This one always shocks people the first time they hear it. Have you ever seen "carmine" on an ingredients label of some food in the red-purple color family? Yeah, you're eating bugs.
Carminic acid is extracted from the shells of certain insects.
And you're not necessarily safe if it doesn't say "carmine" - it can hide behind that glib reassurance, "natural ingredients" - which the food manufacturer is using in the first place because we started fretting over artificial coloring!
More like this
As I think I have made clear in my last two posts, I am as annoyed as anyone about the way the health care debate has played out in Congress. But there is one line of complaint that I do not understand. That is the idea that somehow Obama is to blame for the compromises in the bill.
Can a radio talk show host motivate Republicans to turn out in a Democratic primary and vote strategically for a candidate?
The Bistro Styx
by Rita Dove
She was thinner, with a mannered gauntness
as she paused just inside the double
glass doors to survey the room, silvery cape
billowing dramatically behind her. What's this,
For most of the nineteenth century, there was an on-going debate among researchers about the organization of the nervous system.
Quinones make me much more nervous than the bug thing. Though this one looks pretty water-soluble, probably easily excreted from the body...
I knew this...I did my undergraduate research on carminic acid! I'll have to remind my kids...
Me too Vince.
Anthraquinones are surprisingly common in plants:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emodin
http://scienceblogs.com/moleculeoftheday/2007/04/alizarin_not_so_mad_fo…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purpurin
Carminic acid, quinones etc are so friendly compared to
Cr (VI) and nitrates that we drink in some places in Greece
http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.prnt_article?e=C&f=&t=10&m=A20&…
on ecology
If anybody has problem with this noble food coloring because of its insect origins, I suggest he should also avoid all products that are sweetened with the bee vomit.
(And maybe eggs too.)
Most of the people who would have a problem with carmine's insect origin wouldn't just "maybe" have a problem with eggs; they're "search for micrograms" vegans. Somehow, that group doesn't seem to have any problems with honey.
"Somehow, that group doesn't seem to have any problems with honey."
That's not true. The vegans I've known have been very aware of honey's origins, and they don't eat it. Stevia has been the trendy vegan sweetener for most of this decade.
What vegans don't seem to be aware of, is that their food is there because the same bees also pollinate crops.
Pass the Bac-o-bits please?