What’s In Your Food? Probably a Lot More Than You Think

D​o you like fast food? Of course, you do. Everyone does.

Do you know that more than one-third of Americans eat fast food daily?

You and the rest of the planet understand that fast or junk foods are bad for you. So, why do you keep eating them?

You’re hungry. Fast food is easy and tastes good. That’s it—end of explanation.

Ignorance is bliss.

Like most of us, you likely recall some article or news story years ago explaining the health benefits of the McRib or Whopper and have used it to justify your poor food choices ever since. Those stories are called advertorials, and they’re big business.

Even if you did leave your car and walk into a fast food chain once or Googled the nutrition label while in line at the drive-thru, what you saw wasn’t that bad. Right?

Unfortunately, the posted nutritional facts don’t exactly tell the whole story. Food companies trick you into ignoring their dirty little secrets. They trained you to look at easily manipulated numbers in the big, bold print, so you’ll fail to notice things like serving size.

With the help of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), this misdirection deceives you into believing they’re being transparent. It says, “You can trust us. We wouldn’t hide anything from you.” After all, you’re a savvy consumer, and you read labels. The truth is that what they don’t want you to see is hiding in plain sight. It’s the list of ingredients!

Hey! Look over here.

Industrial food companies would prefer you not discover what’s in their cookies, dressings, cereals, burgers, fries, drinks, etc. Fortunately for the consumer, the law requires a list of ingredients on all commercially sold food products. Every packaged food in the grocery store and fast food chain has the ingredients listed somewhere. We simply ignore them and choose to look at the nutritional information instead.

Why don’t they want us to look at the ingredients? Food companies don’t want you to see a long list of chemicals with unpronounceable names.

Most of the items we buy today barely qualify as food.

They’re a chemical concoction engineered to light up our brain’s pleasure centers and provide dopamine hits. These foods also delay satiety, so you keep eating. Care to Supersize your order today?

Would you eat this?

I​f you’re a regular reader of our newsletter, you may be familiar with the “Would you eat this?” section. Don’t get the newsletter? Sign up here.

“Would you eat this?” is a quiz on your willingness to ignore the ingredients of your food. It’s simple, we give you the details of a popular food and want you to decide whether or not you would eat it based solely on the ingredients.

H​ere are the ingredients of three popular American foods. Can you guess what they are?

1. Chicken (boneless skinless chicken breast filet, seasoning [salt, monosodium glutamate, sugar, spices, paprika], enriched bleached wheat flour [with malted barley flour, niacin, iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid], sugar, salt, monosodium glutamate, nonfat milk, leavening [baking soda, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate], spice, soybean oil, color [paprika], water, nonfat milk, egg, fully refined peanut oil, with Dimethylpolysiloxane, an anti-foam agent added), bun (flour [wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid], water, sugar, yeast, wheat gluten, contains 2% or less of each of the following: soybean oil, salt, cultured wheat flour, vinegar, calcium sulfate, ascorbic acid, enzymes, wheat starch, monoglycerides, monocalcium phosphate, DATEM, soy lecithin, potassium iodate, soybean oil, palm kernel oil, soy lecithin, natural flavor and beta carotene), pickle (cucumbers, water, vinegar, salt, calcium chloride, alum, potassium sorbate [preservative], natural flavors [dill emulsion], polysorbate 80, yellow 5, blue 1)

 

2. Carbonated water, sucrose, glucose, citric acid, taurine, natural flavors, sodium citrate, l-carnitine, panax ginseng root extract, ascorbic acid, caffeine, sodium chloride, niacinamide, riboflavin, guarana seed extract, inositol, glucuronalactone, pyridoxine hydrochloride, cyanobalamin.

 

3. Vegetable oil (Soybean and/or Canola), Water, Sugar, Salt, Nonfat Buttermilk, Egg Yolk, Natural Flavors, Less Than 1% of: Spices, Garlic*, Onion*, Vinegar, Phosphoric Acid, Xanthan Gum, Modified Food Starch, Monosodium Glutamate, Artificial Flavors, Disodium Phosphate, Sorbic Acid, and Calcium Disodium EDTA Added to Preserve Freshness, Disodium Inosinate & Guanylate. *Dried

So, which one of these foods sounds like something you should put into your body? Do you recognize any of these amazingly popular foods?

Tastes like chicken 

The first item on our list is the famous Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich. With a whopping 55 ingredients, it looks more like a science project than a piece of fried chicken with pickles on a bun. Now you know the secret recipe. Try making it at home.

One hour energy 

You should already be aware of the fact that energy drinks are basically carbonated chemicals. A cup of black coffee might not be as cool as drinking this Monster Energy Drink, but it does the same thing without harmful ingredients.

On the side 

Ranch dressing is rapidly becoming one of America’s favorite condiments. You might put it on a salad, but mostly we love to dip everything from a carrot stick to chicken wings in this, the most famous of them all, Hidden Valley Ranch dressing.

Now look here!

Not every product is a demon food waiting to capture your soul. Some companies want you to read their ingredients because they take pride in offering quality food. These are usually small, independent producers of limited items.

Most people don’t realize that five massive food conglomerates dominate the aisles of your grocery store where the packaged products live. You may think you see foods from hundreds, if not thousands of brands, but that’s also part of the illusion.

The fast-food industry in the U.S. alone generated over $260 billion in 2021. In 2022, the market size of the U.S. packaged food industry will reach a trillion dollars. That’s trillion with a T!

These industries spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year on one thing – getting you to eat more of their processed junk.

Please don’t fall for their illusion. Take your food seriously and look at the ingredients.

 

T​ake care, even down there.

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