Another labeling trick up the corporate sleeve is utilized when there are alarming amounts of one unhealthy ingredient. When a product is loaded with salt or sugar for example, food manufacturers will often break up the overall amount of said ingredient by listing it under several different names. This technique helps push detrimental ingredients further down the label, creating the illusion of a product that contains less bad stuff than it actually does. The bogus listing of one ingredient under several names is also super-effective when companies are loading up products with unhealthy ingredients without having to confess to the reality of how bad some of these products really are for our health. When the line is blurred enough, the power to spin the appeal of a product to your advantage is infinite. Now, between all the techniques these companies use to manipulate labeling, products become transparent and consumers can no longer tell what is healthy and what is not.
At this point in time, most people are familiar with the ingredient MSG, also known as monosodium glutamate. The research is back and indisputable that MSG can act as a poison in the human body. Studies define this infamous ingredient as an excitotoxin and have linked it to nerve damage from overstimulating nerves. MSG acts on food in the same way it acts on our nerves, by enhancing the satiation of the products it is included in, causing our taste buds to literally go crazy. What other proof do we need? MSG is a toxin and bad for us, yet it remains in thousands of products. Most of the time, MSG hides under different names or inside of another ingredient like autolyzed vegetable protein, hydrolyzed vegetable protein or yeast extract. The reason it remains in food products is because the food industry understands the subconscious effects it has on the brain and body and the likelihood that a connection to a product will be crafted, which promises repeat business. MSG remains hidden in our food because it protects profit margins and that’s it. We have yet to find any positive uses for MSG; it is clearly defined as toxic to the body but there are virtually no regulations in place to either remove it from products or, at the bare minimum, identify it clearly as MSG on our food labels. Who is to blame for this current state of affairs when it’s virtually impossible to know whether or not we are voluntarily ingesting toxins laced into our food products?
