The Omnivore's Dilemma (Michael Pollan, 2006) gets real disturbing around Part 1, Chapter 5: "The Processing Plant." This is how we treat our food? I had always wondered where those mysterious ingredients come from.
I had always naively hoped that xanthan gum comes from a xanthan plant (meaning a green leafy living thing, not a building). To my disappointment, Pollan lists xanthan gum as a corn product (page 116), but according to a simple Google search, xanthan gum is produced by a bacterium. What have you heard about xanthan gum, dear reader? Is the bacterium used to process corn product? Or did Pollan get his facts wrong?
Pollan also spoke briefly about TBHQ, which is used to preserve food and, coincidentally, can cause " 'nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse' " (page 114, indirectly quoted from A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives). That seems like a risky substance to be spraying onto food.
Yea, he's wrong there...xanthan gum is a polysaccharide that is released by a bacterium during a fermentation process, it is used to thicken food agents such as those lovely chicken nuggets Pollan talks about as well as salad dressings and chewing gum. The uses are more wide spread, but those are the ones that are more familiar to us as consumers. He might be referring to the fact that you need some form of glucose to start the fermentation process, but he assumes most plants use glucose manufactured from corn. Which could be true, but seeing as he didn't visit many factories and ask them where their source of glucose comes from, I don't take his word that it is always corn.
ReplyDeleteAs for the TBHQ, pesticides and herbicides are highly regulated by the government so harmful levels of that should never be present in consumer foods and if they are a recall would occur, which no manufacturer wants to happen. So, it's in the best interest of the manufacturer to meet regulations the first time around.
I don't know for sure if corn is used in the process of making/harnessing (?) xantham gum, but if sugar is needed, you are limited to corn, beets, honey, and if there was a cheaper base sugar than corn, you got to believe all the major food processors would be using it, so, yeah, I've got my money on corn and xantham gum.
ReplyDeleteAnna, I believe that you are so completely spot-on here. Regardless of the fact that many of us this "honors student" label, I know that it doesn't stop me from being so ignorant. Including the fact that I am pretty sure I thought xanthan gum did indeed have a botanical source. Interestingly enough, I am not entirely sure where that thought process stemmed from, but I do know that it had a source somewhere in my life. But I am amazed at the things we just believe or think without really questioning it - but we will always come back to the potential that ignorance is truly bliss!
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