Fabrications for sale.
It is my humble opinion that the most toxic place in our environment is the grocery store. You can guarantee that every major and minor food company wants to do one thing: Sell food. So with the boom of real, organic food, how can food industry execs make mass-produced and processed food seem appealing? Label it that way.
The New York Times recently ran an article covering a new organic baby formula by Similac that would certainly appeal to me as a father, if for some reason my wife were unable to breast-feed [1]. Of course, the appeal doesn't last long. With cane sugar as a main ingredient, the babies get hooked on a sweet-tasting formula that leaves everything else tasting dull in comparison. You end up paying 30 percent more for liquid candy and an instant nutritional dilemma. “But it’s organic!” These days, so are Pop-Tarts, but that doesn’t mean they're healthy. The biggest problem in this country is the desire for sweet. We have to sweeten everything; our taste buds have become so overwhelmed that raw, natural foods like fruits and vegetables are too bland. Now we are going to start this process from birth!
If you read the article, you discover the motive: Money [2]. No surprise there. Lactose, the typical sweetener in infant formula, is becoming more expensive. What a genius business move: We can make this formula for less, do the bare minimum to have it be organic, and sell it for 30 percent more! Now, if we could just get more moms to stop breast-feeding…
Another headline is a lawsuit between the three major American chicken manufacturers. Perdue Farms and Sanderson Farms are suing Tyson Foods for false advertising. They say that the “antibiotic-free” label is misleading. That, like other competitors, Tyson continues to feed the chickens with antibiotic-supplemented feed and even “injects eggs several days before they hatch with antibiotics that are approved for use in humans.” The Tyson rep rebuttled that these injections didn’t count because they were administered before hatching and not while the chickens were being “raised.” Wow. You must understand that raising animals in ridiculously overcrowded conditions promotes infection and stress, which equals unhealthy, feeble birds.
One of my all time favorite labels is Sara Lee’s Soft and Smooth Whole Grain White Bread. You’re kidding me, right? What an amazing chemist that Sara Lee is. She created fluffy white whole grain bread. The first ingredient is enriched bleached flour (clearly not a whole grain), with my friend high fructose corn syrup making an appearance with his partner in crime, vegetable oil. The labeling and marketing of this is such a hoax, the Center for Science in the Public Interest intends to file suit against the company if the manufacturer's misleading claims continue [3].
So, the moral of the story: It’s best to assume that if it's mass-produced, it's probably not ideal for your health. They will put what they want on labels. They know the game, know the phrases, know consumers better than you know yourself. In his book, In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan writes, “The American Heart Association currently bestows (for a fee) its heart-healthy seal of approval on Lucky Charms, Cocoa Puffs and Trix cereals. [4]” On the house, here's a little lesson: Colored marshmallows, chocolate and sugar puffs for breakfast should always signal a bad choice.
Don’t be fooled. Fruits and vegetable don’t even have (or need) labels! You can trust the USDA Organic seal. Shop at farmers markets, buy from places you can actually visit and see how they grow/raise the food you are going to feed your family.
Dr. Gladd's Labels of Truth:
Sports drinks (Gatorade, Powerade) = Non-carbonated pop. Elite athletes can probably tolerate the effects of high fructose corn syrup, but most amateur athletes can not (this includes your 6-year-old).
Flavored water = Non-carbonated diet soda. These almost always contain artificial sweeteners.
Bottled green tea (Lipton, Snapple, etc.) = Green tea-flavored juice. Brew it yourself!
Beverage "X" with antioxidants = “We’ve loaded this up with so much sugar that you are going to need to balance the negative impact on your body with extra antioxidants.”
References:
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/19/us/19formula.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/01/AR2008050103514.html?hpid=moreheadlines
3. http://www.cspinet.org/new/200712171.html
4. Pollan, M. In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. New York, NY: Penguin Group.
Other Trusted Sources:
Womenshealth.gov
Cornell University
