Bug Juice

[angelburst29]

Even more reason to cut out dairy ... and to think, I use to eat Dannon yogurt for lunch often at work, for the probiotics?

http://www.naturalnews.com/041430_bug_juice_food_coloring_Dannon_yogurt.html#ixzz2ae5dpm17


(NaturalNews) Yogurt, fruit, and insect juice? This last ingredient might seem out of place, but it is precisely what global food giant Dannon is adding as a food coloring to many of its commercial yogurt products, unbeknownst to the majority of its customer base. And the non-profit consumer advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is calling on the company to immediately remove the ingredient from its product formulations in the interest of public safety.

You may recall back in 2012 when coffee chain Starbucks found itself in the national spotlight for quietly replacing a plant-based coloring agent with carmine, a substance that is extracted from ground-up cochineal beetles, in some of its Frappuccino beverages. Well, this same ingredient is now being used by Dannon to doctor up some of its more colorful yogurt flavors and make them more appealing to the eye, which is generating new controversy.

According to CSPI, the carminic acid-derived coloring agent is not only deceptive by default, but it is also known to cause allergic reactions in some people. The group's Chemical Guide, in fact, recommends that consumers be cautious about the foods they eat as added carmine can cause severe allergic reactions, including anaphylactic shock. This may be why Dannon already avoids using carmine in its yogurt lines aimed at children.


Carmine is not the only major concern with Dannon yogurt, though. According to the company's "What's in Our Yogurt?" page, many Dannon yogurt products contain added artificial flavors, genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), and aspartame, a synthetic sweetening agent originally derived from a chemical warfare agent. Monsanto used to own the patent for aspartame.

"Three congressional hearings and countless research reports and papers by renowned doctors confirm the deadly chemistry of aspartame," writes Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum., concerning the dirty truth about aspartame. "FDA listed 92 adverse reactions, including death, in [its] report on 10,000 ... complaints volunteered by American consumers."

Then there is the issue of GMOs in Dannon yogurt, which hide behind ingredients like cornstarch, fructose, and so-called "mineral compounds," which may be derived from synthetic, GMO-based sources. Even the milk used to make Dannon yogurt is problematic, as it more than likely comes from cows raised in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and fed GMO feed.

 

[aaronfransen]

I don't doubt the validity of this information, but the fact that CSPI is talking about this is cause for concern.

They are most certainly not an organization I trust.

 

[Jono]

Before I clicked the thread I thought everyone was about to include bug juice in the diet.

As you said, just another reason to stay away from all that rubbish they're feeding the masses.

Still, it looks like a nice Facebook share, people seem to pay attention when an animal (or insect) is going into their food and they're not aware of it. Think back to the whole horse meat media frenzy that lasted weeks/months here in the UK.

 

[mcb]

I view with skepticism anything NaturalNews publishes. Their editorial standards are poor. What they say might be true, or not, or a mixture of truth and error. You practically have to start from scratch and do the research yourself before you can even decide.

I think the action item that you might want to consider is to avoid all products produced by the major food conglomerates. They are out to feed on you, and if you don't know which are their products and avoid them, they are going to succeed.

Personally, I am still avoiding all cow's milk dairy products but I have done some successful testing recently with aged pasteurized milk and raw milk hard goat cheeses. I have to limit the amount I consume or I run into FODMAP issues, but it has filled a gap left when I eliminated salami and nuts (and bacon too), the only other foods I had that I could use to fill in without cooking a meal when I had had almost but not quite enough to eat in a day. I think I wrote about this in a post in the KD topic, about merging the Specific Carbohydrate Diet with my KD.

The hard cheeses offer good nutritional qualities and minimum FODMAP issues, and represent primarily fat rather than protein. Satiation is good and, as far as I know, the risk from pasteurization is minimized. (Goat's milk is "possibly paleo" but nobody knows for sure. Even Nora Gedgaudas commented about it, though possibly in a podcast rather than in her book.)

This may not be an ideal food to include if you are healthy, but I think it may have potential for some of us that are stuck on highly restrictive diets while we spend years troubleshooting our GI tracts (I don't think am the only one), and need additional nutrient variety from animal-source foods. It's an experiment, however, and at some point I will need to eliminate the goat cheese again and watch for changes. And oh yeah, this cheese tends to be quite expensive!

 

[nicklebleu]

I view with skepticism anything NaturalNews publishes. Their editorial standards are poor. What they say might be true, or not, or a mixture of truth and error. You practically have to start from scratch and do the research yourself before you can even decide.

I totally agree - I unsubscribed NN a while ago because to me it seems that Mike Adams is more of a political activist than an objective health researcher. While certain things are good, one has to take everything with a ton of salt that come out of there - as Megan rigthly pointed out.

I think the action item that you might want to consider is to avoid all products produced by the major food conglomerates. They are out to feed on you, and if you don't know which are their products and avoid them, they are going to succeed.

Again I can only agree with Megan, anything that the industry produces is by default unhealthy, for the simple reason that their interests lie elswhere - production costs, shelf life, bliss point a.k.a. addictiveness of the taste etc. Health concerns really don't show up in the list for a long time - their only concern being not to poison their customer base straight away. Anything that comes in a package is bad - with very few selected exemptions.

Personally, I am still avoiding all cow's milk dairy products but I have done some successful testing recently with aged pasteurized milk and raw milk hard goat cheeses.

I have recently reintroduced double thick cream - the jury is still out, sometimes I think that it's ok, sometimes I think it's not - time will tell.

Now coming to bugs - it may well be that the bug part is the most healthy bit in Danone's yoghourt. And I am not kidding - while for us Westeners eating bugs seems to be the pinnacle of unhealthyness and disgust, bugs are in many other countries a part of the daily staple. I could very much imagine that in the near or far future we mit get to eat those critters on a more regular basis. Only a handful of them is known to be poisonous if consumed (mainly big moths and some spiders), for me it's a bit like the discussion of horse meat in burgers - it's the healthiest bit of it all, mate!