Unlikely ingredient... have you come across any?

[Bhuvana]

It's surprise/shock to see an irrelevant ingredient in some of the products. I came across one with Activia Yogurt. It contains corn starch. 

Ingredients. Original Activia contains cultured grade A reduced-fat milk, sugar, water, fructose or fruit sugar, modified food starch, less than 1 percent milkprotein concentrate, modified corn starch, koshergelatin, agar, guar gum, lactic acid, calcium lactate, vitamin D3 and sodium citrate.

I don't understand why corn starch. I know about sugar processed with bone char. Check this out!  I groused out after learning few things... 

Have any of you come across like this? 

[USAF-Larry]

@Bhuvana, it is always good to thoroughly read the ingredients to see what they are advertising as good vs what they are selling.  For example, in the list you included they are using corn starch, gelatin, agar, and guar gum - all thickeners.  And, then they add both sugar (the 2nd ingredient) and fructose (the 3rd ingredient) as sweeteners.   Look at the label on Stonyfield Low Fat Greek Plain Yogurt (which, by the way, is great substituted for sour cream), and the ingredients are something like "Organic Nonfat Milk".

[Esya]

We make a chemical mix and we call it yogurt. I see you bolded fat milk, is that because you believe that is unhealthy too? In my opinion fat milk and full fat yogurt are more healthy than the skimmed versions. Ofcourse you should have less of it for a portion than of the skimmed versions as they are more dense in calories. But in my opinion the less processed the better and fats are not our enemies per se unlike sugar.

You will find a lot of those horrible stories when you start reading labels. For example you will find sugar in your canned tomatoes and I don't mean the sugar from the tomatoes themselves. Most things will have atleast sugar or salt if not worse. Get ready to start shopping differently and to make time free for cooking (if you aren't already).

[USAF-Larry]

@Esya, one time I stumbled across a list of 8 high-sugar foods we consume every day, and don't realize it - on that list the number one culprit was Fruit On the Bottom Yogurt.  Others, which I don't remember the order of, included canned soup, salad dressings, and pasta tomato sauces. Recently while being bored in the grocery store, I was looking at the labels of bottled salad dressings, and was surprised that most of them listed high fructose corn syrup (the worst kind of sugar) as the 2nd ingredient.

[Esya]

@USAF-Larry

I am very lucky that high fructose corn syrup is not allowed in my country.

[Dominique]

Corn starch is there likely because it’s a thickener and it’s cheap. OTOH, agar, guar gum and gelatin are also thickeners. My guess is they each have slightly different properties. Bottom line: there is a reason why consuming minimally processed food is recommended (you don’t want dubious stuff you don’t need/want to be added). I just had a look at my plain yogurt: 

All it says for ingredients is "Plain yogurt" and "Contains milk":

People may argue whether or not it makes sense to eat dairy products (some believe they cause cancer...), but if (like me) you choose to eat yogurt-like products, why not favour the plain stuff? 

[Bhuvana]

Almost 99%, I avoid processed food. I cook everything from scratch. During summer time, I bottle few things like tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, pasta sauce, strawberry jam and so on. Even I make yogurt at home with 1% milk.  This home made yogurt comes out well with right consistency without adding any thickening agent.

This activia product info caught my attention when one of my friend showed me the ingredients. My point here is, there is no need to add corn starch to thicken it. May be for shelf time? 

[Esya]

@Bhuvana

They are looking to make it cheap as it is all about the money. So the second ingredient is water. Maybe that is why they have to thicken it again?

[USAF-Larry]

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Bhuvana wrote:  My point here is, there is no need to add corn starch to thicken it. May be for shelf time? 

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No, very little to nothing to do with shelf life, but to "appease the palate of the consumer".  The same reason they put propylene glycol (antifreeze) in ice cream - it prevents ice crystals from forming and is more pleasing to the consumer.

[Esya]

I do remember coming across something that surprised me. I was looking for frozen yogurt to treat myself. So I checked out a product named "yogurt icecream" and found that yogurt was only the second or third ingredient. I ended up buying non yogurt icecream instead that had a shorter ingredient list.

[Bhuvana]

@Dominique: Yogurt is formed with the help of bacterial culture Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus. So listed ingredient as only "Milk" is not right too. Some yogurt lists these as in their ingredient list.

[Bhuvana]

@Esya: If you have the blender which is capable of making ice cream, you can make it @ home with fewer ingredients. I make chocolate banana ice cream with only 3 ingredients. Frozen banana, melted dark chocolate and honey. This can be done even in food processor. 🙂

[Esya]

@Bhuvana

I made icecream before, but sometimes you don't want to go through the hassle and just go for store bought.

[MagsOnTheBeach]

Since I changed my diet, I check ingredients.  I love whole fat yogurt. The trick for me is to eat it plain.  It took several weeks for me to enjoy plain yogurt. I have it with berries.  It's become an important part of my mid morning routine - more so than coffee was!

With fat in my yogurt, I don't have cravings for other things before lunch.  I work in a donut, treat office and can pass them up.  With light yogurts, I didn't have the satiety.  

When I buy a food product, I look for added sugars and sodium as well as few ingredients.  When I just looked at sodium I'd miss reading all the sugar added.  So I just check those things.  

[emili]

I am shocked sometimes too by what I read on the label. And then have to look it up to see what it actually is. If the list of ingredients is longer than five and I don't know more than one- I put it back. I like a good mystery, just not in my diet.

[USAF-Larry]

[TXAnneV]

Looking at some food labels...is a lot like looking at ingredients for a science experiment!

[Esya]

This weekend I found a product where the packaging was almost too small to be able to list all the ingredients. It was a bad novel.