I like to eat healthfully, generally make sure that my food is indeed made out of food and not supremely processed, over-salted and preserved food-like substances. I love lentils and brown rice and have put away a fair amount of tofu in my time.
But then there are Cheetos. I cannot explain my love for Cheetos. I wouldn’t even know where to begin. Maybe it started at the vending machine in high school which provided my daily kick of the neon orange glow sticks. I got hooked. They are so good in such a bad way.
The last time I splurged on the dietary horror that is a bag of Cheetos, I did what I have long since trained myself not to do – I looked at the ingredient list. Oy vey. If I brought Cheetos to inorganic chemistry class in college, maybe I wouldn’t have gotten a C – they would have been a great cheat sheet.
I want to know what all that chemical garbage is doing in my food. Why is it there? What role does it serve? The internet came to the rescue of this miniature chemistry lesson. The following is the (almost) complete ingredient list from a bag of Cheetos, annotated by yours truly:
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Enriched corn meal, with all usual vitamin supplements
Vegetable oil
Salt – the third ingredient on the list – no wonder I love Cheetos.
Maltodextrin – polysaccharide produced from starch (rice, corn or potato); easily digestible and absorbed as easily as glucose.
Sugar
Monosodium glutamate – an amino acid that acts as a potent flavor enhancer. MSG triggers the umami taste receptors, making food taste more savory.
Autolyzed yeast extract – often contains free glutamic acids and is, for that reason, used as a supplement to MSG. “…consists of concentrations of yeast cells that are allowed to die and break up, so that the yeasts’ digestive enzymes break their proteins down into simpler compounds.”
Citric acid – Used for tart flavor and as an antioxidant.
Artificial color – apparently, neon orange doesn’t come easily – Cheetos are colored by no fewer than four food dyes
Partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil
Hydrolyzed soy protein – “…Soy protein is used for emulsification and texturizing. Specific applications include adhesives, asphalts, resins, cleaning materials, cosmetics, inks, pleather, paints, paper coatings, pesticides/fungicides, plastics, polyesters and textile fibres.” Ok, I am sure that soy protein isn’t as scary as that passage just made it sound, but it sure does give a girl pause.
“Cheddar cheese” – I am sorry, I couldn’t help putting cheese in quotation marks.
Whey – “Whey proteins primarily consist of α-lactalbumin and β-lactoglobulin. Depending on the method of manufacture, whey may also contain glycomacropeptides (GMP).”
Onion powder
Whey protein concentrate – often used in body-building supplements, this is basically pure, milk-derived bioactive protein. Why it is included in my most favorite of bright orange “foods,” I can’t seem to figure out. It doesn’t sound terribly sinister, so I will forgive its inclusion.
Corn syrup solids – sweetener and thickener, dried corn syrup consisting mostly of dextrose. “Corn syrup contains no nutritional value other than calories, promotes tooth decay, and is used mainly in foods with little intrinsic nutritional value.”
Natural flavor – huh?
Buttermilk solids – analogous to dried milk as far as food additives are concerned. “Buttermilk is the liquid remaining from the cream after the butter has been removed from the churn. (This buttermilk should not be confused with the fluid buttermilk sold to consumers, a cultured lowfat milk that resembles buttermilk.)”
Garlic powder
Disodium phosphate – “Disodium phosphate is a sodium salt of orthophosphoric acid and is used as an antioxidant synergist, stabiliser and buffering agent in food. It is also used as an emulsifier in the manufacture of pasteurised processed cheese. Disodium phosphate is added to powdered milk to prevent gelation.” Note: harmful if ingested in quantity. Oooook, limiting Cheeto intake starting…. Now.
Sodium diacetate – basically vinegar in solid form, this additive is used as an antimicrobial/preservative and to add a tangy flavor to foods.
Sodium caseinate – milk protein conjugate used as a binder, emulsifier, or thickener, likely used in the “cheese” in Cheetos.
Lactic acid – “…fermented from lactose (milk sugar), most commercially used lactic acid is derived by using bacteria such as Bacillus acidilacti, Lactobacillus delbueckii or Lactobacillus bulgaricus to ferment carbohydrates from nondairy sources such as cornstarch, potatoes and molasses. usually either as a pH adjusting ingredient, or as a preservative (either as antioxidant or for control of pathogenic micro-organisms).”
Disodium inosinate – disodium salt of inosinic acid. That clarifies everything, huh? Used in concert with MSG to trigger the umami taste receptors.
Disodium guanylate – “… often added to foods in conjunction with disodium inosinate; the combination is known as disodium 5’-ribonucleotides. Disodium guanylate is produced from dried fish or dried seaweed and is often added to instant noodles, potato chips and snacks, savoury rice, tinned vegetables, cured meats, packet soup. …The food additives disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate are useful only in synergy with MSG-containing ingredients, and provide a likely indicator of the presence of MSG in a product."
