I just read this article about the "Mystery Ingreadients" in prepackaged frozen dinner. If anyone ever needs a reaso to chose a whole foods lifestyle...this should do it.

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/nutri...dinners?page=1

As a logical argument, this doesn't quite make as much sense as it seems to. Using the same argument, we shouldn't eat eggs, because they can be used as a hair conditioner. We shouldn't drink water, because it's used as an industrial coolant. We shouldn't ingest lemon juice or vinegar because they can be used as a household cleanser.

A lot of the stuff they mentioned aren't too bad, but just icky. And yeah we should be preparing our own food- it's just better for us. Although I will admit frozen dinners at Whole Foods tend to just have 3 or 4 ingredients, and none of the things mentioned above, so that's an improvement!

Another icky fact is that 'natural lemon flavor' or 'natural lime flavor' or 'natural flavors' all mean it's most likely the extract from a beaver's butt hole. Not joking. Apprently beavers have a gland in their butt that is 'juiced'. This gives things a lemon or lime flavor. Unless the package says "lime juice extract" or "pure lemon juice", etc, it could be the beaver butt juice!!! I stopped buying flavored seltzer because of this. I just always add my own lemon and lime juices now.

Here's a list of things that could be 'natural flavors':

- Castoreum: an extract from the ANAL MUSK glands of beavers
- Lipase: an enzyme extracted from calf toung, commonly found in dairy products like cheese
- Lanolin: a waxy fat extracted from sheep's wool, commonly found in chewing gum and products with added vitamin D3
- L-Cysteine Hydrochloride: a flour additive often extracted from duck feathers, commonly found in backing mixes
- Isinglass: a gelatin derived from fish bladders, used in the filtration process of many wines
- Carmine or Cochineal: GROUND UP CARCASSES OF BEETLES! commonly used to color processed foods, even orange juice (Tropicana!!)
- Pepsin: an enzyme from pig stomachs
- Rennet or Rennin: an enzyme from the stomach of slaughtered calves
- Gelatin: boiled hooves, bones, and skin

I really REALLY try to purchase items that are vegan, or don't have 'natural flavors' listed.

oh good god, BEETLES!!! and BUTT JUICE!!?? I've been feeding my family this??!! I'm out I'm never going to buy anything processed again. if the kids give me guff, I will just show them this post lol. Thats just plain disgusting!!

OK, beetles maybe. Survivalists will tell you if you are lost in the woods you should eat bugs for protien but, butt juice?!? Methinks not. Too close to being an kisser in my book

I have read several myth busting sites that report that "beaver produced flavorings" are a myth. While musks are used as fragrances (in non-edible products like perfumes), they aren't used as flavorings, so no beaver butt juice in your lemonade.

My first hit for google "castoreum flavor"

Titre du document / Document title
Safety assessment of castoreum extract as a food ingredient
Auteur(s) / Author(s)
BURDOCK G. A. ;
Résumé / Abstract
Castoreum extract (CAS NO. 8023-83-4; FEMA NO. 2261) is a natural product prepared by direct hot-alcohol extraction of castoreum, the dried and macerated castor sac scent glands (and their secretions) from the male or female beaver. It has been used extensively in perfumery and has been added to food as a flavor ingredient for at least 80 years. Both the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association (FEMA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regard castoreum extract as generally recognized as safe (GRAS).

Isinglass is made from sturgeon air bladders. In other words, it's more like a lung then a bladder. It's used as a clarifying agent in white wines and some beers (like Guinness.) It's also filtered out before the wine is bottled. I used to work in the wine industry and I never saw it used in red wines. More often then not though, egg whites and milk were used instead of isinglass since they are cheaper.

I don't typically buy convenience foods anyway, but I'm more concerned with synthetic chemicals then with things that come from natural sources.

Yes, yoyoma, but as I read, it's a matter of simple economics. At one time, beavers, and beaver hunting (and thus castoreum) were once much, much more prevalent, so prevalent that castoreum was cheaper and easier to obtain than actual lemons and limes. This is no longer the case.

Castoreum is still used as a flavoring/fragrance really only in cigarettes, I believe (which I certainly do not consider a food product).

Although, if you can find a company that still actually uses castoreum in a food product, that would be very interesting.

For vegans, some vegetarians, and those following kosher or other dietary laws, this stuff is important. From a health perspective, not so much.

Still, it's interesting and good to know. As for modern american squeamishness about eating insects, internal organs, and all but a few animals; I think it's rather silly, and even irresponsibly wasteful. The muscle meat isn't even the most nutritious part of the beast, as I understand it, so we're often throwing away the "best" parts.

Just yesterday, I was eating at a Thai restaurant, owned by a young couple who are Hmong. My husband and I ordered the Pho (a noodle soup), and because the owners know us as open-minded, they offered us some of what they were having for dinner themselves. It was laab, a very finely ground thai beef salad, seasoned with lime juice, garlic, fish sauce, cilantro, fresh basil, mint, green onion on a bed of leaf lettuce. It also had strips of tripe (beef stomache) and thin slivers of pork skin. Sounds horrendous, right? OMG, it was absolutely fabulous. Then the owner proceeded to tell us how much better it was in Thailand, or when a Hmong family made it from their own cow, because instead of pork skin, it's supposed to be beef skin, but beef skin isn't as readily available in the USA as pork skin...

In the same conversation, she told us how she could not eat jam of any kind, because the texture was so disgusting to her. Her kids always want american food, so she's made peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches for them, but said that the making them (and tasting them) "freaks me out."

That jelly would freak out a person who considers tripe and skin a delicacy, seems weird to me, but I realize only because I was raised in a polish/german/italian and not a Hmong family.

I kinda go with the first commenter:
While I don't see myself shying away from the few that fit my own criteria, like 8star already noted, I'd like to see details now about specific brands - Lean Cuisine, etc., which might help me shorten my own list. Thanks again!

I only do frozen if were on the run but still want to eat somewhat healthy...
Although, lately I have been beginning to prepare foods in advance such as breakfast bars homemade.. maybe I'll venture into my own frozen meals and such... Start to shy away from the frozen mess of chemicals :P

OMGosh....You are just too funny!

But, seriously, most people have no idea what they are actually putting in their mouths. My kids aren't overweight in the least, but they are going Whole Foods, too. And who knows...maybe some of their allergies and other issues will go away, or at least be not as bad.

I just feel the need to clarify that there exist in the world whole foods outside of the grocery store Whole Foods. Whole Foods sells whole foods and processed foods, too.

Don't get me wrong, I love shopping at WF; I think the selection and quality are fantastic, and they don't sell anything with trans fats or HFCS. But farmer's markets and co-ops sell whole foods too, and they're not corporate and benefit your local community more.

All I'm saying is that whole foods and Whole Foods are not one in the same.

I'm from the stix...didn't know there was a store called "Whole Foods"
I just thought you all were talking about plain ol' naturally grown food.
Boy do I feel silly now...

Yes, you're absolutely right!

Sorry to make things unnecessarily confusing.