I Love Chocolate????
So… I try to eat natural foods. Organic if possible. No chemicals, no preservatives, no antibiotics. No fungicides. No genetically modified foods.
Why? I truly believe the food we eat is making people sick. I believe that food is contributing to diabetes, heart disease, autism. Just do some research. Things you read will surprise you. Things I read surprised me.
For the past few months my son has been complaining about brain fog and inability to concentrate. He’s convinced he has ADD and wants to go on medicine. Did you ever read the side effects? So today we went to a naturopathic doctor who thinks gluten is contributing to his issue. I stopped eating gluten, myself, around Christmas time — after suffering for over 5 years with significant back pain. I had read a book which discussed arthritic symptoms that people get after eating gluten and figured I’d give it a shot to see what happened. I have no more back pain. It’s not a coincidence. And, by the way, gluten is now bio mechanically engineered. It’s not what we used to eat when we were younger.
So. . . bread and pasta with gluten I can do without. Even cake or cookies.
BUT CHOCOLATE?
WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO MY CHOCOLATE? I totally had a chocolate craving yesterday. I was at the food store and figured I’d read some labels (like I always do) to choose the best item. I saw the words PGPR in the ingredients. I didn’t remember ever seeing that ingredient before and pulled it up on my blackberry in the store. I couldn’t believe what I read. It’s a manufactured fat that they now use in what they call “low cost chocolate”. It’s in Hershey’s, MARS and Nestle products. I didn’t get buy any chocolate that day after reading about PGPR.
Per Wikipedia, “[PGPR] is primarily used to reduce the fat content of chocolate. Since 2006, commercial-grade candy bars, such as those made by Hersheys and Nestle, made an industry-wide switch to include PGPR as an ingredient – a possible indicator of a cost saving measure by the commercial chocolate industry. Makers of PGPR (see source link below) such as Danisco and Palsgaard indicate that PGPR can be used to replace the more expensive cocoa butter as an ingredient in chocolate. Palsgaard’s website asserts, “Cocoa butter is an expensive raw material for chocolate manufacturers. By using PALSGAARD 4150 the chocolate recipe has lower costs in terms of less cocoa butter but also gives the benefit of having less fat.”[2]
PGPR is a yellowish, viscous liquid composed of polyglycerol esters of polycondensed fatty acids from castor oil. It may also be polyglycerol esters of dimerized fatty acids of soya bean oil.
PGPR is strongly lipophilic, soluble in fats and oils and insoluble in water and ethyl alcohol. In chocolates it is used as a viscosity-reducing agent.[3] It is virtually always paired with lecithin or another plastic viscosity-reducing agent.”
WHO WANTS TO EAT THAT??????
I feel betrayed, actually. Not only do I love chocolate, and eat it all the time, but I actually fed it to my kids. For years. Research does not know what long term affects PGPR has on a person. A fat insoluble in water just doesn’t sound healthy. I don’t think big business and food manufacturers should compromise our health to give their shareholders more profit.
Do you?
What’s in my chocolate.
What’s in my food.
It’s time for people to start asking.
Embrace the www.timetoplay.com philosophy: You have to be healthy, happy, have money and have a work life balance to have quality of life. TimetoPlay.com provides all types of resources to help you have a better life. NEW: poetry corner for people to post their words and self expression and the “Ask Dr. Matt” column where you can confidentially ask relationship questions. It’s time to enjoy life.
A Quest for Quality of Life 
That’s why I tell my clients to always read labels, even on things they consume regularly, because ingredients can change without warning, as many companies look for cheaper ingredients, or fillers to lower manufacturing costs & increase profits. That’s why soy protein & soy protein isolate are so prevalent in foods now. A bar I enjoyed that used to be raw, now puts soy isolate in there, so I stopped buying it. The good news is that there is still some integrity in food manufacturing, and good quality chocolate can be found. Some chocolate manufacturers even benefit environmental causes, animal organizations, & support fair trade.
It just isn’t right that I have to pay extra for non GMO products or to really look into the ingredients to see what I’m actually buying — if I can figure it out. The government is making it increasingly difficult for us to really know.
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I would imagine your comment means that it is not in your chocolate. Good for you. Keep it that way. Let the consumers buy what they think they are buying. I, for one, don’t want PGPR in my chocolate.
