Food Babe Family - Header

FOOD BABE TV: Do You Eat Beaver Butt?

Beaver Butt

I am very excited to announce the launch of Food Babe TV. This is something I have been working on for a very long time. I want to change the way everyone thinks about their food together with you and in a very visual, fun and impactful way. I hope you enjoy the first episode below and share it with your friends and family. I’m counting on you to spread the word and tell everyone what’s really in our food – let’s change the world together!

Watch: Do You Eat Beaver Butt?

Natural Flavors 101

Castoreum (or beaver butt) is just one of the ingredients that could be called a “natural flavor.” But there are many other things called “natural flavors” that could be lurking in your food. We’ll never know what they are because the food companies won’t tell us as they consider this information proprietary.

According to the FDA, natural flavors can include:

“the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional” (21CFR101.22).

That means, the food industry can use virtually anything found in nature (including genetically engineered fruits, vegetables, meat and hidden forms of MSG derived from yeast) and label it as “natural flavors”. These flavors create a false sense of reality while you are eating and give off the illusion of real food. The flavors work against you, getting you addicted to processed food using the best part of a taste or even smell. (Who are these flavor chemists? You can learn more about them here.)

They don’t want you to have the full essence of the strawberry – they want you to only experience the best 1 millionth part of the taste – so you get “addicted” and keep having to go back for more and more, searching continuously for gratification – eating more of that product which in turns fills Big Food Companies pockets. The Big Food Companies are “hijacking” your taste buds one by one and the FDA couldn’t care less, because they allow these companies to get away with it.

Most of us know artificial flavors derived from petroleum and crude oil aren’t good for us, but the ingredient “natural flavor” can fool the best of us. Natural flavor can legally contain natural occurring “glutamate” bi-products like MSG – which are known excitotoxins. These excitotoxins are some of the chemicals that cause your taste buds to experience irresistibility when it comes to food. Ever wonder why you can’t just eat one chip? Or one cookie? Or why you remember a taste of a product so distinctly and crave it uncontrollably? Natural flavors can be to blame.

A lot of people think you shouldn’t blame these food companies, flavor chemists, or anyone else for people’s inability to stop eating and from getting obese – but when companies practice this type of trickery – you can’t help but realize we are all at a disadvantage. How much do you have to research and know about your food in order to trust it?  Can we expect all people in all income levels to have the time to find and understand this knowledge? Shouldn’t we be able to trust the mustard or the oatmeal the grocery store down the street is selling to us? It’s amazing we can’t trust something labeled “natural flavor” – it sounds so simple, friendly and well natural… but really can be so misleading.

What Can You Do About Natural Flavors?

Humans were meant to eat real food – not fake industrial food created in a laboratory and that’s why I recommend not buying food with the ingredient “natural flavor” on the label. Who wants to be tricked or lured into thinking a food tastes better or smells better than it should or eating beaver butt for goodness sake!?

If you find a product in your pantry or fridge that has “natural flavors” in it – take it back to the store and get your money back. But before you take it back, come on over to my facebook page and post a picture of that product, so we can all learn and identify where natural flavors or beaver butt may be hiding.

Wishing you the greatest health imaginable.

Food Babe

P.S. We all need to know what’s in our food. Let’s save #beaverbutt together. Don’t forget to share this information with your friends and family, by hitting one of the social media buttons below or using “share this” to send them an email.

***No beavers were harmed in the making of this film***

Food Babe Family - Book
Food Babe Grocery Guide

Sign Up For Updates

And Get A FREE Healthy Grocery Guide Sent To You Now!

Find out what to buy and where at the top grocery stores near you

Posts may contain affiliate, sponsorship and/or partnership links for products Food Babe has approved and researched herself. If you purchase a product through an affiliate, sponsorship or partnership link, your cost will be the same (or at a discount if a special code is offered) and Food Babe will benefit from the purchase. Your support is crucial because it helps fund this blog and helps us continue to spread the word. Thank you.

238 responses to “FOOD BABE TV: Do You Eat Beaver Butt?

  1. ROFL!!! This was a really good video. Quick, informative yet hilarious. I have been following you for over a year and I am super excited to see more videos now.

