A Rant about Food Additives

[themusecalliope]

My name is Calliope, and this is my rant.

People keep trying to poison me. (and others like me, for example...My Mom had a run in with gum recently...but I'll get to that.)
I'm sure that many of you have run across this problem, but it seems to be getting worse.
I can see you now, wondering exactly what I am talking about.
So, to be clear: people have started adding stuff to food that I do not expect to be there.

For example, people in restaurants seem to love to add bacon or ham to soup. It takes the place of extra salt I suppose.
Ah, but do they mention this in the menu? No!
Did I mention that I am allergic to sodium nitrites and sodium nitrates? Those wonderful curing salts they use on lots of pig parts?
Yep. I am constantly having to inquire about pig products in my soup. Want to see a blank look? Ask your server what is actually in the soup du jour.
Tahoe Joe's likes to put bacon on their green beans. At least I can see that.
Also...many smoked or flavored meats are quite nitrate laden.
But there's more. They put MSG (yep another allergy) in all kinds of food that I would never expect.
Like...most of Campbell's soups. Lots of chips. Random packaged foods.
And Chinese restaurants proudly declare their food free of MSG.
I have a feeling that certain companies should really be talking to each other.

And now there are even more fake sweeteners than before. Some make me ill, while others are just gross.
Take Aspartame (Nutra Sweet) and Sucralose (Splenda) for example.
Due to my obsessive label reading, I recently picked up a pack of Juicy Fruit to discover...that they have now added both of these sweeteners.
My mother likes Juicy Fruit (so did I), and has been having some indigestion issues of late which she couldn't quite pin down.
Surprise! Your gum is trying to poison you!
My favorite soda used to be Lilt, which I would purchase at British Food Stores...until they started adding aspartame. Sigh.
That one I discovered by taste. Bleh.
This trend is even infecting Air sickness remedies. Does the front part mention this? nope. You have to read the ingredient list.
Just for the record, because I have to get this off of my chest, Splenda does *not* taste more like sugar. It tastes like some mineral-laden medicine.

To sum up: Just because something used to be made one way doesn't mean that they won't just up and change the ingredients without warning.
I'm lucky that I don't swell up and go into shock or anything. I just get big headaches or sick to my stomach.
So...Good night...and be careful out there.

Comments

[labelleizzy.livejournal.com]

aw... hug!

Jeff reads labels too for MSg and its relatives.
he may be allergic himself as his granddad definitely was.
alternate names are: autolyzed yeast extract, hydrolyzed proteins, free glutamates... www.truthinlabeling.org, he says, is horribly designed but has lots of useful/interesting information.

this may be old news to you but thought I'd stick it here just in case.
*hugs*
*love*

we need to have lunch again.

[themusecalliope]

Yes we do.

Thanks for the link.
...and I didn't even get into how they love to hide cream cheese everywhere...

Thanks for the hugs!

[scotis-man.livejournal.com]

You have my total sympathy. I can only have capsaicin depending on what else I have been eating (lots of fiber, yay having no gall bladder *suck*). This means I generally avoid anything with pepper in it, unless I have prepared. (Yep, ALL pepper ... black, white, red, bell, etc.) Yet they will list things with "spices". *SIGH* Try telling a waiter that he needs to dump a $30 salad because he just put pepper on it, and, no, I can tell you just took it in back and brushed the pepper off ... Oh, and I am alergic to atificial sweeteners as well.