# How many trees should I be eating?



## blissful (Apr 6, 2011)

On MSN today there was an article about fast foods and those bought in the grocery store that put WOOD in their products. Cellulose, wood that is processed, is added to many of them, and I was surprised by how many use it.
Here is one such article:
https://news.fidelity.com/news/news...012915&IMG=N&cat=default&ccsource=rss-default

Just as examples and not the full list:



> _General Mills (Symbol : GIS) uses cellulose in the following products: Fiber One Ready-To-Eat Muffins (Wild Blueberry & Oats; Mixed Fruit, Nuts & Honey; Apple Cinnamon Bun, Banana Chocolate Chip) Fiber One Original cereal Fiber One Chewy Bars (90 Calorie Chocolate, 90 Calorie Chocolate Peanut Butter) Fiber One baking products (Apple Cinnamon Muffin Mix, Banana Nut Muffin Mix, Blueberry Muffin Mix) Pillsbury Moist Supreme Classic Yellow Cake Mix Pillsbury Mozzarella and Pepperoni Pastry Puffs Pillsbury Cheese and Spinach Crescent Pastry Puffs Pillsbury Artichoke and Spinach Bread Bowl Bites Pillsbury Buffalo Chicken Crescent Pastry Puffs Pillsbury Cream Cheese and Jalapeno Bread Bowl Bites Betty Crocker whipped frostings (Strawberry Mist, Chocolate, Cream Cheese) Betty Crocker Vanilla Amazing Glazes Duncan Hines Cake Mixes (Devil's Food Cake Mix, Dark Chocolate Fudge, Strawberry Supreme, Fudge Marble, Classic Yellow, French Vanilla) _
> 
> _McDonald's (Symbol : MCD ) uses cellulose in the following products: Fish Filet Patty McRib Premium Caesar Salad Chipotle BBQ Snack Wrap Premium Southwest Salad with Grilled Chicken Southern Style Chicken Biscuit Strawberry Sundae Natural Swiss Cheese (used in McRib, Quarter Pounder with Cheese, Angus Mushroom & Swiss, Premium Grilled Chicken Club Sandwich, Premium Crispy Chicken Club Sandwich, Angus Mushroom & Swiss Snack Wrap) Shredded Cheddar/Jack Cheese (used in Ranch Snack Wrap (Crispy and Grilled), Honey Mustard Snack Wrap (Crispy and Grilled), Chipotle BBQ Snack Wrap (Crispy and Grilled), Premium Southwest Salad with Grilled Chicken, Premium Southwest Salad with/without Crispy/Grilled Chicken, Premium Bacon Ranch Salad with/without Crispy/Grilled Chicken, McSkillet Burrito with Sausage) Barbeque Sauce Sweet 'N Sour Sauce Shredded Parmesan Cheese (used in Premium Caesar Salad with/without Crispy/Grilled Chicken) Biscuit (Large and Regular) (used to make Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit, Sausage Biscuit with Egg, Sausage Biscuit, Southern Style Chicken Biscuit, Big Breakfast with/without Hotcakes) Vanilla Reduced Fat Ice Cream (used in Strawberry Sundae, Hot Caramel Sundae, Hot Fudge Sundae, McFlurry with M&M'S Candies, McFlurry with OREO Cookies, Chocolate Triple Thick Shake, Strawberry Triple Thick Shake, Vanilla Triple Thick Shake) Sugar Free Vanilla Syrup (used in Premium Roast Coffee, Espresso) Sara Lee (Symbol : SLE )_


 

I am curious as to food allergies for people that have allergies, and what types of trees are we using here? What types of residues from processing the wood fibers into cellulose are left in our food? It's one more reason to cook from scratch, scratch, that is, not made from wood = cellulose.

So how many trees do you eat each year? 
1. 4 acres of pine trees. (yule gibbons?)
2. 2 oaks and 6 maple trees.
3. 3 shagbark hickory trees
4. Assorted weeds and trees. (green deane?)

Your thoughts?


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## CraigC (Apr 6, 2011)

What's wrong? Yule Gibbons always asked "Ever eat a pine tree".

Craig


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## blissful (Apr 6, 2011)

CraigC said:


> What's wrong? Yule Gibbons always asked "Ever eat a pine tree".
> 
> Craig


  MMMMM that piney flavor!


