Last week I posted a funny story about how I discovered a selection of Bob’s Red Mill products at the local Big Lots store.
I received a couple of emails and comments from folks about this post mentioning that they were happy to hear that Bob’s Red Mill is a brand I trust.
After chewing on this for a few days, I’ve realized that clarification of my unintentional plug for Bob’s Red Mill products was necessary!
The fact is, Bob’s Red Mill is most decidedly not a brand I trust. While I do indeed use a few of their products and find them to be high quality, there are a number of products in the Bob’s Red Mill line that are extremely unhealthy and ones that I would never consider buying.
Note the picture to the right.  Bob’s Red Mill carries a product called “TVP”.  TVP stands for Textured Vegetable Protein, better known to those of us in the Traditional Food World as MSG loaded, thyroid weakening, backside expanding, hair falling out of your head producing, can’t get off the couch fatigue-inducing soy protein.
In short, TVP should be avoided like the plague.
The product next to the TVP is Hemp Protein Powder.  Hemp protein powder is also another product I would take great pains to avoid eating at all costs.  All protein powders contain MSG and are nothing but highly processed denatured ingestibles (I can’t even bring myself to call it food) no matter who markets them. I wrote a post about this a while back called Ditch That Protein Powder if you want to know more.
Whey protein, in particular, is extremely fragile and cannot ever be powdered or dried.
“Trust in a brand” implies that the use of any of the products in the brand’s product line would bring no harm to the consumer and contain acceptable ingredients. Bob’s Red Mill does not come close to qualifying based on that definition.
People Gain Our Trust, Not Brands
I put my trust in people, never brands. The people I trust who produce my food may have a brand of products that I use, but I don’t trust their products, I trust them. Because I trust them and understand and agree with their food philosophy, I buy their products.
It’s a bit of a chicken and egg thing.
The reason I don’t trust the brand is because the folks I trust might choose to sell that brand one day (which is fine and totally their prerogative – this is a capitalist country after all)Â to a Big Food company.
Then, all of a sudden, the brand is cheapened and its ingredients or method of production no longer acceptable.
Has this ever happened to you?  A brand you thought you “trusted” that had excellent ingredients and that you used for years suddenly was sold unbeknownst to you to a large food corporation that did a bait and switch with the ingredients?
The reason this happens is because the person you trusted who originated the brand is now out of the picture due to the buyout.  The brand then goes to the dogs even though the name and the marketing remain the same.
This is why you must always put your trust in people through buying locally or from small scale producers in other locations that you ideally know personally or at the very least, can talk to on the phone directly.
It’s another reason why you need to frequently check the ingredients label of the brands you do buy unless you personally know the owner and are in contact with them on occasion. Otherwise, you are at risk for The Big Fast One.
Big Food loves to pull The Big Fast One on the consumer. It is a favored marketing technique that explains why so many little organic food companies have been gobbled up over the past 10 years and continue to be acquired at a rapid rate.
Check out this chart by clicking here. Can you believe all the little organic food company acquisitions by Big Food over the past few years?
Big Food is attempting to buy consumer trust with this acquisition strategy.
I don’t know about you, but you can’t buy my trust. You have to earn it.
I’ll bet some of your favorite healthy “brands” are in fact owned by Big Food and you didn’t even realize it! Â Doesn’t this shocking visual help to cement the notion that people, preferably local people, and not brands, should really be the focus of our trust?
TVP does NOT have MSG added to it, but glutamic acid, one of the components of the gluten that is a vegetable protein, will be spun off and bond with sodium in the hydrolizing process, so that monosodium glutamate WILL be naturally formed. However, this is more an issue of hysterical reporting. You will find more naturally occurring MSG in other grain foods than you will in TVP. But even if it does have MSG, the fear-mongering is uncalled for.
I’m wondering about the whey that is left over after I’ve made a quick cottage like cheese by heating the milk to approx. 110/115 then gradually adding an acid gradually, such as white vinegar until the milk breaks into curds and whey. This whey seems sweeter than when I clabber raw milk and seems more tasteless and “shake friendly”. I’m also wondering if the whey I make via curdling the milk with vinegar can be used to ferment things?
Mercola.com has a powdered whey that is produced with LOW heat. It’s expounded as having it’s nutrients preserved as a result and that most wheys on the market are dried via very high heat and are next to useless. Marketing or not, low temperature means more food value
Because Bob did buck the trend and did the right thing, I’d like to make it known to you.
A few years ago Bob retired. He had started the company because he wanted to find a place to obtain Stone Ground grains but was unable to. It took him years to find and obtain a Stone and then learn how to grind grain the way it had been done for ages. His employees had been with him for years and also took pride in doing things ‘right’. So when Bob retired he divided up the company and Gave it to his employees. At this time I don’t remember if he kept a portion or not – but instead of having his company go to a large conglomerate and become lost in America’s lousy food production train, he wanted to reward his employees and keep his name and brand something special.
This is not to contradict your premise but to point out someone who didn’t follow the trend. I’ve known of the sell out’s for years – since Celestial Seasonings in the late 70’s or early 80’s – and always check out labels. But as I rarely buy processed products it isn’t such a big deal to me. My take on Bob’s selling products that I wouldn’t buy is that there is probably a market for them and he’s just filling it. It is after-all, a for-profit company and I don’t believe they are mutually exclusive ideas.
THX for a great site.
How could get an assurance that people were really telling the whole truth and not a lie? There are some events that some individuals are paid just to be able to make a good comparison, surveys and opinion on that particular brand. I guess everything lies on your hand but you just have to take some chances to try a certain product and see for yourself if they really works on you.
Hi Sarah,
Thanks to your recommendation, I did attend Wise Traditions in Dallas. Had a wonderful, enlightening time. The food was, as you promised, safe and delicious. It was a food vacation or me because nothing caused problems. I purchased a few things and took delivery on the coconut oil, coconut milk, and coconut cream. It was the last day and I took a sample of the company’s coconut cream and was had. So thick and creamy. I knew I wouldn’t be able to continue to order this stuff, shipping prices being what they are. But my better judgement was napping and I did not even think to read the ingredients. Like so much else those three days, I figured everything was safe. Well, I won’t mention the company name, as you probably know which one. But I have finally looked at the ingredient list, only to find that both the milk and the cream contain one other ingredient — xanthan gum. No chance of returning it or tossing it, considering what I paid for it. Is it really super terrible stuff to ingest?
I don’t know if anyone else mentioned this, but we don’t use BRM because they produce almond meal in their facility, so we go to other sources for our gluten free products.