I don't think it's actually the "processing" of food so much as it is the additives - both intentional and unintentional - that go into it as it's being processed.
For example, "corned beef" is "corned" and preserved by adding potassium nitrate. Potassium nitrate (A.K.A. "saltpeter"), coincidentally, is the biggest component in black powder, a 'low" explosive. It's roughly 70% or 75% of that mixture, with the remainder being charcoal and sulfur. The 15% portion of charcoal is what actually burns, and the 75% of potassium nitrate provides the oxidizer to allow the charcoal to "conflagrate" - burn real fast, fast enough to explode - in the anaerobic (or anoxic) environment of a gun chamber. That can't be a good thing to eat, can it?
They used to feed small amounts of black powder to guard dogs to make them meaner, by adding it to their food rations. it made them meaner because it kept their stomach torn up with ulcers. That'd make anybody mean, wouldn't it?
I once pulled a week of security duty at a facility that made the concentrate for Wendy's "Frosties", because they were the subject of a specific threat. I used to love me some Frosties, but after that it was years before I could force myself to choke one down. Now it's a lot easier to forego them, because fast food joints have priced themselves right out of my wallet.
I love me some corned beef, too... but these days I eat it only sparingly, every couple of years. I think, as of today, it's been around 3 1/2 or 4 years since I've eaten any of it.
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For example, "corned beef" is "corned" and preserved by adding potassium nitrate. Potassium nitrate (A.K.A. "saltpeter"), coincidentally, is the biggest component in black powder, a 'low" explosive. It's roughly 70% or 75% of that mixture, with the remainder being charcoal and sulfur. The 15% portion of charcoal is what actually burns, and the 75% of potassium nitrate provides the oxidizer to allow the charcoal to "conflagrate" - burn real fast, fast enough to explode - in the anaerobic (or anoxic) environment of a gun chamber. That can't be a good thing to eat, can it?
They used to feed small amounts of black powder to guard dogs to make them meaner, by adding it to their food rations. it made them meaner because it kept their stomach torn up with ulcers. That'd make anybody mean, wouldn't it?
I once pulled a week of security duty at a facility that made the concentrate for Wendy's "Frosties", because they were the subject of a specific threat. I used to love me some Frosties, but after that it was years before I could force myself to choke one down. Now it's a lot easier to forego them, because fast food joints have priced themselves right out of my wallet.
I love me some corned beef, too... but these days I eat it only sparingly, every couple of years. I think, as of today, it's been around 3 1/2 or 4 years since I've eaten any of it.
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