You would be amazed at the additives that make it into our food supply. Words you cannot pronounce let alone digest.The likelihood of ingesting these ingredients are great. So arm yourself and stay away!

1. Shellac

This substance should be used to finish wood or give guitars that special shine. But instead this is what is used on apples to give them a glow.

What exactly is this additive made up of? Interestingly, shellac is derived from the excretions of the Kerria lacca insect, most commonly found in the forests of Thailand. It creates this excretion to allow it to stick to the trees where it lives.

Hey look at that extra shit on the trees? Let’s scrape it off, give food some extra gloss, and make money off of it.

The next time you are about to eat something with some extra shine, think again. You may likely be eating insect poop.

2. Bone Char

Sugar may be called White Devil, but it started off as being brown. To make the product white, some use bone char to filter impurities from its sugar. You know bones from cows from from India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan that have died from “natural causes.” The bones are then heated to the point that they become a perfect means of filtering sugar.

3. Carmine

Carmine is made from mashed red beetles. The insects are killed by exposure to heat or immersion in hot water and then dried. Because the abdomen region that houses the fertilized eggs contains the most carmine, it is separated from the rest of the body, ground into a powder and cooked at high temperatures to extract the maximum amount of color.

But since some have caught on, instead of labeling it as carmine, it’s listed as “natural color.”

4. Natural Flavor

When you see that a label has included “natural flavor,” be dubious!  What does that really mean?

The problem is, natural flavor can, literally, be anything that isn’t man made. Could ‘natural flavor’ additives include genetically modified ingredients as well?

You can read a longer article which was written by Adam Tod Brown and published in Cracked on March 11, 2008. Photo by Kay/Flickr.