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## Saphellae (Apr 6, 2011)

Hmm.. all the more reasons why I try to make everything from scratch !! lol.  That's just weird.  Makes you wonder if people are having mild reactions to junk that's in processed foods.


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## buckytom (Apr 6, 2011)

i'm hoping a member who has children named bud and willow can answer this burning question.

ok, i''ll go act like a tree and leaf.


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## Constance (Apr 6, 2011)

Well, it doesn't hurt beavers...


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## blissful (Apr 6, 2011)

buckytom said:


> i'm hoping a member who has children named bud and willow can answer this burning question.
> 
> ok, i''ll go act like a tree and leaf.


 
HMM........
By responding to this post, you aren't barking up the wrong tree. 
Let's branch out a bit. 
Who has children named bud and willow?


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## Bolas De Fraile (Apr 7, 2011)

Constance said:


> Well, it doesn't hurt beavers...


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## DaveSoMD (Apr 7, 2011)

Not exactly wood...

General Chemistry Online: FAQ: Chemistry of everyday life: What is cellulose?




blissful said:


> On MSN today there was an article about fast foods and those bought in the grocery store that put WOOD in their products. Cellulose, wood that is processed, is added to many of them, and I was surprised by how many use it.
> Here is one such article:
> https://news.fidelity.com/news/news...012915&IMG=N&cat=default&ccsource=rss-default
> 
> ...


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## Selkie (Apr 7, 2011)

DaveSoMD said:


> Not exactly wood...
> 
> General Chemistry Online: FAQ: Chemistry of everyday life: What is cellulose?



I respectfully disagree. Yes, it is. According to the info from your link:

[FONT=geneva,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif][SIZE=-1][FONT=geneva,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif][SIZE=-1] "*Cellulose is a major component of wood*. Cellulose fibers in wood are bound in *lignin*, a complex polymer. Paper-making involves treating wood pulp with alkalis or bisulfites to disintegrate the lignin, and then pressing the pulp to matte the cellulose fibers together. 
 Cellulose is found in large amounts in nearly all plants, and is *potentially *a major food source. *Unfortunately, human beings lack the enzymes necessary to cleave the linkages between the sugars in cellulose.* In fact, crystallite cellulose is added to some foods to reduce the caloric value."  
[/SIZE][/FONT][/SIZE][/FONT]
Termites are one of a small handful of creatures able to metabolize cellulose because they have a symbiotic relationship with specific protozoa which other creatures can't support in their digestive tract.


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## Alix (Apr 7, 2011)

At the risk of grossing everyone out, cellulose is a GOOD thing to ingest in smaller amounts. It helps to um...clean house. 

Celery has those lovely little strings in it that serve the same purpose. My mom always called it "nature's broom". Sweeping everything out in its path. 

Bud and Willow Bucky? Berry funny!


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## Andy M. (Apr 7, 2011)

DaveSoMD said:


> Not exactly wood...
> 
> General Chemistry Online: FAQ: Chemistry of everyday life: What is cellulose?




I feel a lot better now, knowing I may be eating cotton and not wood.


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## Nicholas Mosher (Apr 7, 2011)

Hahahaha!


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## DaveSoMD (Apr 7, 2011)

But it also states that "[FONT=geneva,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif][SIZE=-1][FONT=geneva,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Cellulose is found in large amounts in nearly all plants..... And it is the main component of plant cell walls"

So why single out wood and say we are eating wood or trees?  You can also say that we are eating grass, sun flowers, ivy, or any other of a number of plants because plants contain cellulose. 

That is the point I am making. 


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Selkie said:


> I respectfully disagree. Yes, it is. According to the info from your link:
> 
> [FONT=geneva,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif][SIZE=-1][FONT=geneva,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif][SIZE=-1] "*Cellulose is a major component of wood*. Cellulose fibers in wood are bound in *lignin*, a complex polymer. Paper-making involves treating wood pulp with alkalis or bisulfites to disintegrate the lignin, and then pressing the pulp to matte the cellulose fibers together.
> Cellulose is found in large amounts in nearly all plants, and is *potentially *a major food source. *Unfortunately, human beings lack the enzymes necessary to cleave the linkages between the sugars in cellulose.* In fact, crystallite cellulose is added to some foods to reduce the caloric value."
> ...


