Lauren joined bookcrossing.com, which is an online book-sharing organization. She was originally going to leave the book Fast Food nation, by Eric Schlosser, in the Park West Diner, only I took it instead, and finally started reading it about two weeks ago.

It's a captivating read, and it certainly gives you all the reasons you could ever want to avoid going to McDonalds, but the laest chapter really grabbed my interest. Here's some relevant (extended) quotes:

The New Jersey Turnpike runs through the heart of the flavor industry, an industrial corridor dotted with refineries and chemical plants. International Flavors & Fragrences(IFF), the worlds largest flavor company, has a manufacturing facility off Exit 8A in Dayton, New Jersey; Givaudan, the world's second-largest flavor company, has a plant in East Hanover. Haarman & Reimer, the largest German flavor company, has a plant in Teterboro, as does Takasago, Japan's largest flavor company.Flavor Dyanmica as a plant in South Plainfield; Frutarom is in North Bergen; Elan Chemicals is in Newark. Dozensof companies manufacture flavors in New Jersey industrial parks between Teaneck and South Brunswick. Indeed, the area produces almost two-thirds of the flavor additives sold in the United States.

Imagine that. You'd think with all these flavor companies along the Turnpike, the highway would smell a little better.

This chapter about flavor additives is incredibly eye-opening. We've all seen the ubiquitous "natural and artificial flavors" listing in the foods we buy, but how many of us know what it means? Fast Food nation devotes a whole chapter on it, and it's a fascinating read. For one thing, both are actually man-made additives. Which i simply must tell my mother, considering all the years she refused to by us many foods with "artificial" flavors.

See, the problem arises, with the technology to keep foods "fresh" for prolonged periods of time, the real natural flavor is lost. These additives do nothing to alter the nutritional content of food. They are nothing but chemicals that mimic the original taste--or, in the case of processed food (like fast food) create a taste the product never even had. In fact, the line between "natural" and "artifical" is quite misleading, a matter more of where the flavors come from rather than the composition of the the flavor itself:

When almond flavor (benzaldehyde) is derived from natural sources, such as peach or apricot pits, it contains traces of hydrogen cyanide, a deadly poison.Benzaldehyde dervied through a different process--by mixing oil of clove and the banana flavor, amylacetate--does not contain cyanide. Nevertheless, it is legally considered an artifical flavor and sells at a much lower price. Natural and artifical flavors are now manufactured at the same chemical plants . . . Calling any of these flavors "natural" requires a flexible attitude toward the English language and a fair amount of irony.


I love irony.