Labels take all the fun out of snacking

Tag : Modified Corn Starch

We were on a simple mission to the grocery the other day to buysome tea, but given all the options available on the shelves of oursupermarkets these days, even that can be complicated.

Every morning, Donna and I start out the day with a cup of tea. Ilike a green tea with lemon added, and Donna prefers white tea.We're big into the antioxidant craze.

I've been drinking the same tea for a while now, Bigelow Green Teawith Lemon, and I add a little Splenda, of course, because I amweak and need the sweet hit. Donna, who drinks her tea straight upwith no sweetener, jumps around a lot, and she was looking for anew tea.

One of the basic rules we follow when buying processed food is toseek out products with less than five ingredients and only productswith ingredients we can pronounce.
Now, you would think that would not be difficult with tea. It'sjust tea.

But no, that's not the case. Several tea products contained five orsix ingredients, and one included modified corn starch. Now, whywould you put modified corn starch into a little tea bag? I'm notsure about that.

My tea, as it turns out, has only three ingredients, green tea,lemon peel and "natural flavor" in the form of soy lecithin. I cando without the soy, but it passes my test.
After considerable searching, Donna found Uncle Lee's organic whitetea, which oddly enough, had only one ingredient, organic white tealeaves.

Now, you know how Wal-Mart is. The next time we go, they probablywon't have Uncle Lee's tea, but Donna bought two boxes, and the boxincludes a Web site. So, we're hopeful.

We left the store with the mission accomplished, but with a newunderstanding that buying packaged and prepared foods can betricky. I read recently that there are 38 ingredients in a chickennugget, and at least two of them are corn based.

The industrialization of our food chain has made it imperative toread labels and try to understand them.