Are you getting enough Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein?

Do you even know what it is? Or why it's in your food?

The answers are probably no, to both questions, but if you're eating a diet high in processed foods or even if you're eating some processed foods and those foods are not organic, than you may want to look into it. One of the top headlines in today's health news reads "Tainted ingredient sold after salmonella found", and guess what that ingredient is... you guessed it Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein.

It turns out that this Las Vegas based company Basic Food Flavors Inc. continued to distribute the HVP (Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein) on contaminated equipment, even after knowing about the tainted equipment. This has caused 100s of products to be recalled due to salmonella contamination.

So what is HVP (Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein)? Maybe you would recognize it better by its more widely know name... MSG! This flavor enhancer, derived from corn, soy, wheat, peanuts, or cottonseed is used in the majority of processed foods including beef and poultry to help bring back some of the flavor the food once had before the processing removed it all.

This startling headline caused my wife to check the small amount of processed foods we do eat, only to quickly take solace in seeing that there is no HVP in the foods we eat. This is no coincidence; all the credit has to go to a healthy diet.

So if the majority of your diet consists of fresh organic fruits, vegetables, natural whole grains, and free-grazed beef poultry and eggs (from local organic farmers), with the small amount of processed foods being organic with minimal ingredients then HVP and other additives preservatives and fillers are nowhere to be found.

Be smart... Eat healthy and leave the worrying to those who don't!