More Easter Candies

April 23, 2011 | DyeDiet

Would Jesus enjoy eating the food dyes?

While Easter is coming closer I keep watching people wiping out egg-shaped candies from Wal-Mart aisles. This has pushed me to write an emergent article explaining to the US public what they actually get inside the funny containers.

Fruit Punch Flip-Flop Lollipop, DDRS ~ 73

What this made in China long name creature of the Galerie USA is? Beware, joyful Christians, the name is lying to you! There are no fruits in the candy. It comes with 6 foreign anti-nutritional additives (red segments, stunning 51 unit!), 1 benign (yellow segment, 5) and 6 nutritional ingredients (green segments, 17) instead. See for yourself:

Again, with this colored food imitation you get high health risk of DDFI = 51/17 = 3 and, of course, low nutritional value, DDNF = 17/56 = 0.3. On the marginal Galerie’s website you can read:

“Galerie provides innovative, quality confectionary gifts delivered with outstanding levels of service that customers LOVE!”

Really? Shame on you, Galerie! If the manufacturer gives me $100 I still don’t want to eat their colored stuff. I wonder why anyone would consider paying a hard-earned buck for 88 g of this nasty composite. The Fruit Punch Flip-Flop Lollipop is nothing but:

Sugar and starch mixed with 5 food dyes plus titanium dioxide.

What would Jesus say if we offer Him a Fruit Punch Flip-Flop Lollipop instead of a real fruit?

Jelly Belly Mix Risk Score, DDRS ~ 169

“Life savers candy Jellybeans, 20 flavors kids love!” is what it says on the Jelly Belly packages. Let us take a look inside the candy.

From its 11 foreign (anti-nutritional) additives (red segments, 89), 9 benign food additives (yellow segments, 32) and 19 nutritional ingredients (green segments, 48) you get moderately high health risk DDFI = 89/48 = 1.8 and low nutritional value, DDNF = 48/121 ~ 0.4 despite multiply fruit concentrates added. Why? Because their overall content does not exceed 2% as it says on the container. Carbohydrates (sugar and starch) form 37 g of the 40 g serving size. This means 40 – 37 = 3 g is what remains for all the rest including food dyes, waxes, emulsifiers, cocoa and juice concentrates. Better than nothing but I would not treat my children to them!

Candy Filled Easter Eggs Risk Score, DDRS ~ 45

This is a KISS product of the Frankford Candy and Chocolate Co. concocted in China with mere TWO nutrients:

Glucose and
Dextrin.

With this awful “dead egg” you get 4 foreign additives (red, 31 unit), 2 benign additives (yellow, 8 ) and only 2 nutritional ingredients (green, 6). You take highest health risk of DDFI = 31/6 ~ 5.2 and you get lowest nutritional value, DDNF = 6/39 ~ 0.15

Again, please note that DDRS values are less useful for the comparison of products with very different ingredients. For those cases DDFI and DDNF are more useful indicators.

DyeDiet comparison chart

Nutrients, g per serving	Flip-Flop Lollipop	Jelly Belly Mix	Candy Filled Easter Eggs
Calories	160	140	160
Total carbs	40	37	40
Sugars	24	28	36
Total fat	0	0	0
Walmart price per container	$1 ^a	$2 ^b	$5 ^c
Overall Health Risk (DDRS)	73	169	45
Food Additive Health Risk (DDFI)	3	1.8	5.2
Nutritional Value (DDNF)	0.3	0.4	0.15
Recommendation	NO	NO	NO

^a) 3.1 OZ, 88 g, serving size 44 g; ^b)6.9 OZ, 195 g, serv. size 40 g; ^c)4.23 OZ, 120 g, serv. size 40 g.

Easy money for the candy industry

Look at the Candy Filled Easter Eggs for the $5 per 120 g container from China; they are not cheap at all! And now we know what a harm they are filled with. Do you still want to pay $5? Consider the below instead.

Based on the facts presented above, you don’t need too much to start your own multi-billion dollar business. What you need is to simply follow the pattern of the US food industry:

Get a 5 US gallons bucket;
A shovel;
A half-bucket of sugar and corn syrup;
A half-bucket of starch and
A glass of water and a few pinches of the food dyes. That is it!

When you are ready, mix it all up and thoroughly stir with the shovel, divide on 200 pieces of ~ 100 g each, dry the stuff for a day, name it “Tip-top lollipop” and sell it for $1 apiece. You will get some 200 – 40 ~ $160 (400%) of pure profit! Note that from one thousand buckets a day, you will get $160K x 30 ~ $5 million a month. Get to work!

I do not think Jesus would be pleased trying either of the above food surrogates. But I am sure, He would not mind to share the Farmer’s Fruit Mix with us for only $2.88 per 12 OZ (340 g).

It is very sweet and bright-colored too but all nutritional. Have a happy Easter!