FOOD - What Is It? Part 1

What is Food?

It seems like a silly question to ask.

And yet, everyday we consume "stuff" that really should not qualify as Food. What sort of stuff am I talking about?  The row upon row of processed or value added products that line the aisles of our grocery stores and even health food stores.

Protein powder
protein bars
soup mixes
most things in a can (unless you canned it yourself).
gluten free products - Do we really need gluten free marshmallows, or organic mac and cheese? 
Processed food such as cereal, canned soup, or microwavable quick dishes.

What are some of the ingredients in such items?  Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose, sucralose, hydrolyzed plant protein, canola oil, silicone dioxide, maltodextrin.  This stuff isn't food.  I mean, it's not like I can pick hydrolyzed plant protein out of the garden and munch away. It won't nourish the body.

I imagine my great grandparents going into a grocery store.  How strange it would be for them!  Soy protein isolate? Disodium Guanylate? What is this stuff?  The next time you go to the grocery store, "look awry" at the products on the shelf. De-normalize these products, with their bright and shiny packaging.

Let's take a typical product that you would find on the above shelves, the ubiquitous nutri-grain bar that is a staple snack for many kids.  Read below to find out what is in one of these bars.  Or, if you don't feel like reading the whole article, here is a quick list of some of the ingredients.

"The outer portion contains:
Whole grain oats, enriched flour (which is really processed flour-- notice it's not "whole wheat flour") enriched with niacin, reduced iron, vitamin B1, vitamin B3 and folic acid, then later comes whole wheat flour and soybean oil.

So far, all that isn't too bad, although "whole wheat" should have come before, or totally substituted for, the enriched flour. But now here come the extra ingredients and additives with brief explanations, in order of appearance on the label:
tBHQ (added to the soybean oil) - Short for tertiary butylhydroquinone, this common antioxidant additive keeps the soybean oil from going rancid in your snack bar and increasing shelf life. A 2004 study in the Journal of Drug Metabolism and Disposition showed that tBHQ might have tumor promoting properties. A 1993 study published in the journal Carcinogenesis found that esophageal, nodal and stomach papillomas (benign tumors) were increased in rats given tBQH.
Citric acid (added to the soybean oil) - Also used to keep the soybean oil fresh.

High Fructose Corn Syrup - Um, haven't we heard enough about this cheap, unnecessary, man-made refined corn syrup, which has been implicated to possibly cause diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome and liver disease? Yes, this Nutri-Grain bar still contains it. It's time for us to write Kellogg's."

http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/fitness/whats-really-in-this


NOW ASK YOURSELF, HOW ON EARTH DID WE GET TO THE POINT WHERE WE THINK NOTHING OF EATING tertiary butylhydroquinone, but nutrient dense food such as organ meat, butter, beef tallow etc, is considered unhealthy and even disgusting.  The above nutrient dense foods  have been a staple in diets all around the globe for thousands of years and for good reason! 

We need to turn these normalized assumptions on their heads. Let's get a little topsy turvy!

High Fructose corn syrup and sucralose should elicit repulsion whereas this yummy and nutrient dense beef heart pictured below should make our mouth's water!  Families should be clamoring to dive into a properly prepared beef heart. You can't beat the nutritional benefits of organ meat. Moreover, by using the entire animal, we can stretch our food budget and produce far less waste. Epigeneticists such as as Dr. Kate Shanahan argue that the modern trend away from nutrient dense foods such as organ meat is having a deleterious effect on future generations.  This makes sense. As each generation moves further and further away from real food and gravitates towards the quick and easy, how can this not  affect the health of future generations? 

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/12/30/eating-organ-meats.aspx

Read the article above by Dr. Mercola to learn all about why organ meat has long been valued over the muscle meats (sirloin steaks and chicken breasts for instance).