Blow Teeth Pops
I find it very unfortunate for the American children and disgraceful for the food manufacturers that most of the candies (e. g., like Jolly Rancher) you can buy at Walmart, convenience stores and many grocery stores everywhere in the USA are nothing else but primitive and nasty stuff like these Blow Pop Charms:
DyeDiet Doesn’t Buy It!
Blow Pops: Risk, Nutrition and Dye Content
The ingredients are:
- Sugar
- Corn syrup
- Starch
- Artificial colors, flavors and preservatives.
With every pop you get 60 calories, you take unacceptably high risk with the foreign food additives, DDFI = 32/11 ~ 2.9 (red segments in the diagram) and you get almost no nutrients, DDNF = 11/47 ~ 0.2 (the green segments).
Please note that Sugar = Corn syrup and that sugar and starch are both carbohydrates. So basically these Blow Pops are a bunch of chemically colored and flavored carbs. No fiber, no protein, no vitamins, no minerals.
Americans turned obsessed with the calorie count and the weight loss and those are right things to take care about. But we have to pay attention to what food additives they put into our food too. Here is what your fruity flavors truly are, according to the Wikipedia:
To find out more about other food additives take a look into the following:
- Artificial colorants: read the CSPI report on the, Food Dyes: A Rainbow of Risks and Feingold Association‘s report Behavior, Learning and Health: The Dietary Connection;
- BHT, a questionable preservative. Read Skin Deep about BHT and MSDS for BHT (Section 11 – toxicity);
- Gum base, a synthetic polymer mix;
- Turmeric, a natural, not harmful colorant.
It could be little consolation if we blame China for flooding our country with such wasteful and, very likely, harmful treats. No, not this time! Blow Pop Charms are concocted domestically by the American company, Charms LLC (TN, USA) and for the American kids.
Blow Pops Made in USA
Am I angry? Yes, of course, I am! Because, as a professional chemist, I am sick and tired to see how food industry monetizes on the unawareness of millions of American parents who are not chemists to realize possible health dangers that the dyed sugar-starch candies may pose to their lovely children. On the fruity decorated container it reads:
Fun, Great Tasting Pops with Bubble Gum Inside
Is there a freedom of choice for the American kids to have fun with something less damaging than this?
- Blow Teeth Pop
Let’s resist the “fruit fraud”! Let’s stop blowing the future of this country by systematic undermining health of the American children! (Read Food marketing to children and youth and Diet, ADHD and Behavior). Below is a quotation from recent MSN Health article: Anyone who shops with a child (or several) in tow has to keep an eye out for products the kids grab and toss into the cart. “I always tell parents never to bring a kid to a store,” says Nestle. “The packages with the cartoons on them are often placed on low shelves where even toddlers can reach for them.” A trip down the cereal aisle will confirm this. “Sugary cereals are at kid’s eye level, while the healthier, all-bran options are usually on the highest shelves,” says Tara Gidus, R.D., a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. It’s the same situation at the cash register, where candy and gum are strategically placed to encourage impulse buys by adults and kids can easily grab low-lying products.
Which candy to recommend?
Ironically, another candy from Charms, Tootsie Roll is much less risky but DyeDiet does NOT recommend anything with a foreign additive (red segment in the diagram) in it. Same thing to say about Kraft Caramels or Kit Kat wafers. You may want to look at chocolate candies that are, in general, less risky and more nutritious.
However I would like to gladly recommend fruit snacks like Stretch Island Fruit or Florida’s Natural Au’some Nuggets instead which, if eaten in moderation, will make no harm to you and your children!
Category: Candy, Food Dyes Exposure
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Just another alarmest trying to freak us all out.
Candy is meant to be eaten in moderation. Anyone who consumes the amount of candy to cause the issues described above cannot blame the food industry, they can only blame themselves.
As you can see there are examples of more nutritious candies and different manufacturer’s philosophy too. And, yes, this is up to us to buy or not to buy them but to make right choice we need to know the subject. Secondly, should kids eat those strange artificial colorants if natural alternatives are available?
“Please note that Sugar = Corn syrup and that sugar and starch are both carbohydrates. So basically these Blow Pops are a bunch of chemically colored and flavored carbs. No fiber, no protein, no vitamins, no minerals.”
I think you’re missing the purpose of candy. Blow pops are designed and consumed strictly for pleasure, not for nutrition. They are a treat to be enjoyed, not a source of vitamins, protein, fiber, or nourishment.
