I dedicated my holiday weekend to writing my part for the Thunderword article. Our group is determined to make this article super-awesome and make sure it got published on the first shot. So this is my first draft/brain puke, whatever you want to call it! Here we go...

Another popular item on our list of lunch food is yogurt. At the first look, it seems to be the perfect fit to a healthy diet. Full of nutrients such as vitamins and calcium, yogurt is good for you....until you look at the list of ingredients. One of the food additives that is often used in yogurt, such as Yoplait and Dannon, to give it that delicious, creamy-looking, pink color comes from a ground-up insect called the cochineal. This additive is also known as Carmine, a fancy name for dead, ground-up bugs. Since this additive comes from an insect in nature, many food company listed it as "natural additive". If you are allergic to the insects and/or carmine, consuming it can bring a devastating result. People had been reported to have anaphylaxis, a severe form of hypersensitivity allergic reaction, from eating food with carmine additive. However, there are many alternatives to this additive as well. For example, a company called Canandaigua Wine recently introduced a substitute product derived from grape skins. Also, food company can just use the real fruit extract such as strawberry or rasberry, instead of cochineal insect. Beside, since carmine is added to our food for the main purpose of look, we can just eliminate the additive and simply have white strawberry yogurt. Trust me, it can't be worst than eating bug!