If you’ve been in a grocery store or pharmacy or pretty much any store anywhere lately, you’ve probably seen a whole lotta red.
Candies, balloons, candles, decorations, stuffed animals, flowers, etc, are just everywhere!
Well guess what, that beautiful red color you’re seeing? It comes from boiled BEETLES!
No lie, the red food coloring comes from cochineal bugs. It’s known as carmine, K-carmine, cochineal extract or Red 4.
It’s just mostly gross, but the only real issue is the potential for severe allergic reactions but that’s pretty rare.
Another problems is for vegans as a vegan diet doesn’t include anything even remotely related to an animal.
Crushed beetles are most definitely not in the average vegan’s diet.
There’s an easy fix for companies… lycopene, that healthy stuff from tomatoes! There are also other artificial options like Red 40 but that comes from petroleum!!
Jeez, maybe we should just stop eating fake stuff and go buy some produce from a farmer’s market.
Instead of a box of candies, how about giving your sweetie a carton of cherry tomatoes! Yum! (We’re obviously joking.)
So wanna celebrate Valentine’s Day right? Then get out there and eat some beetles!
[Image via Zyance/Wikimedia Commons.]