Introduction
The last 100 years have witnessed massive changes in food production processes. This has consequently led to a huge change in the type of the foods that humans feed on. In the past most of the food came directly from agricultural fields and was only processed minimally without the addition of many additives. However, times have changed and currently, even the word ‘food” has become hard to define given the large amount of products that tag themselves as food. Synthetic foods fill supermarkets stores, and it is so hard to determine what food product is healthy and what food product will negatively impact on one’s health. Many authors have written on this issue, showing some of the associated health effects of modern foods. Many have attempted to give advice on the types of products to eat and the ones to completely avoid.
In “Eat Food: Food Defined”, Michael Pollan gives some key tips or guidelines that people should utilize when it comes to the selection of foods to consume. Pollan’s advice is necessitated by the huge state of confusion that characterizes the world given the large number of products that tag themselves as food. One of the types of “foods” that people should avoid are those that one’s grandmother should not recognize. The reason is that grandmothers and even great grandfathers lived before the advent of modern foods and can thereof accurately distinguish between authentic food and synthetic foods that dominate the current food market. These synthetic food products are, usually, complicated in nature due to a huge number of chemical additives contained in them. Apart from the associated health problems that may brought about by these additives, such foods also lie to the human body through their color and taste appeal and make humans addicted to them in spite of their low nutritious value.
The second types of foods that people should avoid according to Pollan are those that contain ingredients whose names are unpronounceable and unfamiliar. In addition, foods with more than five ingredients as well as those with high fructose corn syrup as an active ingredient should also be avoided. According to Pollan, the characteristics mentioned above may not be necessarily harmful but the major conclusion on such foods is that they have undergone so much processing that they are no longer what they purport to be. An example is given of bread which in the traditional sense comprised of simple ingredients such as water, yeast, flour and salt. However, the modern bread is made with so many unfamiliar and complex ingredients such as bleached flour, whey, high-fructose corn, riboflavin, folic acid, thiamine mononitrate amongst others. In such a product, the actual “bread” component is in actual sense very marginal.
People should also avoid those foods that make audacious health claims. Foods that make health claims on their package have a higher likelihood of being processed foods and not whole foods. Therefore, most of these health claims are inaccurate and often exaggerated. As Pollan states, only big food companies have approval from FDA to make health claims. In addition, synthetic food products have the habit of making bold health claims that are in most cases founded on erroneous and incomplete science.
When it comes to shopping at the supermarkets, the peripheries are the best option since this where most of the healthy foods are located. The middle sections of the supermarket are the ones that are, usually, filled with unhealthy processed foods. People are also advised to do some shopping out of the supermarket. An excellent option is the farmer’s market. A farmer's market will not contain foods that have high fructose corn syrup as an active ingredient or foods with many dubious health claims. What one will find here are fresh whole foods that have mostly come from the garden directly?
Eric Schlosser uses the case of McDonalds’s to show some of the unhealthy food processing practices that many people are oblivious to when buying such processed foods. It is shown that McDonald’s, as well as products from related industries, are exposed to unhealthy flavoring practices. Flavoring is done by adding various additives that have been proven to affect human health negatively. An example is an artificial strawberry flavor found in Burger Kings’ strawberry milk shake that is made up of chemical elements combined to taste like the real strawberry.
Sometimes, people may not be able to access the healthy natural foods in spite of the fact that they desire such foods. For instance, Camille Kingsolver in her article “Taking Local on the Road” talks about the struggle she faced when she went to college, where she could access natural whole foods such as tropical fruits.
There are however some individuals who adopt an oblivious attitude towards synthetic food products in spite of having full knowledge of their nutritional deficient and possible negative effects on health. In “Her Chee- to Heart”, Jill McCorkle recount vivid memories of himself as a lover of junk food. He admits being a junkie of junk foods such as French fries, hot dogs, burritos, cheese pizza and so on.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is clear that there are a lot of synthetic processed foods out there have low nutritious value and that may affect the human health negatively. In fact, the gap between real and synthetic foods is getting thinner and thinner, and it is becoming hard to distinguish between real and synthetic foods. People should always attempt to go for foods that have only been minimally processed and whose ingredients count is not excessive. One perfect place to find such foods is the farmers market where one is guaranteed to get fresh food that have come straight from the garden and that do not have excess chemical additives.
Works Cited
Kingsolver, Barbara, Steven L. Hopp, and Camille Kingsolver. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2007. Print.
McCorkle, Jill. "Her Chee- to Heart." We Are What We Ate: 24 Memories of Food. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1998. Print.
Pollan, Michael. "Eat Food: Food Defined." In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. New York: Penguin Press, 2008. Print.
Schlosser, Eric. "Why the Fries Taste Good." Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Print.
