Are you eating food fragments or real food? The food fragments I am talking about are NOT foreign particles in foods such as metals and plastics though these undoubtedly exist and the FDA has limits for them (that's another topic). I am talking about the ultra processed food that the average American is consuming on a daily basis. These "foods" are not foods at all. Highly processed foods contain more chemicals than real food and shockingly, 73% of the U.S. food supply is ultra-processed.
Ultra-Processed Food Choices at my Local Supermarket
Ultra-processed foods contain preservatives, colors, artificial flavorings, stabilizers, emulsifiers, firming agents, leavening agents, and anti-caking agents. The FDA lists some 3972 substances added to food. At one time, vinegar and salt were used to preserve foods but in our fast-paced uber-busy lives food shelf life must be extended to satisfy the grab and go consumers we have become. Numerous studies point out the health dangers of consuming ultra-processed foods including obesity, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and a higher risk of all cause mortality.
Our bodies are designed to eat real food. Real food is food found in nature - fruits, vegetables, nut, seeds, herbs, grains, fish and animals. Sometimes these foods are combined to make a tasty, satisfying dish. For example, brown rice may be milled and combined with water to make a flour which could be used in creating a pasta. Tomatoes, basil, and garlic may be chopped and cooked into a delicious sauce for the pasta. Rice, tomatoes, basil and garlic all grow in the ground and are found in nature. This is real food.
Spend the Majority of Your Time and Money Here and Not in the Packaged Food Aisles
But mass food producers take something that begins as a real food (for example flour from wheat) and then add a host of chemicals that are not food. Recently I was handed this little "snack" on a Southwest Airlines flight. While everyone else greedily tore open the package and began munching it with their diet coke I read the ingredients.
An Airline Flight "Snack"
Here is what this "snack" consists of:
Pretzels (enriched wheat flour [wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid], salt, less than 2% of high oleic canola oil and/or soybean oil, corn syrup, barley malt extract, leavening [contains one or more of: yeast, sodium bicarbonate, ammonium bicarbonate]), ranch bagel chips (enriched wheat flour [wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid], canola and/or cottonseed oil, seasoning [salt, buttermilk, sour cream {cultured cream, nonfat milk}, tomato, onion, garlic, sugar, cheddar cheese (cultured pasteurized milk, salt, enzymes), torula yeast, maltodextrin, disodium inosinate and guanylate, sodium diacetate, malic acid, citric acid, parsley, spice], yeast, salt, sugar, malt powder [barley malt flour, dextrose, wheat flour], wheat gluten, sodium bicarbonate), cheddar cheese squares (enriched flour [wheat flour [wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid], cheddar cheese [milk, cheese cultures, salt, calcium chloride, enzymes], high oleic canola and/or high oleic soybean and/or palm oil with rosemary extract and ascorbic acid for freshness, sugar, contains 2% or less of: natural cheddar cheese flavor [cheddar cheese {pasteurized milk culture, salt, enzymes}, natural flavor, salt, disodium phosphate, lactic acid, citric acid], malted barley extract, salt, leavening [baking soda, monocalcium phosphate, ammonium bicarbonate], annatto extract [color], paprika, cayenne pepper, enzymes, natural flavor, soy lecithin).
And following this long list and the name of the company that prepared this non-food are the words: CONTAINS BIOENGINEERED FOOD INGREDIENTS. What is bioengineered food? The USDA defines it as "foods that contain detectable genetic material that has been modified through lab techniques and cannot be created through conventional breeding or found in nature." In most cases this label will replace the GMO label. These "non-foods" are nutritionally void, addictive, and promote inflammation.
So why don't people just reject these "lab foods" and consume real food found in nature? The objection most often voiced about eating real food is that it takes time and can actually cost more. Fresh food must be carefully selected (look for rotting, wilting, and mold growth as grocery stores often keep produce on the shelf too long). Then, once home, it must be washed, chopped, often cooked, and consumed relatively quickly before it begins to deteriorate. All of this takes time to plan and execute and if not planned properly food may be thrown away wasting time and money. It is far easier and less time consuming to tear open a package or pop a frozen plastic tray of food into the microwave.
I completely understand this objection, but consider that by consuming all these food additives you are participating in an epidemiological trial of food additives since no one knows the long terms effects of many of them. Instead, why not consider what activities you can cut in your lifestyle in order to make time to prepare real food.
Bottom-line: as much as it is humanly possible stay away from ultra-processed ready-made foods, buy fresh or frozen fruits, vegetables, and grains and cook with those predominantly along with unadulterated herbs, spices, and nuts (meaning nothing added to them). Buy organic as much as possible. I challenge you to do this for a month and watch your weight go down and your energy level go up. Oh and when you fly, pack an apple.
