108 Diet Wise
of “apple flavor” chemicals to show patients; there are over eighty artificial
substances, such as complex alcohols and esters, which go to make up the
illusion of “apple.” No real apple was included, of course. Just chemicals.
To name just one: (S)-2-methylbutanoic acid methyl ester is a key ingredient for
apple and strawberry flavor.
Cute words like “improvers” annoy me greatly. Such labels have
nothing to do with the nutritional merits of the foodstuff. Take bread:
an enhancer means a substance which will fluff up the bread to greater
bulk, so that you buy more air for your dollars than would otherwise be
the case. Note that bread may also contain chlorine and chlorine dioxide,
metabisulfite and sulfur dioxide (the latter with water makes sulfurous acid,
which is active enough to erode buildings of brick and stone).
BREAD
Often described as “the staff of life,” bread is no longer
the natural food it once was. The modern loaf or bun is so
synthetic it remains plastic, soft and supposedly therefore
“fresh” for days on end. I ask patients to consider the
fact that mold will not grow on bread for many days,
even when left exposed. If it is toxic to molds, I’m sure it
is similarly so for humans.
Think of French bread – made fresh in the early
morning but dry and inedible within a few hours. Wheat
remains the number one toxic food, remember“Natural” additives is another abuse of language. Food ingredients that may
be claimed as natural are beetle cases, burnt feathers and seashells.
None of these additives are for the benefit of the consumer –
they are added only in the manufacturers’ interests. “But without them the
consumer would not wish to eat the food,” is the usual spurious argument
in favor of additives. Well, hooray! would be my reply.
Beware the glutamate family
Processed food is really so denatured, bland and unpalatable that nobody
would eat it, unless the flavor was “enhanced.” The most common way of
faking “flavor” is adding monosodium glutamate or one of its relatives.