It is frustrating that label claims do not match up with label ingredients (such as the statement “all natural”), or that we as consumers have to really investigate what we are putting into our bodies. There are alternatives, & it may take a little more work at first to be a smart shopper, but it is possible. Education on food labeling, & a food store tour with a knowledgeable person, saves a lot of time, effort and money. That is a service I provide, and I know a few of my colleagues do that as well. If anyone is looking, I am happy to help, either myself, or with a referral to a colleague in their area.
Would you like to start a forum or get me some articles for the http://www.timetoplay.com website? Education is power.
Fats are naturally insoluble in water. Mix your cooking oil with a pot of water. Do they mix? Nope. PGPR, despite it’s ‘scary’ chemical name, is made from a FDA approved castor oil and is a safe compound made up of those same Omega-9 fatty acids that are considered heart healthy. The sugars and milk fat you feed your kids with your chocolate candies should be a much higher concern.
Thank you for your response. I do have a problem with the chocolate companies removing the cocoa butter, a naturally occurring ingredient in chocolate to sell it to beauty companies, etc., and replacing it with a man-made ingredient. FDA approved or not, there are no long term studies that show the safety of this man made chemical. And, they removed it without telling the public. Since 2006. It is wrong. I appreciate the comments regarding the sugars and milk fat that we all eat when we eat chocolate. As far as our family, we don’t eat chocolate on a daily basis, nor do we over indulge. As desert has always been a staple in our diet since I was young, I didn’t really consider the health affects until I started reading about 2 years ago. The first book I read was Dr. Aziz’ “The Perfect 10 Diet”, which discusses that, if your 10 main hormones are not in balance you will have disease. It is really a “no brainer” when you read the book! Dr. Aziz just joined TimetoPlay.com as a professional resource. It is important to me to bring professionals — as a grass roots project of people helping people — to the site to help provide information about health, happiness, financial and work/life balance — not organizations that may have been swayed by lobbiests, not big corporations. Regarding sugar, you would like Dr. Carlson’s submission — controversial? Yes. Does his medical findings make sense? Absolutely. With timetoplay.com I hope to provide information to plant a seed and start a person’s road to discovery of information that will lead them to have a better life. You do sound like you have some type of background that might be helpful to people. If you are interested in talking further about helping me in my mission and have something to submit as a professional resource or other ideas for this new site and project, please email me at doreen@timetoplay.com or call 631-331-2675. Thank you again for your time — spread the word! If we all help each other we can all have a better life.
Hmm… The FDA? Really? The FDA that somehow managed to pass Aspartame through their ‘rigorous’ testing and foist it off on an unsuspecting public with their stamp of approval? THAT FDA? Wow. Well, on one hand I’m glad to have run into someone who still believes that government agencies are there for our protection. On the other hand I’m kind of disappointed that there are still so many. A company that allows Aspartame, a substance known to cause brain tumors, accelerates the incidence of diabetic retinopathy because it turns to formaldehyde in the retina of your eye and contains formic acid – found in the sting of fire ants… yep. That’s a company I can get behind.
Sorry if I sound a bit testy, but my stepfather had laser eye surgery to ‘correct’ his vision because of diabetic retinopathy due to the fact that he had been drinking ‘diet’ soda and eating other ‘diet’ food products at the suggestion of his doctors who were operating under the umbrella of the American Medical AND the American Diabetic Associations who, by the way, are funded in part by Monsanto, the company who bought G.D. Searle, the creator of Aspartame. No one told him that he was ingesting a poison and that if he had stopped his consumption of these products that he probably could have reversed some if not most of the effects of it in his system. The FDA allowed this poison into the market and continues to uphold it’s position. The FDA has also taken years to even come out with a ‘non-toxicity recognition statement’ for Stevia which has been used for hundreds of years by the native South American people with no negative side effects. Something is amiss, I think.
Sara – I have to say I love your thinking. I apologize if you thought I believe the FDA is working in the best interest of the people. I guess my sarcastic tone did not come across. I absolutely believe the FDA, for the most part, is allowing dangerous chemicals into our food (and approving dangerous medications with rediculous side affects, too!) and causing so many of the health problems that are now bankrupting our wonderful Country due to healthcare costs. Root cause, anyone????
