Tag Archives: msg

Chick-fil-A Headquarters Visit Update

...by Food Babe

Let me first start by saying this – Thank you for all your words of encouragement last week before my visit to consult with Chick-fil-A at its headquarters.

The visit did not result in everything I had hoped, but did exceed my expectations in terms of the overall experience and hospitality extended to me.
CFA Visit
I met with 7 key members of their corporate team (as well as others) throughout the visit:

  • V.P. of Innovation and Service
  • V.P. of Brand and Strategy
  • Lead Dietitian
  • Senior Director of Menu Innovation & Design
  • Corporate Public Relations
  • Food and Product Safety
  • Lead Food Technologist

During the 4 hour meeting, we covered:

  • The history of Chick-fil-A and its menu progression
  • New product creation
  • Quality and source of their chicken
  • Use of antibiotics in their chicken
  • Removal of high fructose corn syrup from their products
  • The packaging and cooking method of their new oatmeal
  • Reduction in sodium
  • MSG
  • Anti-foaming agent preservative TBHQ
  • Artificial coloring
  • Labeling of GMOs (Prop 37)

I have several follow up items from my visit that I would like to get more information on before giving my full and detailed report.

Stay tuned for that in the next few weeks!

Your support means the world to me – Thank you again.

Food Babe

There’s Proof: Processed Foods are Harder to Digest

...by Food Babe

I recently came across a video released earlier this year, that shows what happens in your digestive system when you eat processed foods vs. homemade foods.  I found this film simply fascinating to say the least.

The video shows two similar meals eaten by 2 subjects  -

Meal #1 (Processed) –  blue gatorade, Top ramen noodles, and gummi bears

Meal #2 (Homemade) – hibiscus drink, homemade broth with noodles and gummi bears made of juice

Here’s the video – I don’t recommend watching it while eating :)

Two points in the film really jumped out at me.

#1 – Blue gatorade – Watching the inside of your digestive system turn blue and not dissolve immediately even with all that stomach acid was really alarming, just as alarming as the other the secrets I recently found out about gatorade. Now I fully understand why the human body doesn’t enjoy products made out of petroleum. Sheesh.

#2 – The ingredient list of the Top ramen noodles includes TBHQ and MSG, which are also 2 ingredients found in Chick-fil-A sandwiches.

Since it’s Chick-fil-A Appreciation day…I thought it would only be appropriate to highlight this point. Politics and human rights issues aside, if you haven’t considered what ingredients Chick-fil-A uses in their products, maybe it’s time.

(And if you are just catching up – You can read Chick-Fil-A or Chemical-Fil-A? and Food Babe Investigates: Why Chick-Fil-A? to find out more.)

Not only is processed food making people fat, it’s causing disease. Energy is lost when your body cannot extract the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients from the food you eat in an efficient manner, when it becomes weighed down by preservatives and chemicals it must cipher through, and digest substances that provide zero nutrition to the body. This energy is critical for our vital functions, organs and hormones to work at their optimal level. Without this energy people will feel sick, tired and unhappy and continue to be prescribed drugs to make them feel better instead of addressing the root cause – what they put in their mouth.

Thank goodness for Stephani Bardin and Harvard for producing this film. Hopefully it will open the eyes of people who still consume food like Chick-fil-A that is meant to survive Armageddon.

Cheers,

Food Babe

Travel Food Story – Scuba Diving in Borneo

...by Food Babe

Picture this – You are on one of the most beautiful & remote islands in the world, with the best scuba diving and bio-diverse marine life you could ever experience, the clearest water and the nicest people – basically HEAVEN…. and then you find out most of the food being offered at your resort is highly processed and tainted with MSG, artificial colors, flavors, preservatives and other additives, etc. This happened to me and here’s the story on how I dealt with it.

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Earlier this year my husband and I celebrated our 6th year wedding anniversary at one of the best diving spots in the world called Sipadan. Mabul island, where we stayed, is located off the east coast of Borneo in Malaysia and it took 2 days of traveling, a 1.5 hour car ride and a 1 hour boat ride to get there from Thailand. Mabul is definitely one of the most remote locations we have ever been and we knew we were going to be a captive audience at the resort and the food choices offered would be limited.
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Think Twice Before Buying This Type of Burger

...by Food Babe

4th of July is right around the corner and I really can’t think of a better way to celebrate Independence Day than a good old fashioned BBQ. But I have to be honest here, attending a BBQ produces a bit of anxiety for me every time. Will the host serve only beef hamburgers and hotdogs? (I don’t eat beef or any type hot dog.) Will the meat be organic? Will there be vegetarian options? Will the cook char the meat to death and produce heterocyclic amines that are known to cause colon cancer?

