At the Institute for Political Economy, Paul Craig Roberts laments the terrible turn food has taken in recent decades, with ever more chemicals and preservatives being introduced to recipes that used to contain simple ingredients. He writes:
Recently I purchased from Publix, where I grocery shop, an individual serving of strawberry short cake, a southern dessert that reminded me of my grandmother.It was an easy dessert to make and was always welcome. What was required was some flour, water or milk, cane sugar, sliced fresh strawberries, and whipped cream made by hand-whipping the cream from the top of non-pasteurized, non-homogenized milk, a product no longer available in stores.
Carried away by my expectation of enjoying a taste from the past, I did not read the ingredients listing on the Publix’s strawberry shortcake before I ate a combination of chemicals unknown to me.Here it is:
Strawberry, sugar, water, bleached enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin,reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, ribbon flavin, folic acid), egg white, hydrogenated vegetable oil (palm, palm kernel, coconut, &/orcottonseed), dextrose, soy oil, eggs, food starch-modified, milk, graham crumbs, (whole wheat graham flour, sugar, wheat flour, palm oil, palm kernel oil, honey, molasses, soy lecithin, sodium bicarbonate, salt, natural flavor, cream, leavening (sodium acid pyrophosphate, baking soda, monocalcium phosphate), wheat starch, sodium caseinate, food starch-modified (tapioca), propylene glycol mono-&diesters of fats & fatty acids, polysorbate 60, whey, gums (guar, xanthin, carbohydrate), salt, mono-&diglycerides, natural & artificial flavor, soy lecithin, sodium stearoyl lactylate, pectin, sorbitan monostearate, colors (red 40, yellow 5, lake beta carotene), citric, anhydrous, potassium sorbet (preservative), 010825 Contains milk, eggs, wheat, and soy.
Compare this endless list with the 5 ingredients my grandmother used.Note also that hardly any of the public have any idea what most of these ingredients are. And ask yourself why a preservative is needed for a product that has a shelf-life at Publix’s of two days.
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