I would love for you to help me with my http://www.timetoplay.com project somehow. The site is a “quest for quality of life”. A place to empower people and get them to wake up and be motivated. In the Aspartame info you wrote about, it is horrific how you can see the negative affects it is causing and how it is still allowed to be in our food. It pains me that the schools in our area removed all the sodas with high fructose corn syrup and have replaced them with diet. How many more people have to be sick? How about the pregnant women who drink diet sodas thinking they are doing better for their unborn children and the increase in children being born with autism — they found children with autism have larger brains. Could it be a connection? And an opthalmologist practice I know just added another doctor with a specialty in caring for people with diabetic retinopathy. Coincidence?
RE: PGPR — it pains me that this was being put into our food — without us knowing — just substituted in — since 2006. I cannot understand how things are so quiet that we don’t know.
How about trans fats… did you know that trans fats were invented as a candle wax and then someone decided to use it in our foods to keep it fresher? Wouldn’t you think how candle wax could totally clog arteries?
What are people thinking when they let these things be approved. You would expect people to have a conscious.
I’m serious about you helping me with this informational project somehow and will email you my cell phone # so we can talk.
Thank you for writing to me. It justifies why I am spending so much time in trying to get this project out there.
Doreen
I just want to say thank you for having this site. I noticed the ingredient PGPR just a couple of weeks ago and decided to look it up but this is the first opportunity that I’ve had to get online and search. Your article is the first one I decided to go to and I just wanted to say thanks for having straight forward info about this weirdness.
Thank you for the info on PGPR. I won a 120g Hershey bar at my wife’s MS support group, and later noticed an ingredient that I didn’t recognize, namely PGPR. Now that I have read your blog, I too, am feeling really betrayed by Hershey. No more adulterated chocolate for me!
As for the FDA, it is totally without credibility — just another corrupt governmental entity that acts as an extension of pharmaceutical and agribusiness corporate interests. The FDA is directly responsible for the abysmal health of the overly credulous American public.
Living a high quality life is quite a challenge in this “sick, sad world” (search engine Daria Morgendorfer). Thank you for your efforts, Doreen. God(dess) speed!
Thank you for your comments, Gordon! I hope your wife is feeling well. It is a shame that we do put trust in organizations that we think are doing the right thing. I do believe you and I have become enlightened. I agree with your comment on abysmal health and truly believe that these things are contributory to illnesses like MS. Please keep in touch, and if you have any interest in becoming a guest blogger, let me know. My http://www.timetoplay.com project is just about ready to launch and I hope to make a huge difference in the quality of life of regular people like us.
Timetoplay, you can still eat chocolate. Just look at the bag or box for the PGPR ingredient. I just found out about this & I already read conflicting stories on this. Some say it is ok, others say it is not. I also found out the new Hershey’s Air delight kisses have this ingredient. The normal Hershey’s do not have this-yet (Hopefully they never will). I am surprised this would be allowed to be put in any food.
Greg,
All Hershey’s products on Long Island have the PGPR in it. Except the syrup as I’ve seen so far, but that has high fructose corn syrup, which I try not to use in my home, either. The largest problem I see with this is that the companies substituted the item without informing the public. They removed the profitable cocoa butter to sell for other purposes and substituted the fake fat in instead. The food manufacturers should not be using items in our foods, chemicals, dyes, etc., that can potentially make people sick. It is just wrong. Thank you for your comment. If there is anything of interest you would like to know about let me know and I’ll research it out. Also check out http://www.timetoplay.com where I have been gathering professional resources who have tips / words of wisdom to make our lives better. Doreen
Timetoplay. You mean the regular Hershey standard candy bars & standard kisses in New York have the PGPR in them? In Indiana the Standard kisses don’t have PGPR neither does the standard candy bars. I am little concerned if you have them in the normal products. That means they may add PGPR to the rest of the products. The oil is also a bean. We don’t do well with beans.
Yes, Greg. The standard bars and kisses have them in them. It’s also in Nestle and Mars products. I don’t know if Indiana has different rules / laws / standards, but it’s in ours. That would be interesting to find out.