Nonfat milk solids
Sodium citrate – sodium salt of citric acid, added for tartness and to balance pH.
Carrageenan – obtained from seaweed, indigestible large protein used as a thickening, stabilizing and gelling agent.
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Whew.
What I found most interesting in this chemical roster is the amount of MSG and MSG analogs – no fewer than four separate chemicals to trigger that sought-after umami flavor. Cheetos also contain a fair number and preservatives and stabilizers, all chemicals with natural derivations, but chemicals nonetheless.
My conclusion? You probably won’t die from eating a bag (or eight) of Cheetos every once in a while, but perhaps it’s best not to make a habit of it.
I bought ‘a bag of MSG’ last year from a local Chinese Supermarket.
I ‘used’ a teaspoon (or two) once and thought to myself, why am I adding “flavour enhancers” to my home cooking ?
IMHO, you can’t really go wrong with a dash of ‘general seasoning’ though (aka freshly ground sea salt & ground pepper etc.)
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I’ve just dug out a bag of my fav. chips (aka crisps in the UK). The only artificial ingredients are:-
MSG E627 and Maltodextrin.
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There is however a warning label on the back of my pack of “McCoy’s Ridge Cut Limited Edition BBQ Sizzling Sausage” telling ‘the user’:-
“Contains: Milk.
Produced on a line containing soya, wheat, gluten, mustard”
Shocking. This sounds deadly.
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After this daring in vivo experiment, I appear to be alive after all….
My current snack of choice: rice cakes.
They give the satisfaction of crisps/chips, but contain far less crap.
Ingredients
Wholegrain brown rice (organic)
Salt (trace)
In my previous life, before I switched into science journalism, I studied food science and was on the path to becoming a food scientist working for a food company. Food scientists are the ones who come up with these formulations that you see on ingredients lists.
Reading your post reminded me of one of the reasons I decided to not pursue a career in that industry. We students learned pretty early on that one of the main goals of the food industry is to produce high volumes of product at lower costs. It had to taste good, look good, be nicely packaged (packaging is crucial in food marketing), and have a decent shelf-life. Nutrition wasn’t always so high on the list.
Mind you, that was several years ago (I never got a chance to work with a health food company so my view is likely skewed). This thinking has probably changed somewhat, as seen by all the ‘natural/health/organic food’ on the shelves these days. But still, as along as people keep buying not so healthy snack foods, the industry will still keep on pumping them out.
Graham – There is nothing wrong with using a little (little!) bit of MSG in cooking. I think MSG has an unfairly bad rep. It makes food taste better, simply put. I can’t imagine that going beyond a teaspoon or two is a terribly good idea though.
Matt – Here is the problem ! I like the salt. Tons and tons of salt. The rest of the chemical shelf, I could easily do without, but the salt I crave. Could rice crisps meet that craving? A snack with nothing but organic brown rice sounds very good in comparison to Cheetos.
Corie – The scary part about the marketing tactics of the snack food industry is their targeting of children. I couldn’t make heads or tails of the Cheetos website – it was all big letters, flashing lights, and dumb games. Kids don’t know or care about nutrition and from what I have seen, can nag any health-conscious parent into an unwise purchase. The Cheetos approach works and it’s profitable.
I recently discovered Snyders of Hanover makes a similar baked-cheese-crunchy which I thought was healthier than Cheetos, cuz they’re made with whole grains! But they probably aren’t any healthier really…
Oooh! Snyders! We discovered those while in the UK. Can’t seem to get them in Oz. Poo.
Kath – I have not tried the crunchies you mention. Will have to keep an eye out. Although honestly, when I want Cheetos and all their chemically glory, healthy substitutes won’t do.
Richard – You must have Cheetos in Australia, no? I would be surprised if there aren’t Cheetos at the top of Mt Everest, really. So many things I miss about the UK, food wise – McVities, real Cadbury, oooh i could go on.
Oh yes, we have Cheetos. I’m with you on the Cadbury’s though, and Daddies sauce, and and and. . .
Waitrose coconut yoghurt. It’s the Daddy.
Pretty much Waitrose anything, Henry.
OK, I looked up Waitrose and now I am completely jealous. There is really nothing of the sort in the US (not widely available, anyway). Nothing that isn’t processed, packaged, and practically pre-digested. Ick. The Turkish fig yogurt flavor sounds fantastic.
It is, Anna, it is.
Salt in wound, Richard, salt in wound.
This post is already old, but I have to comment on that. My problem is not Cheetos, but Doritos! The “tangy cheese” flavour, full of weird artificial tastes and lots of MSG.
By the way, I don’t crave salt, I crave MSG. The taste of things artificial, like the powder envelope of lamen or chicken stock in cubes.
That’s why I don’t use the cubes at home anymore – because they make me crave for more the following day.