Happy Valentine's Day, in case you celebrate the beheading of a saintly person. Okay, that sounds worse than I meant it to. Still, it's true. As he has been known for some time, St. Valentine was a man who was imprisoned for his beliefs and then beheaded. He was also kind enough to listen and do what he could for a couple young people in love (if I remember the tale correctly), and that is why he is now celebrated on his own saint's day and it's celebrated as a day of love. Of course, there are many kinds of love - familial love, romantic love, life-long-soulmate-love, friend-love, in-love-with-one's-children-love, love of one's companion animals, love of chocolate, love of snowflakes, love of yellow-colored foods.... you name it.
Now while there is lots and lots of commercialism related to this holiday, there is a lot of red. And pink. And purple now. And white. etc, etc. Oh, and glitter, too. But if you're vegetarian, like me, or vegan, red-colored processed foods are NOT in our you-love-me-and-got-me-a-treat-okay-for-me-to-eat vocab, but unfortunately, I don't think many people actually realize this. For me, I've been ovo-lacto-vegetarian for over a decade now, but I didn't really pay attention or care too much about some of the potentially-hyped-as-nasty ingredients. Well, I finally care. None of the FD&C dyes are exactly 'safe' because of the various chemicals in them, and as you ought to realize, the FDA doesn't have a lot of support/funding/oversight over U.S. foodstuffs. They are one to go with ideology when it comes to foods - if it isn't found otherwise, it's safe. Think BPA (lines all canned food cans, many hard plastic food containers, pop bottles, water bottles, etc.). Think GMOs - something that several other countries have BANNED the use of, but we're still being used as human guinea pigs. Think of the thousands of other chemicals, pesticides, and unnatural items that we're exposed to daily just in our food supply... Uck! The FDA is also one to have a 'generally considered safe' list, which includes at least a hundred items that don't have to be listed on our food labels. Personally, I want to know what those unlisted ingredients are and in what foods of mine they might be found. Even if it's something as "harmless" as black pepper, I want to know because both of my parents are sensitive/allergic to black pepper and I don't want to accidentally serve them something that will devastate their aging bodies with something like hemorrhoids.
Hah, all of this because I've officially decided to give up all FD&C dyes. This includes for my little family. As a vegetarian, I don't care to eat foods/dyes processed from insects, dead beetles, or other animals. No, thank you. I will start making my own food colorings from now on. Big Yes, thank you to others who've recognized this for some time and done something about it, such as Wee Can Too. (I love their chalks, btw!)
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