Are We Eating "Virtual" Food?

By Laurine Brown, PhD, MPH

My stomach churns as I read "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser describing his visit to a giant "flavor factory", just off the New Jersey Turnpike. This highly secretive industry has emerged alongside our fast food mega-market, a critical partner in its success. Without these top-secret bottled flavors processed food tastes blah, because it is, well… so processed. Since flavor sells (at the right price), you'd be hard pressed to find a package among the glut of 320,000 products competing for supermarket space without "natural" or "artificial flavors". So sophisticated is this flavor-science that blindfolded testers experience the "real thing" without a morsel of food in sight. Schlosser narrates, "After closing my eyes, I suddenly smelled a grilled hamburger. The aroma was uncanny, almost miraculous. It smelled like someone was in the room flipping burgers on a hot grill. But when I opened my eyes, there was just a narrow strip of white paper and a smiling flavorist."

Virtual food. I shiver.

For eons, our compass of taste and smell has guided us to the ripest, edible foods. In nature, peak ripeness and flavor are coupled with peak nutrition. That's a lucky coincidence, since science holds that humans don't innately know how to select a nutritious diet. "We survived in evolution because nutritious foods were readily available for us to hunt or gather," nutritionist Marion Nestle explains in "Food Politics." But what happens when we're gathering from a supermarket jungle of foods chemically altered to mimic lost flavor and freshness? The flavor without the nourishment. We've been tricked. Our ancient compass has led us astray.

Sure some foods are "enriched" after processing, restoring some of the original nutritional score. For example, 5 nutrients are added back to white flour after milling from whole wheat flour. But we know at least 25 nutrients are lost through milling. So how do our bodies cope with the shortage of dozens of nutrients, including zinc, copper, magnesium, and fiber? Could simple nutritional deficiencies be fueling our short attention spans, behavioral problems, violence, PMS, depression, immune deficits, cancers, heart problems, skin rashes, sleep problems, and more? Are we malnourished in the jungle of plenty?

Perhaps we're not unlike other animals when it comes to priorities in choosing foods. Convenience first. Preference second (but we adapt to what's available, just like raccoons, coyotes, bears, etc.). And nutrition? Hmm. I'm not sure that's even on radar screens of other species because (like for humans until recently) it didn't have to be. Wild foods tuck nutrition in at no extra charge. Recently, while in Yellowstone I watched 1960s film clips of bears feeding on tourist garbage, something I recall as a young girl. We humans, I'm sad to say, scheduled these daily potlucks for our own viewing pleasure. Naturally, the bears came from afar to feast on this convenience food, leaving the herbs and berries for the birds. Can you imagine them pondering the health benefits of fast food garbage over their traditional diet before partaking? Should I forage all day on the meadow's slim pickins, or just go to the dump at sunset for an easy pig-out? No-brainer. Incidentally, eating our garbage diet the bears got fat, not to mention aggressive. Maybe we're not so different than our furry friends.

Most of us try to choose healthy foods, though the task of sorting through 50,000 items under any supermarket roof to determine what's for dinner is daunting. And we're handicapped by the smoke screen of $33 billion worth of food ads screaming at us from everywhere, messing with our minds, luring us through any means to buy them. Seventy percent of this astronomical figure tries to get highly processed-- the virtual foods like soda, candy, snacks-- into our mouths (actually, our pocketbooks). The virtues of nutrient-packed veggies, fruits, grains and beans are barely whispered in a mere 2% of ads. Some safety and convenience benefits aside, food is processed-- colored, sweetened, greased, salted, waxed, and chemically flavored-- not because it's good for us, but because it's good for business. Such layers of processing return greater profits to manufacturers than unadulterated spinach or lentils direct from the garden. The bottom line here is we lose-- our health that is.

Don't retire those tastebuds yet. But, we need a new compass to maneuver this exotic jungle of fabricated foods.

Try this tool. Eat whole. That's it. Simply eat lots of vibrant, unadulterated foods (grown in healthy soil, without pesticides). Choose foods that look like how they came from the earth-- picked, dug, sliced, or milked-- in the form that has shaped our biology since creation. Make that mostly plants-- vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds-- with a little drug-free fish, meat or milk for non-vegetarians. Let your kids help. Can you pick fruity gummy bears off a tree? Try real fruit, say raisins, instead. Seen any cola farms lately? Go for 100% juice. If the earthly source escapes you, likely the basic nourishment will too. Our bodies are remarkably fine technology-- ready to fight back, protect us, heal. If-- and that is key-- they get what they need to do the job. We can't eat food that's not whole and expect to be whole. Though clever, we humans still have much to discover about what nourishes us. Fortunately, nature's wholesome packaging ensures 3.8 billion years of quality testing. You can't beat that. So stop trying.

Making the Switch to Whole Foods

• Start with foods you know and make them whole, like bread, cereal, tortillas, crackers, rice, pasta. The same goes for vegetables. You'll lose everyone if you start with beet greens, leeks and gingered tofu. For a tasty snack-to-go make trail mix with your favorite nuts, seeds, dry fruit, and whole grain cereal.
• Work toward a goal of 80% whole foods. Study your habits. Size up your shopping cart. Jot down what you've eaten, circling the whole foods. Where can you improve? Keep that coke and chips in the 20% slice of your daily fare.
• Stick to the supermarket's outer perimeter. Ever notice that's where all the fresh food is-- food that doesn't need a label to inform you of its goodness? Check out a local farmers market. Or join a CSA (community supported agriculture).
• Don't blame it on time. No, you don't have to be in the kitchen all day. It takes the same amount of time to boil water for whole grain pasta as refined white, to pour milk on whole grain cereal as sugary, to peel a banana as a candy wrapper, to steam fresh vegetables as canned ones. You get the point.
• Finally, take some time each week for a simple, savory feast with family or friends. Animals feed. Humans dine. Since the first cookouts around the fire, we humans have bonded around preparing and sharing meals. The fast food movement has turned us back to "feeders", disconnected with our food's source, hungering for the aesthetic value of real food shared in good company. Join the growing slow food movement today, even if it's just one meal a week.

  References:

  1. Figures for industry food ad costs, products, and politics: Nestle, Marion, "Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health." University of California Press, Berkeley, 2002. Figures from page 25 (# products), page 16 (evolution quote), page 22 (add promotion costs).

  2. Flavor=nutrition: Brockman, Henry. "Organic Matters." Terrabooks, Congerville, IL 2001. p5.

  3. Nutrients lost through milling: www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/contact.html summarized in Robbins, J. "The Food Revlution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World." Conari Press, Berkeley, 2001. p82.

  4. Flavor factories: Schlosser, Eric. "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal." Perrenial Harper Collins Publishers, 2002. Quote from page 129.

  5. Whole foods/whole body concept, transition: "Nourish: The Whole Way to Eat." A Real Life, Inc., Issue No. 1, 1996. pp1-4

  6. Nature's 3.8 billion years testing: Benyus, Janine. "Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature." Quill, William Morris & Co, Inc., 1997. p3.

 September 2002