You are what you eat

In this modern world, we are confronted at every turn with questions of an existential nature. Some have challenged humanity from time immemorial: "Is there a god?" or "What am I here for?", while others are new to our age: "Does the refrigerator light really go off when I close the door?"
One question that troubles us all, of course, is what about the stuff we eat? We need food to stay alive, but what food is best? Organic? Should we go vegan? Do vegetarians have the answer?
One way to know how to assess what we eat is to actually read the labels on the boxes and other packaging. True, when you buy a piece of fish, there is no convenient label on there, telling you the contents: fish meat, fish by products, salt, Strontium 90, etc. etc., but many of the things we buy do come in packages with convenient labels.
Check out the label on these granola bars I just bought.
The front of the box proudly proclaims, "Crunchy Granola Bars" and "Oats & Honey" with "100% Natural" in smaller letters below.
Sounds good, no? What could be better for me than the wholesome goodness of 100% natural oats and honey? My mind drifts to bees, buzzing around a country hive with golden fields of oats in the distance, waiting to be harvested.
But wait, there is another panel on the side of the package which lists the ingredients. The granola bars are made of (in order of quantity): Whole grain rolled oats (that's good!), Sugar (Wait... what about the honey and the bees?!), Canola oil, Crisp rice with Soy protein [Rice flour, Soy protein concentrate, Sugar, Salt], Molasses, Honey, Salt, Soy lecithin, Natural flavor, Baking soda, Mixed tocopherols [Preservative], Maple syrup, Brown Sugar, Peanut flour.
I imagine the Tocopherols come from the Tocopherol tree — fresh picked.
Anyway, most of the ingredients are some kind of sweetener: Sugar, sugar in the Crisp rice, Molasses, Honey, Maple syrup and Brown sugar, but that is what I bought it for, right?
Directly under the ingredients panel is another label, warning: Contains: Soy, and Peanuts. This is an alert for those who might be allergic to soy or peanuts; suddenly many people are allergic to a lot of things nowadays.
There is also another warning, stating: May Contain: Wheat, Milk, Eggs, Almonds and Coconut.
May contain? Don't they know? Is someone at the Crunchy Granola Bar factory randomly throwing in wheat, milk, eggs, almonds and coconut from time to time, just to keep us on our toes?
Scene at the factory:
Worker A: Hey! Bubba! Look at all these eggs over here... what are they for?
Bubba: I donno, Elvis... why not dump 'em into the vat?
Ralph: Good idea, Bubba! (throws the eggs into the vat)
Bubba: Yo, Elvis! What are these big round things?
Ralph: Ain't them coconuts?
Bubba: I had no idea they was so big! What are we s'posta do with them?
Ralph: The manager said to just throw whatever into the vat. They will write it up on the label.
Bubba: 'K. Gotcha! (throws the coconuts into the vat)
So if we are what we eat, we may not be what we think we are.