Don't Trust the Skinny Cow! by Josh Bezoni

It’s like summer here in Austin, Texas. Today is 85 degrees and life is good. In fact, it’s so good that yesterday after work I took a break with a friend to go jet skiing on Lake Travis. After a few hours of fun in the sun we got back to the marina and we were both extremely hungry (I should have brought a snack along with me but forgot). Inside the marina there is a convenience store and my friend said he wanted a healthy treat because we had been “working” so hard that afternoon. He reached inside the frozen food case and pulled out a Skinny Cow vanilla ice cream sandwich made by Nestle .

He looked at me and said, “Hey this is healthy. It’s only got 140 calories, 1.5 grams of fat and 3 grams of fiber. It says it right here on the label.” However, upon further review of the back of the label (there was a convenient fold covering up all of the unflattering nutrition information) this small ice cream sandwich is STUFFED with chemicals I call obesity additives. Here are the whopping 33 ingredients and my comments after some of them: 1. Skim milk 2. Bleached wheat flour (acts like sugar in the body) 3. Sugar (the main cause of belly fat) 4. Caramel color (the same junk they color soft drinks with) 5. Dextrose (sugar) 6. Palm oil 7. Corn flour 8. High fructose corn syrup (causes extreme cravings) 9. Corn syrup (ditto) 10. Baking soda 11. Modified corn starch 12. Mono and diglycerides 13. Soy lecithin (much of this has MSG hidden in it) 14. Cocoa 15. Sugar (again) 16. Corn syrup (again) 17. Polydextrose (sugar) 18. Whey protein 19. Cream 20. Calcium carbonate 21. Inulin 22. Natural flavor (this is a joke considering all the unnatural flavors) 23. Propylene glycol monostearate (ugh… more on this below) 24. Microcrystalline cellulose 25. Sodium carboxymethylcellulose (that’s a mouthful) 26. Guar gum 27. Monoglycerides 28. Sorbitol (a sugar alcohol) 29. Carob bean gum 30. Citric acid 31. Vitamin A palmitate 32. Carrageenan (a seaweed extract) 33. Salt So as you can see, this may be a low fat ice cream sandwich, but don’t think for a second that this “Skinny Cow” is a healthy food choice that’s going to help you or your family lose flab. This is a nutrient dead “Frankenfood.” By this I mean that it’s not even a real food, it’s just a chemically-altered food-like substance. They should call it “dead meat” instead of “skinny cow”. And it gets worse: Propylene Glycol Monostearate (ingredient #23) is found… • As a working fluid in hydraulic presses • As a coolant in liquid cooling systems • To regulate humidity in a cigar humidor • As the killing and preserving agent in pitfall traps, usually used to capture ground beetles • As an additive to pipe tobacco to prevent dehydration • To treat livestock ketosis • As the main ingredient in deodorant sticks • As a solvent used in mixing photographic chemicals, such as film developers • As an ingredient in the production of paintballs Source: Wikipedia.com The College of Health and Human Sciences at Oregon State says this about propylene glycol monostearate: “Slightly more toxic than propylene glycol in animals, and in large doses produces central nervous system depression and kidney injury." Yumbo! (I have two new articles on She Budgets! On Monday you can read about not giving up on your goals! Click the button on your right to read them)