Beware the Inconspicuous Food Additive
Eating local and organic is one way you can avoid something most American consumers never think about: food additives. Food additives are ingredients added to food to make the food last longer, taste better, or make the appearance more appealing. The majority of food additives are created with artificial ingredients. If you read Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser offers some interesting insight to the flavor industry. This book is probably where I became interested in food additives—why do we need our food to last for months? Why is food so off-color when it's made that we have to add coloring agents to it?
One food additive that has recently hit home is wheat, as a thickening agent. My boyfriend Zachariah is has celiac disease, which means his body wreaks havoc when he eats gluten, the protein found in wheat. You would not believe the things that contain wheat. Eating in the residence halls has become a huge bother—they put wheat in everything! Stew, gravy, soup, and salad dressing are just the beginning. Recently, to Zach’s dismay, we have found that soy sauce and mustard (cheaper varieties) contain wheat as well. (Sadly, but to my benefit, he put soy sauce on his sushi one day.) He basically lives off of the random Mexican food offerings and occasional smatterings of turkey in the dining hall. ☹
Packaged and processed foods will also contain wheat—even if the product is not obviously made with flour (like pizza). Watch out for packaged mashed potatoes and sprinkles made for ice cream! Zach has learned that anything could potentially be made with wheat. However, in local and organic food, there most often won’t be the crazy additives that are present in conventional food. In fact, this is part of the Wikipedia definition for organic food: made without additives. There are some foods with additives, however—of the healthier variety.