Are Ingredient Labels Really In English?!

I'm just going to rant today. I suppose, when it comes down to it, that's really all I'm doing on this blog. :)

I am frustrated with ingredient labels. Awhile ago, a friend texted me and asked what this phrase, on an organic all-wonderful pizza said: "all dairy ingredients do not contain animal enzymes or animal rennet."

I have no idea what this means. There are so many things on ingredient labels that make no sense whatsoever. I think the manufacturers like it that way.

Now, this is a little gross, by my friend searched and rennet comes from the fourth stomach of some animals. eHow (which I know isn't the best source, but I liked this article) has this to say: "Animal rennet is made from rennin, an enzyme that is secreted in the fourth stomach of calves, lambs, and goats. It is most often derived from the dried and ground stomachs of unweaned calves and is used in making cheese." At least we're trying to use the whole animal, I guess. It's nice to know that the pizza was animal-friendly, but the point is that we had no idea what it meant.:)

On my daughter's formula stuff (which I really haven't been giving her, because of the weird ingredients), it says proudly "non-GEO"! I take this to be a good thing, but I have no idea what it means. Google tells me it means "Genetically Engineered Organism." It must be akin to GMO.

It still boggles my mind that we have to worry about something like that. So far though it's only the products that are NOT GEO or GMO that tell me about it. Do we have to assume that everything that doesn't have that notification has been messed with in a lab somewhere.

I searched and hardly anything in our pantry (hallelujah!) has weird ingredients. Reading as many labels as I have lately, for one reason or another, I have seen a great many preservatives, chemicals, and whatnot that I don't recognize. 

An article from Physorg.com lists the Top 10 Additives in our food. "The longer manufacturers use these additives, the more we learn about their impacts. While some additives are harmless, others cause everything from hives and asthma to nausea and headaches in some people. Some experts recommend avoiding foods listing more than five or six ingredients or ingredients of longer than three syllables and purchasing foods that contain such natural additives as fruits and vegetables." 

Though I honestly can't say what sort of source this is, I'm inclined to agree. The article is interesting. Apparently apples are pumped full of "METHYLCYCLOPROPENE" to stop them from ripening too much. Something called "ASTAXANTHIN" is put into farmed fish because wild-caught fish have it naturally. Plus whatever the heck it is helps them turn pink. "CANTHAXANTHIN"is put into egg yolks (sick...) to make them more yellow. Of course in small amounts it's fine, but larger amounts have been shown to cause retinal damage?!

Come on. Why is this stuff in our food?! There's all the stuff I had heard of before: BHA, Nitrates, Nitrites, Sulfites, High-Fructose Corn Syrup, MSG...there are too many to count. 

The funny thing to me is that I have found numerous other bloggers who have written about this same topic, but not so many professional articles. Perhaps that means all us paranoid people are making a big stink about nothing. But I don't think so. Horrible health problems aren't disappearing with our new technology and improved science. We're surrounded by toxic additives, preservatives, and additives in everything we eat, so we shouldn't be surprised at occurrences of autoimmune problems, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc. etc. 

All the same, it's hard to avoid. Lots of the 'natural' and 'organic' foods I've seen use other weirdo ingredients, like soy lecithin, carrageenan....I wonder if the more extraction and the more processing that goes on (for example, to turn sea algae into a gel called carrageenan) the worse it is for us. 

The Healthy Times Blog has a great image to illustrate how much crap is hiding in stuff: 

Click here to see the Healthy Times Blog that discusses some of these additives. One reason this blog is so great is because it lists the category of chemicals (rather than listing all of the crazy chemicals individually): acids, anti-caking agents, bulking agents, food colorings, emulsifiers, stabilizers, thickeners, flavors, something to keep foods from drying up, preservatives, and sweeteners. 

One of many good blogs on the topic: http://www.nofinishlineblog.com/2011/02/food-additives-to-avoid.html. Be warned, the picture on this blog (There Is No Finish Line) is kind of grotesque, but makes his point. 


This is just another area in which we can't possibly foresee how this sort of crap affects us long-term. Some things have already been proven to have ill-effects, but so many of these things are 'in such small amounts' that they are deemed 'safe.' (I just checked my usage of effect and affect and I think I can use BOTH versions in one paragraph correctly! Points for me.)