Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Ocean Spray's Light Cranberry Juice Cocktail

I've been looking into quite a few drinks lately, shining some light on their ingredients. Ocean Spray's Light Cranberry Juice Cocktail contains 27% fruit juice and has the following ingredients:

  1. Water
  2. Cranberry Juice from Concentrate
  3. Fructose
  4. Natural Flavors
  5. Pectin
  6. Sodium Citrate
  7. Acesulfame Potassium
  8. Sucralose (splenda brand)
I'm pretty sure that Ocean Spray doesn't want to public to figure out what a lot of these things are. So, being me, I decided to figure out.

I found the following on Wikipedia:

Fructose:

Fructose (also levulose or laevulose) is a simple reducing sugar found in many foods and is one of the three important dietary monosaccharides along with glucose and galactose. Honey, tree fruits, berries, melons, and some root vegetables, such as beets, sweet potatoes, parsnips, and onions, contain fructose, usually in combination with glucose in the form of sucrose. Fructose is also derived from the digestion of granulated table sugar (sucrose), a disaccharide consisting of glucose and fructose.

Crystalline fructose and high-fructose corn syrup are often mistakenly confused as the same product. The former is produced from a fructose-enriched corn syrup which results in a finished product of at least 98% fructose. The latter is usually supplied as a mixture of nearly equal amounts of fructose and glucose.


Pectin:

Pectin (from Greek πηκτικός - pektikos, "congealed, curdled"[1]) is a structural heteropolysaccharide contained in the primary cell walls of terrestrial plants. It was first isolated and described in 1825 by Henri Braconnot[2].

It is produced commercially as a white to light brown powder, mainly extracted from citrus fruits, and is used in food as a gelling agent particularly in jams and jellies. It is also used in fillings, sweets, as a stabilizer in fruit juices and milk drinks and as a source of dietary fiber.

Sodium Citrate:

Sodium citrate usually refers to trisodium citrate, though it can refer to any of the sodium salts of citric acid:

  • Monosodium citrate
  • Disodium citrate
  • Trisodium citrate
Trisodium Citrate:

Trisodium citrate has the chemical formula of Na3C3H5O(CO2)3. It possesses a saline, or mildly tart, flavor. Trisodium citrate is chiefly used as a food additive, usually for flavor or as a preservative.


Acesulfame Potassium:

Acesulfame potassium is a calorie-free artificial sweetener, also known as Acesulfame K or Ace K (K being the symbol for potassium), and marketed under the trade names Sunett and Sweet One. In the European Union, it is known under the E number (additive code) E950. It was discovered accidentally in 1967 by German chemist Karl Clauss at Hoechst AG (now Nutrinova).[1] In chemical structure, acesulfame potassium is the potassium salt of 6-methyl-1,2,3- oxathiazine-4(3H)-one 2,2-dioxide. It is a white crystalline powder with molecular formula C4H4KNO4S and a molecular weight of 201.24.[2]


Sucralose:

Sucralose is a zero-calorie sugar substitute artificial sweetener. In the European Union, it is also known under the E number (additive code) E955. Sucralose is approximately 600 times as sweet as sucrose (table sugar),[2] twice as sweet as saccharin, and 3.3 times as sweet as aspartame. Unlike aspartame, it is stable under heat and over a broad range of pH conditions. Therefore, it can be used in baking or in products that require a longer shelf life. The commercial success of sucralose-based products stems from its favorable comparison to other low-calorie sweeteners in terms of taste, stability, and safety.[3]

Sucralose is typically added to foods in very small quantities. Sucralose products manufactured in the US for domestic consumption are commonly formulated by the addition of "bulking" ingredients (e.g. dextrose, maltodextrin) to give a degree of sweetness per unit weight comparable to sucrose, and to give some products an appearance similar to granular sugar. Some examples of these sweeteners are Splenda and SucraPlus.


Isn't that freaky???


M

Cheerwine

Ever heard of it? It's a cherry flavored soft drink, for those of you who haven't tried it. It's okay, but it basically tastes like maraschino cherry juice with sparkling water. In my last article, I talked about how Coca-Cola had more caramel coloring than flavoring. I decided to check out some more sodas.

