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IPFS News Link • Food

3 TOTALLY FAKE Foods in Just About Everybody's Kitchen

• The Organic Prepper by Meadow Clark

The American food system is as fake as a toupée. I remember an Eastern European female basketball player being on Jay Leno and going on and on about how fake American food tasted. She even compared our fruit to wax fruit displays. That's actually astute considering that a lot of produce is covered in wax to protect it for longer periods on store shelves. Since then, I've heard other foreigners bemoan American food for its fakery. Waxy tasting chocolate, bland produce, neon-colored party snacks that sent them running to the nearest bathroom.

Did you ever see a martini menu but discovered that it was actually blue-colored vodka and think to yourself, hey, that's not a real martini; James Bond would never drink that. That's because you knew it was a counterfeit offering.

Many of the "foods" that line our store shelves are as fake as a toupée-wearing man at a free lunch, sipping a pink vodka-martini with lots of zeros in his bank account. He then pays with a $3 dollar bill and hops on the hoverboard from Back to the Future.

Without further ado, here are 3 fake foods:

I'm not just talking genetically engineered monstrosities or wheat and oats sprayed in Roundup weedkiller. Nope. While those food-like entities are certainly adulterated and contain poison that is linked to cancer, the foods I'm unveiling here are not real, in the sense that their ingredients or makeup resemble nothing of the original food.

Fake Olive Oil

Did you know that most – seriously, most – of your olive oil is totally and unequivocally fake. F-A-K-E. Nothing Extra Virgin about it. "More than two-thirds of common brands of extra-virgin olive oil found in California grocery stores aren't what they claim to be, according to a report published by researchers at UC Davis."

Most olive oil is adulterated with cheap, low-end oils like canola and soybean oil. Sometimes the oils are cut with lampante ("lamp oil") which is made from fallen, spoiled olives and not fit for consumption. Real olive oil has a green hue and a distinctive taste. That's why the people cutting it also add flavors and colors to the fake olive oil in some cases. And who are the ones making the big bucks by cutting this high-demand product before it reaches the store shelves??

None other than the MOB! 

Turns out, the olive oil empire (worth $1.5 billion annually) can be much more lucrative to the mafia, less risky and more "above board" than going all Scarface on a powdery pile of blow.

If all of this is still not enough to outrage you, consider this: canola oil is like battery acid to the heart. At least it is if you listen to cardiology researchers. Unfortunately, this information has not reached the doctor's office yet. If you are being extra careful to avoid heart-ripping, GMO canola oil – but then pouring it over your salads in the form of fake olive oil – then what good is that? I hate spending money on high-end products only to find out they are harming my family's health.

Which oils should you avoid?

These 9 brands are as fake as the afore-mentioned 3 dollar bill. (source)

Bertolli

Santa Sabina

Primadonna

Antica Badia

Eurospin

Carapelli

Coricelli

Sasso

Which oils are ACTUALLY OLIVE OIL:

California Olive Ranch

Kirkland Organic (Costco)

Corto Olive

Ottavio

Omaggio

Bariani Olive Oil

Lucini, Lucero

Olea Estates

McEvoy Ranch Organic

Cobram Estate

Learn more about the shocking truth about olive oil in Tom Mueller's book  Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil.

Fake Parmesan Cheese

What kind of cow produces Parmesan cheese? Well, it's not so much about the cow as the place.

Many Americans think variations of the names Parmigiano or Reggiano are brand names but there is actually a specific region in Italy called Parmigiano-Reggiano. And as fantastical as it sounds, this entire region has been seriously dedicated to the painstaking work of crafting aged Parmesan rounds for over 800 years. This cheese is called the "King of Cheeses." It's also the fattiest cheese and who doesn't love real Parmesan crumbles?

The problem is, it's unlikely many of us know the real pleasure of Parmesan crumbles. That is, if you're buying your cheese from green bottles that look like the cleaner you have under your sink.

Larry Olmsted, the author of Real Food Fake Food: Why You Don't Know What You're Eating & What You Can Do About It writes:

As good as the cheese is, and as famous as it is, you rarely actually get to eat it – even when you think you are. The English translation of the cheese is Parmesan, and when you buy it in England you get Parmigiano-Reggiano. It's the law. The American translation is also Parmesan, but when you buy it here, you could be getting almost anything – except usually Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Parmigiano-Reggiano is allowed to contain only three very simple ingredients: milk (produced in the Parma/Reggio region and less than 20 hours from cow to cheese), salt, and rennet (a natural enzyme from calf intestine). Three other ingredients, Cellulose Powder, Potassium Sorbate, and Cheese Cultures are not found in Parmigiano-Reggiano – they are completely illegal in its production. Yet all three are in Kraft 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese…

Notice how you cannot tell if Kraft's "100% Grated Parmesan Cheese" means that it is 100% grated or 100% Parmesan. Probably the former. Either way, Kraft is no longer allowed to sell its product labeled as Parmesan in Europe. In the U.S., most people remain blissfully unaware that they are not eating a real food.

Some of these brands contain 0% Parmesan cheese.

Market Pantry brand

Always Save Grated Parmesan Cheese

Best Choice 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese

It gets worse… One of those ingredients. Cellulose Powder? That's actually wood pulp. AKA plant fibers.

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