6 Most Horrifying Lies The Food Industry is Feeding You
Posted on February 13, 2014
You know that hot dogs are made up of questionable bits and pieces mixed together, but you might not realize that other foods you eat are even more horrific. How much do you really know about where certain foods come from? Let’s take a look at some of the horror stories associated with the food industry.
1) Ammonia in Burgers
Fast food restaurants go to great lengths to make sure that their meat products are free of bacteria, which is good if you don’t enjoy food-borne illnesses. What’s not so good is that they use ammonia to kill those pesky bacteria. Most burger patties that you get at fast food places or grocery stores have been exposed to ammonia gas for cleansing purposes.
2) Wood as an Ingredient
The thought of eating wood ranks among the grosser things in life, like toenail fungus and moldy bread, but guess what? That’s exactly what you might be doing. Some processed foods contain wood pulp from newspapers, called cellulose, in order to improve their texture. Cellulose doesn’t provide any nutritional benefits, and it’s often used instead of more typical food ingredients, like flour. You also can’t digest cellulose, so keep that in mind the next time you buy prepackaged foods.
3) Blueberries Made From Corn Syrup and Chemicals
If you’ve been stocking up on blueberry products because you heard that blueberries contain all kinds of great health things, like antioxidants, don’t expect to actually enjoy those health benefits. Many products that you assume contain blueberries, such as blueberry muffins and blueberry cereals, aren’t made with real blueberries. They’re created in a factory from ingredients like corn syrup, food dyes and other chemicals.
4) Year-Old Orange Juice
When you buy cartons of orange juice, don’t fall for the “freshly squeezed” claims. Your orange juice might have been freshly squeezed a year ago. Companies that make orange juice store it in sealed containers for up to a year, which takes away all their flavor. That tangy taste is restored by throwing in a pack of chemical-laden artificial flavoring.
5) Not-So-Free-Range Chickens
You might feel less guilty about buying eggs with a free range label, but don’t pat yourself on the back just yet. The term “free range” only means that chickens are provided with outside access, but there’s no guarantee that they spend much time out there. In fact, many of these chickens are more likely to spend the majority of their time crammed into one room. The government only regulates “free range” as it applies to chickens that are raised for meat. Those that are primarily egg providers don’t fall under these regulations.
6) Healthy Foods That Actually Aren’t
Companies love to claim that their food and beverage products have all sorts of health benefits, but in many cases, this just isn’t true. That’s because there’s very little oversight when it comes to putting these claims on food labels. Companies can swear that their products lower the risk of heart disease or help burn fat, but they don’t have to base these claims on scientific evidence. It’s best to take these questionable benefits with a grain of salt and focus on the ingredients and nutrition info instead.
The author Sandy Getzky is an associate editor at ProveMyMeds, a public health and education startup focused on producing helpful resources concerning the treatment of common ailments.