Gas Pains
Tom grew up in Milwaukee, bartended in Wauwatosa in the '70s and moved here in 1984.
Commentary, observations and musings about the outdoors, life in general and maybe Tosa politics and personalities will be the order of the day. He savors a lively debate as much as terrific cooking.
Food From Another Planet?
I am embarrassed that this cereal found its way under my roof so don't ask how it got here.
You know how much I like to eat - but even I have principles - and I draw the line at this.
Unless I was talked into testing a hypothesis. Like a laboratory rat.
I gave the contents of the bowl a cursory once-over.
I scrutinized it and gave it a sniff. The contents looked and smelled like something conjured-up in a chemistry lab.
Frankly, it was reminiscent of something a life-form from another planet might eat.
Consider this - it is shelf-stable and could travel for light years without any risk of spoilage and it does have an otherworldly sort of eye appeal.
Anyway, the packaging it arrived-in says that it is a Good Source of Calcium & Vitamin D - Nutrition to help your kids grow up strong!
Honestly - would any self-respecting parent feed this to their children?
For instance look at what it's made from: Whole grain corn, sugar, corn meal, corn syrup, modified corn starch, canola and/or rice bran oil, salt, tricalcium phosphate, trisodium phosphate, Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 1, and other color added, natural and artificial flavor, sodium citrate, citric acid, malic acid, vitamin E (mixed tocopherols) and BHT added to preserve freshness.
There is a one-inch paragraph on the packaging listing all of the vitamins and minerals that have been added back at the lab.
About the good source of Vitamin D? Last on the list. I figure you get the Vitamin D boost if you ruin a perfectly good half-cup of milk with these colorful little balls.
At the top of the list are four distinct iterations of corn. Do you get the impression that this is something backed by America's corn producers? What of those neon dyes? And what exactly is natural and artificial flavor? How ambiguous. And all of those phosphates? Maybe this stuff is manufactured in a fertilizer plant.
Yep. That chemical chain is a tocopherol. Scary, eh?
Well I confess to eating some of these. I hypothesized that each color represented a distinct (and different) flavor - possibly natural or artificial. So I sampled one ball of each vibrant color just to see if they tasted differently from one another.
The result of the taste test? No discernible difference. At least that my delicate palate could determine.
How about the texture? They had the consistency of Styrofoam.
Other impressions? They made my teeth ache.
Gave those teeth a good brushing.
Tom
Subliminal message – Don’t forget to check-out the Other Bog.
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