Should we be worried about dishonest ingredients in our food?

[raccoon]

I bought a can of Campbell's Chicken Gumbo soup. (Had 3 or 4 crumbs of meat in it, so I guess you could call it Chicken Gumbo.)

Written on the side of the can:

"We begin with good, honest ingredients like farm grown tomatoes, okra and rice. Then we cook them to perfection...."

How could you recognize a dishonest ingredient?

The propaganda Madison Avenue pushes at us is unbelievable.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Don't get me started on Girl Scout cookies.

Check the ingredients. Do you see Girl Scouts anywhere on the list?

Ha!

[rurallib]

2. Ha!

hahahahahahahahaha

[procon]

3. Where else would they grow produce besides a farm?

What they mean is they aren't using some really "dishonest" chemical concoction of fake food that gets mixed up in a vat and extruded like pink slime, although "Dehydrated Chicken" sounds very suspicious to me. Yum.

Ingredients of Campbell's Chicken Gumbo soup

Water, Chicken Stock, Tomato Puree (Water, Tomato Paste), Rice, Celery, Chicken Meat, Okra, Contains Less Than 2% Of: Salt, Modified Food Starch, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Carrot Juice Concentrate, Dehydrated Onions, Green Peppers, Red Peppers, Chicken Fat, Monosodium Glutamate, Spice, Modified Food Starch, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Yeast Extract, Flavoring, Sodium Phosphate, Soy Protein Isolate, Citric Acid, Caramel Color, Dehydrated Chicken, Onion Extract.

If I made Chicken Gumbo soup from scratch, I'd say that Modified Food Starch, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Monosodium Glutamate, Sodium Phosphate, Soy Protein Isolate, Citric Acid, Caramel Color, would be "dishonest" ingredients.

[rurallib]

4. I know about three years ago they quit calling High Fructose Corn Syrup

by its real name. It became some nebulous names:

Recently, big food companies have gotten wise to the unhealthy reputation their favorite ingredient has developed and have subsequently started re-labeling it under different names. Make sure to check the list of ingredients for all of these variations: high-fructose corn syrup, natural corn syrup, isolated fructose, maize (a native word for corn) syrup, glucose/fructose syrup and tapioca syrup (not from corn, but also fructose).

http://www.starkelnutrition.com/2017/many-names-high-fructose-corn-syrup/

[customerserviceguy]

5. Well, consider

that there is a product out there called "Grape Nuts", which contains neither grapes nor nuts.

Seriously, people have to develop a thick skin and a critical mind when evaluating any sort of puffery that passes itself off as genuine information on food labels. A label on a box of Rice Chex that says "Gluten Free!' is appealing to the person who was too ignorant to know that rice doesn't contain gluten, and never did.

For people who get their nutrition information solely off of a food package, you're not going to see them always making the best choices, no matter what or how you regulate what is said on that packaging. Nutrition information should start in the schools, and be supplemented by popular websites that are not themselves marketing shills for the latest food fad.