IS PROCESSED FOOD REALLY FOOD?

[Guest guest]

Is Processed Food Really " Food " ?

 

 

This article in GoAnimal.com suggests that a diet high in real food

and low in " food products " (heavily processed foods) will leave you

much healthier. It points to the development of hydrogenation and

trans fats, and high fructose corn syrup, as the " twin horsemen of

our metabolic apocalypse. "

 

How do You Tell the Difference?

 

They suggest that food can be identified because it is:

 

Grown

Messy

Variable quality

Goes bad fast

Requires preparation

Vibrant colors, rich textures

Authentically flavorful

Strong connection to land and culture

While " food products " are:

 

Produced, manufactured

Neat, convenient

Always the same

Keeps forever

Instant results

Dull, bland

Artificially flavorful

No connection to land or culture

Picking Your Food

 

They also make a number of further suggestions to help you make the

distinction:

 

If it didn't exist until after 1903 (when the hydrogenation process

was invented), it's probably not food.

If it's wrapped in layers of plastic, cardboard and foil, it's

probably not food.

If it requires heavy advertising to sell it, it's probably not food.

 

 

GoAnimal.com

 

 

 

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Dr. Mercola's Comment:

 

 

The basic premise of this article is right on the target. Your body

was designed to eat natural foods as they are found in nature, not

artificial substances that are created in a lab. They correctly point

to trans fats and high fructose corn syrup as two of the unnatural

scourges that have created an epidemic of degenerative diseases in

the modern world. I would also add artificial sweeteners and the vast

numbers of additives, preservatives and artificial flavorings to the

list.

 

 

 

I would also go somewhat further than they do in how far back you

should go to find a truly natural diet. They suggest that a return to

the diet available to your great-grandparents a hundred years ago

would be optimal for your health. While I agree that such a diet plan

would allow you to avoid the processed-food catastrophe of the last

century, even a hundred years ago the human diet had already

radically changed from the one we have naturally evolved to eat. I

would urge a return to the foods of your Paleolithic ancestors.

 

Those are the foods that the human body adapted to over hundreds of

thousands of years, long before fairly recent (in evolutionary terms)

farming techniques loaded our diet with simple sugars and

carbohydrates. If you really want to be healthy, reduce or eliminate

grains and sugars from your diet, and eat the foods you evolved to

eat.