Told people that there were beaver glands in the

Told people that there were beaver glands in the sundae
 Beavers have glands called castoreum
 Industries raise beavers for their pelts but cannot waste other parts
of the beaver & a chemical analysis shows that the glands contain a
variety of compounds which have a pleasant taste/smell
 Can be used in castoreum-based perfume
 Some of the compounds can be converted into food additives which
mimic vanilla flavoring
 THIS IS NO LONGER DONE. CHEAPER TO USE FOR EX. WOOD PULP
o Told people that there was shellac in it
 The bits of candy put on the Sunday are often coated with shellac

 Shellac is an exudate of the Indian lac bug
 Shellac is also known as a substance you put on furniture
o Told people that there is human hair in it
 Cysteine is an amino acid that can come from any protein source
 Possible to get from goose down, duck feathers & even human hair
 Origin doesn’t matter! It’s just an amino acid
 Sold as antioxidant (can be made from feathers or hair or etc!)
o Idea is that people get revolted & turn to eating veggies instead
 Claims that if you can’t pronounce the ingredients, it’s not a good sign
 Claims that his demonstrations are scientific; they’re not.
 The motive is good, however
°
° PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)
 Claims pregnant women who eat buffalo wings will give birth to boys with
shorter penises
o Chemical analysis of chicken wings reveals small amounts of phthalates
o Phthalates are plasticizing agents; used in food wrapping materials
o Used in the workers’ gloves who wear polyvinyl chloride gloves
o True that there are studies that have looked at penis size & anogenital
distance in boys & its relationship to exposure to phthalate
o But the amounts found on the chicken wings are trace amounts!
 Better to not eat a lot of chicken wings for their high fat & salt content
°
° Margarine
 1 molecule away from plastic? MEANINGLESS
o Ethanol is 1 molecule away from ethylene; doesn’t mean anything
o Hydrogen peroxide (H
2
O
2
) 1 molecule away from H
2
O
o Margarine is essentially fat; consists of fatty acids attached to glycerol
o Has nothing to do with plastic!
 First developed to fatten up turkeys? FALSE
°
° Alkaline Diet
 There are books that tell you that virtually any disease is curable with an
alkaline diet
 Books will tell you over-acidification is the root of all our problems
o Uses pseudoscientific lingo

 Chronically over-acidic pH corrodes body tissue slowly, eating into
the 60,000 miles of veins & arteries. If left unchecked, it will
interrupt all cellular activities & functions
 Claim that overweight is an over-acidification problem
o Cannot be true; our blood has a buffering system (pH ~7.3)
 Neutralizes excess alkali/acid
o Urine is the only bodily fluid that can be affected in significant way by diet
o Talks about Otto Warburg who got a Nobel in the 1920s for studying the
multiplication of cancer cells & its nature to multiply faster in acidic
environments
 Doesn’t tell you the important details, of course
 There are products that will make your water alkaline; pricey!