Take a close look at the nutrition labels on many processed-food products and you’ll see some ingredients that also have starring roles in nonfood items — often industrial products. Just because an ingredient leads a double life in an industrial product doesn’t necessarily make it unhealthy, but it does underscore just how often processed-food products incorporate ingredients that aren’t straight off the vine. If you’re trying to eat fewer processed — and more whole — foods, this chart will give you more good reasons to make the switch.
Ingredient: Olestra
Food Use: fat-free potato chips
Industrial Use: paints and lubricants
Potential Side Effects: Diarrhea, abdominal cramping
Ingredient: Calcium Chloride
Food Use: sports drinks, pickles
Industrial Use: road salt, ice melt
Potential Side Effects: digestive tract irritation
Ingredient: Phosphoric Acid
Food Use: soda
Industrial Use: rust removal
Potential Side Effects: decreased bone density, kidney stones
Ingredient: Calcium Sulfate
Food Use: tofu (for coagulation)
Industrial Use: drywall, plaster of Paris
Potential Side Effects: abdominal swelling, pain
Ingredient: Cornstarch
Food Use: pudding, chewing gum, certain canned goods
Industrial Use: rubber tires, plywood, insecticides
Potential Side Effects: this “hidden carb” may derail those trying to minimize flour- and sugar-based carbohydrates
Ingredient: Corn Syrup
Food Use: ketchup, cheese spreads, marshmallows, dehydrated soups
Industrial Use: shoe polish, metal plating, explosives
Potential Side Effects: linked to diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome
Knowing what we are putting in our bodies is more important than ever before. Thank you for sharing this important information!
PS – Adolf – allyl isothiocyanate is a phytonutrient found in a variety of foods. It’s not another name for mustard 🙂
Thank you for your information about calcium chloride. I’m making a batch of pickles soon, and was trying to find “Pickle Crisp” to keep the cucumbers snappy.
It turns out that “Pickle Crisp” is just calcium chloride, which is something that constitutes some forms of ice melt. Even better: I’ve already got some left over in my shed from last winter. Score!
A teaspoon of ice melt in a pint of pickles, I hear you ask with a grimace? Why, sure! It can’t be any worse than the sodium chloride (table salt, warm-weather icemelt) or acetic acid (vinegar) that I’ll also be adding into the batch — and nevermind the ultra-scary dihydrogen monoxide (water) or allyl isothiocyanate (mustard)!
Just because it has both a specific chemical name and a useful industrial application does not mean that it is in any way inedible. Stop scare-mongering.
Go for it…information is to learn from not scare people…this is great info that all should know. Enjoy your pickles
Amen to adolf. Just because some people chose not to pay attention in chemistry class, does not mean these compounds are harmful. I love the exercise tips in Experience Life, but they are WAY overboard on their food-fear articles.
Nothing wrong with knowing what you are eating. The world needs more knowledge in this area. Great job and keep up the good work!
You’re really worried about calcium chloride, cornstarch, and corn syrup? That is just asinine. Get real. You might as well kvetch about birth being the guarantor of death. Could we have some common sense here? Please?
Thanks! Please post more of these–my students are amazed to learn this kind of information about the processed foods they eat regularly.
Keep posting! even if you only reach one or 2 people it will spread!
Great info. Unfortunately, Ashley, the masses are in denial and don’t want to know. I have around 200 Facebook friends and only 2 or 3 ever comment or re-post any of this sort of great information that I post on a fairly regular basis. It’s very, very sad.
Gross. Thanks for the information! We need to reach the masses!