Jello --- A Tasty But Truly Deceptive Dessert
Posted: Friday, August 26, 2011
by Gerry Charbonneau
http://nibblednews.typepad.com
"The jello jiggled in the bowl.
It jiggled upon my spoon.
It jiggled towards my mouth.
Ooops!!! What is this?"
Sometimes reality bites a person gently on the butt. Other times this gentle nibbling transforms itself into a more forceful, rude awakening. It is less user friendly and as a result a person's way of thinking or relating to an event or an object in the real world is drastically altered forever.
Do you remember seeing the little cubes of Jello poised enticingly on the tip of his teaspoon ready to be easily devoured? Bill eagerly placed the spoon in his mouth, smiled and emitted a sigh of satisfaction and pleasure.
This is really a Dr Jeckyll- Mr Hyde creation made from the ground hooves of a variety of animals, fish intestines and of course an assortment of other connective organic materials. These raw ingredients are treated with a special acid and boiled into submission for further industrial treatment and commercial usage.
This repulsive goop is processed to a point wherein salts, flavor additives and other materials are added so that the jiggly, tasty and mouth watering dessert we know and love is ready for consumers to puchase and enjoy. Chemicals are added to the mix to help consumers readily indulge their senses and treat their taste buds.
Jellified organics (Jello) could also appropriately describe that dry, scented powder that both we and our parents over the years prepared by simply doing the following actions:
Add one cup of boiling water.
Stir to dissolve the crystals thoroughly.
Add one cup of cold water.
Refrigerate for a few hours until firm.
Jello's at home preparation time has not changed that much over the years. The lineup of flavors has increased and over time a number of these have been dropped due to customer demand. My favorites were strawberry, grape, orange , wild cherry and blackberry.
All that changed last weekend when I learned the truth about the compositional nature of my favorite dessert. At first I felt relatively stunned and could not believe that the dessert had such a checkered chemistry about itself. When I verified the facts for myself via a Google search I felt betrayed and of course nauseous.
It is amazing that hospitals, senior citizen homes, school cafeterias and other such eateries offer this mess to their patients, customers and dependents. The easy preparation time and probably the low product cost could be the determining factor in the product's widespread use and general acceptance.
However a significant number of people who believed this dessert to be non-organic are definitely in for their own wake up call. At times the only difference between this gelatin dessert and let us say headcheese lies in the fact that the visible chunks of animal meat and byproducts are cleverly concealed from view.
Product ingredients listed on the outside of the Jello box outlines the great number of salts used to enhace and possibly prolong the flavor, aroma, freshness, shelf life and useablility of the contents inside. Many people today get more than their required share of salts and fats in their diets.
Consumers battling obesity and high blood pressure concerns really do not need this type of assumed non organic dessert in their diets. Dieticians and others responsible for the care of our sick, children and seniors should become aware of the true nature of this attractive dessert and ban its serving from their menus.
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