    1. When I drove truck I saw things that would turn you off many of the foods every one eats. Theres a quite a few that I now make my self, just be careful of any thing with gravy on it. LOL

    2. i remember reading about this before (maybe on your food babe’s website),
      loved your take on it via FB TV,
      butt (no pun intended) it got me thinking…

      do food manufacturers kill thousands of beavers (so are beavers being factory farmed) or do they surgically remove the glands (do the glands grow back – for more surgeries!?),
      i could see the girl scouts doing a big campaign on this on Change.org or similar site???
      more FB TV!!! luv it
      PS the reason i tagged this to beka’s comments was becuz i couldn’t find how to just comment on FB TV??? ok i’m a luddite

  2. Good information. I have been concerned about this practice of listing natural flavors as a catch all for lab created ingredients for a while. What can we do to get the FDA to actually list what these ” Natural Flavors” may contain?? This is a devious and shameful practice! The video was entertaining and informative.

  3. Nice post!!! I definitely choose not to buy anything with natural flavors. They are in everything from tea to chocolate to USDA Organic foods. Natural flavors should be one of those thins that should not be allowed in foods labeled “organic.” I just don’t see how they are “natural” in any way, shape or form.

  4. Could not have guessed that happens in a lifetime. Keep ’em coming, though. The nastier the better….for it pushes me farther and farther onward and upward! But, may I just say “Ewww”… There. I’m good now. 🙂

    1. I’m with you…..actually, I was too shocked to do either. This is absolutely horrific information. Thank you Food Babe! You did the foot work, now my job is to spread this info far and wide.

  5. Unfortunately so many of our fake foods in the supermarket are made with these types of natural flavors. And what makes me the maddest is when companies WON’T tell you what they are made out of. I just don’t understand how they get away with that?!?!?!? Can someone explain that to me? Oh wait … the FDA is there to protect us !!

    Great video Vani!

  6. LOVE the video, Food Babe!! But I am disgusted to learn about the true meaning of “Natural Flavors”. Just encourages me even more to steer clear of processed foods.

  7. i am still grinning widely!!!
    the hokiest, corniest little beaver, but such an effective message!!!
    keep fighting the good fight!!!

  8. Go girl!! Keep the videos coming 🙂 you’re a natural! I’m all about saying no to beaver butt 😛

  9. Sure enough – just called the manufacturer of my protein powder and asked for information on the “natural flavor” and the “help” line is unable to give that information out. Why is it so freaking HARD to buy and eat REAL food? I spend hours and each week on this quest, just to nourish a family of 4.

  10. I love this…short enough to take time to watch….very entertaining…AND..very informative. I was shocked to know what those “natural flavors” might contain. Thanks, Food Babe! I’m looking forward to your next show.

  11. Info-tainment at its best! Your posts are always informative and provocative… and now we finally get to see and hear you LIVE which brings a whole new dimension to the educational content that I find so addictive. Congratulations on the launch of FoodBabeTV and keep up the pioneering work.

  12. Great video!
    Would you consider a more comprehensive yet simple video to educate our children on GMO’s? I have yet to find one and it would be so much more powerful than hearing mom “nagging” about it all the time 🙂
    Thank you for all you do for us!

  13. Nice work as usual Food Babe! I’m excited to see more informative and entertaining videos from you! You have set the bar pretty high with this one though:)!

  14. I read that tea is also allowed to have a certain amount of fecal matter in it. Supposedly comes from droppings of animals in the warehouses.

    1. All foods are allowed to have so many rodent turds in them , like bread usually 8 per loaf ,etc. it would be hard to completely get rid of all insects , rodents,etc, when making huge bat he’s of things. The beaver gland used for flavor is synthetically am in a lab.we learned this info n home ec. In high school.

  15. Love this…….especially the family shaking the beaver over the dish. Pretty sad what the FDA does allow. 🙁

  16. Disgusting what the FDA is allowed to put in our food and call it “natural”…..I think we need to do a bit more with TRUTH in labeling! It comes down to not eating any processed food any more, we can’t trust any of it, and do we wonder why people are getting sick and dying?

    p.s. I just looked at the label of my fav “natural” ice cream made by Breyers – no “natural flavoring” on there but there is “Tara Gum”…..what the heck is that?

