The only way to really know what is in your food is to make it yourself or purchase from trusted sources. As I chronicle in my blog (www.getrealchris.blogspot.com) it's a challenge to eat REAL food in a processed world.

Ewwww. We don't buy any cereals beyond oatmeal and shredded wheat/bran ... and I make our muffins. But this is disgusting - I wish Americans would stop buying this crap.

Reading the labels would help. Most of us don't bother to turn the box over. I have to read everything because DS is allergic to red #40. Do you KNOW how much stuff has red #40 in it? None of it even needs it. Stuff like ketchup and salad dressing. There's a brand of chips all the kids eat here that's covered in chili powder and lime. And red #40. In chips.

We let too much slip into our buggies because we fall for the marketing and peer pressure. Where I'm from eating without additives is still considered tree-hugging hippie crap by a lot of people.

Yeah, when I originally saw this I let out a "yawn" and went on to find something that didn't surprise me. Then again, if you are reading this website, this shouldn't be news to you but sadly, this will probably come as a suprise to many people.

"I wish Americans would stop buying this crap."

Odds are that the average American doesn't KNOW that they're buying this crap.

FAKE blueberries! so food is faking being healthy, they give the consumer the impression they are eating an anti-oxidant but in reality they are just ingesting a blue colored sugar ball? it'd be more honest just to eat a glazed donut

My husband told me this yesterday. I feel slightly bad because I was so surprised he didn't know that already that I replied, "Well, duh!"

Even if bakery mixes have actual fruit bits in them, it's almost universally just flavored apple bits.

The only time I've seen fruit in a premix is when they include a can our pouch of the fruit to mix in. And even then I'll bet they're drowning in sugar.

Which brings up a question - I looove baking with dried cranberries. They're one of my favorite things in muffins. But they're so covered in sugar! Is it possible to find dried cranberries that aren't sugarfied, or is it needed for the drying process? Should I start trying to cook with frozen cranberries? Any tips on that?

I worked at a restaurant for 10 years that also had a bakery the best selling muffin was blueberry. The batter came to us frozen but it still had real blueberries in it. But over the last year people started saying they don't taste the same I went I looked it was freeze dried blueberries with blueberry flavorings or something like that. They look real but not quite what they used to be.

Years ago I bought a blueberry muffin from a coffee shop that (used to be) famous for its muffins. Yup, where once had been berries, now there was...blueness. The blue parts had no texture. They had no flavor beyond sweet. And the texture of the muffin had changed from muffin to cupcake, and not good cupcake, either.

My husband (who is not American, but became a blueberry muffin fan when he came here) was completely amazed by homemade blueberry muffins. The blue parts are full of juice! Wow! Yeah dude it's a baked blueberry.

It's so easy to make your own baked goods and add your own blueberries/fruit. I usually pick about 5 pounds or so of blueberries in the summer, individually freeze each one in a pan, and voila! blueberries to add to all my baked goods, cereal, and oatmeal year round.

@rosebud: seriously! if you think those cute pellets in muffin mixes are real blueberries, then someone needs to feed you a salad stat!

I always make my own muffins because I only like them when they are still warm and gooey on the inside... mmmmm!
I think last time I ate a store-bought muffin I noticed the lack of real berries. The memory of it actually convinced me I did not like muffins at all and it was really hard to go near them again. I also remember it being slimy. What would ever make a muffin slimy? It wasn't just a bad muffin, every time I pass a supermarket bakery I check the muffins to see if they have the same weird sheen and they always do.

I'm from NC and there is a popular southern fast food establishment best known for it's breakfast biscuits which contain "blueberry". My fiance and I rarely eat fast food anymore but I was craving these biscuits. So i asked Google for a recipe only to discover from an Insider that they are not even made with berries at all! But instead berry flavored pellets they compared to rabbit food in look…gross!

Blueberries aren't the only food that is made with chemicals to confuse the buyers. Read the labels on the foods you buy! You will be amazed and disgusted. You can learn more about the questionable foods of today at the website of the Feingold Association, parent group that helps families avoid these dyes and know what products to buy: www.feingold.org Check it out.

Every bough blueberry muffin I have ever had has tasted like chemicals...

bought*

I didn't know that I liked blueberries or cherries until several years ago because I always hated the fake/old tasting ones that were in those muffin mixes, etc... that my Mom used (no offense to her). Once I tried fresh I realized I actually liked these fruits & will never go back!