You flip over your bottle of creamy salad dressing and scan the ingrediant list. You may or may not be shocked by the sheer number of items listed. You may or may not be shocked that most of them are unpronouncable. But it's just ranch right? Yummy, low in calories because we're watching our weight salad dressing. It'll go on some healthy greens and...oh look! It's natural! See right there, it says "natural flavors". Yay!
Hmmm...what are natural flavors anyway? Well, I'd think condensed versions of the original flavor, added in to make it all better. Like, the essence of sour cream and onions added into my dressing....but I'd be wrong to think that. Flavorings are focused on altering or enhancing the flavors of natural food product such as meats and vegetables, or creating flavor for food products that do not have the desired flavors such as candies and other snacks. Most types of flavorings are focused on scent and taste (Wikipedia). No, "natural flavors" are not really all that natural but can include a number of agents, including legally glutamates (as in MSG biproducts) and they don't have to be disclosed as long as they are "reasonably safe". Glutamates, in case you don't know, are what is called an excitoxin. Ohhh..sounds like fun, right? But there are many other "natural flavorings" added to foods, meant to enhance the foods we love. Some of them are indeed..natural. Essential oils and such, but they come in unregulated amounts. Some of them...bi-products of other industries (petroleum).
And they are in EVERYTHING (seemingly).
This is an interesting blog post on the topic: http://foodbabe.com/2011/12/01/chemical-warfare-with-natural-flavor/
Why can't they just be honest to us? Let us know what's really going into our foods?
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