Are you one of the many people who doesn't buy a store's brand of ice cream because you've heard that it won't melt, so it's not real milk? How about one of the people who insist that grated Parmesan cheese is really sawdust? I'm one of those people, too! The thing is, we're only partly right. Store brand ice cream, for example, may really still have milk in it even if it does contain ingredients that keep it from melting (and tasting weird). Yes, there is wood pulp to help keep your Parm from clogging, but it's a pretty small amount.
That said, you have to wonder about all of the foods that are sold to us that we eat without much thought. When your doctor advises you to just eat like your great-grandparents ate, he or she isn't kidding: today's foods really do have plenty of weird ingredients in them, and even if they are FDA-approved, that doesn't say much, considering they inspect a very small percentage of food to begin with. Some foods have weird dehydrated ingredients, but they really are what they say they are, while others, advertised as "cheese product" or "chocolatey," really aren't cheese or chocolate.
The food shaming needs to go; people buy what they can afford and what they want. But it's always interesting to see what's in the foods available at the supermarket and worth considering if you are in the market for specific foods.
What food finds have you discovered to not be what they seem?
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
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