What Michael Pollan said about sour cream got me thinking. He said if you looked at the ingredients of no-fat sour cream that you would be stunned.
Fat Free Sour Cream from Kroger, with the little colorful labels to assure me it is good for us. But, to quote Michael Pollan "It's an image, an idea of sour cream..". As much as I believe in real food, as much as I love raw milk, I will sadly admit this is what I had been buying for my family.
This is what I'm buying now. Why? Well, let's look at the labels.
From Breakstone's All Natural Sour Cream:
Ingredients:
Cultured Pasteurized Grade A Milk and Cream, Enzymes
- In case you want to double check, just click here - http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10052&catalogId=1&productId=364248 or you can also click here - http://brands.kraftfoods.com/breakstones/main.aspx?s=product&m=product/product_display&Site=1&Product=2100030165
From Kroger's Fat Free Sour Cream:
Ingredients:
Cultured Skim Milk and Cream, Modified Corn Starch, Cellulose Gel, Propylene Glycol Monoester, Gum Arabic, Cultured Dextrose, Gelatin, Titanium Dioxide (For Color), Cellulose Gum, Lactic Acid, Natural Flavor, Anhydrous Milkfat, Xanthan Gum, Salt, Rosemary Extract, Sodium Citrate, Vitamin A Palimate.
-If you want to double check me on this one, you're going to have to go to Kroger, meander down the dairy aisle, and read the label for yourself. I tried and tried, but couldn't find the ingredient list online. The Nutritional Info I could find, the ingredients .. nope.
~Fun Fact -- Titanium Dioxide (also found in sunscreen & toothpastes among many other products) is a known possible carcinogen. http://www.gonando.com/titanium-dioxide.html
I don't know about you, but after reading the ingredient list on Kroger's Fat Free Sour Cream, I was pretty turned-off. Grossed out. And left standing in the dairy aisle wondering such things as "what the hell is Proylene Glycol Monoester" and "why does a white product need coloring added" and "Cornstarch? Really?!?"
Also, it really creeps me out that I couldn't find the ingredient list online for Kroger's Fat Free Sour Cream. Yea, sure they list the Nutritional Info, but to me that is only 1/2 the picture.
Is Breakstone's All Natural (triple churned too!) Sour Cream the best possible sour cream out there? Not likely. It isn't organic, it is highly unlikely that the cows were pasture-raised, and I'm guessing the "all natural" part of their label just means "read the ingredients, there isn't a lot of creepy crap in there!"
But, I DO feel a lot better about giving my children the Breakstone Sour Cream as opposed to the Kroger Sour Cream. I don't think the Kroger Sour Cream should even be allowed to be called Sour Cream. Imitation Sour Cream Product would be much more appropriate.
What do you think?
3 comments:
"Imitation Sour Cream Product would be much more appropriate." Totally agree, much more appropriate label. I've started using plain yogurt in place of sour cream. It's not the same, I know. But, I don't feel as guilty about the fat intake, and it's much easier to find organic plain yogurt. I like Breakstones products too. I didn't really know WHY until reading this. I just always thought they tasted better. Thanks.
We'll just stop eating sour cream I guess. We have to do as much fat free as possible, so the regular stuff isn't an option any longer. makes me wonder about the rest of the fat-free stuff. Actually I wonder about just about everything in our food supply - even the stuff I grow myself because I'm never sure what's leeched into the ground from the neighbors above us, and what's falling in the rain (like,oh, dispersants from the gulf). We're poisoning ourselves one mouthful at a time.
Hey, Carrie and Justin -- Thank you for this post -- I just watched that whole Michael Pollan clip that you posted. He makes it all so clear.
Amazing how American Politics can completely twist our way of thinking about things as simple as food.
Lauren (scratchandpeck)
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