Health

What’s really in your favourite foods?

You'll be amazed just how many strange things go into some of your dietary staples.

Unless you’re growing every single thing that you eat, chances are you’re not privy to each ingredient that makes up your food.

But photographer Dwight Eschilman and science writer Steve Ettlinger are out to change that.

In their book Ingredients: A Visual Exploration of 75 Additives & 25 Food Products, the pair have set out to shine a light on the most common food additives, and the popular food products that contain them.

From multi-grain bread to Red Bull and McDonald’s chicken nuggets, as well as Doritos chips, Reese’s ice cream bars and Kraft Singles, each ingredient and additive is photographed separately as well as labelled and explained.

Those nuggets your kids love so much? They contain a total of 40 ingredients, including dextrose, a sugar also used by shoe makers to make leather more pliable.

Red Bull has 17 ingredients, including three colourings, and multi-grain bread has 30, including soy bean oil and non-fat milk.

And while the book doesn’t aim to pass judgement on your food choices, it does hope to educate people about how common additives were invented, where they’re made and what they do so that you’re more aware of what exactly it is you’re eating.

All pictures courtesy of Ingredients

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