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I've had an interest in food colouring and flavouring since when I was small helping out in my parents takeaway shop, it was when I was age single figures too. Anyway the two things that have stuck with me since those days are the food colourings Sunset Yellow E110, Tartrazine E102 and flavouring MSG or E621 for those of you collecting these E numbers. Colour makes things look appealing and MSG well gives things a salty taste that don't have any taste, or can be used to mask other tastes. I've long known that have any large amounts of any of these substances can cause yourself harm. I remember my chemistry teacher saying that studies on E102 have shown that some kids go green from having too much of it. I'm not sure whether that is true but I sure wasn't going to have no yellow stuff in my food. They used to use sunset yellow in Sunny Delight but the kids didn't go green there, only yellow. Anyway my parents don't own a takeaway anymore so I don't need to mix yellow food colouring to go into sweet and sour sauce, curry or even eggs. Now don't say I didn't warn you about this stuff. If only people didn't judge food from the way it looked then it wouldn't be a problem. People go, so you have sweet and sour sauce that's not bright red? Yes you eat it not paint pictures with it! The other thing I knew was that too much MSG makes you really thirsty and your hair to fall out (well this might be a myth but I did read something about it some year ago). Probably the main reason of my receeding hairline is having too much MSG laced seasoning with my noodles, plus crisps as a kid. Next time you go to a Chinese resturant you can be sure that nearly every single savoury dish will have a touch of MSG. I've been trying to find some decent Chinese food places that don't use MSG and so far they reside in Tucson Arizona, my parents cooking and my own cooking. I still eat crisps though. The reason I raise this artificial flavour and colouring issue is that food chiefs have said that the food colouring some curries are so high they are linked to hyperactivity, asthma, and even cancer. Blimey that's really serious. Food colouring in Curry. Anyway I still eat curry even though I know of the colouring issue but only selective ones. Oh and my favourite band the BMX Bandits wrote a song call E102 about people being artificial.
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