Isn't it amazing?!

[Avacado7]

I have always been a label reader. When I would pickup a can or box it used to frustrate me that they would put "non-food" items in things that we were to ingest! However...........now I look at recipes that use zucchini for noodles and use nuts to make a creamy sauce....I am soooo thankful and AMAZED!!

[Raw Yogini]

Amen to that!

[lytlsprout]

I always thought natural flavoring as an ingredient was gross. what is that anyways.

[sarahtolson]

Haha... something formulated in New Jersey in a chemical factory to make the dead food taste undead!! :)

[Raw Yogini]

Maybe it means trying to duplicate a "natural" flavor using chemicals.

[lytlsprout]

my sister used to joke that natural flavors could be just about anything. poop is natural and so is urine or dirt. is it dirt...? you just never know what that could be.

[shashibala]

According to The Vegetarian Resource Group:



What are "natural flavors"?

According to our research department, the exact definition of natural flavorings and flavors from Title 21, Section 101, part 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations is as follows:

"The term natural flavor or natural flavoring means the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional."




Here are a couple other tidbits from the VRG website:
(Aren't we glad we don't to eat this stuff?!!)

Did you know that L-cysteine, a common dough conditioner, flavor enhancer in human and pet foods, and precursor in some dietary supplements, is most often derived from human hair or duck feathers, and to a lesser extent from pigs' bristles and hooves? We reported the human and animal origins of L-cysteine in The Vegetarian Resource Group's Dictionary of Food Ingredients ten years ago. Then, the most common source was human hair found on the floors of Chinese barbershops. Today, it is derived from Chinese duck feathers approximately 80% of the time (estimation based on values given by several companies that manufacture and sell L-cysteine).




Are McDonald's fries made with beef?

From our Guide to Fast Food: In February 1997, McDonald's informed us by telephone that the natural flavor (see above) in their French fries is a "beef product." At that time, they declined to send us this information in writing. In July 1997, McDonald's sent us a fax stating that "[t]he natural flavor used in French fries is from an animal source."

[Green_Woman]

I love feeling GOOD about EATING.


Coming from years of struggling to understand why I "had to eat" food that made me feel ill (physically AND mentally) ... and why I was told constantly that the food was "good for me"...

...and entering the world of RAW HEALTH and food PURITY... knowing the source, feeling this strange and beautiful bond with the earth from which the food came, etc.

I just feel AMAZED by raw food!!! :D