Conscious Consumer: Processed Foods

This week's Conscious Consumer discusses the increasing prevalence of nasty stuff in processed foods: trans fats, whey, GMOs, not to mention artificial (and "natural") flavorings, dyes, and preservatives. This is a huge topic but you can begin your research at the following links. The Campaign to Ban Partially Hydrogenated Oils Organic Consumers Association RedDye40.org - food dyes "NATURAL" AND "ARTIFICIAL" - Excerpt from Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser I'd like to point out that "natural flavor" is synthetic, i.e., made from chemicals in a lab. They may have started out as "natural" sources but in the end the flavors come from a beaker. Some of the original sources are animals or plants, but the majority of flavors and artificial colorings are made from petroleum products and can include other health offenders, such as MSG. Each year 29,000 people in the United States are hospitalized--and 150 die--from food allergies, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a food-safety group. Estimates vary, but 1 in 25 to as much as 1 in 6 Americans experience some kind of food allergy.