Delicious food, disgusting ingredients

A guide to the bugs, hairs and secretions in your favorite treats

On the latest episode of Jaimie Oliver's Food Revolution, the food activist chef came up with a brilliant way to break kids of their sweet tooth habit. He showed them what their desserts are really made of. Each kid got to make his or her own sundae and after they gobbled it down, he broke down some of more revolting ingredients in their high-calorie grub. It's a radical approach but it may just be the cure for those late night binges. With that in mind, we collected some disgusting byproducts found in our favorite foods, to brainwash us into eating less of it. Will it work? It's worth a shot.

Food: Vanilla Ice cream

Secret Ingredient: A beaver's behind

Many vanilla-flavored products like ice cream incorporate an ingredient called castoreum, which is a fancy word for the dried anal glands of a beaver.

Food: Bread, Rolls and Bagels

Secret ingredient: Hair

L-Cyesteine is a dough conditioner used in mass-produced bread products like bagels, donuts, rolls and crackers. And guess what's needed to make L-Cyesteine? Hair. A recent study by the Vegetarian Resource Group found that human hair and hog hair were still used industry-wide, giving new meaning to the term "all-natural".

Food: Shredded cheese

Secret ingredient: Sawdust

The ingredient used to keep many packaged shredded cheeses from clumping is powdered cellulose, which is a fancy way of saying wood pulp that's been chemically processed. Look out for the ingredient in your ice cream too.

Food: Chewing gum

Secret ingredient: Sheep secretions

The oils released from the fur of a sheep is the "gum base" used in many types of chewing gums for extra-moisture.

Food: Potato chips

Secret Ingredient: cleaning agent

Sodium bisulfite is a preservative used for bleaching out the discolorations and extending the lifespan of your average potato chip. It's also an ingredient in most toilet bowl cleaners.

Food: Red-dyed candies and sweets

Secret Ingredient: crushed bugs

Cochineal extract is a kind of red food dye found in many red-colored candies, sprinkles, strawberry flavored yogurts, jello, popsicles and most other "fruit-flavored" goodies. Turns out it's not fruit responsible for the redness. The extract is actually made from the crushed and dried bodies of a red-colored insect called Dactylopius coccus costa. Still want to order dessert?

Article taken from: http://shine.yahoo.com