Free Republic

Monosodium glutamate is deeply misunderstood, experts reveal.Few ingredients inspire as much fear as MSG, or monosodium glutamate. While an overtly chemical name and a similarity in appearance to salt certainly don’t help its case, the food additive is especially reviled because some people believe that consuming it causes a slew of symptoms, from headache to palpitations to numbness. But is MSG actually bad for you? Monosodium glutamate has a terrible rap due to decades of anecdotal reports and xenophobia—but it’s probably nowhere near as detrimental to your health as you think. Here’s everything you need to know about the misunderstood...

Give us this day our daily foam expander. It may sound odd, but in America, your loaf of bread can contain ingredients with industrial applications – additives that also appear in things like yoga mats, pesticides, hair straighteners, explosives and petroleum products. Some of these chemicals, used as optional whiteners, dough conditioners and rising agents, may be harmful to human health. Potassium bromate, a potent oxidizer that helps bread rise, has been linked to kidney and thyroid cancers in rodents. Azodicarbonamide (ACA), a chemical that forms bubbles in foams and plastics like vinyl, is used to bleach and leaven dough...

Lauren Fix, “The Car Coach” is a competitive race car racer, a mom, and America’s top woman in automotive news. She explains E15, and why it will invalidate the warranty for most cars.

Here’s some food for thought about what’s in your pantry. And that’s blueberries. Or “little blue dynamos”, as the folks at the US Highbush Blueberry Council like to call them. Not only are they blue, but they are good for you, too. Good for your heart, good for your brain, good for your liver, and may reduce your risk for cancer. But that only works if they are the real deal, and you probably will not find them in that blueberry muffin mix on your pantry shelf. The Food Identify Theft blog claims most mixes are “just plain awful.” But...

GM Debate Not Settled, Say European Scientists Controversy erupts after World Food Prize awarded to Monsanto By Justina Reichel, Epoch Times | October 24, 2013 In the wake of biotech giants Monsanto and Syngenta being awarded the World Food Prize, a European coalition of scientists is challenging claims that the debate around genetically modified foods is settled and that GM foods are safe. The European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility, which consists of more than 90 scientists, academics, and physicians, released a statement Monday in response to “sweeping claims” that GM products are safe. “We strongly reject...

Listening to Midnight Trucking Radio just now, and they have a guy on talking about an engine lubricant product called Motorkote. He talked it up so well, that I got curious and went to their website to have a look. I read through the testimonials for the product on their site, and I've gotta say, this stuff sounds terrific. Truckers and normal auto owners say all sorts of great things about the stuff. Anyone using this stuff, or have you ever heard of it?

Thursday, May 31, 2007 By Steve Ettlinger Los Angeles Times When I began researching the ingredients for Twinkies, I naively thought that their raw materials were extracted from nuts, beans, fruit, seeds or leaves, and that they came from the United States. I was looking to link places with foods -- along the lines of California wine or Maine lobster, but for thiamine mononitrate. It turned out that I was way off. Although eight of the ingredients in the beloved little snack cake come from domestic corn and three from soybeans, there are others -- including thiamine mononitrate -- that...

We often think of food additives as complex chemical substances produced by modern society. However, food additives date from ancient times. Early people used salt to preserve meat and fish, herbs and spices to season foods, sugar to preserve fruits, and vinegar to pickle cucumbers. Today American food manufacturers use about 3,000 direct food additives. Some of these additives sound familiar: salt, sugar, yeast and vanilla. Others have complex scientific names that may sound unfamiliar: ascorbic acid, butylated hydroxyanisol (BHA), sodium benzoate, sodium erythorbate and carrageenan. Whether familiar, all food additives are useful and must be approved by the Food...

FBI scientist Douglas Beecher's report says he found NO additive in the Anthrax preparation he tested-only pure spores. The US Armed Forces Institute of Pathology says they examined the same specimens-and found silica in them. I believe both were reporting in good faith.

Automakers, oil industry in fuel fight Car companies want more gas additives By STEVE EVERLY The Kansas City Star “Frankly, we didn't want too much input.” Andrew Buczynsky of GM, about the new fuel standards Some members of Big Auto and Big Oil are at loggerheads over the quality of gasoline pumped into automobiles in this country. A consortium of major automakers, citing persistent repair problems and troubling product tests, recently concluded that the quality of U.S. gasoline varies widely and often doesn't burn clean enough to keep engines running smoothly. And now, in a move that is roiling much...

Consumers are bracing to pay more at the pumps when a ban on a controversial gas additive takes effect Thursday.Local gas suppliers are replacing MTBE, an additive designed to cut air pollution that was found to contaminate drinking water, with other additives such as ethanol, a corn-based fuel. The Capital Region's gas retailers say that the switch in additives is largely complete, but they're warning consumers to expect price hikes.No one knows exactly what to expect. But prices at Stewart's gas stations are going up about 5 cents per gallon immediately, with short-lived increases of 10 cents more if the...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - A gasoline additive once lauded for cleaning up the air is being phased out because it's also contaminating drinking water. Now its producers want Congress to protect them against what could be billions of dollars in cleanup costs.</p>