article about ice cream

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Sat, 03 Sep 2005 20:36:32 -0000

" JoAnn Guest " <angelprincessjo

Ice Cream, Anyone?

 

Date of Publication Oct. 2004

http://web.ask.com/fr?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.annieappleseedproject.org%

2Fcanoilrap.html

 

Ice Cream, Anyone?

 

The average American consumes 24 quarts of ice cream

every year. He

thinks he is only eating cream, sugar, and vanilla.

But he is

actually putting a lot of very strange things into his

body.

 

There are over 1,400 flavorings, stabilizers, colors,

and

emulsifiers available to the commercial producer of

ice cream.

 

Unfortunately, ice cream manufacturers are not

required by law to

list the additives used in making their product. As a

result, most

ice creams are synthetic from start to finish.

 

Ice cream makers are giving us a wide variety of

delicious flavors,

but are they fit to eat?

 

There is hardly any ice cream flavor that does not

have a chemical

substitute. Some of the artificial flavors are potent

poisons which

are powerful enough to cause liver, kidney, and heart

disease.

 

Some ice creams contain natural flavorings; some

contain a mixture

of natural and artificial flavors, and some are

entirely

artificially flavored. The artificial flavors are

favored by the

manufacturers because, since they cost less, the

profit is

increased.

 

For example, consider " vanilla " : Category I is

commercial vanilla

flavoring made entirely of vanilla. Category II is a

combination of

natural and artificial flavors; and the package may

read, " vanilla

flavored. " Category III is entirely artificial; and

the label may

read, " artificially flavored vanilla. "

 

What is in artificial vanilla flavoring? It is

peperonal or

vanillin. Peperonal is a chemical used to kill lice.

Vanillin is

made from the wastes of wood pulp and has no

relationship to the

vanilla bean.

 

Natural vanilla (which is pureed vanilla beans or

vanilla extract)

is much more expensive than artificial vanilla. Today

it is only

rarely found in the ice cream you buy at the store.

 

Then there is strawberry flavor. How nice fresh, ripe

strawberries

taste! But in your dish of " strawberry " ice cream, you

will find

benzyl acetate—a synthetic chemical that tastes like

strawberries.

 

According to the Merck Index, an encyclopedia for

chemists, this

substance is extremely dangerous and can cause

vomiting and

diarrhea. It is a nitrate solvent.

 

Would you rather have pineapple flavoring in your ice

cream? Ethyl

acetate is used to give that flavor. It can cause

liver, kidney, and

heart damage. It is also used as a cleaner for leather

and textiles.

Its vapors have been known to cause chronic lung,

liver, and heart

damage.

 

What about banana flavoring? It is amylbutyrate, which

is also used

as an oil paint solvent.

 

Cherries anyone? Aldehydec 17 is used to provide the

cherry flavor

in your ice cream. This is an inflammable liquid which

is used as

aniline dyes, and the manufacture of plastic and

rubber.

 

Perhaps nuts is what you want in your ice cream?

Butraldehyde is the

chemical used to provide the nut flavoring in ice

cream. It is one

of the ingredients in rubber cement.

 

The problem is that nearly all our artificial food

flavors and food

colors—come from coal tar! This is a substance in coal

and also

petroleum. We would never think of putting coal or

gasoline in our

bodies; yet that is what is put into all the processed

food which

contains, what the label calls " pure food colors " or

" artificial

flavorings. " Coal tar is notorious as a causative

agent in producing

cancers of the stomach, bowel, kidney, liver, and

other organs.

 

Back in the old days, fresh eggs would be added to ice

cream as an

emulsifier, to make it more textured. Today diethyl

glycol is used

instead. This is the same chemical used in antifreeze

and paint

removers. Like all the other chemicals, it is

dangerous. You do not

want even small amounts of these chemicals in your

body. According

to the Merck Index, it is sufficiently toxic to cause

liver and

kidney damage.

 

Stabilizers make ice cream smooth; and emulsifiers

make it stiff, so

it can retain air. Here are some of the chemicals used

to stabilize

and emulsify the ice cream you eat:

 

Propylene glycol (also used in antifreeze), glycerin,

sodium

carboxyl methylcellulose, monoglycerides,

diglycerides, disodium

phosphates, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, polysorbate 80,

and dioctyl

sodium sulfosuccinate.

 

Government regulations permit all these things to be

placed in your

ice cream.

 

Last but not least, ice cream makers pump air into the

product.

Homemade ice cream weighs 7 to 8½ pounds per gallon.

Store-bought

ice cream weighs 4.5 pounds or less. So you are paying

a lot for a

smaller amount of cream; but you are still getting a

heavy dose of

chemical additives. Is it really worth it?

 

The next time you are tempted by a nice-looking banana

split, think

of it as a mixture of oil and nitrate solvent,

antifreeze, and lice

killer.

_________________

JoAnn Guest

mrsjoguest

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Genes