- [Narrator] (soft
music) Do you ever wonder how the items you purchase are produced? It turns out many products,
from fancy perfume to diamond rings and coffee,
are made in shocking, gross, or just plain appalling ways. To Find out what you might
want to avoid keep watching as I reveal the Top 10 Everyday Things You'll Never Buy Again After
Knowing How They're Made. (soft dinging)
- Amazing! - [Narrator] Number 10, Cheese, Especially Parmesan. I once had to change my
pants after spilling parmesan cheese on them, not because of the stain, but because they ended
up smelling like vomit. As it turns out I wasn't exactly wrong. Parmesan cheese is made with enzymes culled from the lining
of calves' stomachs. This enzyme complex is called Rennet. If that isn't enough to turn your stomach, the pizza-topping cheese
also contains wood pulp. Yum! Parmesan isn't the only offender. Many other cheeses are made in
the same stomach-souring way. Some cheeses are produced
with microbial rennet, which is grown in a
petri dish from bacteria and is appropriate for vegetarians, but manufacturers aren't
required to specify the kind of enzymes used to make their cheese. So if you don't like the idea
of eating calf stomach juices, you may want to moo-ove past the parmesan. Number Nine, Beetles in red candy and more. Candy comes in so many fun colors, from jelly beans to licorice and gum. But surely candy is harmless, right? Well, except for all the sugar? But the gross secret is
that some of your favorite blood-red candies are dyed with
a substance called carmine. No, that's not a new kind of lip balm. It actually comes from cochineal extract, which is excreted by chocineal beetles. They are crushed up and
used to turn everything from yogurt to jam, plus all that candy, a nice, bright red color. Starbucks was recently
shamed into removing the cochineal extract
from some of its drinks after Frappucino lovers found
out about the ingredient and spread the word on social media. Aside from the idea of eating
bugs being just plain gross, cochineal extract can also cause allergies and asthma in some people,
so the FDA requires manufacturers to include it
on the list of ingredients. So the next time you see
carmine, cochineal extract, or natural red four on
an ingredients list, resist the urge to yell, "Beetlejuice, beetlejuice, beetlejuice!" "It's showtime". Number Eight, Lead in some lipsticks. Lips feeling a little too heavy? The idea of lead in lipstick used to be an urban legend many people scoffed at. But in 2012, the FDA tested
hundreds of lipsticks and found that all of them contained lead, up to 3.06 parts per million. A second test found even higher levels of 7.19 parts per million. These lipsticks are
easy, breezy, beautiful, and full of lead. Worse, although the FDA doesn't believe these amounts are harmful
"if used correctly," it also admits there's no
"safe level" of lead exposure. Contaminated lipsticks even
included high-end brands like M.A.C and Dior, and also
one Burt's Bees lipstick, despite the fact that
the company touts itself as a "natural" line. You might want to buzz away from those. But five of the ten most
contaminated lipsticks were from L'Oreal, because
apparently you're worth it, worth coating your lips with lead, anyway. Number Seven, Whale Vomit in Fancy Perfume. Ambergris sounds like a fancy drink you might have at a swanky cocktail party, and in fact, it is associated
with something expensive, it's often found in high-end perfumes. But guess which end of
the whale it comes out of? Both, apparently. Ambergris is a waxy oil produced
in the stomach of a whale, to protect it from sharp
things it sometimes eats, like bird beaks. After a while, this
waxy ball gets excreted, either as vomit or feces. Humans collect these lumps
of waxy whale excrement and use them to enhance
fragrances in expensive perfumes, especially French ones. Chanel No.5 is said to contain this $20-an-ounce delicacy.
(cash register dings) Fortunately, most American brands aren't quite sophisticated enough to use expensive whale
barf in their lines, but if something smells
fishy about your perfume, that may just be it. Number Six, Human Foreskin in Wrinkle Cream. While we're talking about disgustingly expensive beauty products, this next one also has a really stiff price, $150 an ounce,
(cash register dings) possibly because it
contains human foreskin. That's right, SkinMedica's
expensive wrinkle cream is made with foreskin
from circumcised babies. Foreskin fibroblasts are
cultivated in laboratories, and are used in medical facilities to help burn victims regrow skin. Supposedly these foreskin
fibroblasts are also bioactive and make skin look more youthful, maybe because it's, you
know, skin from an infant. A single foreskin sells for around $100,000,
(cash register dings) which may explain the $150
(cash register dings) an ounce price tag for
SkinMedica's wrinkle cream. The beauty product became controversial when anti-circumcision protestors, who object to babies being circumcised, protested against the company's
use of infant foreskin. SkinMedica points out that
they only use the growth hormones produced by the foreskin, but many still think it
encourages infant circumcision. Some even blamed Oprah
for endorsing the product. If this all sounds a
little like something out of a bad mad-scientist-in-a-lab movie, you might want to cut this product out of your beauty routine. Now, before we carry on, take
a look at these images of, what looks like, two
perfectly normal steaks. However, one of them is a fake. Can you guess which one? I'll reveal the answer at the end, so stick around to find
out, you'll be amazed! Number Five, Beers, Fish
bladders and arsenic. As delicious as a nice cold beer is, there are a few gross facts
about how they're made. For one thing, many
brands use fish bladders, or isinglass, to filter the brew. Some people are grossed out by this, especially vegetarians,
and many beer lovers even pressured the Guinness brand to stop using fish by-products. Lists of brands that