Hershey’s does use PGPR.. I have a Hershey bar right here with the ingredient on the label. Also , the air bars are made in Mexico. Hershey has eliminated quite a few jobs in the U.S. and now makes some items in Mexico.. and keep adding more to the list. Read your labels. Balmer makes alot of their candy in Mexico too. I won’t buy any candy unless it is made here. Wilbur chocolate is the best tasting IMO.
Thank you for your comments and valuable information. Check out Roxanne Browning, new to the timetoplay.com – she’s a chocolate sommelier (a term used for wine expert) link: http://www.timetoplay.com/browning.html. She has more info re: chocolate and some info you might find very interesting.
Greg, I just bought a bag of the Hershey’s dark chocolate kisses yesterday and looked at the ingredients. Lo and behold, this chocolate contains PGPR. As dark chocolate is supposed to be the best for us, I thought I was doing the right thing by buying it instead of the milk chocolate kisses. So much for that thought if it’s Hershey’s. 😦
Pretty much ALL American chocolate now has PGPR in it. This is not a local thing – it is national since the FDA ok’d it in 2006. Maybe you have really old candy?
BTW: I actually read about PGPR accidentally about a year ago while reading about GMO’s – back then a link to the wikipedia article stated that PGPR was actually created by a GENETRICALLY ENGINEERED bacteria or enzyme; it no longer says that (has been “positively” edited out). This is VERY common now – that is why I avoid ALL synthetic “vitamins” and “artificial flavors” and even “natural flavors.” Even “citric acid” and “ascorbic acid” used for Vitamin C are now GMO’s! Yep – made from a GMO bacteria or enzyme that digests GMO corn to create “Vitamin C.”
FWI: Timetoplay, I too live on Long Island, and although I rarely eat chocolate, we were at the new Aldi recently, and their brand of candy called Route 1 has NO artificial flavors or preservatives! Same stuff (Aldi’s version) as Snickers, 3 Musketeers, Mounds etc, but NO PGPR or HFCS! We bought a bunch for Halloween. Also, their milk is all hormone-free and some of their cereals are all natural too, and a lot of their stuff contains no HFCS! Compare any box of an Aldi product to it’s Brand Name counterpart and the ingredient list is half as long! Aldi is owned by the same company as Trader Joes.
Thank you for your response! I’d love for you to contact me, as I’m building http://www.timetoplay.com and need people who are educated, like yourself, as contributors. The goal of timetoplay.com is to provide resources for people to have a better life. If you are not healthy you CANNOT have quality of life. I’ve worked in healthcare since 1987. Trust me. The people who live in nursing homes, as much as the facility leadership and staff try to make them have the best quality of life possible, would rather not be there. They are there because they are sick or otherwise unable to care for themselves. Prevention and disease postponement is key. Please email me at info@timetoplay.com with your contact info if you are interested in participating in a grass roots, “people helping people” project.
TimetoPlay & natschultz. The PGPR, Emulsifier is starting to appear in candy bars here. I ate them, they tasted fine to me. They don’t melt like Hershey’s Air delight kisses do. What is still odd. I just bought a big bag of Hershey’s standard kisses at wal-mart that didn’t have the PGPR, Emulsifier in them. The kisses tasted fine. Can kisses & candy bars without the PGPR, Emulsifier last for a long time? The Hershey’s Air delight kisses also have PGPR, Emulsifier in them.
That is a good question — if the PGPR extends shelf life. I’ve always heard that chocolate has a 1 year shelf life. Anyone know if PGPR extends that?
http://candyrecapper.com/pgpr.html
This blogger seems to have access to studies on PGPR over a course of 50 years, they tout. You might try to get in touch with them to see what kind of information they have.
Thank you for passing this info along! I’ll definitely follow-up with them.
What chocolate doesn’t have PGPR in it? Do you know?
I actually usually look for organic chocolate now-a-days. I also know the higher-end chocolates are fine.
Jennie, the only brands that don’t have it are: Lindt, Milka, and all other European chocolate brands. Merci is okay too.
I’ve found the organic chocolates are without the PGPR. And, Trader Joe’s carries some good, inexpensive options – organic and non-organic.
This is just terrible! I am a big chocolate lover and I noticed this strange 4-letter word PGPR right away . People beware. It’s in Hershey’s, Nestle as well as Cadbury and Dove brands. Ghirardelli isn’t any better. There is something that spells TBHQ in the ingredients…Basically, all american made chocolate brands use these fillers.
