On Food Labels And The Ubiquity Of Corn
I was chatting with @yogajill in comments, and offhandedly said I've become a pro at understanding food labels because of all my food allergies. She suggested I make a post about that, because, well, walk down a grocery store aisle and take a peek at the ingredients list from pretty much any processed food. Yeah. Madness, right?
I won't get into the monstrous list of everything I'm allergic to, but let's focus on one bitch of an ingredient that is in like 90% of everything (not a real statistic but probably not far off): corn.
Once again, I googled for "evil corn" (previously I found a good result searching for "evil potato") and the internet did not disappoint. Image from heartlandhealing dot com
First of all, I must recommend the documentary King Corn (http://www.kingcorn.net), if you want to really understand the depth of the problem and how it got to be this way. Tl;dw: farm subsidies. But really, watch it. Do recommend.
One of the most helpful bits of info I got regarding food allergies (far more helpful than anything the doctor told me), was this list, which I jotted down after pausing the video of the documentary on a screenshot where they listed all the possible ingredients that could be made of corn:
Cellulose
Alpha tocopherol
Calcium stearate
Ethyl lactate
Maltodextrin
Saccharin
Polydextrose
Gluten
Sucrose
Sorbital
Xanthan gum
White vinegar
Ethel acetate
Fibersol-2
High fructose corn syrup/"corn sugar"/HFCS
Citrus cloud emulsion
Citric acid
Ascorbic acid
Di-glycerides
Baking powder
Fructose
Semolina
Sorbic acid
Vanilla extract
Starch
(Word I couldn't make out) -nosital
Zein- (also blurred on my screen)
Margarine
Tumeric acid
(??) -ethylene
Xylitol
Seriously. And that's not counting where it actually says "corn" like "corn meal" or "corn starch" or "corn syrup" or "corn syrup solids" our just corn in its whole form.
Side note: the allergy doctor scoffed and said that corn starch and HFCS wouldn't have enough of the protein in it to trigger an allergy. O rly? I can drink one conventional HFCS ginger ale in a pinch, or take ibuprofen (because corn starch or cellulose is in pretty much every tablet, period), but if I buy a 2 liter bottle of Canada Dry or take metric fucktons of ibuprofen like I was before I got my tooth pulled, HEY LOOK THERE'S THE RASH, DOC. Not enough to set me off after one rare exposure, yes ...but not nothing such that I can consume it regularly.
Cellulose: you think of this as sawdust, right? It can be. It would be better for me if it were. But it's often corn cob. Cellulose is in pre-made CHOCOLATE MILK, to give you an example of the weirdest thing I found it in. They put it in the skimmed low-fat milk to make it have a thicker mouthfeel. No shit.
Maltodextrin: one of those "what the fuck is that" ingredients, maltodextrin can be either corn, potato, or tapioca. The only one of those that won't set me off is tapioca, and food labels don't usually specify which one it is so I have to avoid it. I want to hug food companies on the rare occasion I find something that specifies "tapioca maltodextrin." Y'all are my favorite.
Citric and ascorbic acid: silly me, I always thought these came from citrus fruits.
Baking powder: because often it has corn starch. I make my own now with arrowroot instead. Also, mine is aluminum free (though you can also find aluminum free varieties in the health food store)!
Vanilla extract: because it's generally tinctured in "grain alcohol," read: corn, or at least, possibly corn. I make my own of this, too, using a safe vodka or rum.
Xylitol: alcohol sugar, again, it doesn't specify alcohol from what, so it could be corn alcohol as well.
image from ICHC
How is it the FDA sees fit to tell us all about macros on food labels, but they don't seem to think ALLERGIC PEOPLE deserve to have specifics of the root source of ingredients? It's not stealing the Secret Recipe to know if it's wood cellulose or corn.
And this is why people like me are standing there annoying you at the supermarket reading everything. Sorry. Just ask me to move.
That Red Fish your momma always warned you about
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Glad to be the first to upvote this post @phoenixwren! You really whipped this post up fast! Wow!!!! No kidding you know your stuff. Not that I didn't think you did but seriously! There's so much complex info in here. Great compilation!! Taking the ball and running with it!! Weeeeeowww! Meee-oww 💛🌹💛 (p.s. take all the time you need to decipher the fine print in the isles....all the time) i'd prolly die living a day in your shoes. 😬 Lotsa Love! Really enjoyed your post 🐱
Thank you, thank you! I was really overwhelmed by it all at first, but I'm used to it by now. Luckily I had figured out corn and latex before I even saw the allergist, so I was already learning what to look for on some things before I got bombarded with The Big List Of No Nos. 😂
Honestly, you're one courageous dude ✌
Thank you for this - even if most things are cooked at home from raw ingredients, it's good to know about cooking aids and medicines.
Yup. Most people don't think about medicines, or what they think of as ingredients to cook from scratch with - vinegar, baking powder, xylitol, vanilla extract. I'm over here making ingredients of ingredients. Ingredientception! 😁
It would be nice if our food wasnt so complicated for no good reason. Sigh, maybe someday.
I like how you've been able to educate yourself on your allergies and figure out how to avoid that stuff. I get too overwhelmed reading labels! 😔
Most people do. And yeah ...there is so much shit in our food nowadays. My #1 clean eating tip is to do most of your shopping on the periphery of the grocery store. That's where the fresh food usually is. But even that, stuff you wouldn't think is in there, can be. Like corn starch in sour cream! 😲
Nice sharing n cool dear
Don't spam, dear.
Excellent post , thanks for all the effort you put into this. Very interesting and rather horrifying too of course. Wow. I have a diet of virtually no processed food. I can’t shop in supermarkets they have virtually nothing I want to eat. I have t trusted mainstream food for so long..... but most people eat it and that is scary.