Good stuff this week, particularly the new data about why diets don’t work, why probiotics do work and some interesting examples of how the food industry is responding to the food movement. Oh yes, and the invention of super broccoli.
Want to see all my favorite links? Be sure to follow me on on Digg. I also share links on Twitter (@summertomato), Google+ and the Summer Tomato Facebook page. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you.
UK scientists grow super broccoli <<BS of the week. Hate to break it to these guys, but broccoli was already perfect. Seriously, aren’t there bigger fish to fry? (SF Gate)
In Defense of Industrial Food <<I disagree with this, but I’m not calling BS because he brings up some important points that should be answered by the real food community. (TIME)
Lunch with Michael Pollan: Two Words of Warning <<Pollan is right about what the food industry is doing in response to the food movement (spin!), and the next few articles illustrate exactly what he means. (Michael Ruhlman)
Or to put it another way, do you know the difference between real food and food that was designed to fool you into believing it is real?
It might not be as easy as you think.
(Spoiler Alert! If you haven’t seen the original Matrix film yet, crawl out of your cave and go watch it real quick before reading. We’ll wait.)
In the classic film The Matrix, machines of the future create a sophisticated computer program that produces an alternate reality for their human slaves. The program, the Matrix, placates humans into believing they are living normal lives while their bodies are imprisoned in suspended animation.
The Matrix is plugged directly into the brains of humans. They live the Matrix, breathe the Matrix, eat the Matrix. They’ve grown up with it, and have never known any other world.
Now think about a Twinkie or a McNugget. Can you remember life without them? I can’t. These products have always been a part of my world, even though it has been a long time since I’ve eaten them. I have vivid childhood memories of both products–after school snacks with friends, my 10th birthday party–and my memories are happy.
But I’ve learned to refer to Twinkies and food from McDonald’s as products and not foods because, when you think about it, they really aren’t foods. Sure you can eat them, but that just makes them a novelty–something akin to beating up your friends in Mortal Kombat.
“Do you believe that me being stronger or faster has anything to do with my muscles in this place?” -Morpheus
Real food nourishes your body by providing essential building blocks for your cells and organs. The human body evolved alongside real food and is adapted to digest it.
Edible products on the other hand were specifically designed to fool your brain and sensory perception, but your body, cells and organs have no idea what to do with them.
Twinkies and McNuggets are engineered. They do not come from the earth and are not food. Twinkies were created in the Matrix.
Do you think that’s food you’re eating now?
This may sound like rhetorical foodie fluff, but please humor me and entertain the metaphor for a little while longer.
Food should nourish your body and contribute to your overall health. Even foods that are considered fattening–bacon comes to mind–provide nourishment so long as they are based in reality.
But what is a Twinkie? What is a Pringle? What is a McNugget?
BigMacs may look, smell and vaguely taste like food, but if what you are eating is not sustaining your health and is possibly making you sick, isn’t it time to question whether it is food at all?
These are products that were created in a laboratory. They may have started as raw materials from plants, but the plants were never grown to be eaten. Industrial corn, soybeans and the cattle raised on them have been processed and redesigned to the point where they’ve been stripped of anything that allows for them to be reasonably classified as food.
Shouldn’t we then stop calling this stuff food?
Most people will initially reject this idea. Of course food is food. But I’d argue that this opinion is just another product of our environment. Haven’t we always lived in the Matrix of industrial agriculture?
We have coexisted with McDonald’s for so long it seem preposterous to speculate it doesn’t meet the definition of food.
But let’s take a closer look:
Food -noun:
1.
Any nourishing substance that is eaten, drunk, or otherwise taken into the body to sustain life, provide energy, promote growth, etc.
2.
More or less solid nourishment, as distinguished from liquids.
3.
A particular kind of solid nourishment: a breakfast food; dog food.
4.
Whatever supplies nourishment to organisms: plant food.
5.
Anything serving for consumption or use: food for thought.
(emphasis mine)
With the exception of the last point, which is clearly philosophical, all these definitions include the word nourishment.
Nourish –verb (used with object)
1.
To sustain with food or nutriment; supply with what is necessary for life, health, and growth.
2.
To cherish, foster, keep alive, etc.: He had long nourished the dream of living abroad.
3.
To strengthen, build up, or promote: to nourish discontent among the workers; to nourish the arts in one’s community.
(emphasis mine)
If it doesn’t provide nourishment, it is not food.
But relying on dictionary definitions is both semantic and impractical. It also becomes confusing when companies market products that are not real food but have added back nutrients to give the appearance of nourishment.
The important question is how do we break free?
Being convinced that these products are not food is not enough. Like the Matrix, McDonald’s is so closely tied to your perception of reality that it can fool you even when you know it isn’t real.
Remember, when Neo makes his first attempt to jump across the building roofs. He doesn’t make it.
“Everybody falls the first time.”
That’s because the Matrix feels so real that not believing it is almost impossible. Likewise, knowing that edible products are not food and that they will in fact make you less healthy is often not enough to prevent you from eating them. Your senses are easily fooled.
But better decisions are not impossible and your food world doesn’t need to be 100% black and green. Even small steps in the right direction, back into reality, can improve your health.
The first small changes you try also make subsequent steps easier.
Unplugging from the industrial food Matrix does not need to happen all at once, but you can extract yourself from it eventually. The first step is starting to see it clearly.
“I’m trying to free your mind, Neo, but I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it.”
Are you eating in the Matrix?
For your viewing pleasure: Morpheus is fighting Neo!
This post was inspired by commenter Martin Levac who gave me permission to roll with his awesome idea.
Many must-read articles this week, including the juice on processed OJ, the truth about factory farming and antibiotic resistance and the latest demolition of our favorite vegan propaganda book, The China Study.
Want to see all my favorite links? Be sure to follow me on on Digg. I also share links on Twitter (@summertomato) and the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you.
One Year Later: The China Study, Revisited and Re-Bashed <<I’m not a fan of The China Study, and what I like about this critique is that it points out dozens of peer-reviewed papers that show the exact opposite of the claims made in the book—most co-authored by Dr. Campbell himself. Makes me wonder how he justifies these contradictions to himself. (Raw Food SOS).
Most people’s eyes light up if free food is mentioned. But using “free” as an excuse to eat junk food is nothing to be proud of.
We are excited by the concept of free food because we perceive it as having value. But cheap, mass-produced food isn’t worth much in health, taste or even satisfaction.
Although we believe we are getting a great deal, foods typically offered as free don’t even fulfill our most basic nutritional (or emotional) needs.
Thus one of the most important lessons I’ve learned in my 12 years of higher education is:
Just because it’s free doesn’t mean you have to eat it.
On occasion someone will offer you high quality food at no cost, but these times are few and far between. More often you will find yourself wading through a sea of donuts, pizza, cookies and other junk food.
Your best bet is skipping the empty calories all together when attending meetings, seminars and other public events.
10 reasons to never eat free food
It’s cheap. You may be inclined to think that cheap food is a good deal, but if you take a minute to think about what you’re really getting you find it is not the value you may have thought. Cheap food means you are getting low quality, mass-produced calories made from industrial processes. Isn’t that the stuff we want to avoid?
It’s flavorless. The right combinations of sugar, fat and salt, pretty easily deceive your brain, as these ingredients can strongly activate your neural reward pathways. But if you try and focus on the true flavor of food and eat mindfully, you quickly notice the tastelessness of industrial food.
It’s bad for you. Evidence is mounting that processed foods are the cause of most “diseases of civilization” such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer. When you wolf down a few of those Costco brownie bites at happy hour, you are contributing directly to your likelihood of developing these chronic diseases. Is that value?
You aren’t saving money. You may tell yourself that this free meal will keep you from eating later, but there’s a good chance you will eat again anyway. Processed foods do not satisfy you, but actually stimulate your appetite and strengthen future cravings. Also, if you factor in your future health care costs, what you save by eating that $2 slice of pizza starts to seem rather trivial.
You’ll feel gross later. Junk food makes you feel bad, both physically and mentally. If someone offered you a free headache, would you take it?
It screws up your metabolism. Highly refined foods create rapid insulin spikes that induce insulin resistance over the next few hours, making your next meal more fattening. If you make a habit of eating cheap abundant food, this condition will become chronic and may develop into type 2 diabetes. What a bargain!
You’ll gain weight. With insulin resistance comes weight gain, and with time you will gain more weight eating fewer calories. Unfortunately, people aren’t often giving away free plus-sized jeans.
You’re eating empty calories. When you submit to eating cheap food, you are also choosing not to eat nutritious food. Choosing a diet rich in vitamins and other essential nutrients may be the single biggest factor in determining your risk for disease and overall longevity. Luckily, local, seasonal foods taste way better than anything your co-workers can pour out of a plastic bag.
You don’t need it. Chances are you get plenty of calories in your typical day. So why do we feel like we need to eat junk food just because it is free? Healthy food does not have to be very expensive.
It isn’t worth it. The truth is free junk food isn’t really free. Even if processed foods don’t cost you money, they still cost you your health, happiness and sense of well-being.
Wow, please don’t skip your reading this week. There are two excellent stories about the dangers of food imports, an exposé on the bogus “nitrate free” food labels and a fascinating tale of finding zen in the kitchen. All that and more on my top 10 food and health links this week.
Want to see all my favorite links? Be sure to follow me on on Digg. I also share links on Twitter (@summertomato) and the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you.
Links of the week
What’s Inside the Bun? <<Awesome piece about the bogus “nitrate free” claims on some processed meat products. (New York Times)
China’s Bizarre Food ‘Safety’ Scene, and Our Own <<Another must-read about the horrific crimes going on in the Chinese food supply, and why we aren’t exactly doing much better in the US. (New York Times)
Banned chemicals found in tons of imported fish <<BS of the week for the lack of adequate regulation, and proof that the above story was not scaremongering. Though I’m horrified by this, I’m not particularly surprised. The government is clearly not doing enough to protect you, so I’d recommend sticking to domestic wild seafood as best you can. (The Tennessean)
Is Your Meat Habit Giving You Diabetes? <<The title is misleading, but this is actually a fascinating article about the dangers of industrially farmed animals. (Mother Jones)
Sichuan Eggplant <<Eggplant season is starting and this looks delicious. I’d probably leave out the sugar (or at least half it), but that’s just me. (Simply Recipes)
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