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Just because the food you eat smells like a strawberry or tastes like a strawberry doesn’t mean it actually contains strawberries.
Sometimes it’s a good idea to check whether what we eat is truly real food or just a mixture of chemicals and artificial additives.
Here are the 4 biggest food scams you would rather never put in your mouth again.
1. Crab sticks
You probably think that crab sticks are made from crab. The truth, however, is that the name of this food is more than misleading.
Crab sticks are made from processed seafood. More precisely from relatively cheap delicate white fish meat (called surimi), which is supplemented with various additives (crab extract, flavoring, seasoning, etc.).
Surimi is commonly available in various forms and textures. It is often used to mimic the consistency and color of meat from lobsters, crabs and other crustaceans.
In crab sticks this mixture takes a shape resembling crab legs.
Large producers thus have the option to use cheap fish meat and make it taste like the most expensive pieces, such as crab or lobster.
Fish is considered a food that is truly good for our body, so in this case it could be even worse. It is still assumed, however, that these sticks are not made from crab meat, but are a highly processed product containing a range of artificial additives.
The range of ingredients may include other fish products. These are usually egg whites, oils, salt, monosodium glutamate.
They can also be various starches and additives used to give the food the desired texture.
Even if you find real sticks somewhere, it won’t be better. Many tests of crab meat show high levels of heavy metals. It would make things even worse.
2. Chicken nuggets
Chicken nuggets usually contain only 40% – 50% meat, which is minced and then fried.
The rest comes more from factories than from meat suppliers.
We all know that white chicken is one of the best sources of animal protein. Some companies, however, have decided to use artificial blends of different parts of the chicken instead of lean white chicken.
Then it’s ground, fried, and the resulting mass looks like meat.
These chicken nuggets, however, have a high fat content because they are breaded and then fried.
They also contain a lot of salt and sugar, so they are relatively high in calories. If you eat them occasionally, they won’t kill you. Because they are tasty, cheap and pleasant to consume, it’s easy to buy them more often.
Moreover, children love them. Maybe for them it’s not the worst food. So in reality there are — chicken nuggets at McDonald’s.
3. Instant fruit drink Tang (powder)
It’s a fruit drink that became part of the breakfast of many Americans and now Europeans since the late 60s, when it was introduced to the market.
Initially this drink was used by NASA astronauts, so it was also known as the “astronauts’ drink”.
However, you would certainly be mistaken if you so far thought that Tang in any way approximates fruit juice.
For example, citrus drinks overall have very little real orange juice. According to the label, Tang contains sugar, less than 2% orange juice, artificial colors and many other additives.
Basically most of the flavors in this drink do not come from orange juice, but only from artificial and natural substitutes.
In fairness, it should be added that a whole range of other fruit drinks produced today have a similar composition. In fact they are made to taste only like fruit, but often do not contain any real fruit.
If you have a real freshly squeezed orange or other fruit for breakfast, you’ll do your body much more good.
4. White bread
It has long been known that white bread made from refined grains is not a food with high nutritional value.
As you probably know, whole grain foods are an excellent source of fiber and complex carbohydrates and have a positive effect on the state of the digestive system.
However, if the flour is highly processed, it loses most of its nutrients.
Refined grains then no longer contain the complex carbohydrates considered a source of slow-releasing energy. The body absorbs them quickly and does not need as much time for digestion, which raises blood glucose levels.
During the processing of wheat, the germ and bran are removed. At the same time a significant part of the nutritional components, such as fiber, vitamins and minerals, is lost.
Although they can be added back to the flour, these are usually the cheapest minerals and vitamins, which are very difficult for the body to absorb.