The ingredients for Cheerwine are:

  1. Carbonated Water
  2. High Fructose Corn Syrup
  3. Caramel Color
  4. Phosphoric Acid
  5. Natural and Artificial Flavors
  6. Artificial Cherry Flavor
  7. Caffeine
  8. Citric Acid
  9. Sodium Benzoate (to protect flavor)
  10. Red 40
Again, this means there is more Caramel Color than flavoring!!!
And, umm... are there any cherries in there???

More to come soon

M

Coca-Cola

In my last article, I talked about how A&W root beer had more caramel coloring than flavoring. I decided to check out some more sodas. I decided to try Coke. Just to be clear, what I mean by trying Coke is looking at the ingredients, not drinking it.

The ingredients are as follows

  1. Carbonated Water
  2. High Fructose Corn Syrup
  3. Caramel Color
  4. Phosphoric Acid
  5. Natural Flavors
  6. Caffeine
Isn't this crazy??? For those of you who missed my last article, I decided to check the ingredients on various sodas, and I'm finding that so far they all have more Caramel Coloring than flavoring (not high fructose corn syrup), and they're really bad for you. I think there is something about how soda looks that I think effects how you taste it, but still, if I could choose between flavoring and coloring, I'd choose flavoring.

More coming soon.

M

A&W Root Beer

As I mentioned in a previous article, I like root beer a lot. It's a rare treat for me, so the following made me very unhappy:

As I was pouring my root beer (A&W) I noticed something: the ingredients. Here is all of the ingredients in the correct order:

  1. Carbonated Water
  2. High Fructose Corn Syrup
  3. Caramel Color
  4. Sodium Benzoate (preservative)
  5. Natural and Artificial flavors
These are all the ingredients. This means that there is more coloring that flavoring, and also that root beer is horrible for you, but that comes as no surprise.

I'll be posting more commentary on food ingredients soon.

M

Breakfast Nighmares

This morning, being on vacation, we (me and my mom) decided to go out to breakfast. It took forever to find an open restaurant, and when we finally found one, we walked in and saw a mildly gunky gift shop for this restaurant. When we got to the actual restaurant, there were about seven tables. It was a very ugly room. There was a fairly old TV, and, on top of it, this is true, there was a bust of Elvis Presley that kind of looked like it was made out of plastic. By the way, the TV looked a bit like this (I found this photo using Google Image search, and I should give credit to http://www.digitaltvinorge.no):
There was only one other person eating there. I ordered pancakes and bacon, mom ordered a veggie omelette with grits and toast. The prices were reasonable, but we were a little suspicious when the waitress didn't ask what kind of cheese mom wanted. When we got the food, my pancakes were pretty good, but my mom's omelette, she swears this is true, had cheeze whiz instead of cheese. Ick!!!

M

Monday, August 10, 2009

The Beach, finally

I wanted to inform you, the loyal readers of NCBM that about 1 1/2 hrs after I wrote my last article, I went to the beach. I didn't swim, still feeling that there was a possibility of getting stung, drowning, or getting minor limbs devoured by a shark. So, I walked about a foot in the water, with a pail, collecting shells. And there were a lot of really amazing ones, but it's really, really hot and really, really, really humid, so I'm not on the beach a whole lot. Right now, I'm sitting down typing away. About ten minutes ago, I was in an arm chair, with a bowl of chips, some root beer, and a Foxtrot comic. I plan to post a lot this week, but, having limited access to CNN (like about 10 minutes every 2 days) and no access to NPR, it might not be very political. But, I think I'll have quite a few interviews.

M

Sunday, August 9, 2009

North Carolina Vacation

Currently, I'm in North Carolina. My family is renting a beach house on Holden Beach. I've heard from some people that the water is perfectly safe for swimming in, I've heard from others (namely my mom) that it has jellyfish, sharks, and huge waves. I don't know who's right, but, as the saying goes, "better safe then sorry". And there's an outdoor swimming pool.
I'm pretty sure that when everybody else got here, they ran straight for the beach. I, personally, wasn't as excited about it. I've been here since 5:00 pm yesterday, and haven't been to the beach. Living in Maine, within a 2 minute walk to the ocean and a 15 minute drive to the beach, I'm not as excited. But, the house and the pool are great!!!

M