Dear Lizzie,
Hey sis so for my class we recently read a book called Pandora’s Lunchbox by Melanie Warner. This book made me think about you specifically because you do eat a lot more processed food than mom or dad and I think that you would appreciate a look at the other of the box that your Pop-Tarts come in. In it Warner discusses how the food culture in America changed over the course of the last hundred years from most people getting their food locally to giant supermarkets that have products from all over the world. Processed foods exist in virtually every part of our diets, even in those granola bars you like eating so much. Many foods have additives that are used in things like the soles of your shoes or floor mats (103) as a way to keep them edible for longer and make them cheaper. A lot of the problems that people have with their diets can be explained with all the extra ingredients that are hidden within the labels. One of the bigger problems is sodium being pumped into people with not just normal table salt but things like sodium phosphate, sodium benzoate, and sodium acetate all of which add no salty taste but do add tons of sodium to your body (47) which causes problem like hypertension. These chemicals are used for things like emulsifying, neutralizing, and food preservation which all sound like things I wouldn’t want to put into my body but people do every day. It really makes you rethink about having a bag of chips as a snack at work when you could have less processed food like an apple or bag of carrots.
The food that comes in packages is more of an experiment to get cheap (on the production side) food out quickly than to provide a way for families that cannot afford organic and all natural foods a way to get all their dietary needs. In the food industry it’s all about what someone can do to cut a cost and move more products faster. Companies like Kellogg, Coca-Cola, Kraft, and Nestlé are blamed a lot of the time for putting out products that aren’t healthy but what most people don’t realize is just how bad they can get. A lot of these food have what are called ghost additives which are ingredients that aren’t listed normally on nutrition labels. To make it even better none of the additives that are put into food have to be approved by anyone, foods generally recognized as safe (GRAS) are a way the FDA lets companies approve their own additives by doing their OWN tests. You’d think that the FDA if anything would have their own tests for things that people are eating but there are far too many additives to be able to test all of them. Food that is GRAS shouldn’t always been thought of as the title it is given.
Another part of this book that really stood out to me was the development of cereal throughout its incarnation till now. It started with Dr. Harvey Kellogg whose wife made it by accident when they were trying to make a high-fiber breakfast alternative for people who were having “an epidemic of upset stomachs” and is now a heavily processed product where they shoot cereal through extrusion machines and then gun-puffed (61). The best part about it is that this process basically strips any of the beneficial parts of the cereal so they then add vitamins back into it after the fact (which may or may not actually be doing the things that they should be) and market it to kids. So just because the label says cereal has all these benefits don’t be so quick to pour yourself a bowl Special K, it might not be as beneficial as you think. There was even a case in 2009 where the dean of a nutrition school basically said cereal is a healthy choice for kids to eat in the morning since it’s better than doughnut (69). If you have to compare your product to a doughnut to call it healthy that is saying a lot about what sort of item you’re selling to people.
There’s a lot of food that I never even considered to be super processed or unhealthy. Soy is something that I thought was fine to eat but after reading the book I found that soybean oil is incredibly processed and actually very hard to turn into an oil (130). They have to be put through many steps and the factories they are produced in are an explosive hazard since they use hexane (a common gasoline component). Soybean oil exists in so many foods and is the cheapest form of fat that companies use in their foods (126) and it turns into a hard to clean grease when it’s heated. You always think soy is good when added to sushi but it has an unhealthy amount of processing involved into putting into those bottles on the table.
I hope this email enlightened you a bit since you didn’t get the full experience of the book which you’ll have to read when I’m home again. Try to think about the types of things that you’re putting into your body next time you’re eating something coming out of a package. I know for myself that I know worry about the food I’m eating and where its coming from.
Sincerely,
Isaac
Hey sis so for my class we recently read a book called Pandora’s Lunchbox by Melanie Warner. This book made me think about you specifically because you do eat a lot more processed food than mom or dad and I think that you would appreciate a look at the other of the box that your Pop-Tarts come in. In it Warner discusses how the food culture in America changed over the course of the last hundred years from most people getting their food locally to giant supermarkets that have products from all over the world. Processed foods exist in virtually every part of our diets, even in those granola bars you like eating so much. Many foods have additives that are used in things like the soles of your shoes or floor mats (103) as a way to keep them edible for longer and make them cheaper. A lot of the problems that people have with their diets can be explained with all the extra ingredients that are hidden within the labels. One of the bigger problems is sodium being pumped into people with not just normal table salt but things like sodium phosphate, sodium benzoate, and sodium acetate all of which add no salty taste but do add tons of sodium to your body (47) which causes problem like hypertension. These chemicals are used for things like emulsifying, neutralizing, and food preservation which all sound like things I wouldn’t want to put into my body but people do every day. It really makes you rethink about having a bag of chips as a snack at work when you could have less processed food like an apple or bag of carrots.
The food that comes in packages is more of an experiment to get cheap (on the production side) food out quickly than to provide a way for families that cannot afford organic and all natural foods a way to get all their dietary needs. In the food industry it’s all about what someone can do to cut a cost and move more products faster. Companies like Kellogg, Coca-Cola, Kraft, and Nestlé are blamed a lot of the time for putting out products that aren’t healthy but what most people don’t realize is just how bad they can get. A lot of these food have what are called ghost additives which are ingredients that aren’t listed normally on nutrition labels. To make it even better none of the additives that are put into food have to be approved by anyone, foods generally recognized as safe (GRAS) are a way the FDA lets companies approve their own additives by doing their OWN tests. You’d think that the FDA if anything would have their own tests for things that people are eating but there are far too many additives to be able to test all of them. Food that is GRAS shouldn’t always been thought of as the title it is given.
Another part of this book that really stood out to me was the development of cereal throughout its incarnation till now. It started with Dr. Harvey Kellogg whose wife made it by accident when they were trying to make a high-fiber breakfast alternative for people who were having “an epidemic of upset stomachs” and is now a heavily processed product where they shoot cereal through extrusion machines and then gun-puffed (61). The best part about it is that this process basically strips any of the beneficial parts of the cereal so they then add vitamins back into it after the fact (which may or may not actually be doing the things that they should be) and market it to kids. So just because the label says cereal has all these benefits don’t be so quick to pour yourself a bowl Special K, it might not be as beneficial as you think. There was even a case in 2009 where the dean of a nutrition school basically said cereal is a healthy choice for kids to eat in the morning since it’s better than doughnut (69). If you have to compare your product to a doughnut to call it healthy that is saying a lot about what sort of item you’re selling to people.
There’s a lot of food that I never even considered to be super processed or unhealthy. Soy is something that I thought was fine to eat but after reading the book I found that soybean oil is incredibly processed and actually very hard to turn into an oil (130). They have to be put through many steps and the factories they are produced in are an explosive hazard since they use hexane (a common gasoline component). Soybean oil exists in so many foods and is the cheapest form of fat that companies use in their foods (126) and it turns into a hard to clean grease when it’s heated. You always think soy is good when added to sushi but it has an unhealthy amount of processing involved into putting into those bottles on the table.
I hope this email enlightened you a bit since you didn’t get the full experience of the book which you’ll have to read when I’m home again. Try to think about the types of things that you’re putting into your body next time you’re eating something coming out of a package. I know for myself that I know worry about the food I’m eating and where its coming from.
Sincerely,
Isaac