They Put What in My Ice Cream??
By Dr. Al Sears
When Thomas Jefferson recorded the recipe he had learned for making vanilla ice cream, I bet he never imagined anything like the modern version.
Jefferson's recipe called for cream, eggs, a bit of sugar, some vanilla, and ice.
Take a look at the label of today's ice cream and you probably will not recognize half of what is in there.
One national brand does have milk, cream, and sugar... but the rest of the ingredients would make Jefferson scratch his head: Cocoa processed with alkali, maltodextrin, propylene glycol monoesters, cellulose gel, cellulose gum, cornstarch, calcium phosphate, salt, and soy lecithin.
And they replaced good ol' natural sugar with high-fructose corn syrup. This chemically processed sugar replacement is linked to obesity, liver and pancreas problems, and can even be contaminated with mercury.1
So why do they put these kinds of things in something like ice cream which is so good without them?
One reason is that manufacturers need their packaged foods to have a long shelf life and to look good while tbeing displayed on the store shelf. So they process even some of the natural ingredients in ice cream with methods like these:
- boiling
- pressurizing
- oxidation
- osmotic inhibition
- extremely high water pressure
- dehydration
- mineral removal through chelation
These methods leech the taste out of food. So they add chemicals back in to make what they are selling taste like real food.
The flavors are created by chemists called "flavorists." They distill flavors from foods before they get packaged and then combine them with chemical compounds. These potent flavor potions are created to taste like the flavors that were processed out. Most pre-packaged foods have some cocktail of flavorings added back in after it's processed.
You might also see food colorings added to ice cream, too. Like FD&C red 40, FD&C yellow 5, and FD&C blue 1. Do you know what those are made from? They can be derived from petroleum, acetone, and even coal tars.2
In one study, animals given doses of artificial food coloring and then went into a maze. They became hyperactive and had difficulty staying on task and paying attention.3
1. Dufault R, LeBlanc B, Schnoll R, Cornett C, Schweitzer L, Wallinga D, Hightower J, Patrick L, Lukiw WJ. "Mercury from chlor-alkali plants: measured concentrations in food product
2. "Chemical Cuisine; Learn about Food Additives." Center for Science In The Public Interest.
www.cspinet.org. Retreived Jan 9, 2011 3. Kamel M, El-lethey H. "The Potential Health Hazard of Tartrazine and Levels of Hyperactivity, Anxiety-Like Symptoms, Depression and Anti-social behaviour in Rats." J of Am Sci, 2011;7(6)
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