Beware of ice cream too. The only normal ice cream brand that doesn’t put any chemicals in their products is Haagen-Daazs .
Now, I only buy European chocolates such as Lindt, Milka, Merci etc. (Lindt tastes the best anyway.)
I read the labels of EVERYTHING we eat. It’s quite time consuming, but I choose products that are the lesser of the evils out there. Too bad we have to do this, but it’s definitely to our benefit. I do eat Breyer’s. Most of their product have very few ingredients and things I can decipher. Whole Foods carries some Breyer’s flavors, too, so I know they’re o.k.
Hershey’s chocolate doesn’t taste good. All the chocolate taste is masked by huge amount of sugar per serving. Do you sometimes look at the amount of sugar per serving? A normal chocolate (such as Lindt) has about 20-25g while Hershey’s has 44g! that’s twice as much…
I actually had a Hershey’s with almonds yesterday — that’s what I had available. It actually tasted great, but I totally crashed when I finished it. I guess, when you choose certain things, you know the ramifications. Food should be fuel, it seems in our society it’s not thought of in that way. Did I need the Hershey’s bar? No. Guess I’ll think about that next time I see one. Thank you for your comment!
FYi the standard Hershey’s bar, 1.55oz, has 24g of sugar per serving (1 bar). I agree, they don’t taste very good but they don’t contain as much sugar as you say they do. I just grabbed some in the grocery store thinking of those campfire smores and as I sat down to eat one tonight, I noticed the PGPR in the ingredient statement, which led me to this site. I don’t buy chocolate very often but I will sure be on the lookout next time to avoid getting any artificial ingredients, as I do with most of my other foods. This was a real surprise and disappointment, for something that one would expect to be more “pure” as it once was.
I ended up here because exactly the same thing happened to me today. I used to eat chocolate EVERY DAY, and have cut down a lot over the past 6 months, so I do get a craving every now and then. Today was one of those days; so while choosing what to get, I actually read ingredients on these different chocolate products (something I never did before). I also noticed that most of these chocolates, except mostly the European chocolates like Ritter, had this PGPR (something I’d never seen before). I couldn’t believe the information I read about it. It angered, yet didn’t surprise me.
Looks like I may now have to reserve chocolate for that RARE treat. Not only was it the PGPR, but most of them seem to also be made with soy lecithin, vegetabe oils, corn oils, cottonseed oils, etc. All of these ingredients GMO! It’s bittersweet (pun intended), because while I will I have to cut down—way down—on the confection I love so much, at least I won’t be eating the crap I’ve known for years that I shouldn’t be eating anyway. While I perish the thought, I also know it’ll be the same deal as with all other major sacrifices I’ve made in life: I’ll get used to it, and eventually, I won’t miss it at all.
The worst part of the issue was the modification made without publicly letting the people know… how many other foods have stuff in them we shouldn’t be eating, or that the manufacturers snuck in so they could make more profit. It’s really sad. By the way, Trader Joe’s if you have one by you has very economical, organic options and non-organic without the really inappropriate items in it. And, I believe, the imported chocolates are fine, too. A little chocolate makes us happy, so don’t disqualify it…
I started http://www.timetoplay.com, a “people helping people” project — check it out if you have a chance.
Doreen
I and others have chosen to boycott Hershey’s and Nestle’s because their products are not really chocolate anymore. As my dear friend wrote to Hershey’s several months ago:
“When I did some research on PGPR, I became concerned because the research only tested PGPR’s affect on humans for a very short time. And since I was a child, the taste of Hershey’s chocolate has declined considerably. I tell my students that they really missed getting real Hershey’s chocolate–and not the castor bean stuff.
As of today, I’ve decided to never eat Hershey’s again. Next I guess you will be adding high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils–and not have any chocolate at all in your “chocolate flavored” candy.
I regret breaking up with you so suddenly, but sorry–our long relationship is over—and you’re the one who has changed. As God is my witness, I will never consume Hershey’s again. I’m “kissing” off now–over and out.”
She had already given up Nestle’s because of their horrendous treatment of the cocoa workers. She said that it gave her tremendous will-power, too, because the letter was a commitment to health and a protest to artificial food additives.
