If you buy a chemical-free product, you’re not getting a good deal. You’re buying nothing. A vacuum. What’s a vacuum? A space empty of all matter. And what is matter? Anything that has mass and occupies space. What is matter made of? Simple. Chemicals. Everything in the world is made of chemicals which encompass everything from simple elements like gold to incredibly complex molecules like DNA. There are over sixty million known chemicals, both naturally occurring and synthetic. They are not good or bad, their safety and usefulness depend on which chemical we are talking about, how much of it, and in what context. Sugar in your mouth is fine but you don’t want it in your gas tank. A small dose of coumadin can prevent a blood clot, a larger dose is great for killing rats in the basement.
Today, unfortunately, many people don’t regard chemicals as the constructs of matter, they consider them to be the agents that deconstruct life. The word chemical itself has become a dirty word, synonymous with poison or toxin. This is especially the case when it comes to synthetic chemicals, which are thought to be particularly sinister. The truth is that the safety of a chemical does not depend on its ancestry; whether it was made by Mother Nature in a bush or by a chemist in a lab is irrelevant. The properties of a molecule are determined by its molecular structure and its safety can only be determined by studying the chemical. And most assuredly, its safety does not depend on the number of syllables in the chemical name. Yet how often do we hear advice like, “if you can’t pronounce it you shouldn’t be eating it!”
It isn’t only the chemically illiterate who see chemicals as the roadblocks to a healthy life. Mainstream producers are also trying to capitalize on the anti-chemical fervor. McCain Foods initiated a campaign promising to use only “real ingredients.” What does that mean? They claimed to remove “unfamiliar ingredients.” Specifically mentioned were sodium steroyl lactylate and sodium ascorbate by name. Why remove these? Marketing. Both are approved food additives and have undergone rigorous testing. Sodium steroyl lactylate is an emulsifier used in baked goods, like pizza dough, that disperses the fats in the dough, allowing less fat to be used while softening at the same time. Sodium ascorbate is the sodium salt of vitamin C and is used as an antioxidant to prevent fat from going rancid. These additives actually make for a better dough. McCain also makes a big deal out of using only vine-ripened tomatoes. That’s great. The riper the tomato, the more natural ascorbate it contains. So while the company sings the praises of taking out ascorbate with one hand, it increases the amount of the same chemical with the other.
