Dear Poor Lucky Me,
I have a pretty serious addiction to cheese flavor. Cheez-its, Cheese Nips, Cheetos, Cheese Goldfish Crackers, anything yellow and labeled “Cheese” really. Actual cheese is ok, but the flavored stuff is what gets me.
My question is: what exactly do they use to make that flavor? Also, I’m assuming it’s nutritious, can you confirm that?
Yours Truly,
I’m Eating Cheez-Its right now.
Dear I’m Eating,
Interestingly, the ingredients used to make flavor powder are not readily available on the internet. This make me a little suspicious. It also makes me tired, because I scrolled through about 50 pages of Google searches.
My non-medical recommendation is to try and curb your addiction in favor of moderation. Unfortunately I know all too well how difficult moderation is…I’m more of a saturation-til-you-want-to-barf-at-the-sight-of-it kind of person. But you can always try. And keep trying. And then try again.
Sincerely,
I’m sorry, I cannot confirm that cheese flavor is nutritious. It’s all relative though, right? General Mills make Fruit Loops fortified with Calcium and Fiber so it can be called nutritious. I’m not sure how great of shape you’d be in if you substituted cereal for any natural sources of calcium and fiber. I sort of did that in college, but not on purpose. And instead of fortified cereal I ate Mr Goodbars and Cool Ranch Doritos. I usually slept about 15 hours a day, if that’s any indication of healthfulness.
Poor Lucky Me
sorry, “flavoring” is not nutritious. It is a purely chemical construct added to processed food to have it mimic real food. Butyric acid is one of the chemicals used to mimic butter and cheese flavors. For eye-opening descriptions regarding how processed food is made, read “Twinkie Deconstructed”, there’s a chapter talking about “butter flavor”.
Actually they covered this on “How It’s Made” on The History Channel and I believe that the flavoring is made from little bits of heaven and happy cows.
Thank you Monique! I couldn’t find any information on the specific chemicals…but had a sneaking suspicion that it probably wasn’t making anyone’s bones stronger.
I’m afraid I can’t read “Twinkie Deconstructed” because it sounds like it will make me reflect on my decades of happily eating processed food and REALLY gross me out. I know that’s the point…I’m just not ready for it yet.
Joe- I think you’re thinking of Jello. It’s made of hooves.