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## Andy M. (Apr 7, 2011)

DaveSoMD said:


> But it also states that "[FONT=geneva,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif][SIZE=-1][FONT=geneva,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Cellulose is found in large amounts in nearly all plants..... And it is the main component of plant cell walls"
> 
> So why single out wood and say we are eating wood or trees?  You can also say that we are eating grass, sun flowers, ivy, or any other of a number of plants because plants contain cellulose.
> 
> ...



Have it your way.  I don't care to have any of that crap in my food.  Since we don't know the source of the cellulose in our foods, I guess it's OK to speculate.


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## buckytom (Apr 7, 2011)

ooh, this conversation is getting quite thorny...

let's not bark at each other.


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## blissful (Apr 7, 2011)

DaveSoMD said:


> But it also states that "[FONT=geneva,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif][SIZE=-1][FONT=geneva,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Cellulose is found in large amounts in nearly all plants..... And it is the main component of plant cell walls"[/SIZE][/FONT]
> 
> [SIZE=-1][FONT=geneva,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif]So why single out wood and say we are eating wood or trees? You can also say that we are eating grass, sun flowers, ivy, or any other of a number of plants because plants contain cellulose. [/FONT][/SIZE][FONT=geneva,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif]
> 
> ...


 
Understood and point taken. You don't want to know. The news article shared information on wood cellulose being used in the mainstream fast foods.

I'm different Dave, I like to know if I'm eating oatmeal cellulose or wood cellulose. 
Just like the difference between HFCS or beet sugars. 
Protien from beef/chicken/pork/fish or insect parts. 
Fat from olive oil or indigestible fat. 
Artificial sugars or granulated beet sugar or honey. 
Real honey or substitutes for honey.
Gluten flours or non gluten flours.
It's a matter of being informed. None of these ingredients are all together bad depending on what you are making, who is eating it and knowing the difference.

It's important to me to stay close to the original food source. Knowing what I'm eating and feeding others IS important to me. It's my choice.


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## blissful (Apr 7, 2011)

buckytom said:


> ooh, this conversation is getting quite thorny...
> 
> let's not bark at each other.


 
Oh.........it's sapping my energy. It's all SHADES of gray.


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## Andy M. (Apr 7, 2011)

buckytom said:


> ooh, this conversation is getting quite thorny...
> 
> let's not bark at each other.



BT, don't go rooting around trying to branch this thread off into an argument, you're barking up the wrong tree.  We're ll just sharing opinions and none of us wood hurt a fly.


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## blissful (Apr 7, 2011)

Andy M. said:


> BT, don't go rooting around trying to branch this thread off into an argument, you're barking up the wrong tree. We're ll just sharing opinions and none of us wood hurt a fly.


 
It's knot worth arguing about.


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## Selkie (Apr 7, 2011)

I don't want to shovel any more compost, so I'm going to leaf...


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## bethzaring (Apr 7, 2011)

is this why broccoli looks like trees?


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## Andy M. (Apr 7, 2011)

You know, we shouldn't turn our noses up at cellulose in our food.  After all, the stuff doesn't grow on trees...

Ooops, neeeeverrr miiiiind.


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## taxlady (Apr 7, 2011)

I remember some high fibre bread, back in the mid '90s that was found to have actual sawdust as the increased fibre.


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## blissful (Apr 8, 2011)

I searched around, and found some articles listing brands of bread using wood pulp from the 1970's and 1980's too.

Here is an article taken from the Emigrant's Handbook of 1848 on how to make bread from wood.
How to Make Bread out of Wood | eHow.com
I don't think I could get that hungry, 'knock on wood'


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## Alix (Apr 8, 2011)

OMG you guys kill me. I laughed so hard I have to sit down, I'm bushed!


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## blissful (Apr 8, 2011)

OAK-ay, that's why OLIVE this forum. TREE-mendous personalities, all of them.


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## Sprout (May 24, 2011)

this was the perfect final thread to read before I head off to bed. 

I think I'll go saw some logs of my own now. (Don't worry, I'll keep the dust out of your food.)


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