If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you have your fill of it and vomit it. (Proverbs 25:16)
“Too much of a good thing can actually be bad for us.” Greed, addiction, always wanting more. This saying can apply to any one of these things. I suppose it was true in Shakespeare’s day, and it is still true today. And the entities like the pharmaceutical industry, the food industry as well as our government seem to know this, and take advantage of it, at your expense.
This is the 3rd in a series of blogs intended to open our eyes to the rabbit hole, that just like Alice in “Alice in Wonderland,” we have found ourselves deep down the rabbit hole when it comes to the so called “foods” we are consuming on a daily basis and how it is literally killing us.
I said I would start off each blog with the definition and the function of food is, just so we remember what the foundation of our focus is each week:
Definition of Food
Food: substance consisting essentially of protein, carbohydrate, fat, and other nutrients used in the body of an organism to sustain growth and vital processes and to furnish energy. The absorption and utilization of food by the body is fundamental to nutrition and is facilitated by digestion. (Britannica)
Food: material consisting essentially of protein, carbohydrate, and fat used in the body of an organism to sustain growth, repair, and vital processes and to furnish energy.(Merriam Webster)
Function and purpose of food: …to sustain growth, repair and vital processes and to furnish energy.
Let’s start with food processing. Moving from the prehistoric days into the medieval period where pickling to fermenting vegetables, salting and smoking meats, steaming vegetables, cheese-making, sun-drying, bread baking, and more became a way of life to preserve foods, and I’m sure to make life a little easier – efforts of harvesting food could be prolonged. Even salted and smoked foods were helpful. Especially for war time, or seasons of harsh winters and dry summers. These methods also allowed for a greater variety of foods and the way they were prepared. In an ideal world, I have always said the best foods and ways to consume them would be: Local, seasonal, raw and organic. But most of us don’t live in an ideal world, and certainly not in prehistoric days, so we look for ways to improve if not improvise on these ideals.
Then the industrial revolution enters stage right. According to a blog post on the website of a company called Cablevey, a company that makes food manufacturing equipment:
Europe underwent severe malnourishment during the first half of the 20th century, which was, in large part, caused by World War I, the economic depression, as well as the influenza virus pandemic. As a result, mass food production began focusing on sustaining Europe’s population. This included the reduction of food-borne diseases, nutrient deficiencies, and malnutrition. This is achieved by providing protein-rich, energy-dense, and vitamin-fortified foods to large sections of the population.
Okay, we’ll give them that – still trying to make life easier as well as healthier for those with severe nourishment due in large part to World War I. But then, this is where the wheels started coming off the bus and “too much of a good thing can be a bad thing”…
After World War II, the subsequent Cold War, the space race, and the rising consumer society in the developed world, processed foods became even more advanced. New technological innovations in the food processing industry, such as spray drying, freeze-drying, juice concentrate, artificial sweeteners, coloring agents, and various preservatives such as sodium benzoate, have ushered in a new era of food types in people’s diets.
Let’s take a closer look at some of these innovations
Juice Concentrate
While there is nothing wrong with a juice concentrate in and of itself, this process can go down a sneaky path when the manufacturer puts added sugars, usually in the form of high fructose corn syrup, and other additives to enhance flavor that might have been lost from the process of removing the water and fiber. And that is another downside to even a 100% juice concentrate – the beneficial fiber is removed, leaving you with a much higher concentration of sugar. Eating the real fruit or vegetable is always the healthier choice.
Artificial Sweeteners
This is where we really started getting hood-winked. As the packaged and processed food industry grew, so did the weight of the human population – not over night, but sooner than later. Because of consumption of all the sugar laden, hydrolyzed fats, and genetically modified starchy foods increased, so did the waist size and the numbers on the scale. Just like Alice’s ongoing consequences from one mishap to another, the corporate food industry seems to have the solutions for the problems they cause with, well, more problems. Enter artificial sweeteners.
Actually, the first artificial sweetener, was developed before the boom of the processed food industry. Saccharin was discovered in 1897 and started to be used as a sweetener in food products. It came from benzoic sulfimide, a coal tar derivative that is 300 times sweeter than sugar. (Fun fact: Monsanto got its start in 1901 selling saccharin). Unbeknownst to the consumer it was being used in sodas and canned goods. It eventually became banned by the U.S. government. Although I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s and I still remember my grandparents putting a little white tablet in their coffee as a sweetener. I’m pretty sure they were saccharin tablets. As a side note my grandmother died of acute pancreatitis and was a diabetic for years. She most likely moved onto the other artificial sweeteners that followed.
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Next came cyclamate, an artificial sweetener 30 to 50 times sweeter than sugar, or otherwise known as Sweet N’ Low. The little pink zero calorie sweetener packets were seen in all of the sugar dispensers in restaurants across the country, as well as contributed to the boom of the diet soda craze. It too was banned when it was determined that it caused bladder cancer in rats.
Enter stage left – Aspartame, known as Nutrasweet was the next solution for the diet soda industry that continued to grow, as well as other processed sweets that wanted to capture the diet industry. There were health complaints about aspartame too, although to my knowledge it is still available.
But a solution to these concerns was solved by introducing the next artificial sweetener on the market – sucralose, better known as Splenda, a compound made up of sucrose and chlorine, yes, chlorine. And that is the current favored, and highly utilized artificial sweetener on the market today. It is 600 times sweeter than sugar, but it does carry some calories. My guess would be if you see something labeled as “zero calories” it is probably made with aspartame, and if it says something like “low in sugar” or some other deceptive wording it is probably made with Splenda. Although who knows, the palms of the governmental food regulating bodies are so greased by the big food manufacturers that both may be getting by with saying “zero calories.” Even things like toothpaste, including the stuff they use at the dentist when they polish your teeth (I always tell them I don’t want any of that used on my teeth, where the gums had just been prodded and micro holes are now in my skin, giving a huge invitation for those toxins to enter right into my body), tell them you don’t want any of it and ask for baking soda instead. These artificial sweeteners are also in most gum and mints too. To read more on these artificial sweeteners see this post from the food magazine “Saveur.”
Let’s move on and take a look at what “Alice stumbles upon next.”
Coloring Agents
Coloring agents, or otherwise known as artificial food dyes are petroleum-derived substances that give color to food. The safety of these dyes is highly controversial. They enhance the appearance of food, to make them more desirable. Coloring agents are not just used in food, but also used in skin care products as well, that when applied to our skin, the largest organ of our body, these toxic ingredients go directly into the blood stream.
According to Dr. Joel Fuhrman, in his book “Fast Food Genocide” the artificial coloring agents Yellow No. 5, Yellow No. 6 and Red No. 40 are added to just about every fast food menu item. The yellow colorings supply a golden hue to sauces, cheese, puddings, and soft drinks, while the red color is added to meats, shakes and desserts that contain fruit. Just like Alice, being deceived by what she sees, we too are enticed by the artificial colorings of foods, making them look better than they really are – in fact, covering up all the toxic ingredients hidden and mixed into those food-like substances. And not only are these things toxic to the body, they are actually robbing the body of the vital nutrients it needs to maintain health,but ultimately opening the body up to immune dysfunction, autoimmune diseases and chronic degenerative diseases.
Preservatives
- Sodium Benzoate – a preservative with the possibility of causing inflammation, ADHD, and oxidative stress
- Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) – found in personal care items like shampoo, soaps and toothpaste – it’s what makes them foam up. It’s also used as a thickening agent in some foods. The FDA says they are not harmful at approved level, however other research shows that it can be irritating to the skin, some believe it can cause cancer.
- Potassium Bromate – is found in baked goods. Bromate interferes with iodine and thyroid function.
- Phosphoric Acid/Sodium Phosphate – this additive is associated with intravascular inflammation and calcifications as well, weakening bones.
These are just a few of the many, many additives that are in our food-like substances these days. It is not easy to find truthful information regarding anything to do with what the government has approved.
In Summary
This is just the tip of the iceberg as to how the processed food industry has evolved. The important take away is that you understand our food is nowhere near what it used to be. Processed foods in the early 20th century are not anything like it is today. And the proof is in the pudding (no pun intended!).
What used to be utilized for our good, and for the ability to preserve foods longer, has turned into a billion-dollar, money making machine at the expense of your health, your children’s health and my health. We really have to wake up and start doing our homework. Learn to read labels – we’ll talk about this next week. Start training your eyes to ignore anything that is on the front of a package – that is the food manufacturer’s marketing space. Make it a habit to turn the product over, and move your eyes to the bottom of the package first – to the Ingredients. Then you can scan the “Nutritional Facts” at the top.
For now, start moving towards being rid of packaged and processed food-like substances, and start eating more foods with no ingredient labels, or at least ones with very few ingredients. And we’ll talk more next week on how to read them and what to look for.
Did you miss the first two blogs in this series? Visit them now…
“The Reality of Our Food and the Demise of Our Health”
“Genetics or Lifestyle?”
Have you been meaning to pick up a copy of this book? Now is the time! “Are You Being Deceived About Truth Wellness?”
