"The Flavorists"

Do you ever find yourself reading the list of ingredients on the back of your favorite food item and ask yourself, “What the hell does ‘natural flavorings’ mean?”  If a flavoring is “natural” then it should by definition occur in nature, right?  And if that is the case, why would any “natural” flavors need to be added at all?   

As Americans, we clearly like to believe that our food is natural – and that’s why millions of processed (read: artificial) foods found in the grocery store routinely claim to be “natural.” Peel back the onion a bit – a natural onion, hopefully – and we see that the whole notion of “natural flavors” is a complete fraud.

Read the tiny print on the back of any food item that comes in a package – even those that are otherwise healthy food items like dried fruit, salad dressing, cereal, and lunch meat.  Far down the list of ingredients you will likely find the phrase “natural flavorings.”  Ask yourself: Why is it that roast beef and turkey need to include “natural flavorings” in order to taste like roast beef and turkey?  As it turns out, the food manufacturers are manipulating us into eating more with these so-called “flavorings.”

On Sunday night, 60 Minutes featured a story about one company in the billion-dollar food flavoring industry.  This company is in the business of manipulating flavors by adding completely processed, and in some cases completely artificial, flavors to various foodstuffs and calling it “natural.” It all sounds very benign – after all, what’s wrong with making foods taste better?  But that’s not all these companies do.  They also manipulate our taste buds to make us want to eat more – and this manipulation of millions of Americans every day has enormous health consequences. As I sat there and watched the story, I was disgusted. The self-described “flavorists” proudly touted their ability to control what and how much we eat - all by adding various flavors to almost any food you can think of.  Maybe that explains why that potato chip company proudly says that “you can’t eat just one.”

I just had to share this enlightening story with you all…

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57330816/the-flavorists-tweaking-tastes-and-creating-cravings/?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel

Please watch it – I would love to hear your feedback on whether you think there is a correlation between this type of flavor manipulation and our ever-expanding waistlines. I sure do…