Soft drinks
Half of Americans drink a soft drink every day and many people say they are addicted. This is not an accident. To create Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper, for example, food technologists tested 3,904 "tastings" or versions for "dryness," "gumminess," and "moisture release," the right mix of cherry, vanilla and Dr Pepper flavoring and of course color. Nor is hooking kids on soft drinks early in their lives an accident, according to Salt Sugar Fat. A Coke bottler ranted to the CEO about "crazy leftist school districts who were trying to keep people from having their Coke."
Of course caffeine is one reason people get hooked on soft drinks. Constant exposure to caffeine makes your brain compensate by decreasing the number of receptors for its own "stimulant," norepinephrine, which makes you seek the stimulation from an outside source. But there are other probable "addictors" as seen in Mountain Dew, arguably the most addictive of the soft drinks (including among some gamers who reportedly drink it nonstop). While Dew certainly packs a lot of caffeine, it derives its fizzy bite from phosphoric, citric, malic and tartaric acids, all kept afloat by a controversial additive known as BVO or brominated vegetable oil. Beverage companies are starting to drop BVO, which the public has turned against because it is also a flame retardant. But Dew will likely keep its bite.
Cured Meats
Even people who would give wide berth to a Slim Jim or Kentucky cured ham have been swept up in the Bacon Everywhere movement with bacon added to everything from gum and candy to ice cream. Unfortunately the bacon flavor everyone loves is created by ingredients no one loves--nitrites. Sodium nitrite, also found in ham, pastrami, salami
hot dogs and sausages, inhibits bacteria, lengthens shelf life and imparts the pleasing taste and color that add to these foods' appeal. But, and it is a big but, during the process of cooking, nitrites combine with other chemicals to form carcinogens which many health organizations warn against.
Can't bacon be made without nitrites? Yes and no. "America's Test Kitchen had the results of their bacon testing and they disliked the nitrite free sample because it was too pale and didn't taste like bacon," says one post on the web site chowhound. "Nitrates add plenty to flavor. You'll find bacon producers who attest to that all over Google," says another post. The New York Times food writer R.W. Apple himself states that "nitrates provide some of the characteristic bacon flavor, and the only nitrite-free bacon I have sampled tasted more like roast pork," defending the safety profile of the chemicals. The web site Livestrong agrees that nitrites "give cured meats that characteristic smoky flavor and pink color that make them irresistible," but suggests that people limit their intake and "have a salad" instead.
Microwave Popcorn
Have you ever tried to surreptitiously make yourself a microwave popcorn at work and found it is impossible to disguise? Microwave popcorn sends off an immediate olfactory alarm to everyone on your floor and probably the floors above and below you. Not only do they know you are not working but snacking they want some microwave popcorn too.
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