Candy is related to nutritional food in that you can eat both and both have flavor, but candy is most ways a non-food item, in the same way that gum is a non-food item. Think of candy as gum that you can swallow. Do you look for slam dunks, zone defense, or three-point shooting in a broadway play? No! You’re wasting your time looking for nutrition in candy. Blow Pops are totally unnatural, the flavor is artificial, but they taste great.
Your nutritional analysis is just totally misplaced. The real issue is the amount of candy consumed, and whether candy is being consumed in lieu of nutritious food. That is an issue that should be taken up with consumers and parents who don’t teach proper nutrition or dental hygiene. Blaming the artificially flavored sugary items themselves borders on absurd.
I love blow pops, they taste so phenomenally delicious that I think it’s a miracle of science. I also run 5 miles at lunch every day and eat mostly organic meat and dairy and consume tons of veggies and drink fruit smoothies most nights for dessert.
I find your whole premise and analysis misplaced and somewhat preachy and irritating. You’ve revealed that artificially-flavored candy is flavored by artificial ingredients or chemicals, but you don’t say what it is that these chemicals do that is harmful. It’s not as if people buy sour apple blow-pops thinking they are getting a granny smith apple. We know it’s artificially-flavored sugar…candy. What’s the problem?
Thank you for bringing up your points! Let me start responding with this: I know what I am talking about.
Is candy fun or food? My answer is candy can be, sometimes it is and it should be the both! Why? Because Food = Nutrients, because sugar is one of the MACRONUTRIENTS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_macronutrients and hence candy is nothing but sugary food. Here is definition of candy from Wikipedia: Confectionery (candy) is the set of food items that are rich in sugar, any one or type of which is called a confection http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confection
Candy is not in our main course, that’s right. But is this necessary that pleasure and enjoyment come along with health damage? No, not at all. You must eat sugar to stay healthy. Hence, if candy is made of sugar and other harmless ingredients, you can experience both pleasure and wellbeing. There is no need to poison sugar with Red 40 to make candy enjoyable. Of course you may harm yourself by overeating, but this is NOT my concern. This is up to you to control yourself. Unfortunately, great majority of candies in America contain additives that far from harmless and consumers do not realize how harmful they can be because lack of education and often because the candy “taste good”. Well, same is true for the American fast food http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_Food_Nation boom which has heavily contributed into poor overall health of the nation after 60 years of our blind “fast food taste good” approach http://www.americashealthrankings.org/
So I do not waste my time looking for nutrition in candy. And if “you think of candy as gum that you can swallow,” what stops you from thinking of a garden hose as chewing gum? Good luck with this kind of philosophy!
Again, you right, eating too many candies or whatever else can harm your health. Guess what; even perfectly nutritious food is toxic if overly consumed http://www.dyediet.com/2011/04/17/food-and-risk/food-toxicity-and-moderation/ But I am here not for spoon feeding you, people. I am here to explain why certain chemical additive makes the whole product crap, no matter how “great it tastes.” With every Blow Pop candy you allow in your blood stream potentially harmful Red 40 azo dye and Blue 1 aniline dye and BHT phenol based preservative. Azo dyes are oxidants that after being metabolized by your liver produce carcinogenic anilines http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aniline and benzidines http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzidine. On the way to this end they generate free radicals which may bring damage to your body cells too. But I cannot repeat time after time all the same in every post. If you carefully follow the links you will find PDF files and answers to your questions.
And of course, I don’t blame candies, I do blame manufacturers who put attractive fruity pictures to their products that filled with ugly chemicals instead. This is the lie that I will never accept. Yet I know that so many young moms buy candies for their lovely children sincerely believing that colors of jelly worms come from real fruits… By doing so they keep encouraging the manufacturers to produce more of their unhealthy crap. This is the problem and my efforts are devoted to help solving it!
Looks like you conduct healthy lifestyle and you aren’t the one who substitute Diet Coke for water. That’s great! You also clearly realize the harm and risks you take with your lollipops. Maybe you don’t need my help. But I don’t understand why you want to take those chances with carcinogens and free radicals? If you know what you are looking for you may like Liberty Orchards http://www.libertyorchards.com/product/Aplets_and_Cotlets/Aplets_and_Cotlets candy that are all in one: enjoyable, nutritious and healthy if eaten in moderation. Thank you again, and good luck!
Why do you call them Blow TEETH Pops?
Because they blow your teeth over time. I tried to be sarcastic…
What does blow teeth mean?
Have you ever seen Jolly Rancher Crunch And Chew? It can also blow your teeth (because you have to crunch through the hard candy to get to the soft center) and it has sulfur dioxide (preservative).