Today I discovered my green tea wasn’t exactly paleo-friendly. One of the ingredients is “natural flavors.” This sounds great, doesn’t it? Here’s a description of natural flavors from the FDA:
The term natural flavor or natural flavoring means the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional.
In laymen’s terms, this means natural flavors could be anything. Context is likely key here, meaning my green tea probably doesn’t have dairy products in it. It comes to how serious I want to be. On one side, “if you’re going to do this whole paleo thing, just do it right.” On the other, “not a big deal.”
In this specific case I say “not a big deal.”
- Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs, 3 bacon strips, blueberries, coffee
- Lunch: 1 hamburger, tomato wedges, cucumber slices, iced green tea
- Snack: deli turkey, 1 orange, almonds
- Dinner: Salmon, asparagus, watermelon, 2 lime juice/tequila drinks
- Snack: deli turkey, 1 banana