Whats in gum anyway?

After going "organic" and having a bunch of good days of 'clean' eating, (and a darling husband trying to comply- after cutely suggesting that we solely exist on water once i told him what was in his food....) ..I admit- i am really really feeling good, and well- cleaner! This must be what my sister was talking about when she spent the summer in Italy a few years ago. I went into a gas station to pick up a lottery ticket tonight, and decided to grab a pack of Trident gum, along with some brownie coated walnuts (yeah- it wasnt meant to be read on..). So, I get in the car, and while DH is pumping the gas (such a sweetiepie), i started reading the ingredients. Well, first off, I notice- the date on the Walnut pack reads: Sell by: June 23, 2006.!? OK, well thats old. And nuts have a short shelf life to begin with- so I brought those back in to exchange for some honey roasted cashews b/c the date on ALL the nuts was bad.
On the ride home, i popped in a piece of this new Cool Colada Trident white gum- yummy at first, but then, I started having a funny reaction..i felt panicky, and felt like i was having an anxiety attack. So i spit out the gum, and looked at the ingredients. A nice cocktail of wax, rubber and chemicals, oh and dont forget the laxitives to boot. mmmm good. ....and then i notice that it has this "milk derived" ingredient Calcium casein peptone stuff... Hm.... Milk? in gum? Then, it it says its to check the website to see how it magically whitens teeth. Wow- basically- its calcium casein.... a highly allergenic milk protein/binder. So- i check the website to see how amazing these claims are (www.tridentgum.com to see for yourself how magical) i didnt find much info there, but i did go to: http://www.tridentoralcare.com/faq.html which they are bragging about the amazing ingredient that supposedly cleans and strengthens teeth. Hm- how much of this stuff is actually in this piece of gum. and is it going to really strengthen teeth, that little bit? But the negatives of course, are that casein. Which is a cheap way to incorporate calcium into the gum- but Here is some interesting info i found on casein in whole milk:

  MILK: 87% of milk is water.  That makes it VERY expensive water.

Broken down into its basic groups... WHOLE MILK is:

WATER   FAT   CASEIN    OTHER     OTHER
                      PROTEIN
87%    3.25%    4%       1%       4.75

(note: that is 3.25% "milkfat" which includes the 87% water.)

80% of the protein in milk is casein.  Casein is a powerful binder... a
polymer used to make plastics... and a glue that is better used to make
sturdy furniture or hold beer bottle labels in place.  It is in
thousands of processed foods as a binder... as "something" caseinate.

Casein is a powerful allergen... a histamine that creates lots of
mucus.  The only medicine in Olympic athlete Flo-Jo's body was Benedryl,
a power antihistamine she took to combat her last meal... pizza.  (1)

(1) http://www.dorway.com/milkinfo.txt

So I then decide to research this amazing trademarked product-

What is Recaldent^® ?
Recaldent^® is an ingredient derived from casein (pronounced kay-seen), part of the protein found in cow's milk. Its technical name is casein phosphopeptides-amorphous calcium phosphate, or CPP-ACP.

How does Trident White^® whiten and strengthen teeth?
Trident White is made with a proprietary whitening technology and Recaldent^®, a milk-derived ingredient that strengthens teeth.

WOW- its amazing, and magical!!!!! You should try it sometime (at your own risk of course).

So- that is whats peeving me tonight. Im trying to eat clean, and I end up ingesting enough poisons and crap to undo all the good eating over the past few days. Its amazing how hard it is to avoid the crap- its literally oozing out of the stores, markets, gas markets, handistops- its all around us.

What can we do? Boycott Boycott Boycottt!!!!!!!!!! If there is something i learned from College- Supply must meet Demand to stabilize an economy. If enough of us DEMAND that we are not fed these poisons and that we actually have standards for what goes into our bodies, they must change their cocktails to better stuff that wont kill us.

So- its your call, but - we can make a difference- one by one- if we convert to organic, natural foods, they will have NO CHOICE BUT TO CHANGE- even if it is more expensive. They are just being GREEDY- dont feed into it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:) enough for now.