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Pass the Bicarbonate
The Royal Gazette - Bermuda
For a long time I have resisted the movement back to
natural foods. Now, I'm not
so sure that the whole food thing hasn't gotten out of hand.
What made me sit back and take notice was a salad dressing served
on one of the airlines. Grandly labeled "Emerald Dressing",
there was nothing either green or precious about it.
It was gelatinous, tasteless, and unappetizing, doing little to
enhance a tired salad. The
plastic envelope bore the inscriptions "Prepared especially for
.......Airlines". If
this be the result of "special preparation", god help us
should we be offered a run of the mill product!
Being a captive audience (literally held down by a seat belt)
I read the label. Let
me list for you the ingredients:
Water, soybean oil, vinegar, sugar, salt, spices, (up to here there is
nothing out of the ordinary; then
came...) dextrose xanthin, and tragacanth gums (!).
Next came two mundane items, onion and garlic.
These were followed by caramel colour, natural flavouring,
potassium sorbate and polysorbate 60.
Great Heaven! I can't even
pronounce them much less be expected to digest them! I turned to the
"health bread" offered with the meal.
They're still using flour to bake bread, funnily enough, but they
also threw something in called lecithin and sodium propionate!
But let us not blame our American friends exclusively.
the Swiss, with whom one naturally associates fresh clean air and
healthy glowing bodies, can take a simple thing like a bouillon cube and
sneak into it hydrolyzed plant protein, caramel powder, disodium
inosinate and disodium guanylate. That
last in particular brings to mind a barren mountainous land covered in
bird droppings! I'm now off
bouillon for life.
I began research for this column with an eye to the funny - it now
borders on the ridiculous.
Do I dare dine out?
Must I read every label that comes across my kitchen door?
Will Larousse Gastronomique become nothing more than a paperback?
Is Mrs. Beeton revolving in her grave?
Will our dining habits be reduced to a glass of water and a
vitamin pill?
Nonetheless, I am a fool for a charcoal broiled hamburger.
But just a moment mate! What's
that you're sprinkling on it? Charcoal
seasoning? And just what's
in THAT? Forget the whole
thing. I've changed my
mind. Bring me a bowl of
fish chowder and the Outerbridge's. |
