If You Can't Pronounce It, Should You Eat It?

I was reading the label of my soda the other day, and I realized that even though I'd been seeing 'sodium benzoate' for years, I really had no idea what it was. The other ingredients I pretty much know, water, high fructose corn syrup (the Devil's own sweetener), caramel color, caffeine, all those I know and, to a certain extent, understand. But not sodium benzoate.
   So I cracked open Wikipedia - the lazy man's library - and started looking.
   Sodium benzoate is a preservative, says as much on the label of the soda bottle, but it's also used in certain fireworks. It keeps bateria and fungus from growing, which I'm pretty much all for, at least in regards to my Dr. Pepper. But it's also suspected as a contributor to hyperactivity.
   Hmmm... interesting. My curiosity piqued, I decided to look up a few other things I'd seen on food labels but never bothered to learn more about.

In my breakfast cereal
   BHT - butylated hydroxytoluene
   This sounds nasty right from the get-go, but wait'll you read the Wikipedia entry: 'an antioxidant additive in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, jet fuels, rubber, petroleum products, electrical transformer oil, and embalming fluid.' So with my Special K I'm getting my daily allowance of jet fuel additive. Mmmmm... jet fuel...

In my hot dog buns
   calcium propionate
   Another perservative, this time for baked goods, it helps prevent mold growth, again a concept I'm all for. But it's also slightly toxic, and can be used as a pesticide. Yikes.

In my reduced-fat shredded cheddar cheese
   calcium sulfate
   Another mold inhibitor and desicant. It is also the main ingredient in plaster of paris and gypsum, which is the wall board in your house.

In my hot dogs (if you got buns, you need hot dogs)
   sodium nitrite
   A preservative, it also puts the mmmm... in bacon. But it's also used in textile manufacturing, in photography, and as an electrolyte in manufacturing. On the plus side, it's also been used as an antidote for cyanide poisoning.

I don't want to go all earthy-crunchy on you, and I'm certainly not about to give up hot dogs, but I think I'm going to pay a little more attention to what's on the labels of my food. Just sayin'...