Tag: processed food
Just A Little Icing On The Cake: Don’t Eat Processed Foods
by carl on May.15, 2009, under food
As if you didn’t need any other reason this article puts it in the starkest terms available, that you shouldn’t be eating processed foods of any kind. Briefly, it chronicles the experience of giant food corporation Con-Agra and its decision to put the burden of food safety on unwitting consumers, by assuming they will cook the food past the temperatures necessary to kill off such toxic bugs as salmonella. Of course, given the vagueness of the instructions and the general level of ignorance among the populace, it was inevitable that many would not heed or follow the instructions, resulting in sickness and death. Here’s the real hair-raiser:
“Increasingly, the corporations that supply Americans with processed foods are unable to guarantee the safety of their ingredients. In this case, ConAgra could not pinpoint which of the more than 25 ingredients in its pies was carrying salmonella. Other companies do not even know who is supplying their ingredients, let alone if those suppliers are screening the items for microbes and other potential dangers, interviews and documents show.”
There is really little to add to this…just don’t eat this stuff. If you do, you are taking your life in your hands and hoping not to be poisoned. There’s just no other way to put it.
Processed/Industrialized Foods: What’s Not to Like?
by carl on Mar.13, 2009, under food
If you needed an example of how the food industry “works” to create “value” in its products, look no further than this article on the increasing use of polydextrose and other substances added to foods to artificially increase their fiber content. Only problem is, these fake fibers aren’t really proven to do much of anything; in fact, no one really knows whether they’re beneficial or not, because its not particularly possible to design scientific enough studies to say for sure. One thing they do accomplish, though, is to make it seem like foods (and I’m using the term loosely here: might be more appropriate to refer to them as, al a Michael Pollan, “edible foodlike substances”) such as Cocoa Pebbles have high fiber content and are thus, “healthy.” As a result, unknowing consumers may get the idea that they are eating well, when in fact, they’re just falling for another scam by the food industry. Since not much is known about these substances, it would probably be better to just get your fiber from oh, real sources like fruits and vegetables, but this really wouldn’t increase the industrial food system’s profits as much, would it? Well, that’s about it in a nutshell. Over on The Edge of Chaos I do a fair amount of ranting about how so many of our current institutions and systems have become predatory, taking advantage of people’s ignorance and exploiting their worst instincts for ever more profit, and the industrial food system is just one of many (ok, if you insist, the credit card companies, the health care system, government, the finance industry, and a few others). Although many things may be scarce or unaffordable, human ignorance and gullibility are always present in abundance. You can resist the blandishments of processed food; it just takes a little time, thought, and planning. Good luck.