  17. THIS IS SHOCKING!!! Can “natural flavors ” be used in organic foods. If so, why do we even have the FDA?

  18. LOL! What a neat way to get your point across.

    Yep! Count me in as someone who now checks the list of ingredients and, if “Natural Flavoring” is there, puts the dang thing right back on the shelf. However, since I’ve been eating cleaner (no boxes!), this isn’t so much an issue.

    Great video, FoodBabe!

    “What?! I’m on your side!”

  19. Who even discovered a beavers butt is good for flavoring?! That is so gross, but I love your humorous approach of educating everyone in this video!

    1. Oh, goodness… yes, now that you mention it. Who were the victims, er, taste buds used in the experimentation? Horrific!

  20. Priceless! Excellent job, Vani! Thanks for all the great information — you are making a huge difference in our understanding of food and food ingredients. It is much appreciated!

  21. Great Job!! I love it. This should get everyone’s attention!
    The best way to get rid of “bad” food and GMO…is to stop buying it!…Vote with your dollars and do an “end around” our lobbyist paid Representatives in Congress.

  22. Ah, nice way to make the message digestible. The beaver stuff on the other hand, I would prefer to not digest.
    I think these days almost every food from the supermarket is a bad idea. At least here in Europe. And even in specialized natural food stores one should be suspicious and read labels.
    Thanks.

  23. Nice job Food Babe! I liked the concise and to the point info with a little humor. Its a nice departure from the other informative bloggers and websites out there. Way to go being an original.

  24. I’d like to make a correction if I may. You wrote, “the FDA could care less”. It should have been “the FDA couldn’t care less”. Think about it.

  25. After re-posting the “Food Babe” Article below to about half the groups I was going to share it with, the “Zuck-Bot” decided it was “dangerous”, and gave me a link to question if I thought this was in error. This is what I wrote them:

    First, I, and a lot of other people have posted from “Food Babe” for ages-and it worked. Second, this is an “Activist Food” Posting WITH Video available[correctly copyrighted by Food Babe for re-posting]for re-posting. Three, the inconsistency and draconian nature of these purported “Safety Issues” simply means you have no one at the wheel or an incompetent not performing their job. Facebook is currently the pre-eminent Social Network of choice, bu stuff like this is making MySpace and LinkedIn look ever more attractive. In the end, most of these little “quirks” make your paid advertisers suffer the most. THAT will be difficult to explain to your shareholders if it starts tanking your Ad Revenue…you know, that crazy stuff that keeps your lights on. Facebook used to be the darling of kids and collegiates…it’s registry is now a bit more grown up…so how about Facebook recognizing that and stop with the irritating rules that just might make us move back to MySpace, where there’s no limit on likes, friends, where Music and the Arts are welcome, where blogging is easier…you know, where it’s just a tad less spied upon, as well. We’ll eat that, though, in exchange for a little less “nannyism”…fair enough?

  26. Great! Short, to the point and effective! Just please be careful out in the woods, and protect yourself from ticks!

  27. Vani, I’ve been concerned as I’ve noticed many of my organic foods have the “natural flavor” listed in the ingredients. I thought they could not do put these natural flavors in if it was USDA Organic. Some I bought today that had this were Stonyfield Greek Yogurt (5.3 oz container). Peach Mango was one of the flavors with this added. The others had it too. I’m thinking about returning them all! Why would they do this when all the other ingredients in this would flavor it so well and naturally? I’m really disappointed in Stonyfield. I thought they would not do that..

  28. That made me laugh.
    But in all seriousness, I was talking to my husband just the other day about natural favors. I buy organic oatmeal from bobs red mill, and make it for my girls with bananas and no other sugar. A week ago, my husband brings home packaged “organic” brown sugar oatmeal because “it was just a buck”. I read the ingredients (sorry package is gone so no picture), but natural flavor was an ingredient. I was infuriated because why do they need to put that in there?! Does oatmeal and sugar not have its own flavor? It is very frustrating. Try to find packaged food without “natural flavor”.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

food babe with grocery cart - footer image