- May 16, 2023
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White's Spectra v3i
Garrett Ultra GTA 1000
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- Primary Interest:
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My diet is generally pretty decent. I try to cook most meals from scratch, but I do use a fair amount of packaged foods from the grocery store. In an effort to improve on the things we eat when I'm short on time, lately I have been making more "bulk" recipes and freezing them, rather than buying store bought freezer meals. I figure it's healthier, better quality control, and probably cheaper too. And one thing I've noticed in the process is that I can make these freezer meals without needing any preservatives or emulsifiers or thickeners or anything else that comes out of a lab in China someplace. Just regular food ingredients from the pantry, prep it up, and freeze it. Which begs the question -- if I don't need to use any additives, why does the food industry need to? Makes you wonder. So I've been a bit more aware of food ingredients lately.
I was making some taco salad the other day. Tortilla chips (thoroughly unhealthy, I'm sure), meat, onions, lettuce, tomato, and beans. So I reach for a can of beans. These beans, to be exact.
Now you'd think that a can of organic beans would have an ingredients list like "Beans, water, salt". But let's just take a look at the back of the can.
More water than beans, apparently, but whatever -- then beans, and salt ... and calcium chloride? Now I know what you're thinking. What the heck is calcium chloride? So I did a search, and one of the top few hits that came up was this lovely bit:
Great! Blood pressure meds in the organic beans! And It's also used as a de-icer, a water absorbing agent, and various other things. Doesn't sound much like an organic food, though, does it?
So I checked the rest of the pantry bean shelf.
And to my surprise, almost all of them contained calcium chloride. The only exception was the black beans (which are just beans, water, and salt, in that order, as it should be), and the refried beans. All the other beans have calcium chloride added.
What's the big deal? Because it doesn't belong in there, that's what. Here's some more uses for calcium chloride, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. They say it has numerous applications, and is found in a number of household products, including:
Do any of those sound like they should share any ingredients with a can of beans??
I guess it's time I learn to use a pressure canner so I can can my own beans.
I was making some taco salad the other day. Tortilla chips (thoroughly unhealthy, I'm sure), meat, onions, lettuce, tomato, and beans. So I reach for a can of beans. These beans, to be exact.
Now you'd think that a can of organic beans would have an ingredients list like "Beans, water, salt". But let's just take a look at the back of the can.
More water than beans, apparently, but whatever -- then beans, and salt ... and calcium chloride? Now I know what you're thinking. What the heck is calcium chloride? So I did a search, and one of the top few hits that came up was this lovely bit:
Great! Blood pressure meds in the organic beans! And It's also used as a de-icer, a water absorbing agent, and various other things. Doesn't sound much like an organic food, though, does it?
So I checked the rest of the pantry bean shelf.
And to my surprise, almost all of them contained calcium chloride. The only exception was the black beans (which are just beans, water, and salt, in that order, as it should be), and the refried beans. All the other beans have calcium chloride added.
What's the big deal? Because it doesn't belong in there, that's what. Here's some more uses for calcium chloride, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. They say it has numerous applications, and is found in a number of household products, including:
Do any of those sound like they should share any ingredients with a can of beans??
I guess it's time I learn to use a pressure canner so I can can my own beans.
