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Dairy
Products Ice cream has long been one of America’s favorite desserts. But have you ever noticed that spilled ice cream sometimes hardens and refuses to be washed off with water? Perhaps the content of the ice cream has something to do with it. Ice cream manufacturers are not required by law to list the additives used in the manufacture of their product. Consequently, many ice creams are synthetic from start to finish. Ice cream makers are giving us a wide variety of delicious flavors, but are they fit to eat? Donald J. Brown, N.D., of the Natural Research Council in Seattle, Washington, under took a survey to determine the chemicals being used in the ice cream industry as substitutes for natural flavors, colors and emulsifiers. There were more than a hundred. There’s hardly any ice cream flavor that doesn’t have a chemical substitute. Some of the artificial flavors are powerful enough to cause liver, kidney and heart damage. - Benzyl Acetate is a synthetic chemical that imparts a strawberry flavor. This substance can cause vomiting and diarrhea. It is also a nitrate solvent. - Ethyl Acetate is used by many manufacturers to give their product a pineapple flavor. This substance can cause liver, kidney and heart damage. - Peperonal is used in place of vanilla. This is a chemical used to kill lice. - Vanillin is also a chemical used to produce a vanilla flavor. It is made from the wastes of wood pulp and has no relationship to the vanilla bean. - Amyl Butyrate replaces natural banana flavor. It’s also used as an oil paint solvent. - Aldehyde C 17 is used to flavor cherry ice cream. It is an inflammable liquid which is used in aniline (a colorless, poisonous, oily liquid that is a derivative of benzene) dyes, plastic and rubber. - Butraldehyde is used in nut flavored ice cream. It’s one of the ingredients in rubber cement. - Diethyl Glycol is the same chemical used in antifreeze and in paint removers. Because it is cheap, it is used in ice cream as an emulsifier instead of eggs. It is sufficiently toxic to cause liver and kidney damage. When is comes to using artificial colors, ice cream makers can use any of the dyes on the FD&C list. In the last few years, a number of the dyes were outlawed after lab tests showed they were cancer-causing products. Maybe the presence of poisonous impurities is of little significance when making radiator alcohol and paint remover, but it is important in the American diet. The average American consumes 24 quarts of ice cream a year, say researchers at Georgetown University, Washington, D. C. The next time you’re tempted by a luscious banana split, think of it as a mixture of oil and nitrate solvents, anti freeze and lice killer, and you won’t find it too appetizing. The alternative, of course, is to buy ice cream made without artificial additives or make your own. |
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