14 Foods You’ll Never Eat Again Once You Know The ingredients

13. Cheese

If you have any cheese in your house, you might want to check the label on it right now and look for an ingredient called rennet. If you don’t see this ingredient listed, you can breathe easy. If you do see it, prepare to be horrified. While it’s common knowledge that cheese is a dairy product, most people think it’s safely vegetarian. Most rennet-containing cheeses, however, aren’t actually vegetarian-friendly as rennet (an enzyme found in the stomach of nursing cows, lambs, and goats) can only be extracted by killing the animal.

There are some cheeses, such as cottage cheese, that do not contain rennet. Other cheeses are made to be vegetarian-friendly using vegetarian rennet or microbial rennet. These cheeses are safe for vegetarians (and those with queasy stomachs) to consume.

14. Citrus-flavored sodas

Everyone knows that soda isn’t exactly the most healthy drink to consume, but citrus-flavored sodas are packed with more than just sugar. Many citrus-flavored drinks, like Mountain Dew, include a synthetic chemical that has been patented as a flame retardant. Brominated vegetable oil, commonly referred to as BVO, has been banned from foods in Europe and Japan but is still widespread in North America. Ten percent of sodas sold in the U.S. contain this ingredient, which helps to keep the citrus flavor mixed into the drink instead of floating to the surface of the can or bottle.

While there are limits that regulate how much BVO can be included in drinks, the studies on what makes it safe for consumption are decades old. It’s possible that BVO is more harmful than we suspect. Studies done on mice show that a buildup of BVO can cause behavioral and even reproductive issues.