Soylent brown? Hershey and Nestle are serving up fake chocolate!

I love to eat, but I hate to eat poison. As obvious as that statement may be, it has completely changed my life over the last few years. Because of it, I have found myself obsessively reading labels, researching bizarre ingredients, and generally transforming food shopping into a hellish odyssey of doubletalk and desperation.

Because of that short sentence, I have had to cut out most junk food, many prepared sauces (including ketchup), and an amazing array of things that I once considered staples. I no longer eat Big Macs, Welch's jelly, Coca Cola, most Pepperidge farm breads or Claussen's pickles. In short, my quest to avoid high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), partially hydrogenated oils, and other industrial ingredients has completely changed the way I eat.

This isn't to say that I'm a total health food junkie. Actually, I have a major sweet tooth and have to be physically restrained if candy bars, premium dark chocolate, or butter pecan ice cream are in the room. Even these luxuries, however, are becoming infiltrated by the forces of fake food. A recent article on ABC News noted that major candy companies, including Hershey's and Nestle, are increasingly substituting cheap vegetable oils for cocoa butter in many of their chocolate bars. While the manufacturers claim that this doesn't affect the flavor of their products, many consumers disagree, and some have described the products as "waxy and artificial."