August Hotline

Answers on whether “natural” preservatives are a scam, how much protein kids really need, and more

Hi, readers! I’m coming to you this week from Litchfield County, Connecticut, where I am enjoying treasured summertime rituals like drinking iced cappuccinos from my favorite bakery, working from our beautiful local library, and watching hornets build a nest the size of a football on the side of my house. For the first time, my two oldest boys are at sleepaway camp, which has made it eerily quiet around here. 

This means, among other things, that I’m actually getting to read for fun. The first book I cracked open was Empire of AI (see how fun I am?!), and then came to my senses and downshifted to Michael Grynbaum’s new, dishy chronicle of the history of Condé Nast, Empire of the Elite (seems that the marketing people at Penguin and S&S noticed how well Empire of Pain sold). As an editorial assistant at Condé Nast in the mid-2000s, I not only expensed all of my lunches, because I ate them while working, but called down to the catering staff for bottles of Veuve Clicquot to celebrate other assistants’ birthdays — behavior that I now realize, after reading Grynbaum’s book, Si Newhouse would have thoroughly approved of had he been aware of it. Memories!

We received dozens of great questions from Consumed readers, and today I’m answering three of them (we’ve saved the rest and hope to address many of them in future posts!). Hotline is a perk for paid subscribers, but if we choose your question and you’re not already a paid subscriber, we’ll give you an annual membership to Consumed for free. Got a question for us? Park it in the comments below, DM us on Substack, or send us an email at consumednewsletter@gmail.com. 

So without further ado: Are “natural” preservatives a scam? Do kids benefit from protein-enhanced foods? And what kind of rice is the healthiest? 

Let’s dive in.

I’m a mom of three young kids, so I buy a lot of snacks. I keep seeing “no artificial preservatives” on the front of the package, but when I flip it over, I get ingredients like cultured dextrose, green tea extract, or rosemary oleoresin. I don’t know whether to feel reassured or tricked. As a physician, I’d love to understand what actually qualifies as a “natural” preservative. Are these ingredients better for us? Are there allergy concerns or health trade-offs? And do they really make food safer or just sound nicer? And from the cynical elder millennial lens — I want to know if this is real progress or just another clean-label illusion dressed up in leafy fonts. Thanks for considering! 

— Adrienne