What The Heck Is In My Food?!

How often do you pick something up at the store and immediately look at the label?

If your answer is "all the time", I applaud you. If your answer is "hardly ever", well then let's fix that.

We don't really know better until someone points it out and says "hey, you should probably start reading the labels on what you buy at the grocery store", right? Or "have you ever looked at them out of curiosity?" Unfortunately, it didn't even start with curiosity for me. I was just like many other folks who eat what they eat because of commercials and what I've grown up around, until someone posted something on social media that I was absolutely appalled by. I couldn't even believe my eyes when I saw it. What was it? Well, in short it was a video about animal cruelty in the food industry. Suddenly watching funny and cuddly animal videos turned into holy sh*t what in the heck this is not what I expected to see! I was devastated.

So, fast forward a couple years, I look at pretty much everything I buy especially if I have any doubt in my mind or question it. The hard part is, what about those words we can't pronounce? The words we haven't ever heard of. It's like we don't think we're smart enough to know better or to figure it out, we need a freaking book to decode this. That might be the case for some of us, but the good news is, it's not as hard as you think. You don't need special glasses to figure out labels. Can I get an "amen"?!

So how is this done? Here are some signs that somehow, someway, there's a poor little animal in this product:

1. "Natural" or "organic" doesn't mean animal free, or grown from a root. A horse's hoof is a natural thing, but would you knowingly eat that? Well, unbeknownst to many, that's that type of stuff that is in gelatin products. In fact, straight from Wikipedia it says, "gelatin: ...food derived from from collagen, obtained from various animal raw materials." GROSS? Yeah, I agree. And it's also used in lots of other foods, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, etc. Simply put, don't trust labels unless you KNOW it's animal free. This also goes for the term "natural flavors"; it doesn't mean it comes from a plant. Buyer beware!

-Additionally, words like "casein" (protein derived from dairy/milk and is known to cause CANCER), "ghee" (milk by-product), "lecithin" (animal fat by-product), "oleic acid" (also a fat from cows and sheep), "pepsin" (from pigs), "stearic acid" (just look at the word STEAR, that tells ya it's from farm animals), and even SUGAR. Wait, huh?

Before I ruin your life with the news about sugar, I have to say I was totally shocked, but happy when I read this. Why the hell would that ever make someone happy? Well, we all know sugar is delicious! But it can also cause cancer and turn you into a little piggy yourself. Everything in moderation, right? Being raised in a home where cookies, chocolate and candy were always readily available, I'm always trying to control this sweet craving that happens to be in almost everything we eat nowadays.

So here's the scoop with sugar.. especially white sugar:

What is the process that 'bleaches' sugar so crystal white? The answer is typically "bone char", or better known as cow bones. Called “natural charcoal” by the sugar industry, cow bones are incinerated at 700 degrees Celsius for twelve hours or more, producing a granular substance that when used as a crude filter for raw sugar, it turns it white.

Even brown sugars can be bleached and then molasses is added and suddenly it's brown again. It's magic! No, it's trickery. The best way to avoid this is by seeking 100% organic cane sugars. They're never filtered with bone char. Other possibilities, though they will sometimes contain harmful pesticides and other chemicals are turbinado sugar (Sugar In The Raw), 100% beet sugar, molasses, raw sugar, evaporated cane juice, granulated maple sugar, and Sucanat. Non-sugar sweeteners such as honey, agave nectar, brown rice syrup and stevia can also be used.

2. "Non-dairy" is another one. Seems legit, right? Sounds to me like there's no dairy in this ingredient. WRONG. The food industry is so crooked they will find any way around being completely clear. It usually means mostly dairy free.

3. Try not to gag here.. If you see the word "Coloring", this typically comes from bugs. Yep, you read that right. BUGS! What is this the caveman era? Who the heck wants to eat bugs?! If you see terms like "carmine" and "cochineal" means you're about to consume some hard core dead beetles. "Every creature has it's purpose" some may say.. I say NO THANK YOU.

4. "Rennin" or "rennet" = enzyme from a cow's tummy.

5. Honey = from bees. We all know that. We need bees to polinate our plants! But what we don't know is that farmed bees are typically living in horrible conditions that cause stress and death to these poor little guys who have families and only want to live. True story.

6. "Albumin", which is a protein that comes from eggs and/or blood. Dried blood to be exact. Are you kidding me?! No, unfortunately I'm not.

So at the end of the day, what we learned is that there are some key words to pay attention to. One step further, you can also download these super cool apps (iPhone compatible, not sure about Android) called 'Is It Vegan?' and 'Vervet' which is a vegan AND gluten label scanner. This is where we agree that technology is cool and vegans alike are awesome. 'Vegan Pocket' is another one, all of which I believe are free apps. You're welcome!

You're beautiful. Now go explore and share your knowledge, because the world needs it.

Yours truly,

Tiffany

#labels #foodlabels #animalproducts #gelatin #nutrition #nutritionlabel #FDA