15 Things You’ll Never Eat Once You Know What They’re Made Of!

15 Things You’ll Never Eat Once You Know What They’re Made Of! #15. “Hot Dogs”- If you’ve ever read “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair you’ll know that one of America’s favorite summertime foods is made of a gross mixture of weird, debatably edible ingredients. What the hot dog industry calls “mechanically separated meat” is truly just the leftover bits beef and pork that have been pureed into a paste that almost resembles soft-serve ice-cream. The leftover bits consists of everything from bones, beaks and cartilage. The fancy meat puree is then mixed with corn syrup and starch filler, shot into cellulose casings, sprayed with imitation smoke flavoring, baked and then soaked in saltwater. What’s even more delicious is sometimes during the process, bits of rats and random possibly hazardous objects such as metal get into the mix. This may be why the World Health Organization has labeled hot dogs as carcinogenic on the same list with other healthy treats like formaldehyde and tobacco. But what’s a ball game without a little bird-beak-rat tail-aluminum sausage? #14. “Bubble Gum”- You might have heard of the substance lanolin, a type of oil that is excreted by a sheep in order to make their wool slick so that it doesn’t get waterlogged in the rain. This waxy oil is often used in making hand lotions, lip balms and in shaving cream but it is also used in chewing gum. Chewing gum manufacturers use lanolin in their products in order to make the gum stay soft and chewy longer. #13. “Worcestershire Sauce”- Many people gag at the thought of anchovies on their pizza but may enjoy some juicy prime rib with worcestershire sauce. So what’s wrong with this picture? It just so happens that one of the main ingredients in this unique sauce is anchovies, the tiny salty fish found all over the world. Worcestershire sauce isn’t the only dish that anchovies are secretly lurking in, they are also common in a french style mayonnaise called remoulade and in Caesar salad dressing by way of worcestershire sauce. If you love the sauce in your bloody mary or meatloaf, but this fishy news has your stomach turning, you are in luck, companies have started making worcestershire without anchovies. But be forewarned, it just doesn’t taste the same. #12. “Gummy Bears”-The main ingredient in these fun and colorful candies is something called gelatin. Yes, the same gelatin that goes into Jell-O and a wide variety of other savory candies. But what is gelatin made of? Turns out that the chewy gummi stuff that looks like it comes from a far off candy planet is actually a manmade combination of the skin, bones and cartilage of cows and pigs. These unwanted materials, leftover after the meat is stripped are turned into an oozy mix after a long process of high temperature boiling which becomes gelatin once it cools. Gelatin in the raw is mostly flavorless so lots of sugar, syrup and dye are added to turn what was once garbage pork into sweet teddy bear treats. #11. “Non-Dairy Coffee Creamers”- These products that can make an average cup of coffee into a sweet treat may be one of the least natural and most misleading products in grocery aisles today. Not only do they contain such easy ingredients to pronounce as carrageenan, a type of seaweed that the stomach can’t digest; dipotassium phosphate, which is commonly used in fertilizer and sodium caseinate, a milk derivative that is created using the extremely dangerous hydrochloric acid--they also contain silicon dioxide which some may know as powdered glass and normal people know as sand. In coffee creamers silicon dioxide is used as an anti-caking agent which prevents the creamer from clumping. But creamers aren’t the only food products that contain silicon dioxide, it is commonly used in sauces, spice packets, granola bars, and fast-food soups most notably Wendy’s chili. #10. “Red-Food Coloring”- Like many additives and dyes used commercially nowadays one of the most common red-food colorings comes from a bizarre source. The substance carminic acid has been used in everything from yogurt, popsicles and ketchup to Starbucks’ strawberry frapuccinos as red food dye. So what is it? Also known as cochineal extract, carmine is obtained when an insect called the cochineal (which makes its home on cacti in North American deserts) is dried and crushed into a vibrant red powder, water is added and there you have it: red food coloring. This type of dye making is nothing new as people have been using various bugs, plants and animals to obtain specific colors for thousands of years. That being said, once people found out this bug was being used in their beloved Starbucks’ drink they freaked out and Starbucks stopped using it in 2012. #9. “Barbacoa ”-If you have ever been to a traditional Mexican restaurant and dined on the tender meat known as barbacoa, guess what? You have might have eaten cow face! Barbacoa is the Spanish word from which the English word barbecue is derived so it can be made from a variety of cuts of meat. One of the most common types of Barbacoa is Barbacoa de Cabeza or barbecue from the head. This tender meat is traditionally made from taking the cheeks and other soft parts of a cow or sheep’s face and then steaming it. In the United States the laws only allow for a certain amount of face in barbacoa, so chain restaurants like Chipotle tend to use other cuts of beef, but if you find the right place you will get the real deal. If you happen to travel to Central Mexico you can find barbacoa that been boiled along with the animal’s stomach that is stuffed with the rest of the its organs. #8. “Guinness”- If you are vegan and ever enjoyed a