Under the Hood

IN CASE YOU DIDN'T KNOW:

• Potassium Chloride is a type of salt that adds flavor but not sodium (see Nutrition Facts for sodium content).
• Maltodextrin is a carbohydrate that comes from potato or starch.

Intrigued?

The above definitions were listed beneath the ingredients of a can of Campbell's Select Harvest Soup (New England Clam Chowder).  And yes, I did eat it.  Advertising "Real Ingredients. Real Taste.", the website also includes an ingredient glossary.

Since these descriptions are relatively vague, I went off in search of more answers.   Being a girl with a notoriously short attention span, I quickly got sidetracked when I found the following two websites:

FOOD ADDITIVES: WHAT THEY DO

and

Fooducate: Eat a bit better

The first link takes you to a .pdf listing common food additives and explains why they're added to our foods.  If there is even a smidgen of the geek in you, you'll bookmark this.  

The second link is to a blog that I would marry if I were single and it was legal in New York to marry a website.  Really.  It's full of common sense, some unexpected eye-openers and sprinkled with just a touch of attitude.  Did you know that a Chipotle burrito is nutritionally worse than a Big Mac?  Or that there is no actual coconut in M&Ms coconut (for shame).   Click through the blog and take a look.  Let me know here what piqued your interest or threw you for a loop.

There you have it kids, your homework for the weekend :)

disclaimer:  I eat processed foods. Not often, but I do.  And I enjoy them thoroughly.  I certainly don't want to demonize them (Let's face it, you can't make an oreo out of whole foods)  :)  However, I do think that it behooves us all as consumers to at least recognize when we're eating a Frankenfood.