Okay, this is not a rant on junk food. I think when people eat Cheez-wiz, they aren’t misguided enough to assume they’re eating healthful real cheese. When people eat a double fudge brownie, I doubt they’re confusing this with an apple. And when people eat Cap’n Crunch cereal, there’s no way they’d assume they’re consuming real fruit. Oh, um, wait a minute, someone did? Er, well, anyway, you get my point 😀
But seriously… sometimes there’s an absolute nasty & unhealthy food paired with such obnoxiously, blatantly misleading marketing that I can’t help calling a spade a hyrogenated [sic] artificially flavored spade.
First, the marketing that, by all means, should condemn some marketer to eternal dietary hell:
“In 1920, Walter and Cordelia Knott began selling fresh produce, berries, and preserves from a roadside berry stand in Buena Park, California. Their family business earned a place in history in 1932 when Walter Knott cultivated a lucious new fruit, the boysenberry. The farm that started it all has also become a family amusement park that delights millions.
The Knott family is pleased to extend their tradition of quality to include premium shortbread cookies. Richly flavorful, these classic favorites are prepared using popular Knott’s Berry farm fruit fillings.”
Let’s dissect this, shall we?
> In 1920, Walter and Cordelia Knott began selling fresh produce, berries, and preserves from a roadside berry stand in Buena Park, California.
…and boy, would they be horrified to see how their heirs have sold them out!
> …when Walter Knott cultivated a lucious new fruit, the boysenberry.
…which you’ll find all of likely one-tenth of a gram of in this plasticfood monstrosity.
> … premium shortbread cookies
… where “premium” means “premium profits for us, utter crap for you.”
> … Richly flavorful
… from lots of high fructose corn syrup
> … these classic favorites
… if you call a frankenstein concoction of chemicals “classic.” Maybe a classic case of deceit.
> … using popular Knott’s Berry farm fruit fillings.
… oh, wait, we meant popular dental fillings!
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But enough pre-commentary. Without further ado, let’s take a look at these charming ingredients, shall we? (and out of kindness, I’ll substitute normal text for the ALL CAPS printed)
Enriched wheat flour [artificial vitamin enrichment crap omitted], margarine (liquid soybean oil, partially hyrogenated [sic] soybean oil, water, salt, whey, lecithin, mono and di-glycerides, sodium benzoate a preservative, artificial butter flavor, beta carotene and vitamin A palmitate), raspberry topping (high fructose corn syrup, red raspberries, apple powder, fruit pectin, citric acid, natural and artificial flavors, calcium chloride, FD&C red #40 and blue #1), sugar, eggs, baking soda, natural and artificial flavor, baking ammonium, and salt.
Mmmm… delicious, no? Just like Grandma would have made it… if she had access to a chemistry lab *and* passionately hated your guts.
Oh, and lookie here, (unsurprisingly) almost no redeeming nutritive qualities at all… little fiber or protein, and a charming 3 grams of trans-fat (I didn’t even know there were many packaged goods that still had this stuff in ‘em nowadays!)
For comparison, let’s take a look at a typical recipe for berry shortbread cookies:
1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup seedless raspberry jam
GLAZE:
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons water
1/2 teaspoon almond extract(from AllRecipes.com)
Notice a difference? Yes! You recognize and can likely pronounce the ingredients, and there are fewer than a dozen of them.
* * *
Look, as I said, I don’t have a problem with companies making utter junkfood. I do, however, have a problem about them so blatantly misrepresenting their product. Even an intelligent acquaintance of mine said (without any prompting from me) that she used to eat these cookies every day for lunch, figuring that they were relatively harmless. Oops!
P.S.—Might think twice before buying any of Knott’s Berry Farm jams or other products, eh?
What do you think?