don't contain isinglass can be easily found online. But wait, there's more to worry about. Many brands also contain arsenic. Although the substance is
present in small amounts in a lot of foods and even water, higher amounts can be toxic. A Dartmouth study showed people who drink 2.5 beers a day increase the
arsenic in their body by 30% The researchers also believe
that the alcohol in beer may impair the body's ability
to metabolize the poison, allowing it to build up in your system. On the other hand, rice
and even brussel sprouts also increased arsenic levels, so maybe if you cut way
back on your brussel sprout consumption you can down an extra pint. That seems doable. Number Four, Chocolate and coffee by enslaved people. Like many people, I enjoy
a nice chocolate bar and a good cup of coffee. Unfortunately, both are now
leaving a bad taste in my mouth. These two crops are frequently picked by either child laborers, or adult workers who are effectively
enslaved by their debts. In recent years, many large companies like Nestle and Hershey
faced public backlashes over appalling working conditions, and most major producers of
coffee or chocolate products promised to improve working conditions and address the child labor problem. One new company, Tony's Chocoloney, launched this year, claiming to sell 100% slave free chocolate, but with most major manufacturers, there's no way to know just who picked your chocolate or coffee beans. Some large producers,
like Nestle and Kraft, have a Rainforest Certification
graphic on their products, but the requirements
for this are fairly low, and farmers are still
not entirely guaranteed a fair price for their coffee beans. Unfortunately, in many cases
the problems haven't improved or have gotten worse since public scrutiny turned to coffee and
cocoa bean production. One study showed a 21% increase in child labor on cocoa
farms in West Africa over a five-year period ending in 2014. Another study found that
child labor was 37% higher in regions of Brazil
where coffee was produced than in other areas. Those are some eye-opening statistics about the beverage that wakes you up. Number Three, Duck feathers in McDonald's
Baked Apple Pies. Well, if I'm going to give
up chocolate and coffee, I guess I'll go to McDonald's
for a nice baked apple pie. Wait, not so fast. Are none of my favorite treats safe? Sadly it turns out those
deliciously gooey pies contain L-cysteine, a dough conditioner which is derived from many sources, both natural and synthetic,
including human hair. Another common place
to get this amino acid is duck feathers, which
is reportedly the source of the L-cysteine used in
McDonald's Baked Apple Pies and Hot Cinnamon Rolls. (groans positively) Tastes
like a nice down pillow. Number Two, Conflict diamonds. Diamond rings are a symbol of love, but how these sparkly gems are sourced may put you off them all together. Around the turn of the century, there were many news reports
about conflict diamonds; gems mined in war zones,
often by forced laborers toiling under terrible conditions. Frequently the proceeds
were used to fund wars in African countries. In other instances, workers
were simply exploited by big companies, as in the
coffee and cocoa industries. Supposedly the diamond industry
has addressed these issues, and large jewelry companies
are working to provide only gems produced with
safe, voluntary labor. Unfortunately, there is
absolutely no way to know how or where your diamond comes from, regardless of what the
salesperson might say about the company's
sterling business practices. If you really want to
avoid these blood diamonds, as they're sometimes called, you'll just have to avoid
the jewel altogether, or opt for the lab grown alternatives. Before I reveal the most
outrageous example in this list, I'd like to remind you to
subscribe to Be Amazed. We upload amazing,
fact-filled videos every day. So don't miss out on learning
some amazing new information. Also, hit that bell icon for notifications on more amazing, fact-filled videos. Number One, Silk made from worm secretions. Okay, I've given up my diamonds, what other products can I still enjoy? Not silk, as it turns out. The soft, supple fabric
is produced by silkworms, a type of caterpillar. While growing, silkworms produce
a substance called fibroin, a sticky liquid protein, and
sericin, a bonding agent, building a cocoon around itself. That cocoon is made of strands of silk, but hatching destroys
it, so to get the silk, the whole cocoon is thrown
into boiling water or steamed, a process that kills the worm. The boiling or heating process
also softens the thread, allowing it to be carefully unwound. To make one pound of raw silk, about 2500 caterpillars are stopped short of becoming butterflies. I think I'll flit away from silk the next time I see it in a store. Well, until I remember just
how silky smooth it is. Now back to those steaks. The fake one was... Well, actually, they're both fake. You see, they're reconstructed with something called meat glue. It's a type of enzyme
called transglutaminase that can mold together off-cuts of meat, into one coherent cut. You can see the joints
between these steaks with the yellow lines here. A real steak should look like this one. It's pretty smart, except it's
banned in a lot of countries because it can lead to
dangerous consequences. For example, older cuts
with bacteria on the outside now get fused into the middle of a steak. So if you cook your steak rare you're at a much greater risk
of contracting food poisoning. That's why Bacterial
contamination of meat-glued steak is hundreds of times higher
than a solid piece of steak. Though meat glue has benefits, next time you opt for a steak,
double check your own laws, to make sure meat glue is
banned in your country, so you get the real thing. Are you going to change
your spending habits after watching this? Or do you not care that much? Let me know in the comment
section down below. Also, if you enjoyed this
video please leave it a like. Thanks for watching. (soft electronic music)
