Bait and switch to a whole new level

So one of today's stories on Good Morning America was on "fake" foods. I watched with interest, wondering if they'd actually cover anything with substance and I was shocked. They covered the issue of olive oils being "faked" with soybean oil. I actually gasped. Yes I did! If you are a follower of my blog, you know I avoid soy, no soybeans, so soybean oil, so soy lecithin, well you get the idea. To think the "olive oil" that I have been cooking with has really been soybean oil makes me spitting mad. It really does. This goes beyond even the usual slithery snakiness of food producers. The caveat was that most "bargain" brands could have been up to 90% soybean oil and yet labeled as olive oil. What are we to do? Shall we all set up labs in our homes to test products to make sure the things we bring home are true? And in this day of over priced everything, how can families NOT shop at bargain stores?? We are trying to go as organic as possible but we can't buy EVERYTHING organic! Then they touched on fish. I have known for a long time restaurants commonly do the bait and switch (yes pun intended) on your seafood order. You order an expensive, wild caught fish and what you really get is a cheap, farm raised tilapia or something like that. This happens with sushi all the time too. Even products labeled as wild caught salmon that you prepare yourself have been shown to be cheap, farm raised salmon with dyes and tons of toxins (PCBs). How can you tell? Does your salmon fade in color when its cooked? If it gets lighter when it is cooked, it is sure to be cheap farm raised, regardless of what the package said or how much you paid. The dyes fade in cooking. Isn't it lovely that we have come down to dying our fish to LOOK like real salmon. Disgusting. So buyer beware, seriously. If that 15 gallon vat of olive oil is $5.99 vs. $16.99 for a 32 oz bottle of name brand olive oil, you may want to spend the extra money if you are like us and want true olive oil and all the benefits. The news story said the FDA just doesn't have the resources to keep track of these issues......really?? They are too busy taking money from the dairy industry, artificial sweetener industry, corn industry and big cattle farmers and trying to push all those products, literally, down our throats and then counting their bribe money I guess......

On a related note, has anyone seen the absolutely ridiculous commercial about corn syrup? It goes a little something like this:

Two young lovers laying on a blanket in a park together, sharing a little afternoon picnic. The woman leans over to share some of her popsicle with her sweetheart. He looks at the popsicle in horror and asks "don't you love me?". She leans back shocked and says "well of course I do, why do you ask". "well" he says "that popsicle has corn syrup and you know what they say about corn syrup....." His sentance drops off like his brain has just seized up with too many trans fats. The woman has a condescending expression on her face as she realizes he can't substantiate his fear of this harmless corn syrup. She zings back "Corn syrup has the same amount of sugar as regular sugar and in moderation is just fine for you". He sighs a big sigh of relief and they turn their sparkly smiles towards the camera....meanwhile the bottom caption says

"sponsored by the corn refiners association"

Really??? Who could have guessed that this propaganda was being spread by the folks most hurt by America's wakeup call to these awful ingredients. Are we all that stupid? They must think so. I hope no one is fooled by this. Seriously. Between the sugar free products, the "corn syrup is safe" ads, ads for drugs, and the ads about fast food, I am sick, sick, sick of commercials. There has not been one commercial about anything really good for your health. I guess that is just another reason why TV plays such a big role in obesity in our country. So please don't be fooled. Do your own research and then see if you feel comfortable feeding this stuff to your family. I am confident once you know the true story that answer will be no.