Garbage ingredients = Garbage Life

“Garbage ingredients for a garbage life,” I always say.

The following piece is an outline I compiled, of garbage ingredients added to food products.

If you eat whole foods, that is one way to simply avoid ingesting these ingredients—but be aware there are food products you may not think are processed (and are keto-friendly) and yet they contain these garbage ingredients.

To find out what these garbage ingredients are, where they can be found, and what awful things they can do to our bodies, read on.

Dextrose

What is Dextrose, and where is it found?

This is a product that is chemically identical to glucose. It can be in the form of fine powder or liquid. “Diabetic-friendly” products often add dextrose to their ingredients. Such products include: diet soft drinks and drink mixes, and sugar substitutes marketed as “sugar free,” or “zero sugar.”

Products in which dextrose can be found are usually targeted toward people who have to monitor their blood sugar for diabetes.

Dextrose is also readily added to products marketed toward individuals using keto/carnivore and low carb dietary protocols (whether it’s to manage weight or type 2 diabetes as well).

Many hundreds of processed foods also contain dextrose, usually salty and sweet snack foods, jerky and meat snacks, salad dressings, frozen foods, soups, sauces, etc. The list really goes on and on.

BUT, it is also in many products you might consider keto-friendly, such as hot dogs, sausage, bacon, smoked sausages/bratwurst, ham, and other meat products, especially deli meats. I have even found it listed in the ingredients for marinade of store bought whole turkey breast tenderloins (here’s my own recipe for that).

What does dextrose do to our bodies?

The main purpose of creating dextrose was to raise blood sugar in diabetics—that right there should stop you from using any foods or products containing it, if you’re trying to keep your blood glucose at a stable and normal low level.

If this isn’t enough reason for you to not eat it, feel free to keep reading—understanding that dextrose is a simple sugar stored as starch in corn and is the base of high fructose corn syrup should probably do the trick to keep you away.

Dextrose is high on my garbage ingredients list because it is absolutely unhealthy, and there are almost zero reasons to use dextrose except in very few medical situations, a primary one being a diabetic “low” episode (or reaction) to an extremely low blood sugar.

This is because dextrose is absorbed by the bloodstream so rapidly that it can skyrocket blood sugar levels very quickly, so unless you are a diabetic who experiences extreme “lows,” you do not need any help in that area, so you will want to avoid dextrose even in tiny amounts at all costs. A diabetic low episode is one in which your BG is below 70 mg/dL.

Really, the only people who can get away with using dextrose are performance athletes because dextrose will provide them with quick energy before an intense workout session and it will be completely burned off. These people typically do not have trouble managing their blood sugars (and any that do shouldn’t be using dextrose anyway, no matter how many ultra-fit gym bros advocate or endorse products containing it—usually in the form of things like “preworkout” drinks or shakes).

For those of us who are overweight/obese, we already have plenty of stored energy to spare on our bodies which we can use for fuel—we certainly don’t need any more exogenous fuel!

Yeast extract/Autolyzed yeast extract

What is yeast extract/autolyzed yeast extract, and how is it made?

Yeast extract is a garbage ingredient in the form of powder or gel, made as a result of sugar being added to yeast in a warm environment and after the expanded call walls of the yeast are loosened by the mixing of the two, the walls are discarded in one of two processes: either autolyzing; or hydrolyzing.

In both cases, the remaining contents of the cell get combined to form the yeast extract.

The resulting product is very high in glutamates.

Where can yeast extract/autolyzed yeast extract be found?

Yeast extract is used to make beer and bread, and also gives an umami tang to crackers, chips, pretzels, flavored pork rinds, and other salty snack foods.

You can even find it in things like frozen dinners, pasta sauces, dips, spreads/dressings, soups, and many other packaged foods. These products are manufactured specifically for their ability to be addictive, and extracts like this can level-up the hyper-palatable nature of these foods, making them hard to eat in small amounts.

In addition to being in processed foods, glutamates are found naturally in many whole foods, too (Vegemite/Marmite, nutritional yeast flakes).

Yeast extracts are extremely high in sodium, and even small amounts being added to food can make it very salty, in addition to having that umami effect.

What does yeast extract/autolyzed yeast extract do to our bodies?

Some people experience reactions to both yeast extracts and glutamates, such as headaches, irritated, rashy, or flushed skin, etc., but mainstream medicine has not yet officially declared such a thing as a glutamate allergy, so buyers just beware.

Many people sensitive to glutamates already know to avoid any product that says it contains MSG. However, since yeast extract is often confused for MSG because it contains glutamates, the technical/legal difference between MSG and yeast extract is the listed purpose of yeast extract (by food product manufacturers) is as a flavoring agent, where MSG is strictly required to be listed if it is contained in a product.

To make it additionally confusing, if a food product manufacturer lists glutamate content exactly, like “hydrolyzed yeast extract,” or “autolyzed yeast extract,” they are not required by the government to specify that item has MSG, but they also cannot claim to say, “no MSG” in their labeling.

Also, if “natural flavoring” or “natural additives” are listed in a product, it can mean yeast extract is in it.

So as a consumer, unless you have really bad reactions to MSG and aren’t aware of the problems yeast extracts can create, you will likely not even be aware that you’re still getting glutamates in your system.

Even such minor contradictory information standards can confuse everyday folk. Therefore, for people like me who are extremely sensitive to pretty much all processed foods—our best solution is just try avoid them as much as possible, and buy only whole food and make things with them at home.

Modified Food Starch

What is modified food starch?

Modified food starches are often used in instant food products and also used as thickening agents, in products such as seasoning and sauce mixes, gravies, boxed pastas and potatoes, instant puddings, frostings, and even in frozen vegetables such as the stir-fry kind or those that have just butter or cheese sauces on them. They are also found in things like Pringles or other baked chips, as well as cheese sauces and dips, and even in spice bottles/spice mixes/rubs.

Modified food starch is usually sourced from corn, potato, tapioca, rice, or wheat. It is a product resulting in physically altering a starchy grain.

Although it doesn’t necessarily mean genetically modified, it should be assumed that at least a good portion of modified food starches come from genetically modified ingredients. A huge amount of these modified food starches are sourced from China.

Also modified corn starch often contains about 10% maltodextrin, which I’m told is a commonly used tactic to hide the fact that a food product contains MSG (ahem…maltodextrin is another of my mortal enemies on this garbage ingredients list, as you’ll see soon). Just the term, “modified food starch” is sort of all-encompassing term in the food product manufacturing industry that allows companies free reign over what they do to their products. I am not coming down on food companies, as they can do what they want…but people should be aware.

What does modified food starch do to our bodies?

Although the long-term health effects of modified food starch is not yet known, it is common knowledge among the healthy food crowd that these modified starches are difficult for a body to digest.

“The fact that poisonous lead is found in toys and plastic melamine that has tainted infant formulas should have resulted in huge concerns over Chinese food supplies, but the F.D.A. treated the poisoned babies as just another public relation’s problem, and even coached the companies involved about how to best deal with the media backlash.” [1]

Canola oil & and other seed/vegetable oils

Another one that’s so bad, it has its own full article…

Toxic Sludge & The Fattening of America

Looking for more? You may also like:

• Foods to Avoid on Keto – “The purge list”
• Toxic Sludge & The Fattening of America
• The Salty Truth: Myths About Salt

[1] https://healthwyze.org/reports/261-understanding-foods-labeled-modified-what-is-modified-food-starch-and-should-it-be-avoided