nice Guinness on St. Patrick’s day you might kick yourself after hearing this. Guinness is made using meat! No, there won’t be any chunks of cow-face floating around in it, the culprit here is a substance called Isinglass . Isinglass is a type of collagen that comes from the dried swim bladders of fish and it is used as a fining agent in several types of wine and beer most notably beers from the United Kingdom. During the brewing process isinglass is added in order to break up chunks of matter that form in the brewing vat. Luckily, during the process most of the isinglass inevitably sinks to the bottom where it is easily separated. #7. “Blueberry Muffins”- This one doesn’t really have the gross-out factor but it does register high on the let-down meter. If you enjoy blueberry pancakes made from the box, blueberry muffins at your local coffee shop, or even blueberry-pie-flavored yogurt we hate to be the ones to break it to you, but, those probably aren’t real blueberries. Yes, for years now this widespread epidemic of fake blueberries has run rampant across all types of supposed blueberry foods. So what are these blue-colored impostors? Sometimes they do have small bits of blueberry or cranberries colored blue, but for the most part they are just sugar, starch and blueberry flavoring. Even the so called fresh baked champion Panera bread has been caught using feaux-berries in their bagels. Though in their defence, they use real blueberries in their scones and muffins. The lesson? If it doesn’t say contains real fruit on the box, those pancakes are probably just full of sugary lies. #6. “Bacon Bits”- One would think that the main ingredient in store-bought bacon-bits would be bacon, right? The truth is many types of bacon-bits sold at the grocery store or used at restaurant salad bars don’t actually contain any bacon whatsoever. If you look at the packaging you might see the words ‘imitation bacon’. In these products, what looks and tastes like salty bacon crumbles is actually something called T.V.P. which stands for textured vegetable protein which is made from soy flour. In order to make them taste like bacon, these tiny bits of T.V.P are colored red, salted and sprayed with liquid smoke. There are some bacon bits that are made with a mix of real meat and T.V.P.--so make sure you check before pranking your vegan friends. #5. “Sweetbreads”- Sweetbreads makes the list mainly due to its misleading name. This savory meat dish that looks like a cross between popcorn chicken and a chinese chicken dish has been a staple of English cuisine for centuries. So what it is? Sweetbreads are the cooked pancreas or thymus gland of a lamb or calf. Eating these organs may sound off-putting but the fact is they are a rich, tender and luscious dish that almost melts in your mouth. So why the misleading name? Well the term comes from the fact that sweetbreads are usually a little sweeter than most meats and the bread part is actually derived from the Old English word braed which means ‘flesh’. #4. “Jelly Beans”- Have you ever wondered what makes jelly beans so shiny and smooth? Did you ever think that it was because of secretions of a bug native to Thailand? Yes, the product known as confectioner’s glaze used in jelly beans, candy corn and cotton candy among others, also known as shellac comes from the female Kerria Iacca . The females of the species excrete shellac along tree branches as they move along, creating tunnels of the shiny waxy material. The shellac is collected and then used to shine up everything from furniture, pills, apples and of course candy. #3. “Menudo”-Menudo isn’t just the latin boy band that gave us Ricky Martin it’s also a traditional Mexican soup. You may have enjoyed this before and not realized that it was more than just a south of the border style stew it actually harbors some strange ingredients. Menudo is a steamy combination of leftover cow or sheep trimmings such as feet, brain and intestines. But the main ingredient is usually tripe which is the stomach of a cow or sheep.The meat is cooked in a giant pot for hours with vegetables and spices such as chili powder and cilantro. Menudo is commonly served as a breakfast dish and is also used as a hangover cure. #2. “Canned Mushrooms”- If you’ve ever used a can of mushrooms for a pasta dish or in making a delicious soup you’d probably be shocked to hear that you may have eaten a maggot or twenty. According to FDA regulations canned mushrooms are allowed to have up to 19 of these juicy baby flies and up to 74 mites. Though a disgusting thought, this is actually not an uncommon type of stance for the FDA as they allow certain numbers of bugs and other aesthetically gross things into a number of products as long at they aren’t harmful or excessive. For example: cocoa beans can have up to 10 milligrams of rat feces, ground oregano can contain upwards of 1,200 insect parts per 10 grams and canned citrus juice can have up to one maggot for every 250 milliliters. #1. “Natural Flavoring”- What do Raspberry Ice Tea, Vanilla Ice Cream and the territorial markings of a beaver have in common? Castoreum. Castoreum is an excretion that comes from the *** glands of a beaver and is used by beavers to claim what’s theirs. It is also used as a natural flavoring substitute mainly for that of vanilla and various berries. Castoreum for years was also a main ingredient in several perfumes. Luckily, because it is very hard to come by and the process of milking it is a little awkward for the beaver, castoreum isn’t used as prominently as it once was. However, you never know who might still be using it, because by using the term “natural flavoring” companies can get away without mentioning castoreum by name.