Rice

So, What’s In Your …. Rice?

Several years ago I started making it a habit to read the labels of the packaged food I was buying at the grocery store.
I will also admit that I have been making it a real effort to buying more higher quality foods such as fruits, vegetables and in general organic food.
It may immediately cost me more at the cash register, but I believe the benefits do pay off and do make my life a lot more enjoyable in so many ways that I might write about it at a later date.
But today, I would like to share an interesting experience I made just the other day.
I felt like having some rice along with some veggies.
So I pulled out of our pantry a box of rice (purchased long before I started reading the labels as described above) entitled:
“New Orleans Style Long Grain & Wild Rice”. Sounds pretty good and looks even better in the picture on the box.
Then I had a look at the ingredients and you had better brace yourself:
Enriched Long Grain Parboiled Rice (Iron Phosphate, Niacin, Thiamine and Folic Acid), Wild Rice, Onion, Tumeric, Garlic, Parsley, Spices, Cayenne Pepper.
So far, so good, right?!
Wait until you read the rest of the list:
Salt (1000 mg sodium in one serving!), Chicken flavor (MSG aka monosodium glutamate, salt, sugar, yeast extract, onion, corn oil, hydrolyzed corn gluten, dextrose, modified corn starch, garlic, corn syrup solids, natural flavor, maltodextrin, soy sauce, hydrolyzed soy protein, soybean oil, molasses extract, caramel color, propylene glycol, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, citric acid, L-cystein hydrochloride, thiamin hydrochloride, silicon dioxide, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, corn syrup solids, sodium caseinate, dipotassium phosphate, mono + diglycerides, sodium hexametaphosphate.
Do we all need a university degree in chemistry to understand this stuff?
Needless to say that I am not going to eat the so-called rice in this box. Would you?
So, what’s your … rice?
Don’t be a stranger!