boys were right all along. Bugs are actually very nutritious and consuming them would easily solve the worlds hunger problems. The Old Testament states that John the Baptist, the man who baptized Christ, dined regularly on bugs. Eating bugs would also eliminate the need for pesticides. If the crops are over run by bugs..they become the crop!  

This also eliminates the need for clearing more land for crops. Eating bugs helps prevent world starvation, global warming, chemical poisoning of the environment etc. The food industry has already shown that they can make these guys very tasty.  

Sunday, May 03, 2009 4:20:45 PM

It's good to do the same thing with Lamb that you did with turkey.  MM good soup.

Sunday, May 03, 2009 4:18:33 PM

First, please excuse my spelling. I've seen my notes after I posted them, and said....Gee , I hope these folks know what I meant. Still trying to find a way to fix them.

Now then, Gelatin is the subject. Recently, I roasted a turkey in the oven (safe place).

I saved the liquid rendering, and found it to be (please don't laugh) gelatinous.

This caused me to think about Jell-o and other products like that.

So, yeah, not a problem for me. Also, I used the rendering to make soup ( but no dead rats to remove).

 

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