Why Baby Carrots are Bad

"Hey, what are these green things?"

    Brittany is coming out of a bad few weeks, the beginning of which I was totally baffled as to why she was doing so poorly.  Prior to that she had felt better than she had in years and even had some almost-pain-free days.

    It didn't make sense to me, because I read every freaking label on anything I buy and do most of my cooking from scratch.  Then I realized that the one thing different was that I had been purchasing store-bought spelt bread for about a month.  I was so excited when I found this; the ingredients list is short and basic.  Brittany is able to tolerate spelt well, fortunately, but I have not been able to get a yeast breast to turn out well in my baking.  Usually we end up doing flatbread, muffins, pancakes or waffles.  When I found this bread I was so excited at being able to just purchase it and at the idea that she could actually just make a sandwich.  That seemed to be the only thing different that could be contributing to her headaches being so bad, so I thought, "Maybe there is more I need to know about yeast," and also had the thought that I should learn more about vinegar because I had had a nagging feeling about that one.  We use balsamic and apple cider vinegar quite a bit, especially in homemade salad dressing.

    I got on the Delphi forum and asked about yeast and vinegar, and got more information than I ever dreamed I would glean in such a short period of time.  First, most commercial yeast is now grown on--you guessed it--CORN SYRUP.  The one exception is Red Star yeast, not in the jar but only in the packet strips of three, which is grown on molasses.  With vinegar, white distilled is always something to stay away from because it is made from corn.  Apple cider is best, but Heinz is not corn free.  Bragg's is guaranteed corn-free.  Some brands of balsamic are okay.

    The discussion grew from there and eventually the subject turned to another bad boy around here--citric acid.  I did not know that it is usually from corn, but I did know that it flattens both Brittany and my husband.  If you have ever tried to shop while avoiding citric acid, you can appreciate how that one is everywhere.  You can't buy canned fruit and many canned vegetables without it, and very little juice.  It is always in candy.  It is in all prepackaged foods.  Those convenient seasoning mixes?  The devil made them.  Who in America doesn't keep spaghetti sauce packets in their cupboard, or a jar of Prego?  Somewhere in this discussion someone brought up BABY CARROTS.  I was like, "Huh???"  I still think this is the news of the century that most people don't know about. . .baby carrots are washed in citric acid before they are packaged.

    That gave me another answer to why Brittany had been feeling so awful.  She had been downing baby carrots by the bagful.  Poor kid; when I told her she said, "That's what I've been doing my emotional eating with!"  How sad is that?  Speaking of which, how many people resort to CARROTS for comfort food?  At that point I knew it was going to be awhile before she was going to feel up to doing much.  It made me so angry to learn that as careful as I was trying to be, she still got zapped because she ate a stupid carrot.

    So I went to Good Earth and got organic, unwashed carrots.  And wow, we got the whole carrot.  Who here remembers long, green thingies on the tops of carrots?  I had almost forgotten what that looked like. ;)

    So. . .baby carrots.  Great idea?  I think not.  Take THAT, doc.