Onion Rings

So there I was, chatting online, when all of a sudden, "the munchies" struck...

There was no food in the house, or at least no real food, yet in the cupboard there were the leftover Christmas nibbles - chilli nuts, peanuts, pretzels, chocolates, Bombay Mix, crisps and... Onion Rings. The urge for onion rings took hold of me and the packet was swiftly whisked away to sit open in a prominent position next to the monitor...

...the conversation continued, the onion rings were tasted, then munched, before I knew it I felt strangely compelled to continue eating, more, more, more, I couldn't help myself, they were finally COMPLETELY DEVOURED. I even recall saying "I know I'm gonna regret this in the morning"...

Teeth brushed, mouthwash gargled, went to bed still tasting onion rings.

Woke up, brushed teeth, gargled mouthwash and still tasted onion rings.

Ate breakfast (bacon & fried egg sandwich), drank tea, waited, brushed teeth, gargled mouthwash; Hmmm... onion rings. And that wasn't all, there was a strange buzz... like I was stoned or something...

OK, let's check the packet...

"Fried onion flavour maize snacks"... that's it - fried onion flavour. Flavoured foodstuffs are never quite so good. Let's spin the bag over and see what's in 'em...

! Allergy advice - contains milk, wheat, gluten, yeast, sulphites... sounds scary - WTF are sulphites?

Ingredients: blah blah blah... Fried Onion Flavour Seasoning (onion powder, salt, lactose, sugar, flavour enhancers: Monosodium Glutamate, Disodium 5' Ribonucleotide; dried glucose syrup, flavourings, yeast extract, garlic powder) ...blah, blah, blah

So, there was this perpetual taste of onion rings that would just NOT go away after teeth brushing, sleep, more cleansing and more than 12 hours of passing time and I felt a bit weird; could it have been the Monosodium Glutamate (MSG / E621) or the Disodium 5' Ribonucleotide (E635)? And which ingredients were the sulphites? (Spell-checked this post and it tried to substitute sulphites with salivates...?)

That's it. No more artificial flavourings or additives if I can help it. I shall read and digest the article 20 ways to cut out chemicals

Oh yeah, and only REAL onion rings from now on :D