This Is What You Just Put in Your Mouth?: From Eggnog to Beef Jerky, the Surprising Secrets

by Patrick Di Justo

Overview

Based on his popular Wired magazine column What's Inside, Patrick Di Justo takes a hard and incredibly funny look at the shocking, disgusting, and often dumbfounding ingredients found in everyday products, from Cool Whip and Tide Pods to Spam and Play-Doh.

What do a cup of coffee and cockroach pheromone have in common? How is Fix-A-Flat like sugarless gum? Is a Slim Jim meat stick really alive? If I Can't Believe It's Not Butter isn't butter, what is it? All of these pressing questions and more are answered in This Is What You Just Put In Your Mouth? Patrick shares the madcap stories of his extensive research, including tracking down a reclusive condiment heir, partnering with a cop to get his hands on heroin, and getting tight-lipped snack-food execs to talk. Along the way, he schools us on product histories, label decoding, and the highfalutin chemistry concepts behind everything from Midol to Hostess fruit pies.
Packed with facts you're going to want to share immediately, this is infotainment at its best—and most fun!—it will leave you giving your shampoo the side-eye and Doritos a double take, and make you the know-it-all in line at the grocery store.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804139885
Publisher:	Crown Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/03/2015
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

PATRICK DI JUSTO wrote the popular Wired magazine column What's Inside and is an editor at Make: magazine. A contributor to The New Yorker’s science blog, Elements, he also writes for The Atlantic, Popular Science, and Dwell, among others.

Read an Excerpt

Part One This Is What You Put in Your Mouth This Is What You Put on Your Meat A.1. Steak Sauce
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "This Is What You Just Put in Your Mouth?"
by .
Copyright © 2015 Patrick Di Justo.
Excerpted by permission of Crown/Archetype.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Part 1 This Is What You Put in Your Mouth 1

A.1. Steak Sauce 2

Purina Alpo Chop House Beef Tenderloin Flavor in Gourmet Gravy 8

Beano 16

Chocolate Cherry Cordials 22

Cigarettes 26

Coffee 31

Cool Whip 36

Doritos Late Night All Nighter Cheeseburger Chips 40

Easy Cheese Aerosol Spread 47

Enfamil Baby Formula 55

Enzyte 58

Hostess Lemon Fruit Pie 65

Hot Pockets Pepperoni Pizza 69

I Can't Believe It's Not Butter 72

FreshBurst Listerine 77

Midol 84

Orbit White Gum 88

PowerBar ProteinPlus 93

Red Bull 97

Red Wine 100

Samuel Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale 105

Slim Jim 112

Southern Comfort Egg Nog 116

Spam with Bacon 128

Tap Water 132

Vita Coco Coconut Water 138

Part 2 This Is What You Don't Put in Your Mouth 141

Axe Deodorant 142

Colored-Flame Artificial Logs 144

Bausch & Lomb Renu Contact Lens Cleaner Solution 148

CoverGirl LashBlast Luxe Mascara 151

Diamond Strike Anywhere Matches 155

April Fresh Downy Fabric Softener 159

Febreze 163

Fix-A-Flat 168

A Flu Shot 172

Gasoline 177

Head & Shoulders Shampoo 185

Heroin 189

Just For Men Hair Color 194

K-Y Yours+Mine Couples Lubricants 200

Neutrogena Healthy Skin Face Lotion SPF 15 204

Noxzema 208

Play-Doh 214

Preparation H 219

Lemon Scent Raid 224

Rain-X 228

Sta-Green Tree and Shrub Planting Mix 254

Tide Pods 239

Titleist Golf Balls 245

Triple Paste Diaper Cream 248

Acknowledgments 253

Editorial Reviews

12/01/2014
In this lively, informative, and sometimes downright disturbing collection, Make: magazine editor Di Justo reprints columns from his former “What’s Inside” feature for Wired, in which he took everyday products—edible and otherwise—and broke them down by ingredient and purpose. Though this project skews heavily toward scientific description, he injects humor and accessibility into each entry, explaining the form and function of everything from ethanol to zinc carbonate (“natural flavor”). He also provides newly written backstories for many of the previously published entries, describing his research process and the pitfalls of dealing with uncooperative companies—such as the time he almost brought down the eggnog industry just before Christmas, his attempts to obtain real pictures of heroin, and an ultimately fruitless quest to discover just how potato starch is modified. Nothing is sacred: Di Justo dissects coffee and Cool Whip, Hot Pockets and Slim Jims—even golf balls and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter. The goal, he explains, isn’t to scare readers or enrage them, but to inform and educate. Readers will never take the products around them for granted again. Agent: Daniel Greenberg, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

01/01/2015
Wired columnist Di Justo sums up the ingredients of cigarettes as "cheesy foot smell, beaver juice, and the original smokable weed" in this informative and irreverent collection of articles that comprise several years of research. His entertaining book investigates what is in the common products that we eat and use on a daily basis. Each product's ingredient list is covered in a few pages that are followed by backstory on how Di Justo went about researching the item. He recounts cold calls to companies, how helpful they were, but more often than not, how they refused to help. It is surprising to learn what many of the additives in the products are used for and how they are obtained. Although the nitty-gritty of many chemical compounds and their properties is addressed, it is done in straightforward language that general readers will understand and enjoy. VERDICT While many solid texts, such as Grace Ross Lewis's 1001 Chemicals in Everyday Products define the ingredients in household goods, Di Justo's book offers a contextual narrative and an element of humor that makes it amusing and educational reading.—Laurie Neuerburg, Victoria Coll.-Univ. of Houston Lib.

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