I have given up Hershey’s and Nestle’s products–and any other products that have PGPR and “natural flavors.” “Natural flavors” is the new catch-all name to hide unworthy and unhealthy ingredients in foods. Notice how “natural flavors” is in everything now. This is a way for the food manufacturers to add their little surprises into the foods. We need to eat as “real” as is possible.
Let’s all boycott Hershey’s and Nestle’s. Send them your own “Dear John (PGPR)” letter.
By the way, this blog is wonderful. Thank you!
Unfortunately so many things in our food are making us unhealthy. I’m truly convinced that the higher incidence of autism (and related diseases), diabetes, obesity, heart disease and cancer stem from what the big companies are putting in our food with no regard to the possible consequences. And, no kidding, I swear statins are a contributory factor to alzheimer’s. Am I a big scientist? No. Just a rational person. Things occur due to a root cause. Want to know what’s happening to us, we need to look for the reason.
I’m happy you liked the blog. I’ve been working on my “people helping people” project, http://www.timetoplay.com, for a long time, and it’s finally ready to get out to the public.
If you get a chance, check out the whole site behind the blog…
Have a great day, and keep up the “noise”. Someone has to speak up for the little people, and if we do it together, there is power in that to make changes.
Doreen
I hate to disagree. I don’t work for any candy company. In Indiana (At least in my town), regular kisses don’t have the PGPR yet. I also don’t believe have on obese problem either. The CDC changed what we consider obese in our eyes. It is just more noticeable because there are more people and the news goes overboard. I am overweight cdc wouldn’t call me that, but I walk every day at least mile or more. My legs have big muscles. I don’t have any health problem associated with me being overweight. I have tried to eat healthy. Those healthily foods cost more, they don’t agree with me and A lot of time I get bad fresh fruits, vegetables, etc. It usually goes in the trash. The news also said chocolate was healthy. They claim chocolate keeps you from gaining weight but I don’t remember the full story. It was some type of Independent study. My elderly mother started eating Air kisses with PGPR in them and she has not had any adverse reaction yet. She will be eating them, since they came out. I like personally like the Regular kisses better.
I appreciate your comments — we are all people thinking and believing as we’re fed information and we do form our own opinions. I have worked in the healthcare industry since 1987. I truly don’t believe that the CDC changed the criteria to “pad” obesity statistics. Yes, the population has increased, but the incidence of disease and chronic disease has significantly increased. Do you know that based on current trends, 1 in 3 Americans is expected to have diabetes by the year 2050? I know that, in my childhood, there were people with diabetes. My uncle died from it. BUT, it’s not as it is now. Chronic disease is putting an extreme financial drain on our economy. Our fault? To a certain extent. But, I truly believe food additives and chemicals are contributory. RE: PGPR, we don’t know what the long term affects are. It’s inappropriate to use our people, the American population, as guinea pigs. RE: your comment regarding healty foods costing more, yes — it is true. However, if you pick and choose wisely, it won’t cost significantly more. I purchase chicken cutlets at our warehouse store for $3.50 a pound that were grain fed and has no hormones or antibiotics. What you eat also affects your body — if you eat a food treated with antibiotics, you are also “taking” the antibiotics. That’s why there’s also such a higher incidents of resistant illnesses that aren’t helped by antibiotics. Surely you’ve known someone who has had to take a “super drug” because nothing else has worked for them. Also, your comment regarding bad fruits and vegetables. Foods without preservatives don’t last as long. BUT, it truly is worth it for me to pay a little more to pick what I eat so I know I’m not eating really bad chemicals, pesticides or preservatives. It takes a little longer to food shop, but prolonging health and preventing diseasee is so worth it. You cannot have quality of life if you are sick. Trust me, I’ve seen sick and sad for 26 years.
I’m not going to disagree with any of your arguments about chemicals in food, but one little note for your chemistry: essentially all fats are insoluble in water.
