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| Picture from the web |
Normally nutritionists scare you off from these high caloric cakes, but as I am a food scientist I’d rather take another angle. So, this post is not to scare you away from the calories; rather, it’s the “red” you should worry about.
Let’s take Martha Stewart’s online recipe of the cake. Martha uses around 1/4 to 1/2 cup of a red food coloring to make one cake. She clearly states to put 2 one-ounce bottles liquid red food coloring to achieve the desired shade!Consider a normal diet; you are having one piece of the red velvet cake every month, along with other colorants in food from the halloween candies, to the Eid Mlabbas, to the Christmas colored cookies, to potato chips, fruit loop cereals, the guacamole dip, to the hotdog and the frozen vegetables…etc The list goes one because everyone is increasingly relying on processed foods.
The question is whether all these colorants will cause any health implications.
Let us start why is there color in my food?
Remarkably, sensory scientists found that color is always associated with flavor. Consumers may refuse to have a green chocolate drink or a brown strawberry juice. Therefore, industries rush in adding colorants to make their product look fresh, nutritious, and thus appealing to consumers. That’s because consumers love everything that resembles nature. ( more on how color affects the sense of tastes of food & drinks by Washington University)
