ecobites

Making your life greener - one bite at a time.

I remember my young days when Mother would announce she is making an ice cream treat. It created excitement and an anxious fervor as we watched and waited for the treat to be whipped together using real unpasteurized milk and natural fruit flavors. Then it was the long wait for the ice cream to set in the freezer.

It seemed like eternity before we finally sat down to eat…natural ice cream heaven.

I particularly enjoyed the apricot special made from over ripe fruits freshly picked from the heavily burdened tree outside the kitchen window that I had planted years earlier. The tree became a bearer of the most magnificent fruit and I was heartbroken years later when the family home was sold and the new owners cut down the tree.

So what has happened to this simple treat that created so much joy?

In this fast world, consumers are now consuming copious quantities of a chemical substitute falsely labeled as ice cream. 

Unsuspecting or un-interested? The masses are being slowly poisoned by a concoction of anti-freeze, nitrates, lice killers, leather cleaners, rubber cement solvents and other scary combinations served up by uncaring mega corporations. All in the name of profit or is it corporate greed?

At last count, there are over 1375 different flavorings, stabilizers, colors, and emulsifiers used in the manufacture of commercial ice cream.

Flavors

In the manufacture of commercial ice cream, hardly any ice cream flavors that do not have a chemical substitute are used. Some of the artificial flavors are toxic poisons that are powerful enough to cause liver, kidney, and heart disease, asthma attacks, allergic reactions, hay-fever, hyper activity and more.
So, you ask, why do manufacturers use artificial flavors and emulsifiers?  The answer is obvious – they cost a lot less. It appears the mantra that emanates from the large manufacturers is ‘Don't let the use of natural products get in the way of big profits.’

Lets consider a few of the more popular flavorings used:

STRAWBERRY – Chemical of the moment is benzyl acetate, a synthetic chemical that tastes like strawberries. This substance is a nitrate solvent and is extremely dangerous and can cause vomiting and diarrhea.

VANILLA - Category III is entirely artificial. Artificial vanilla flavoring is peperonal or vanillin. Peperonal is a chemical used to kill lice. Vanillin is made from the wastes of wood pulp and has no relationship to the vanilla bean. Natural vanilla (which is pureed vanilla beans or vanilla extract) is much more expensive than artificial vanilla.

PINEAPPLE - Ethyl acetate is used to fool our taste buds. It can cause liver, kidney, and heart damage. It is also used as a cleaner for leather and textiles. Its vapors have been known to cause chronic lung, liver, and heart damage. So, as long as we don’t breathe when we are eating, according to the manufacturers, it is OK to eat????

BANANA –  Apparently amylbutyrate does the trick here. This nasty chemical is used as an oil paint solvent.

CHERRY - Aldehydec 17 will burn your senses. This inflammable liquid is used as ananiline dye in the manufacture of plastic and rubber.

NUT FLAVORS – It gets worse. The chemical of choice is butraldehyde, one of the ingredients in rubber cement. Next time you are repairing your shoes, just think of the consumers eating their butternut or crunchynut ice cream.

Nearly all artificial food flavors and food colors come from coal tar! This is a substance in coal and also petroleum. Coal tar is notorious as a causative agent in producing cancer of the stomach, bowel, kidney, liver, and other organs.

Stabilizers and Emulsifiers

Stabilizers make ice cream smooth; and emulsifiers make it stiff, so it can retain air. Some of the chemicals used by large manufacturers:

Propylene glycol (also used in antifreeze), glycerin, sodium carboxyl methylcellulose, monoglycerides, diglycerides, disodium phosphates, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, polysorbate 80, and dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate.

So, it appears, if climate change doesn’t destroy the world in the short-term, corporate greed will eventually prevail as a result of feeding chemicals to the masses.

NATURAL ICE CREAM

There is hope. Try these simple to make sugarless organic recipes to get your taste buds salivating. But, be warned, by eating lots of these natural treats, you will become healthier and your children will beg you for more.

Dairy Free Ice Cream CLICK HERE Traditional Ice Cream CLICK HERE

Article and Dairy Free Ice Cream recipe written and supplied by eco writer Lynette Stein

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