{"id":2876,"date":"2012-04-05T08:47:33","date_gmt":"2012-04-05T07:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/?p=2876"},"modified":"2026-03-26T16:37:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:37:19","slug":"poison-yogurt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/2012\/04\/05\/poison-yogurt\/","title":{"rendered":"Poison yogurt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I am not feeling so good. That is not too surprising. At the time of writing, it is less than 24 hours since I arrived home from a visit to California. A week spent in a timezone 8 hours earlier than home takes its toll. Add to that after-effects of a busy week followed by the discomfort of an 11 hour airplane flight and it is unsurprising that I am not 100%.<\/p>\n<p>However, I am wondering if there is another reason for my malaise &#8230;<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I generally try to eat well. What I mean is that I aim to consume a varied and balanced diet &#8211; broadly healthy. I often fail &#8211; a love of pizza, fondness for fish and chips and a weakness for the odd burger tend to lead me off of the straight and narrow. I am no saint, but, most of the time, I do try to pay attention. I think about what I am choosing and read labels on packages.<\/p>\n<p>To me, breakfast is a very important meal and can set my mood for the day. So, I like a good breakfast. A traditional English breakfast [like its full-on American equivalent] is a heart attack on a plate. Although I might go for that once in a while, it is certainly the exception for me. I am more likely to have yogurt, muesli and fruit and have found this combination be enjoyable and amenable to ringing the changes from day to day.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/51\/2012\/04\/Photo1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2880\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/51\/2012\/04\/Photo1-520x693.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"520\" height=\"693\" \/><\/a>In the US, I was staying in a very nice hotel, which was locationally convenient, but also well managed with friendly and helpful staff. It is not cheap [sorry Mentor]. Their restaurant offers a wide range of options. Although I have a penchant for the Eggs Benedict, I do try to have healthy stuff too. So, the other day, I assembled the aforementioned yogurt etc. combo. The [strawberry] yogurt came in a small pot and my first surprise was when I removed the lid. I was a very lurid pink. I then started reading the [long] ingredients list:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Non-fat yogurt (cultured non-fat milk, modified food starch, fructose, kosher gelatin, Vitamin A palmitate, Vitamin D3)<\/li>\n<li>Water<\/li>\n<li>Strawberries<\/li>\n<li>Contains less than 1% of:<\/li>\n<li>Fructose<\/li>\n<li>Modified corn starch<\/li>\n<li>Natural and artificial flavors<\/li>\n<li>Aspartame<\/li>\n<li>Malic Acid<\/li>\n<li>Potassium Sorbate (to maintain freshness)<\/li>\n<li>Sodium Citrate<\/li>\n<li>Acesulfame Potassium<\/li>\n<li>Sucralose<\/li>\n<li>Red 40<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I was shocked and really doubted that I would want to put such contents of a chemical factory in my mouth. This length of list [and vile color] made me think of products that were normal in the UK in the 1970s. Things have changed since then. I bought some yogurt this morning, which has the following ingredients:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Yogurt<\/li>\n<li>Rhubarb [9.5%]<\/li>\n<li>Sugar<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That is more like it! I have not eaten it yet, but I feel better already.<\/p>\n<p>I know that good food can be found in the US. I wrote about an experience a while ago <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/blog\/2009\/10\/29\/muffins-in-colorado\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>. But I do wonder why there has not been the same consumer pressure for better products like there has been in Europe. I would be interested in any ideas by comment or <a href=\"mailto:colin_walls@mentor.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">email<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am not feeling so good. That is not too surprising. At the time of writing, it is less than&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71677,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[302],"industry":[],"product":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-off-topic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71677"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2876"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10053,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2876\/revisions\/10053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2876"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=2876"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=2876"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}