Fake Food – The Whipped Topping Adventure

Whew! December and the mad food rush is over. December more than any other month seems to be a minefield of fake food because it is the month of parties. The pressure from relatives, friends and colleagues to let loose and enjoy the season and all of the food can be huge, and in the America of increasing obesity and disease, the choices we make are significant. My goal is to give some provocative thoughts about a fake food that crossed my family’s path this past holiday season: Whipped Topping.

Colson (age 7) and I decided to undertake an informal study of a store brand’s Whipped Topping (which is very similar to Cool Whip). Our study took some unexpected turns, and it was fun. The Whipped Topping label lists the ingredients as:

• Hydrogenated vegetable oils (coconut and palm kernel oils)

• Corn syrup

• High fructose corn syrup

• Contains less than 2% of the following: Sodium Caseinate, artificial flavor, polysorbate 60, sorbitan monostrearate, guar gum, xanthan gum, beta carotene (for color).

To me these ingredients say: Heart Disease, Cancer, Diabetes, Premature Aging, ADHD and more.

Day 1

Here is a picture of Colson’s whipped topping display, Day 1, on December 15, 2010 (Note the marshmallow snowmen he inserted).

Our plan was to wait for some unspecified period of time and observe what would happen. The next day it occurred to me that we should purchase some Real Whipped Cream and compare the two.

Day 2

Here they are side by side – Real Whipped Cream and Whipped Topping on December 16, 2010. While it is not overly apparent from this top view, the real whipped cream had height and peaks.

 

Days 3 and 4

Now for the fun to begin. We waited three days and you can see the results below. At Day 3 the real whipped cream is flattening out and turning yellow and the Whipped Topping (on Day 4) is maintaining its grandeur:

Day 13

Day 13 for the Real Whipped Cream (December 28, 2010), and it is beginning to crack, turn yellow and develop some mold, but the Whipped Topping looks unchanged.

Real whipped cream is on the left:

 

Real whipped cream is on the left:

Real whipped cream dehydrating and cracking:

 

By Day 13 my husband was complaining about the pungent, dirty sock-like smell of the Real Whipped Cream and said that the experiment must come to an end. The Whipped Topping still smelled fresh and sweet in an artificially flavored way.

Days 13 - 17

Determined not to have Colson’s and my experiment prematurely end, I covertly moved the Real Whipped Cream to the office (where it was eventually evicted) and then to a cabinet under the sink, where it was discovered a few days later. Out of hiding places, I was left with no choice but to end the real whipped cream portion of the experiment.

Wow. The real whipped cream stunk like nothing else once we broke it open on Day 17 (January 1, 2011). Look at the colors, which were an unexpected bonus, and those black and brown mold blobs were – well, just wow.

Day 27

Now flash forward to January 10, 2011, or Day 27, for the Whipped Topping. It was as fresh looking as Day 1 and maintained its sweet smell. I broke it open and not a change in color occurred. The sweet surface smell was replaced by a very strong odor of ammonia:

Things that Make You Go Yuck

So the question becomes, why should we eat this stuff when fungus won’t? Clearly it isn’t food-like, it promotes illness and death, and yet according to Diet Television and others sources, “Americans eat enough Kraft Cool Whip annually to fill the Grand Canyon Grand Canyon." While I find this statement seriously hard to believe and have been unable to verify it independently, the fact that Americans eat a lot of Whipped Topping is undeniable.

Is eating Whipped Topping worth it? And what about other fake foods, like margarine, cheese spread, or heavily processed white bread? Should you or your loved one eat those “foods” regularly, just on special occasions, or not at all? Who should eat better – a fungus or a human?

These answers are all individual, of course, and that last question is admittedly snarky.  Making the break from fake foods can be tough. They have been engineered to be addictive, as detailed in Dr. David Kessler’s book The End to Overeating. Dr. Kessler was the head of the Food and Drug Administration during the most recent Bush administration. He clearly explains how America’s food corporations work to enslave people to manufactured foods.

If you are struggling with a desire for fake foods, you can make the break. These posts will help you get started: Five First Steps To Better Health and It is All About the Broth!

Namaste!

Comments

[Donna]

Great experiment and thanks for sharing and putting up with the smells. If the "whipped topping" won't break down the in air even after 30 days, how long would it stay in our digestive systems? Or would it just be expelled as non-digestible? I used to love Cool Whip in my pre-WAPF days and it gives me the creeps now even more so.

[Laura Combs]

Thanks for reading, Donna!

It totally creeps me out when I think of how much of that stuff I ate! I guess that shows how resilient we are. Long live real food!

[Elizabeth]

Wow! Great experiment. I don't understand why people buy cool whip, really, it is so easy to make your own whipped cream. Though I have a hard time finding heavy cream without additives at certain stores.