Vol. 8, No. 5, 1991

Articles on Cults and New Religions

Carmen Branch

It looks like we are finally going to find out what really is in the prepared foods that we eat. I'm not sure if that is good news or bad.

Food producers will soon be required to list in plain English exactly what is in their product. No more hiding behind words like "microcrystalline celluose" and "sodium caseinate".

People get worried when they have to eat something that has an ingredient that has more than three syllables or sounds like something they remember stored in a beaker in chemistry.

Me, too. The one ingredient that I'm the most interested in is in everything.

A package of weiners will list meat and salt and spices. A can of apple pie filing will list apples, sugar and spices. A box of dog food will list cereal, meat and spices.

What "spices?"

I'm not sure I want the same spices in my apple betty as Buttons has in her kibbles and bits.

Besides, exactly what kind of spice does a dog who prefers to eat out of a garbage can and drink from the toilet prefer, anyway?

Is there an industrial-sized can of something called "Spices" in every cannery in the country?

Now, color me picky, but to me there is a big difference between various kinds of spices.

I remember one particularly groggy morning when I dusted my oatmeal with what I thought was cinnamon.

It didn't take too many spoonfuls to become convinced that, though similar in appearance, there is a dramatic difference between cinnamon and red pepper.

But soon we will be in the dark no longer. We have the right to know exactly what we're in for when we buy our gorceries.

It's too bad we can't require religious groups to label their products more understandably.

They hide their more unpal¬atable doctrines behind Christian terms like "God," "Salvation" and "Jesus."

But a discriminating shopper will soon discover that, though similar in appearance, there is a dramatic difference.