Lots of artificial additives are bad for us, right?
Well, here's an idea: use the very substances that give carrots, beets, cabbage, and other vegetables their color as food colorings in place of artificial or natural color!
It's found in carrots and beets- not only is it harmless, it is found in something healthy- so you know it is not a harmful additive!
People used to use dyes from carrots and beets all the time!
We should be using these substances as healthy- harmless, at least- replacements for food colorings in our food!
You want to make your lemon candy yellow- use the carotene that makes carrots yellow, or yellow from yellow beets!
Want to make your hot dogs redder? Use the betanin that makes beets red!
In most cases, all you have to do is buy the carrot or beet, wash it, grate it, and boil it to extract the dye!
Experiment! The reason that the corporations don't use these more often is that you get the most out of them by experimenting a little
But this is what makes it fun!
It just isn't what the corporations are used to!
So go ahead! Experiment!
See what various dyes look like under acidic vs. neutral vs. alkaline conditions!
See if adding a little bit of carrot yellow to beet red turns the beet red from purple red to deep candy apple red!
If you are having a bake sale, or starting a small business, try it!
Show the big corporations all the fun they could be having experimenting with beet, cabbage, and carrot based dyes!
Let the revolution start with you!
It won't make candy healthy- but it will eliminate all that additives and replace it with something that we know causes no harm!
Something to think about!
And if some of these are already being used? I suggest putting it on the label- 'no added color except from a healthy vegetable source', or something like that (modify it if it is carotene from the lab rather than from a carrot, let the lawyers in the FDA figure out the wording (I'm a poet, not a lawyer, and legal talk is there for a reason)).
Something that can help us all just a little- or who knows, maybe a lot!
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson
P. S. In case you are wondering- legal talk is there in order to define something logically very, very precisely so that no one can twist your words around or misunderstand them. Let the lawyers in the FDA take care of that, it's what they're good at! (I'm not, I'm good at artistic talk). (I hope!)