-Chemical-fearing Chemist
Was about to eat a Hershey’s bar today, noticed the PGPR and Googled it. Thanks for the info. Unreal, just leave the real good shit in there…
I gave up “cheap” chocolate, like Hershey’s and Nestle’s, over a decade ago. The costs are kept down by the use of child slavery in the Ivory Coast, which supplies 70% of the chocolate sold in the US…we stick with organic or fair trade chocolates now:
http://documentarystorm.com/the-dark-side-of-chocolate/
v103.cbslocal.com/2010/10/27/halloween-alert-is-there-child-slavery-in-your-chocolate/
Google it, there are hundreds of thousands of articles. Just say NO to any chocolates harvested by child slaves…
PGPR is an additive used in place of cocoa butter, as cocoa butter is EXPENSIVE and a KEY ingredient of chocolate (there’s REALLY ONLY 4)!! And companies want to make MASS amounts of chocolate at a low cost so that they can make $$$… So, think of PGPR as a “filler” of sorts. The problem is, if you go a bit “over board” on the chocolate that contains PGPR, or you are sensitive to the additive, you can develop REVERSABILE, yet VERY painful liver enlargement and elevation of liver and pancreas enzymes (a.k.a. over load of PGPR sludge that your natural filters (liver & pancreas) couldn’t handle!!! This has happened to me a couple of times, and I’m not talking about consuming lethal amounts, maybe two candy bars, or about ten chocolate kisses. One time I ended up in the hospital after eating about 11 chocolate covered macadamias (NOT AT ALL big pieces of chocolate…similar to chocolate covered peanuts, etc.!!!?!?) So this is just a little FYI for any of you who have experienced right flank our stomach pain & some nausea after consumption of a bit of the typical in expensive consumer-branded chocolate….read the ingredients, I’m sure it has PGPR!!
Thanks for the blog. I just found it because like most others here, I read the ingredients on the Hershey chocolate bar I just ate, and figured PGPR was something they obviously aren’t too proud of since it’s abbreviated. I don’t remember ever seeing it before and glossed over it the first time I read it since it’s such a small entry. How clever of them to pull a fast one on their consumers. To hell with them, and all of the other weasels sacrificing quality for “cost effective alternatives” and selling poison to us under the protection of the FDA, and all the people out there who blissfully follow them and buy their crap anyway. I don’t need to see study after study funded by and countered by “special interest” groups and endless debates to see the obvious – the food given to the masses is poison in small doses and we pay for it with our money and our health!
I remember a few years back, there was a guy boycotting Oreo cookies because of the use of trans-fats, and slowly it created an awareness that these trans-fats labeled as “partially hydrogenated vegetable oil” were bad for people but surprisingly added to many food products, due primarily to there low cost method of extending the shelf life of processed foods. And not too long after this sudden awareness did I start to see companies removing this from their products because it’s in the best interest of the consumer, right? Well it was about this time that I started noticing TBHQ in the ingredients on many products, and gone were the partially hydrogenated oils. So what the hell is TBHQ? It’s a preservative derived from butane. Here’s a good link if you want to know more about it: http://www.naturalnews.com/031318_TBHQ_food_preservatives.html
In short, it states the following:
“TBHQ is used in many foods, ranging from crackers to crisps to fast foods. It is also found in certain brands of pet foods, as well as in cosmetic and baby skincare products, varnish, lacquers and resins. It is used in the stabilisation process of explosive compounds. The risks and side-effects of this preservative product far outweigh the benefit of it being used as a highly unsafe preservative ingredient.”
Consumers must be aware of what they’re being given and remain vigilant in their efforts to make informed decisions on what they eat and who they’re supporting. Read the labels, stay informed and support organic growers, all natural products, Fair Trade, and non-GMO products and suppliers when you can.
Thank you for this fabulous information! I also looked up TBHQ when my son and I were shopping and looked at some Famous Amos cookies. Needless to say we did not buy them. It is so important for us to read and check everything nowadays. Someone, somewhere has to realize that the amazing increase in obesity and illness has to have a root cause. Ever wonder? People have been on this earth for thousands of years and only in the past 20 have become so sick and so obese. Hmmmm… can it be these lovely chemicals????
I just noticed on my Hershey’s chocolate almond bar. I choose to be okay with it because I know that if we’re not, Hershey won’t be able to afford to keep what they have left of the company here in the US, which equals fewer jobs and more-expensive food. If Americans weren’t so greedy and worked for the same wages as people in Mexico, maybe we could afford to buy food that doesn’t contain unnatural non-fossil-fuel ingredients. I wonder what happened to the 2% of rats who couldn’t digest the PGPR.
