Stop! Drop That Cupcake!

I was browsing MSN the other day and came across an article that made me want to gag. Of course I read it! If you are eating a commercially made baked good, you might want to put it down and consider learning how to bake from scratch- I don’t mean open a box, dump it in a bowl with an egg, water, and oil; stir and bake. I mean measure out all the ingredients yourself: flour, sugar, baking powder, cocoa, etc. The article for your reference can be found at: http://todayhealth.today.com/_news/2012/10/17/14489629-8-ingredients-you-never-want-to-see-on-nutrition-labels?lite , and it is called 8 Ingredients You Never Want to See on Ingredient Labels. Of all the ingredients they labeled, which really were disturbing, I nearly tossed my last meal when I read about one of them: Castoreum. Castoreum is actually from the scent glad (an anal glad) of the beaver. (What?) You might not even see it on the ingredient list because it can be simply labeled as a ‘natural ingredient’. Well, yeah, I suppose it is ‘natural’ since it isn’t created in the lab!

Okay, so, I want to know how this came about. Did someone in some lab playing around with studying the effects of drugs (like marijuana) suddenly decide to try it on themselves and then the participants start thinking something like this:

Guy One: “Hey, dude! Look at that flat tailed critter over there in the cage. I wonder what would happen if we played with that thing man? Ping Pong!”

Guy Two: “Man you ain’t right! Ha ha. Let’s play with his butt!”

Guy One:  “Cool.  Look! He’s spraying something out. Whoa! That smells dude. But look at the color!”

Guy Two:  “I wonder if we put that in food it will hurt someone. Let’s try it.”

Guy One:  “Gross idea; let’s do it.”

Then these two knob-heads bake a cake and put in this ‘extracted’ substance (I really don’t want to know how they did that. Do you?) And, then they decide they like this cake.

Guy One:  “Eureka! We’re on to something here. I wonder if the FDA will approve it for commercial use.”

Guy Two: “I don’t know. Let’s see.”

I want to know who in the FDA decided that it was a good idea to even test this as a legitimate ingredient. Did someone not ask why someone would want to put an ‘extract’ from a beaver’s butt into food in the first place? Or did they just say, “Sure, we can see if this will sicken people over time,” and send out the approval?

Personally, I have always preferred homemade, from scratch baked goods. My husband, not so much. Not that it isn't good; he just thinks it's softer or less expensive, or easier. I wonder if now I can convince him that he should eat what I do- the homemade bread (not from a mix) and cake from scratch. How about you?