How a late night craving shocked me!
A few weeks ago, I came back from work with two large muffins and a cookie. The baked goods had been bought from a global, well-known chain of cafes that also sold coffee, tea, quick meals, salads and baked goods. The food always looked relatively fresh. The muffins were even kept in a chiller and the cookies in a nice old-fashioned glass jar.
They had been bought at lunch time for the working team, but unfortunately, we were too full to eat them and so I brought them home.
At 1:30am (yes, I left the office at a very late hour that day), I was looking for comfort food, and decided to have ½ a chocolate chip muffin. It absolutely hit the right spots for me in terms of taste and texture that night! Yum! I rarely have cakes, muffins and cookies as I am gluten intolerant but as I believe in eating in moderation, and having the occasional treat, I happily went for it that evening as I was exhausted from work and wanted a naughty sugar-and-starch hit!
I crashed to sleep right after, and woke up in the morning. My first thought was, “Oh no, I left the un-finished muffin on the table … I bet it’s teeming with ants by now. Ugh!”
Now, I live in Singapore and in our tropical climate, ants, cockroaches and insects are a part-and-parcel of life. So, when I walked past the previous night’s half-eaten muffin, I was stunned to find that there wasn’t a single ant in sight nor were there any cockroaches. Shocking!
So that got me wondering, “What on earth could have been added to the ingredients that even ants and cockroaches no longer recognize the muffin as food?”
They had been bought at lunch time for the working team, but unfortunately, we were too full to eat them and so I brought them home.
At 1:30am (yes, I left the office at a very late hour that day), I was looking for comfort food, and decided to have ½ a chocolate chip muffin. It absolutely hit the right spots for me in terms of taste and texture that night! Yum! I rarely have cakes, muffins and cookies as I am gluten intolerant but as I believe in eating in moderation, and having the occasional treat, I happily went for it that evening as I was exhausted from work and wanted a naughty sugar-and-starch hit!
I crashed to sleep right after, and woke up in the morning. My first thought was, “Oh no, I left the un-finished muffin on the table … I bet it’s teeming with ants by now. Ugh!”
Now, I live in Singapore and in our tropical climate, ants, cockroaches and insects are a part-and-parcel of life. So, when I walked past the previous night’s half-eaten muffin, I was stunned to find that there wasn’t a single ant in sight nor were there any cockroaches. Shocking!
So that got me wondering, “What on earth could have been added to the ingredients that even ants and cockroaches no longer recognize the muffin as food?”
RECREATING THE EXPERIMENT
So the next night, I foolishly decided to eat ½ the cookie and placed the remaining ½ out for the ants to have a feast. Again, when I woke up the next morning, there wasn’t a single ant or cockroach around the cookie.
Now, I was beyond S-T-U-N-N-E-D. I also started to worry about what sort of chemicals I had ingested when I had eaten that ½ muffin and ½ cookie!
In the video at the start of this blog, you see me with another cookie, bought from the same globally established chain of cafes.
Now, I was beyond S-T-U-N-N-E-D. I also started to worry about what sort of chemicals I had ingested when I had eaten that ½ muffin and ½ cookie!
In the video at the start of this blog, you see me with another cookie, bought from the same globally established chain of cafes.
FOUR NIGHTS ON
It’s now four nights into my experiment and no ant, nor creepy-crawlie wants to eat it. I’ve moved that chocolate chip cookie around the house, left it on the floor, near trashcans too but no, they really, really don’t want it.
What did I finally resort to doing? I left a crumb directly near a trail of ants. Any luck? Well, watch this next short video.
What did I finally resort to doing? I left a crumb directly near a trail of ants. Any luck? Well, watch this next short video.
| | Normally, when ants find food, they linger, taste it and rally their friends together to cart the food off. What you will see here is this: the ants find the cookie crumb, and then seem to go a bit “crazy” like a child on too much sugar? Or are they more sensitized than humans to the preservatives in the food? A few ants come by and none of them stayed to try the cookie crumb! |
| So I was wondering, “Are these ants not fond of sugar?” To test if this was true, I put out some natural brown sugar. My goodness, the contrast in how they responded to the natural sugar was amazing. See for yourself in the clip on the right | |
COMMON CHEMICALS IN OUR FOOD
Besides the expected list of flour, butter/oils, sugar, flavourings etc., are you curious as to what is typically added to common every-day baked goods? The processed food industry often adds chemicals, which slow down spoilage, preserve textures and of course extend shelf life by preventing mold and bacterial growth.
A quick google search yielded this list of food preservatives used in baked goods like bread, cookies, cakes, muffins:
Gosh, I can’t pronounce these words easily --- can you? If we have difficulty pronouncing our food ingredients, perhaps we should avoid eating them altogether.
A quick google search yielded this list of food preservatives used in baked goods like bread, cookies, cakes, muffins:
- Butylated hydroxyansiole (BHA) – a waxy yellow solid used to prevent oxidation
- Butylated hydroxytolune (BHT) – white powdery substance added to packaging, fats and oils and is often found in shortening.
- Disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetic (EDTA) – retards oxidation as a chelating agent for metals in the food.
Gosh, I can’t pronounce these words easily --- can you? If we have difficulty pronouncing our food ingredients, perhaps we should avoid eating them altogether.
WHAT'S NEXT?
I am now quite curious to see how long the cookies lasts in Singapore’s humid, hot weather. If you are as curious like I am, please continue to follow my blog to see how long it lasts before it goes moldy! It’s now four nights since I started the experiment. Stay tuned for more ...
Thank you for reading my blog! :)
Thank you for reading my blog! :)
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