Dear Taco Bell,
I don’t usually call out companies, but I recently stumbled upon this page, and vomited a little in my mouth. You serve over 2 billion tacos a year, and yet you had this to say when asked about the other 12% of ingredients in the seasoned beef?
They do have weird names – perfect for tongue twisters! But these ingredients are completely safe and approved by the FDA. They’re common ingredients also found in food items at your grocery store.” -Taco Bell
Seriously— you think I want ingredients that are tongue twisters in my mouth? Your reasoning behind the other ingredients is that they are “common ingredients also found in food items at your grocery store?” That’s the teenage equivalent of saying “everyone is doing it, so it’s okay.” Hardly respectable for a fast food giant that serves over 2 billion tacos a YEAR!
Let’s break down these “tongue twisters” you speak of…
Seasoned Beef Seasoning- The other 12% of the ingredients:
- Cellulose- wood pulp
- Soy Lecithin- gmo filler
- Soybean Oil- cheap polyunsaturated fat (PUFA), accelerates aging, burden on the liver
- Yeast Extract (contains gluten), usually a sign of hidden MSG
- Caramel Color- shown to cause lung, liver, or thyroid cancer in mice!
- Disodium Inosinate- flavor enhancer (usually a sign of hidden MSG), linked to asthma, sleep disturbances, behavioral and learning problems in children
- Disodium Guanylate- flavor enhancer (usually a sign of hidden MSG), linked to asthma, sleep disturbances, behavioral and learning problems in children
- Potassium Chloride- flavor enhancer, salt replacement
- Natural Flavors- according to the FDA’s definition (AKA chemical shit storm, often contain MSG)
The term natural flavor or natural flavoring means the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional.”(source)
- Artificial Flavors- flavoring that does not fall into the loose definition above for “natural”
- Trehalose- gmo preservative
- Modified Corn Starch- gmo corn starch, can contain MSG
- Torula Yeast- usually a sign of hidden MSG
What’s the deal with all the suggestive MSG even though you claim your beef doesn’t contain MSG? Something sounds fishy…
According to Vani of Food Babe, “Restaurants don’t want to get a bad rap by putting monosodium glutamate (MSG) on their ingredient or allergen statements, so they have found another way to secretly add this potent flavor enhancer to your food, without the average customer realizing it. Instead of letting you know that they are putting MSG in your food, they are using an FDA loophole to sneak processed free glutamic acid into your food, which has the same effect as MSG – all without warning you. They simply use other forms of free glutamic acid (such as Hydrolyzed Soy Protein), which is the main component of MSG. This allows them to have “clean labels” and deceive us into believing their product contains no MSG – when it actually does!” Sounds like you’re just another company gaming the system.
And it’s not without risk to the consumer! According to Dr. Russell Blaylock, a board-certified neurosurgeon and author of “Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills.” MSG is an excitotoxin, which means it overexcites your cells to the point of damage or death, causing brain damage to varying degrees — and potentially even triggering or worsening learning disabilities, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease and more.
Clean up your act Taco Bell.
-Nutritionally Wealthy
2015 Update:
According to Business Wire, “By the end of 2015, Taco Bell plans to remove all artificial flavors and colors, replacing them with natural alternatives in their food. They will also remove other additives like added trans fat, and will replace unsustainable palm oil with sustainable, RSPO-certified palm. And by the end of 2017, Taco Bell will look to remove additional artificial preservatives and additives where possible.”
I’ll believe it when I see NEW ingredient lists and not this embarrassing display of what they currently call “food.”
Photo Credit: By DXPG (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons