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Three men–one American, one Japanese and a Filipino were sitting naked in a sauna.

Suddenly there was a beeping sound. The American pressed his forearm and the beep stopped. The others looked at him questioningly. “That was my pager,” he said, “I have a microchip under the skin of my arm.”

A few minutes later a phone rang. The Japanese fellow lifted his palm to his ear. When he finished he explained, “That was my mobile phone. I have a microchip in my hand.”

The Filipino, not to be outdone, decided he had to do something just as impressive. He stepped out of the sauna and went into the toilet. When he returned, a piece of toilet paper was dangling from his behind. The others raised their eyebrows and stared at him. The Filipino finally said, “Well, will you look at that, I’m getting a fax.”

What do toothpaste and ice cream have in common? And then you burst into a laughter thinking how could that be? Or you turn perplexed by the thought of associating a toothpaste to an ice cream.

Perhaps most of us don’t know that almost all processed foods and cosmetics we use everyday have, at least, shared the same common ingredient that beer and infant formula do. Then you derisively ask what?

For the record, and to the curious, the foamy San Miguel beer, the Dento toothpaste, your favorite Selecta icer cream, the Lactum infant formula, the Revicon max capsule, the hair styling gel, all have the same edible factor - the carageenan. It is a natural substance extracted from, yes, the common red algae (guso) that we usually eat pickled. Carageenan has a natural gelling, suspending, thickening, or water-holding properties that acts as emulsifiers to numerous chemical processes in various applications such as in food and pharmaceutical industries.

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