Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Ice Cream or "Ice Cream"?

I love ice cream! Don't you? Mmmm!

There are certain vendors that I love(d) to go to as a kid, the one sporting 31 Flavors was key among them. Now though? Umm...I think we've come to a parting of the ways.

Jamoca Almond Fudge
Ingredients: cream, nonfat milk, chocolate flavored ribbon (corn syrup, water, high fructose corn syrup, cocoa processed with alkali, modified food starch, propylene glycol, artificial flavors, potassium sorbate (preservative), carrageenan, salt, propyl paraben (preservative)), sugar, roasted almonds, corn syrup, jamoca extract (coffee extract, sugar, potassium sorbate and methyl paraben (as preservatives)), whey, caramel color, cellulose gum, mono and diglycerides, guar gum, carrageenan, polysorbate 80.
The following ingredients are all made from corn (I'm currently reading Michael Pollan's book: The Omnivore's Dilemma. Wow! Get a copy!):
For modified or unmodified starch, for glucose syrup and maltodextrin, for crystalline fructose and ascorbic acid, for lecithin and dextrose, lactic acid and lysine, for maltose and HFCS [High Fructose Corn Syrup], for MSG [Mono-Sodium Glutamate] and polyols, for the caramel-color and xanthan gum, read: corn. Corn is in the coffee whitener and Cheez Whiz [Eww!], the frozen yogurt and TV dinner, the canned fruit and ketchup and candies, the soups and snacks and cake mixes, the frosting ans gravy and frozen waffles, the syrups and hot sauces, the mayonnaise and mustard, the hot dogs and the bologna, the margarine and shortening, the salad dressings and the relishes and even the vitamins.
-- The Omnivore's Dilemma, pp. 18-19.
So, with that handy list, the "ice cream" includes corn in 7 of the ingredients that I recognized. Also, why are there parabens in my "ice cream"?!

There I was, thinking I'd gotten rid of them in my skin care products and they're in my food?! I even noticed recently that there was methyl paraben in my toothpaste! And it's from Nature's Gate. Not so natural, the Nature's Gate, I'm thinking.

From the Environmental Working Group's website Skin Deep, Propyl paraben: 4 (Moderate Hazard) is implicated in developmental/reproductive toxicity, allergies/immunotoxicity, endocrine disruption, organ system toxicity (non-reproductive). Um. Oh. Oh dear.

When did we stop eating ice cream and start eating all of these chemicals? To me, ice cream is cream or milk, sugar, vanilla, a pinch of salt, eggs and whatever variety of fruit you wanted to throw in (or chocolate).

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, and yet I am. Must be time to break the ice cream maker back out and start making my own ice cream again. It's a bit of work, but at least I know what's in it.

I'll be sure to skip the step that suggests adding the propyl and methyl parabens.

Argh!

4 comments:

screamish said...

oh god, I just clicked on the link to Skin Deep.

Never heard of these before...but since pregnant have been taking more care. Have stopped eating supermarket sausages (ever looked at ingredients for sausages??)

Yeah you know its hard to find pure foods. You have to make everything from scratch basically...

ironically the cheapest food (in the hard discount shops) is often the worst...processed pork products etc...you need to have money to live simply....

Anonymous said...

Yeah, yest. went looking at HFCS (funny you should blog about this today), and it's many alias's- oh dear it's in everything.
Oh I think kitchen aid makes a 2 bin ice cream maker, and I've heard w/ diff. models you can order a second bin which would make ice cream making quicker/ more enjoyable.

Anonymous said...

For some really good ice cream, try the all natural or organic varieties. Still not as good as homemade, but some are pretty close. Also, there is a list of non-high-fructose corn syrup products here: http://highfructosehigh.com

Mrs. M said...

It's really ridiculous what they put in our food. As ketchup is a food group around here, I've taken to ordering it from Amazon. It's hard to afford the good stuff on a budget. But Hagen Daas and Ben & Jerry's are better ice cream choices--less of the ugly stuff and more fat and calories--just what my skinny girls need.

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