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 Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com