We're pretty hearty stock in New Jersey. We've lived near landfills. We've dealt with chemical plants. Bad air quality days. Some of us are working two or three jobs and only have time for packaged and processed foods. And haven't we all been to a restaurant and found a band-aid or a piece of glass in our food?

But this.

It's the stuff we don't want to think about. It is impossible to harvest and process and package food without some things getting in it you'd rather not be there. But if it's not enough to harm you, if it's not enough that you can see, the government decides how much of this nastiness is allowed by law.

If you don't want to know, stop reading now.

According to CNN.com, the FDA allows coffee beans to contain 10 milligrams of animal feces per pound. Further, up to 6% of beans are allowed to be moldy. Or insect-infested. Yikes.

The tomato juice in a 14 ounce Bloody Mary is allowed to have up to 4 maggots and 20 or more fruit fly eggs.

You want to carb load on some spaghetti? A 16 ounce box can legally have 450 insect parts and 9 rodent hairs.

Making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for your kid's lunch? Every 3 and a half ounces of peanut butter is allowed to have some rodent hair and about 30 insect fragments.

I could go on, but all this information and much more can be found in this CNN.com article. If you dare.

Now keep in mind, they're saying this is really a psychological problem not a safety problem. Haven't we all read those stories about human beings while sleeping with their lips parted end up having live spiders crawl into their mouths and swallow them? All this grossness and more can be part of survival training for our men and women in uniform, and these people are heroes. So man up soldier, and walk it off!

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