I’m a little sick to my stomach. I just read this article about how gummy candies are made. The article contains a video detailing the step by step process. Now, I knew what was in gummy bears, etc., but to actually watch it. Gag. Double gag!
Seriously I’ve been scarred for life. My dentist has been saying for years that gummies are terrible for teeth. What he should have done long ago was show me this video. I honestly don’t think I can eat another gummy bear as long as I live. It’s a sad statement to make, but it’s true.
Have you seen this? Did it make you want to gag? Are you avoiding it on purpose because sometimes ignorance is bliss, or does a video like this have no effect on you? I’m curious about your thoughts.
Beware,
Mavis
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Susan says
No, no, no…I thought I might watch this video but saw the pigs head and said “No Way”. Sometimes ignorance truly is bliss!
Becky says
It bothers me more how those animals are raised than seeing what they do with the by-products.
Collagen is good for you, and I’d rather see all the parts of the animal used as opposed to their lives being wasted.
Emily E. says
Hi Becky,
I feel the same way. I am much more concerned about how an animal is treated while they are alive, especially if they are being raised for eating.
Talaena says
I agree as well! Pasture raised gummy bears all around please!
Linda says
Jello is made the same way and gas been for years. It is just a little more refined.
Linda says
Has been. Not gas. Lol
Alice says
There are vegetarian gummies.
Maureen says
Yup. And now I’m absolutely going to seek them out. Oh BLECH!
Cheri says
I’m with you, Mavis. I never thought to look for gelatin in gummy bears, which is made from meat products. It is also in marshmallows, non-vegan jello, and a number of other things. This reminds me all over again about why I want to head towards veganism. I won’t get there completely, but I’m making better choices for my food. Who needs this in their body or wants to support such as industry? Not me. Thanks for sharing. This is gross and illuminating.
Nina says
Hi Mavis,
Not grossed out by the collagen itself, which is a very old ingredient and protein source. I’m grossed out by the process of breaking down the animal–hoping that all stages are extremely clean, and that they are killed quickly and humanely as possible. I dislike the industrialization of animal farming in general. Also, my concerns are for all that concentrated sugar, food dyes, artificial flavors, etc., which, to me, are far more harmful to us in so many ways. We never buy candy like gummies because they glue all that sugar and stuff to your teeth and gums.
Love your blogs. Always interesting.
Jfred says
Lol, your bacon comes by a similar route, Mrs Mavis! They use the excess animal parts for gelatin. I make homemade chicken stock w animal skins and bones, and it’s full of gelatin. Some people use the chicken feet to increase the level of gelatin, as well. It’s amazing for your joints, especially as one gets older!
Diana says
I recently was going to make some little turmeric balls so I could eat more of the healthy spice. The recipe called for gelatin which for some reason I never thought about being made from animal parts! I try to eat a locally sourced plant based diet so I opted to not make the recipe. In all the years I ate jello as a kid, I never really knew how it was made!
Deb says
Doesn’t bother me at all….food has to come from somewhere. 🙂 If you really want to be grossed out, check out “percentage of allowable filth” in canned, packaged, and processed food. I cook almost exclusively from scratch just for this reason.
LuAnn Braley says
If it made you gag, that’s enough info for me. I have an extremely low ICK tolerance. I couldn’t even read the part in the Foxfire series about butchering your own hogs.
Delores says
Well, it wasn’t too horrible for me. I knew it came from animal parts, but I was expecting cow hooves. So I guess pig skin is a step up from what I was expecting. And at least they are trying to not waste any part of the pig. Or at least not waste as much as possible. 😉
I agree with Deb… I once read about the amount of bugs allowed in peanut butter sold at the stores. I had a nightmare that night I was eating bugs!!!
(Note: I still eat pb, though)
Pam says
here is me enabling you-try Surf Sweets their peach gummi rings are addictive made with tapioca and other goodies that said I actually prefer gelatin capsules for vitamins it’s a weird world what can I say
bobbi dougherty says
hey, if you say its gross then its gross. don’t need to watch it. I hope my daughter watches it for my grandsons sake….
leslie says
If gelatin isn’t offensive to you, you can always make your own, sans dyes, preservatives, texturizes, and “natural flavors.”
Emily E. says
Hi Mavis,
this comment doesn’t fit in with this topic but if you haven’t seen the movie Big Eyes yet put it on your list. My husband and I watched it last night after passing it over numerous times in the video store and I’m glad I finally saw it! It looks like it was based on a true story which I didn’t know till the end of the movie which made it even better! I’d love to know what you and the other readers think of it.
Lisa MTB says
The amount of sugar being dumped into those things was pretty gross. Ugh, so easy to forget how much sugar is used in manufactured sweets. Too, too easy.
Jennifer says
How did you think they were made? They’ve gotta come from somewhere and I doubted that kale was part of the process!
Lilypad says
As an always vegetarian/mostly vegan eater for 11+ years, I learned long ago to eat only vegan gummies and marshmallows, and to search out (and pay more for) vitamins and supplements made with vegetarian capsules. You can even get vegan “Jello” in boxes and cups at Whole Foods, for example. My mom is German and they ate pigs’ feet all the time when she was little. It makes me want to heave just thinking about it.
Nora says
Sorry, but being German this sounds like a slight exaggeration. Nobody here eats or ate pigs feet all the time.
Yes we did and do eat them, but I see this a heathly and animal friendly approach, as we use every part and not just the fillet or steak – this way one animal lasts way longer… so fewer animals slaughtered.
By the way, what is in sausages? Or pies? If everyone just ate de-boned, skinless chicken breasts and filet mignon, we would have landfills with hardly used animals declared to be slaughter wastes. Slaughter waste did not exist 100 years ago. Just think about this for a second or two.
Lilypad says
Nora, this was in the 1930’s. Were you alive then? Perhaps they ate more pigs’ feet back then than now. And I don’t eat any meat at all, not the “desirable” parts, not the unwanted parts. So don’t waste your lecture on unused animal parts on me.
Veronica says
I don’t find this gross in the least. Probably because I already knew it was there! Seriously, it scares me how much people don’t know what is in their food. Gelatin has been made from cast-off bits since it was invented. Have you never noticed homemade stock gelling in the fridge??? It’s the same thing.
Btw, eating gummy bears right now…. Because I don’t care!
Amy says
I am super impressed with this intelligent and thoughtful sharing of ideas based on this video and what is in our food! I didn’t find the video bad at all, there are way worse ones out there detailing slaughterhouses and food production that are way more horrifying.
We use a local bucher for our wild game and the pigs that we raise ourselves. Since we are the ones harvesting the animals we are in control of how they are treated and we really like knowing that we do the best we can for them. I know that not everyone has this option available to them though.
I too am more concerned about the sugar, dyes and additives in the gummies than the gelatin.
And I have never seen such clean or smiling pigs in my life. Our current pig Charlotte, even though she is living an awesome piggy life, has never smiled at us and is as muddy as she can get. LOL.
Emily B. says
Aaaaaannnddd……………I’m out!
I don’t eat jello either for the same reason. The neon colors never found in nature are also a hard pass for me.