Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site burl.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!rcj
From: rcj@burl.UUCP (Curtis Jackson)
Newsgroups: net.cooks
Subject: nasty food ingredients
Message-ID: <887@burl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 1-Oct-85 14:43:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: burl.887
Posted: Tue Oct  1 14:43:12 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 3-Oct-85 03:44:57 EDT
References: <279@weitek.UUCP> <24@calma.uucp> <159@aplvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: rcj@burl.UUCP (Curtis Jackson)
Organization: AT&T Technologies, Burlington NC
Lines: 57
Summary: 

[Since this is net.cooks, I feel that a lot of you are concerned about
 this issue; but a lot of you just read for recipes.  Therefore, could
 anyone following up to this (try mail, please, if more appropriate)
 use the subject line of this letter "nasty food ingredients" or some
 "re:" of it so those who want recipes only can use their 'n' key?
	Thanks!!!!         Curtis]

I'm so tired of this stuff.  Let me bring up a few of [common sense,
therefore 'natural'] tidbits for you to chew on:

a) The VAST (VAST meaning outnumbering natural food enthusiasts my
orders of magnitude) majority of people won't buy an orange that isn't
bright orange, won't buy the 'natural' cookies/crackers because they
have been conditioned to \like/ the taste of animal fat, and not only
eat hot dogs but \want/ them colored red with whatever dye is available.
This rot about "we as consumers better tell these chemists what we want"
is just that -- rot.  Millions of consumers everyday are telling them
what they want with $$$ at the cash register; and they aren't playing
your tune.

b) Sometimes the manufacturers do hear special interest groups like
yourself and do respond.  Look how much yogurt is on the grocer's shelves.
Look at the labels and you'll see that the majority of what the layman
is eating has no active culture, either -- it ain't \real/ yogurt.
How about granola?  Seen the new commercials for the new chocolate-covered
granola?  All the 'health-food' granola cereals with all sorts of garbage
in them?  It all comes back to the same thing -- give the people what
they want, not what they need to be eating.

c) It all boils down to the same thing every time -- the only way to put
pressure on manufacturers in from the bottom (i.e., consumer) via the
$$$.  Educate the public on natural foods, and you'll very soon have an
educated group of manufacurers as well.  And I mean \educate/, not tell
them that granola is good for them and then sit back and let them accept
anything the manufacturers decide to call granola.  I VERY much support
public education of all kinds.

d) To bring up a question, since the author to whose article I am following-up
signed his/her article "Yours for natural foods" [paraphrase]:  I would like
to hear from some of you natural food types just how you expect to feed
8 million people in New York City (as an example) tons upon tons of food
everyday without using chemical preservatives.  As a start, don't even
bother trying to tell me about natural preservatives that will keep foods
fresh for 2 weeks -- you need to be able to preserve a lot of foods for
a minimum of 6 months.  I'd be interested to see if there has been any
research done on replacing existing chemical preservatives (BHA, BHT,
whatever) with more natural substitutes.

Please try to mail to me -- I'll be more than happy to summarize when
it slows -- if you feel that your comments need to be aired, however,
try to use the same subject line ("nasty food ingredients") to act as
a flag to recipe-lovers-only.  Thanks,
-- 

The MAD Programmer -- 919-228-3313 (Cornet 291)
alias: Curtis Jackson	...![ ihnp4 ulysses cbosgd mgnetp ]!burl!rcj
			...![ ihnp4 cbosgd akgua masscomp ]!clyde!rcj