Needless to say, I am honestly a little disappointed when the host decides to serve things I don’t eat but get even more anxious when they offer to pick up some veggie burgers from the store for me. I am downright frightened of the ingredients in those frozen meat flavored patties. My response to their offer is always “No, thank you, I’ll bring a dish” and here’s why:

  • Neurotoxins & Carcinogens – The majority of store-bought veggie burgers contain some form of soy. Non organic soy is extracted using hexane, a chemical byproduct of petroleum refining. The food industry uses the hexane extraction method because it is cheap. Several studies have been published about the neurotoxicity of exposure of humans and animals to hexane, but the most alarming ones link exposure to brain tumors. Currently the FDA sets no limit to the amount of hexane that can be used in non-organic soy products and no one knows for sure how much residue is being consumed by the American public. If you want more info on this – the Cornucopia Institute released an excellent report about several popular veggie burger brands that use hexane. To quote top researcher Charlotte Valleys, “The bigger picture here is that hexane is being released into the atmosphere—since it’s an air pollutant. It leads to smog, which is ground-level ozone, which leads to a whole bunch of health problems, like asthma in kids. These effects are very real.” 
I don’t want this in my body or in the air I breathe – do you?

boca
Table meat v11

*Image taken from Cornucopia Institute’s report on hexane in soy
 

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Dear Jillian Michaels – Shut Your Lips About Pop Chips!

...by Food Babe

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Dear Jillian Michaels -

Can you please kindly shut your lips about Pop Chips? You say in this video I linked to below that Pop Chips have “no preservatives, no trans fat, no msg, no artificial nothing” – These are chips “Your kids will love ” and “Something you can feel good about…”

But I don’t think so.

You see, I know you know what I’m about to tell you.  The reason I know you know this is because you are very well educated about the topic of chemicals in your food and have access to world renowned nutritionists, biochemists and all sorts of other experts at the top of their fields.  You wrote a well explained and eye opening book called ”Master Your Metabolism” – remember?

You also have the most amazing podcast every week, where you share incredible information about living chemical free. And when you were on the Biggest Loser – I really loved the fact that you didn’t want to promote certain products like “Brita Filter” until they discontinued the use of BPA in their plastics, remember?! !

So what happened?!  Did Popchips give you an offer you couldn’t refuse?…Maybe they are giving you their first born child?  I know you are looking to adopt, but seriously.

Jillian, you specifically say that Popchips “don’t have MSG” …. but when I look at the back of a package of BBQ, Sour Cream Onion, Sea Salt & Vinegar or other flavors – I see the words “YEAST EXTRACT, AUTOLYZED YEAST, SODIUM CASEINATE, AND/OR NATURAL FLAVOR” all glaring back at me.  I know you know these are all hidden names for MSG.  Don’t even act like for one minute you didn’t know this and play dumb.

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Let’s pretend, however, for a minute you didn’t know this.  Using the word “yeast extract” in replace for MSG is a common deceptive tactic used by food manufactures to hide “glutamic acid” in our foods without labeling it.  (This is the same acid that makes up the majority of MSG.) Because yeast is naturally occurring, Popchips and other companies can legally say they don’t use MSG.  This is a ridiculous, because the additives whether they are called “natural flavor” or “yeast extract” or “autolyzed yeast” can still contain up to 75% glutamic acid – the acid associated with “reproductive disorders, migraine headaches, permanent damage to the endocrine system leading to obesity and other serious disorders.”

Due to lack of FDA regulation, it is impossible to determine what percentage MSG is in food – so the food industry gets away with using it several times in a product under different names and in any amount they see fit to literally “excite” your taste buds. Glutamic Acid is absorbed very quickly in the gastrointestinal tract, causing brain cell damage and neurotoxicity.  Glutamic acid literally excites your brain cells to death.

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Looking at back at your book – You say MSG is “downright evil” and to “avoid it at all costs,” which makes total sense to me considering the effects from its consumption. So why are you now saying it’s ok to eat Pop Chips that contain not 1 but potentially 3 hidden sources of MSG?

I really didn’t think that anyone could fool “America’s Toughest Trainer” – but maybe I was wrong.

With Great Respect,

Food Babe

P.S. If I ever meet you, please don’t beat me up.

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Check out the FAQs from The Pop Chips website about MSG in their products – They are pulling a similar move as Yoforia – Selling a better for you “base” product and then playing tricks on you.

do popchips have msg or other flavor enhancers? no way. we only use all-natural flavors. because we promise our fellow snackers all-natural, and we mean it.

Here’s the video from Jillian Michaels where she states that Pop Chips don’t have MSG -

More Information:

Read about why using “yeast extract” allows food manufactures to pull a fast one on you Here and Here and Here.

Check out what happens when Amy’s Kitchen receives complaints about using Yeast Extract in their organic and natural products Here.

Find all the sources of hidden msg in your food via Truth in Labeling Here and Here.

And last but not least…

Check out my Facebook Fan Page where I share info like this all the time!  If you like this letter – Like me too, ok?