I agree that companies need to contain their costs but I also don’t believe it should be at the expense of others. I believe that, given the choice, consumers would pay more for something. Also, in this instance, people don’t even know they’re not buying what they think they are buying. I don’t recall any articles or announcements that these companies were removing the cocoa butter and substituting the PGPR — do you? It’s really a shame when big business profits at the expense of our people. Especially in this instance, when there was so much hoopla about how chocolate was so healthful. Not in this case, for sure. I usually go to Trader Joe’s and buy the organic chocolate. It’s not very expensive and I don’t have to worry I’m somehow hurting my family with a special treat. Thank you for commenting!
Went to buy my grandchildren Hersey Candy bars because I found this candy bar to be the only one pure and all natural. I decided to reread the ingredients this time before buying and I was shocked to see this new ingredient PGPR. Needless to say, I decided I wouldn’t buy the candy until I could look up WTH is PGPR. And here I am. I’ve been reading peoples comments here and found many in line with my thinking regarding real foods vs fake foods. Anyway, I decided to entertain you all here with another food dilemma. This is about ocean fish. Just thought I present a heads up on this topic for whatever it’s worth. http://hothawaiiradiation.com/at-the-very-least-your-days-of-eating-pacific-ocean-fish-are-over.html
I have lots if tinfoil hats for sale! It seems they are in great demand these days!
Hi, Gary — I appreciate your comment. The food manufactures seem to be “pulling the wool over our eyes” sometimes, as we think we’re buying one thing but apparently are not.
I believe it is so hard to know what the underlying cause to our health problems are when there’s so much odd ingredients in our food. Keep on reading those labels!
We’ve actually moved the posts for this blog. Please see http://www.TimetoPlay.com – I do post a weekly article (Doreen’s Weekly Article). Hope you check it out!
Products containing PGPR don’t always say it. It will usually just say “soy lecithin” or even “lecithin”. I try to avoid soy at any cost and have found it nearly impossible to find chocolate that doesn’t contain it. I am willing to pay a premium for chocolate that uses cocoa butter.
Thank you so much for your comment. I personally was not aware that soy lecithin is PGPR. That particular chemical is in EVERYTHING. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for that. I believe it is so hard to know what the underlying cause to our health problems are when there’s so much odd ingredients in our food. Keep on reading those labels!
We’ve actually moved the posts for this blog. Please see http://www.TimetoPlay.com – I do post a weekly article (Doreen’s Weekly Article). Hope you check it out!
The FDA approved means nothing to me except they got theirs $$$$$$$$$$$$$ so they passed it through.
I used to over indulge in chocolate, last year I just happened to read a Hershey label. I also was shocked when I read PGPR, after reading about this crap, I emailed Hershey saying I would never again eat their chocolates. They sent me a long email about the “benefits” of putting this chemical in my body as opposed to eating a natural chocolate. The ingredients were fine for 110 years, now they claim to use it to allow the chocolate to flow through the machines, and totally denied it was to lower production costs.
The FDA is a joke and has been on the take for many years, they will not let companies use vegetable oils as an emulsifier, but chemicals are fine and dandy for the poor simps that don’t read labels. Sworded profit over the health of our citizens.
They approve all sorts of chemicals for us to eat, make us sick and approve a whole slew of chemicals for medication to make us “better” they win on both ends and so does Big Business
Thank you so much for your comment. It is so hard to know what the underlying cause to our health problems are when there’s so much odd ingredients in our food. Keep on reading those labels!
We’ve actually moved the posts for this blog. Please see http://www.TimetoPlay.com – I do post a weekly article (Doreen’s Weekly Article). Hope you check it out!
I thought it was the chocolate keeping me up at night and making my son feel ill. I don’t think so anymore. I suspect this PGPR stuff may have side effects that are very very bad. No more cheap chocolate will come into this house. I am glad it usually doesn’t it. Now it never will.
Thank you so much for your comment. It is so hard to know what the underlying cause to our problems are when there’s so much odd ingredients in our food. Keep on reading those labels!
We’ve actually moved the posts for this blog. Please see http://www.TimetoPlay.com – I do post a weekly article (Doreen’s Weekly Article). Hope you check it out!