For a long time, cheap candy Ramune has typically been made from potato starch, glucose, and citric acid...

But Morinaga Ramune is made with glucose, milk calcium and tapioca starch

.

Apart from the fact I would be happy with neither, it does seem food makers will throw anything together to make a quick buck.

'Twas ever thus...

Claverhouse said:

For a long time, cheap candy Ramune has typically been made from potato starch, glucose, and citric acid...

But Morinaga Ramune is made with glucose, milk calcium and tapioca starch

.

Apart from the fact I would be happy with neither, it does seem food makers will throw anything together to make a quick buck.

'Twas ever thus...

Sugar is just an equal mixture of glucose and sucrose, so don't act surprised about that. Potatoes and tapioca are commonly grown specifically for their starchiness, and bread is basically made of wheat starch. (Tapioca starch is used in gluten-free foods.) Citric acid (basically, strained fruit juice) is an organic preservative that also has the benefit of being flavoring. Milk calcium is obviously derived from milk and is given as a vitamin to people, especially those who are lactose intollerrant.

Humanity has been able to survive to cover the globe because they didn't get caught up in whether the technical terms for what they were using sounded scary to them, but were instead willing to eat damn near anything edible they could get their hands upon.

'Twas only recently that people found they could make money with fluoride scares and falsely-labeled "organic" junk...

NWSiaCB said:

Humanity has been able to survive to cover the globe because they didn't get caught up in whether the technical terms for what they were using sounded scary to them, but were instead willing to eat damn near anything edible they could get their hands upon.

'Twas only recently that people found they could make money with fluoride scares and falsely-labeled "organic" junk...

But now a lot of humans are living long enough to experience the cumulative effects of many substances which people who lived to 60 years on average would write off as natural consequences of aging.

RNGCombo said:

But now a lot of humans are living long enough to experience the cumulative effects of many substances which people who lived to 60 years on average would write off as natural consequences of aging.

Well, considering as those people were eating all-natural organic foods, it does raise the question why all-natural snake oil has gotten so popular nowadays. (And the push towards processed foods in the last century was brought about in response to the unsanitary conditions what would now be called "organic" foods were collected and stored in.)

NWSiaCB said:

Well, considering as those people were eating all-natural organic foods, it does raise the question why all-natural snake oil has gotten so popular nowadays. (And the push towards processed foods in the last century was brought about in response to the unsanitary conditions what would now be called "organic" foods were collected and stored in.)

Generally speaking, I do prefer organic... because it tends to also be preservative free, and I am allergic to many preservatives. Also a number of dyes and some other things which it is rather inconvenient to be allergic to. I can handle it, but if I overindulge in foods containing them long enough, I end up with a skin reaction. So I tend to prefer keeping my normal diet relatively simple so that when the chance comes, I can indulge.

That being said, there is reason to use organic produce and products, if one is being conscious of the impact of farming on the environment (depending on the practices used, organic farming can be easier on the soil at the very least, and have less impact on the local ecosystem). Of course, if you are taking that much interest in where your food comes from, you should probably consider growing some of your own or buying locally sourced food (I.E., farmer's market), should circumstances permit it. That way, you actually know or have the opportunity to know those details. I get the impression many people confuse "organic" with "traditional family farm" when that really isn't the case.

All natural labeling is a genuine load of crock though. You can slap it on just about anything. At least "organic" labeling means it has to meet USDA standards here in the States.

Garrus said:

Generally speaking, I do prefer organic... because it tends to also be preservative free, and I am allergic to many preservatives. Also a number of dyes and some other things which it is rather inconvenient to be allergic to. I can handle it, but if I overindulge in foods containing them long enough, I end up with a skin reaction. So I tend to prefer keeping my normal diet relatively simple so that when the chance comes, I can indulge.

That being said, there is reason to use organic produce and products, if one is being conscious of the impact of farming on the environment (depending on the practices used, organic farming can be easier on the soil at the very least, and have less impact on the local ecosystem). Of course, if you are taking that much interest in where your food comes from, you should probably consider growing some of your own or buying locally sourced food (I.E., farmer's market), should circumstances permit it. That way, you actually know or have the opportunity to know those details. I get the impression many people confuse "organic" with "traditional family farm" when that really isn't the case.

All natural labeling is a genuine load of crock though. You can slap it on just about anything. At least "organic" labeling means it has to meet USDA standards here in the States.

There's nothing wrong with avoiding ingredients that you know are bad for you, of course, nor trying to get things with proven negative consequences for health (like carcinogen food dyes or preservatives) removed from foods.

The problem I have is when people just assume something is bad for you based upon nothing but a complicated name, the mere fact it was processed at all, or pseudoscience like "water memory". (For example, those pranks involving starting petitions to ban dihydrogen monoxide, especially as it is often fatal if inhaled, and causes billions of dollars of corrosion - especially to iron - every year. Or, for that matter, Canadian lemonade being banned from American schools for complying with laws governing honest labeling and saying that the bottles contained inconsequential amounts of alcohol from the bottle sanitizing process even though the American lemonade companies that weren't banned used the same process and simply weren't subject to the same labeling laws...)

This leads to completely misaimed and wasted efforts, like fighting over trying to replace high fructose corn syrup with "real sugar" that is supposedly healthier, when the real problem isn't that high fructose corn syrup is different from cane sugar, but that it's functionally the same (the best scientific evidence offered against high fructose corn syrup are inconclusive studies about minor tendencies towards habit-forming that wouldn't be worth the wasted effort even if completely confirmed), and the real problem is simply too much sugar in all our foods. Drinking pure cane sugar soda fructose is just as bad for your liver as corn syrup fructose.