When I was a kid bottles were returned for deposit, not melted down. Milk was delivered to our milk box on our porch 2x a week. It got sour in a week, not rotten in 3 weeks. We drove by the dairy farm a few miles away and saw the cows that produced the milk. OJ didn’t give me unbearable heartburn. Bread didn’t give me unbearable heartburn.
Is it my age? or has something gone terribly wrong with our food supply?
Labels are misleading.
Don’t eat fake food
Once you’ve visited farms and producers and eaten real food it’s easy to notice that many foods on your supermarket shelves might not be what you think they are.
Pasturization
Milk Pasturization WAS a great thing. It killed deadly Listeria (and still does) and some other pathogens. in this century big agriculture stores food for long periods of time (shelf life) and transports long distances in poorly controlled environment. Certain processes are utilized and abused in order to make food cheaper and last longer. Sounds good, right? Pasturization is one of these processes. there are three types of pasturization:
- Low temperature Vat pasturization (in small batches)
- High-Temperature Flash Pasturization
- Ultra Pasturization.
So many people tell me they are lactose intolerant. I thought I was. But there was certain milk brands that were simply delicious and i drank anyway, with no ill effects. Then i found a Raw Milk farm in Riverhead, Long Island. The Raw milk was even more delicious and also didn’t make me sick. I believe it’s the pasturization process of the larger producers that denatures the milk that makes me sick. If you like milk, but it doesn’t like you, do some research and test this theory yourself. Some states allow Raw Milk sales. In NY Raw milk is carefully regulated, is tested daily for pathogens, may not be transported for sale (it’s only available on the farm) and must be discarded within 24 hours. I find that raw milk and low temperature vat pasturized milk is the most flavorful and doesn’t make me sick.
I also prefer to use RAW milk for homemade yogurt and custard where I low temperature pasturize it myself as part of the process. You have never had custard the likes of which come from Raw milk cream, processed within 4 hours out of the cow. HOLY COW!
Pasturized Orange Juice
While we’re talking about pasturization let’s mention fruit juices. Orange juice is a good place to start. Something i enjoyed as a child which has become painful as an adult. I can go to the doctor and get big pharma drugs, and buy low acid OJ, no pulp OJ, extra pulp OJ (all of which have additional processing to denature the juice). They all cause me distress. However I can drink as much fresh squeezed OJ here or bottled in Europe and Asia with no ill effects.
Orange juice that’s “not from concentrate” is pasteurized. Pasteurization removes the oxygen and many of the natural chemicals that give the juice its flavor. The producer may store the juice for more than a year. Perfume companies are utilized to make flavor packs to add to the juice to make it taste fresh. The flavors added by the flavor packs are not listed as an ingredient because they’re made from orange essence and oil.
Is it any wonder that juice, which is boiled and then stored for an extended time before being tranported might get you sick?
Natural Flavors
Arsenic is “natural” too. It doesn’t mean it’s safe. There’s nothing healthy or flavorful about “natural flavors” in packaged foods. They are produced in a lab to mimic the flavor of real foods. Often it’s Monosodium Glutamate, a salty additive “considered” safe. Recently the FDA banned several synthetic flavorings in response to data that shows health risks in lab animals. Eat real food to be healthier. Real natural flavors are the ones found in real, whole foods.
Things i can’t pronounce
Is that 100% Grated? 
Yup, powdered wood chips.
Are those wood chips? More than three ingredients, two that are questionable, No question i’d leave it on the shelf.
I Don’t Eat Food
that is pasturized, has “natural flavors” or is from concentrate.
- That is pasturized or from concentrate
- That has more than 3 ingredients
- That has ingredients that i am unfamiliar with (usually this travels with more than 3 ingredients).
- has wood chips in it.
Read the label. ignore what you THINK the words mean. Ignore the marketing.
IKnowTheCow 