It Started With Some 'Wotsits'

It all started with a bag of buttery, melt in the mouth, 'cheesey' crisps. There I sat on a faux leather couch, in the gleam of the strip lights, mindlessly passing crisps to my mouth as I killed some brain cells on the latest issue of 'Closer'. Suddenly, my hand met nothing but greasy foil as the last few cheese puffs eluded me in the corner of the bag, and I looked up from 'Cheryl's shock weight loss!' and my eyes were caught by the layer of fluorescent orange dust that coated my fingers. I plucked a Wotsit out the bag and stared at it. It was so orange, and so puffy, and crispy, and it was then that it occurred to me that I could think of no food from which this originated. That I was feeding my body with something so obviously artificial that it had a strange, almost radioactive, glow to it. And that is when I stopped and thought 'When did food get like this??' (Turns out it was 1993, when Nigel Parrott was managing Golden Wonder. They were also the first crisp company to introduce free gifts into their packs if you fancied an interesting little fact.)

I would normally think that I eat a fairly healthy diet (but then doesn't everyone?) but just like everyone I certainly enjoy a good selection of junk food: breaded mushrooms, Revels, cheese string; all leave me weak at the knees. But something's got to change. And so for a month I vow to eat nothing with an ingredient which I don't recognise. Do note that this isn't a weight loss effort or even a particular health drive, I hope that it makes me healthier definitely, but that isn't my main aim. As a bored ex biochemist and soon to be medic, I want to know what these ingredients are made of, what they're reduced to in our bodies and what harm, if any, this causes us.