by Mike Adams
The blueberries found in blueberry bagels, cereals, breads and muffins are real blueberries right? Wrong! Award-winning investigative journalist Mike Adams, the HealthRanger, exposes the deceptive chemical ingredients and dishonest marketing of “blueberry” products from big-name food and cereal companies. The blueberries, it turns out, are made from artificial colours, hydrogenated oils and liquid sugars. See www.FoodInvestigations.com
Pictures of blueberries are prominently displayed on the front of many food packages and on boxes of muffins, cereals and breads. But turn the packages around and suddenly the blueberries disappear. They’re gone, replaced in the ingredients list with sugars, oils and artificial colours derived from petrochemicals.
This bag of blueberry bagels [featured in the video at www.foodinvestigations.com] sold at Target stores is made with blueberry bits. And while actual blueberries are found further down the ingredients list, the blueberry bits themselves don’t even contain bits of blueberries. They’re made entirely from sugar, corn cereal, modified food starch, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, artificial flavour, cellulose gum, salt and artificial colours like Blue #2, Red #40, Green #3 and Blue #1.
What’s missing from that list? Well, blueberries. Where did the blueberries go?
They certainly didn’t end up in Total Blueberry Pomegranate Cereal. This cereal, made by General Mills, contains neither blueberries nor pomegranates. They’re nowhere to be found. But the cereal is made with red #40, Blue #2 and other artificial colours. And it’s even sweetened with sucralose, a chemical sweetener. And that’s in addition to the sugar, corn syrup and brown sugar syrup that’s already on the label.
A lot of products that imply they’re made with blueberries contain no blueberries at all. And many that do contain a tiny amount of blueberries cut their recipes with artificial blueberry ingredients to make it look like their products contain more blueberries than they really do.
Kellogg’s Blueberry Pop Tarts shows a picture of plump blueberries right on the front of the box. But inside the box, there’s a lot more high fructose corn syrup than actual blueberries. And the corn syrup is given a blueberry colour with the addition of – guess what? – Red #40, Blue #1 and Blue #2 chemicals.
Kellogg’s Frosted Mini Wheats also come in a Blueberry Muffin variety, with fresh blueberries prominently featured on the front of the package. But inside, there are no actual blueberries to be found. Instead, you get “blueberry flavoured crunchlets” – yes, crunchlets – made from sugars, soybean oil, Red #40 and Blue #2.
And, if you can believe it, the side panel of this box features the “Frosted Mini Wheats Bite Size” logo, followed by the words “blueberry muffin” with pictures of blueberries, finally followed by “The Whole Truth.” Except it really isn’t the whole truth at all. It’s more like a half-truth.
These marketing deceptions even continue on Kellogg’s website, where one page claims, “New Special K Blueberry Fruit Crisps are filled with blueberries and drizzled with vanilla icing.” Except they aren’t, really. What they’re really filled with is apple powder, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, fructose, sugar, artificial colours Red #40 and Blue #1, all enhanced with a dash of blueberry puree concentrate.
Even seemingly “healthy” blueberry products can be deceptive. Betty Crocker’s Fiber One Blueberry muffin mix enhances its small amount of actual blueberries with petrochemical colours, too: Red #40, Blue #1 and Blue #2.
At least Betty Crocker’s Blueberry Muffin Mix admits it contains no real blueberries. Well, if you read the fine print, that is. Its ingredients reveal “Artificial blueberry flavor bits” which are made from dextrose, Corn Flour, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Sugar, Citric Acid, Artificial Flavour, and of course the obligatory Blue #1 and Red #40.
When consumers buy blueberry cereals, muffins and mixes, they’re under the impression that they’re buying real blueberries. No ordinary consumer realizes they’re actually buying blue colouring chemicals mixed with hydrogenated oils and liquid sugars. That’s why this common industry practice of faking the blueberries is so deceptive.
Why can’t food companies just be more honest about it? Nature’s Path Organic Optimum Blueberry-Cinnamon Breakfast Cereal contains – get this – both blueberries and cinnamon.
Better yet, you won’t find any red #40, Blue #2 or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils in Nature’s Path products. They even use organic blueberries and organic cinnamon.
Health Valley Low-Fat Blueberry Tarts are also made with real blueberries. You won’t find any artificial colouring chemicals in this box.
So why can’t Kellogg, Betty Crocker, General Mills and Target stores use real blueberries in their products instead of deceptively formulating them with artificial petrochemical colours that mimic the purple colour of blueberries?
It’s probably because real blueberries are expensive. And artificial blueberry bits, made with sugar, partially hydrogenated oils and artificial colours, are dirt-cheap. If these companies can fool consumers into thinking they’re buying real blueberries in their products, they can command a price premium that translates into increased profits.
Once again, in the food industry, deception pays off. And it pays big.
So what can you do to make sure you don’t get scammed by a food company trying to sell you red #40 and Blue #2 as if they were real blueberries? Read the ingredients. If you see artificial colours on the list – and they’re usually found at the very bottom of the ingredients list – just don’t buy that product.
Put it back on the shelf and choose something else that’s not deceptively marketed. And that’s how you solve “the case of the missing blueberries.”
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Mike Adams, also known as the HealthRanger, is the co-creator of NaturalNews.TV, an online resource that shares videos on health, green living, happiness, fitness and self-improvement. It also features Adams’ mini-documentary series Food Investigations where he reveals shocking truths about foods. Adams is also the editor of NaturalNews.com and the co-founder of the non-profit Consumer Wellness Center (www.ConsumerWellness.org).
photo © Olivier Le Queinec