The "How Healthy is Your Ice Cream?" Test

Each year, Americans consume an average of 48 pints of ice cream per person. Unfortunately, not all ice cream recipes are created equal.

To find out where your favorite ranks on the health scale, pull it out of the freezer, take a look at the ingredient list, and check it out via this great infographic from BeFoodSmart.

If there is one big takeaway here, it is the knowledge of an ingredient that should raise more eyebrows than high fructose corn syrup. It is called CASTOREUM and is found in some vanilla and raspberry flavoring. There is no easy way to say this: It is derived from beaver anal glands.

Yikes.

For more frightening 'ingredients' in popular 'foods,' check out WebEcoists 10 Weird and Gross Ingredients in Processed Food.

State Fair Fare

Ahhh... the unmistakable smells of summer: honeysuckle, a backyard barbecue, freshly cut grass and fried Kool-Aid? Yep. It exists. 

It's hard to imagine that anyone could surpass the creativity displayed in previous years of deep frying "items," but sure as he fried a Mars bar, Charlie Boghosian of Chicken Charlie's is at it again. Deep-Fried Kool-Aid. Add it to more than 100 "original deep-fried items" coined by Charlie, who has become quite famous frying liquids - like Coca-Cola.

At opening weekend of the San Diego County Fair, Charlie sold 1,800 five-piece orders, requiring 150 pounds of Kool-Aid. The recipe is simple: flour, water, and cherry Kool-Aid mix. The batter is scooped and dropped into extremely hot oil then fried until they are lightly browned with a crisp outer layer.

Learn more about Chicken Charlie's and other fried "items" sweeping the nation here and here.

(Thnx, B)

Taco Bell: Dorito Loco Taco

Reports have surfaced that Taco Bell is testing a new product:: Nacho Cheese Doritos Shells. I guess I'm not surprised but I still say: Eww. Read more and watch a video of someone eating the Dorito Loco Taco here.

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

I recently submitted this mantra (post title) for the second edition of Michael Pollan's collection of Food Rules and share it with you today in light of the class action lawsuit against Taco Bell. For those of you who haven't heard about the controversial "meat filling," allow me to summarize.

An Alabama law firm is suing the chain for falsely advertising the substance formerly known as "taco meat filling" as "meat" because the filling is actually only 36% meat and according to USDA standards, "meat" has to be at least 40% meat to be called meat. Yes, only 40%. Eww.

The firm isn't asking for money, just a correction. Want to know what makes up the other 60-64%?

Water, isolated oat product, salt, chili pepper, onion powder, tomato powder, oats (wheat), soy lecithin, sugar, spices, maltodextrin (a polysaccharide that is absorbed as glucose), soybean oil (anti-dusting agent), garlic powder, autolyzed yeast extract, citric acid, caramel color, cocoa powder, silicon dioxide (anti-caking agent), natural flavors, yeast, modified corn starch, natural smoke flavor, salt, sodium phosphate, less than 2% of beef broth, potassium phosphate, and potassium lactate.

Mouth-watering, huh? If you stopped reading that pile of ingredients at maltodextrin, consider visiting this great post on Buzzfeed for an entertaining visual interpretation instead.

Although I have taken issue with Taco Bell ever since they started encouraging the "fourth meal" to boost their own sales and their customers' cravings, I don't know which side of this argument I fall on. On one hand, the fast food chain isn't meeting already pathetic standards for labeling and who-knows-what-else but on the other hand, these tacos cost less than a dollar, right? So what can you really expect? A 99% choice beef taco, handed to you through your window after less than three minutes, still hot and (I hear) delicious for 99 cents? That's sort of unreasonable, don't you think?

Once again: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Sorry, chalupa fans. You get what you pay for.

***UPDATE***

Taco Bell responded to these allegations with the following press release. As usual, the truth is likely somewhere in the middle of the argument. Click here for larger view.

Should have seen this coming...

...someone dressed up as KFC's Double Down. I guess it was for Halloween?? Read more here.

Davies Happy Meal Project

How long does it take a McDonald's Happy Meal to decompose? Sally Davies is doing a photo essay on flickr. It's creepy. And considering that Karen Hanrahan's photo below - of a 1996 burger kept in a regular ol' tupperware container - was taken in 2008, I'm guessing it is going to be a while before we see any significant changes.

The Hamwich

I'm speechless. More here.