Off-Topic: Kraft Macaroni and Cheese is garbage

This is an economic blog that I, who am not an economist, rarely write to.  And of course nobody reads it, so sometimes I post about other topics, in particular, diet and food.

 I recently have become a connisseur of cheap food, to try to eat healthy on a budget.  I have been eating a lot of ramen noodles, which I won't talk about here.  I have also been eating pasta.  Which brings me to my topic today. I bought like 8 boxes of Kraft macaroni & cheese because they are on sale for $1 or $1.50 per box.

Last night I used only 1/2 box and cooked it with about the same quantity of Banza Cavatapi.  The cavatappi made it much more enjoyable. But what happened was a few minute after I finished my meal, I felt very sleepy, and then groggy.  I kind of feel like I was mildly poisoned.  I am pretty much over it a few hours later.  I am not a food scientist but I can think of 3 possibilities.  

First, that the macaroni had some kind of poison in it, like glyphosate (weed killer).  I am talking parts per billion here and maybe I am more sensitive to it than most people.  I am not saying its poisonous as such, just that something is present in very small amounts that shouldn't be there.  And Kraft probably knows this and justifies it because the amount is so low.  

Second, that the product, including both the mac and the cheese, has a very high glycemic index, which makes my insulin spike, similar to eating sugar.  (You might think that all pasta does that but no, good quality pasta can be a complex carb that is very slowly digested).

Third, that there are phthalates in the cheese sauce.  I wasn't even thinking about this, I was thinking about the glycemic index, but this brought up what other people think.  Phthalates are added to plastics to increase their longevity. And apparently these are present in the cheese sauce mix in very high (relatively speaking) amounts.  They are used as a preservative to make the shelf life last longer and to make the sauce creamier.  Again, we are talking parts per billion, and maybe I am just ultra-sensitive to it.

I think this is the most likely explanation.  So just avoid the cheese sauce mix and use real cheese.

But separate from all this, lets look at the ingredients of just the macaroni itself.  From the box:  Enriched macaroni (wheat flour, durum flour, niacin, ferrous sulfate, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin), cheese sauce (list of ingredients omitted).   

I also have a bag of Delallo Penne Rigate, which cost $2.99 per bag.  This is the ingredient list:  Durum wheat semolina.   That's it,   I also have a box of Good & Gather Yellow Lentil Penne and this is the list: yellow lentil flour.  That's it.  Now look at the Banza cavatappi:  chickpeas, pea starch, tapioca, xanthan gum.  

Life is too short to eat bad pasta.  The better stuff isn't that much more expensive.

I half-way think that the Kraft macaroni & cheese is just totally garbage and I should just throw it away.  But instead I think I will just avoid it for awhile and in a month or so do another experiment and see if I react the same way.  

I like macaroni and cheese, but it can be better than this.  Use whole wheat elbow noodles.  Use cavatappi or rotini.  Buy Annie's organic mac and cheese.  And use real cheese.  Rant off.

Update:  The problem is the sodium triphosphate in the cheese mix, about which I am posting more. Annie's has the same problem with sodium phosphate.