This morning I was reading a heath and lifestyle magazine in the process of trying to find a suitable argument for my health paper. Meanwhile I stumble across an article. It caught my eye originally because there was mounds of different kinds of chocolate on the front. Then, I happened upon the title, "Chocolate-Covered Rat Droppings". At this, I was disgusted, yet intrigued. I thought what could make chocolate and rat droppings relate to one another? The answer was in the first sentence, "
It was reported early last month that a study was done to uncover the amount of rat feces in various brands of chocolate that Americans, especially American women, eat." Again, I was disgusted, appalled even to think that I was eating something that was ejected from the end of a rat! However, I was curious so I kept on reading and the hidden ingredients in chocolate just kept on growing. Rat feces along with rat hair are in high concentration mixed within the chocolate and milk chocolate had a relatively high amount of cow snot, as cows are involved in getting their milk extracted for chocolate production.
Reading further I began to understand why the workers within chocolate factories swore off chocolate and did not eat it after this particular study. I thought to myself when reading it, "I will still eat chocolate. This is only the minor brands of chocolate who are not famous for what they do and must not put all the preventative and proper means into making the best chocolate." I was wrong again. This study consisted of the most popular brands of chocolate including Godiva, See's, Hershey, Nestle, Carnation, and Mars. My next encounter with chocolate, I am not sure exactly what I will think, but I know that I will definitely see chocolate in a different light, and the companies that produce it. To me, they just lost a lot of respect.
As I first read this, I was disgusted. Everyone knows how much I love chocolate and I am pretty sure I could not live happily without it.
ReplyDeleteAs I read further, I was intrigued. Now I want to read this article. Which health magazine did you read?
I sincerely hope this article is unfounded, especially considering there's a chocolate birthday cake in my dorm room.
I found the article but wasn't able to find any sources. A possible origin is KCAL 9 television station in Los Angeles mentioned in one article, though I can't find any direct sources. Relations I found were regarding elevated aflatoxin levels in Japan in various foods with peanut butter and chocolate several years ago (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18720158).
ReplyDeleteI did a quick Google search and came up with this: http://www.dherbs.com/articles/chocolate-15.html. If that is the article, then I'm a little hesitant to take it at face value for several reasons:
ReplyDeleteFirst, it sounds like the author is out on a witch hunt against chocolate. The fourth paragraph ("But that's not all! For milk chocolate lovers...") talks about how there's cow snot in milk, so you there is cow snot in milk chocolate. By that argument, shouldn't everyone stop drinking milk?
Second, the website has absolutely no credibility. For example, under "philosophy" it talks about the evils of meat (among other things). Humans have been eating meat for hundreds of thousands of years, so I'm not so sure about the imminent deadly effects of it.
If this article was in the New York Times or on Dateline I might take it seriously, but not from this website.
I'm with Erin on this! I was actually about to eat some Godiva when I started reading this blog-post. I was so intrigued and disgusted that I actually threw my chocolate away...I just can't stand the thought of eating rat poop.
ReplyDeleteI wish to go with Griffin and Erin, as the thought of eating chocolates itself brings water in ones mouth. I really hope that this source which has been found is proved wrong and seriously doesn't have any true sources. I also would like to ask one question here which came to my mind was will one stop eating chocolates hearing this or will they too become a past news as time passes by. I too had to attend a birthday party tonight and it was me who had been a part to choose a chocolate cake but now I guess I' ll be the one who will be reluctant to eat it.
ReplyDeleteI would like to quote John Q. T who said "Nine out of ten people like chocolate. The tenth person always lies."
I have actually seen a lot of this type of information on a news special one time. One I can remember was specifically about Snicker bars and the high amount of rat feces and rat hairs. So, I mean this source may not have been the most credible, but it was interesting and personally having seen other similar proven studies, I believe it. Not that I have stopped eating chocolate. :)
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