I came across Yummy Earth organic candy today. Reading their ingredients FAQ was pretty enlightening. Here's a partial list of things their candy doesn't have:

• gluten
• eggs
• dairy
• peanuts
• tree nuts
• high fructose corn syrup
• wheat
• soy
• chemical dyes

Now, I agree that our food is over-processed, but this seems a bit extreme. I mean, people did actually die back in the old non-processed food days too.

There's a bit on the site about how the FDA determines if something is, for example, soy or corn-free:

By way of example, if the FDA acknowledges that today’s testing for soy can only go down to 35ppm, then it appears that any manufacturer can claim “soy-free” even if soy exists in the product at levels of 3ppm (which may not even be able to harm anyone).

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that 3 parts per million of soy isn't going to hurt you. Your tap water can have up to .01 ppm of arsenic and more of fun stuff like lead, nitrates, etc.

I don't think there's anything wrong with organic candy (well, other than handing it out to innocent children on Halloween who might mistake for actual candy and turning "real" candy into this awesome forbidden fruit that kids are going to eat by the handful when they get away from their organic-obsessed parents), but this demonizing of one food or ingredient is just another way that we silly Americans get away from the kind of moderation that's probably the best for us in the long run.