Information via
"Good Food Gone Bad" by
Christopher Wanjek, LiveScience. Nutritionists promote a large array of basic food as the key to a strong health. So you think you eat good stuff and no wonder that you're surprised to experience various diseases, from cancer to diabetes, and so on. That's because on the way from the farm to the shelves of the supermarket, food experiences transformations made by manufacturers, that makes it cheaper, more attractive and ...extremely unhealthy.
1. Fish is promoted as healthier than beef and pork, because it is rich in phosphorus, vitamin D and healthy unsaturated fats. But fish sticks contain very small amounts of fish and mainly additives, by far not very healthy. Fresh fish, yes, but processed fish products or fast food deep-fried fish...
2. Yogurt is just fermented milk, and just like milk, it should be rich in protein, calcium and vitamins and an alternative for adults with lactose intolerance, who cannot eat fresh milk. But what is called yogurt in supermarkets is a partially dairy product full of industrial sugars, like fructose and glucose (who makes you fat), and all types of gums for texture (some of which can break down to dioxins, carcinogen chemicals) and processed fruit (loaded with sugars).
3. Boil some vegetables and meat (or just bones), add some spices and there is a healthy, cheap, nice soup. What you eat from an envelope or can is just a salty mix of fats, additives and some pieces of carrot or parsley to fool the people. Just one dish contains over 50 % of the salt content recommended per day.
4. Green tea is popular in Southern and Eastern Asia, it contains antioxidants and caffeine, and researches showed that this is the oriental secret against cancer, heart disease, skin diseases and senility. But as its original bitter taste is not well appreciated in the West, what people drink is an unhealthy load of sugars and additives. This is no more an Oriental drug.
5. Nice Russet types of potatoes, with thin skin
and white flesh are exactly what people should be afraid of in the case of genetically engineered crops: commercial (being cheap and hardy), but with no minerals, salts, or proteins; just starch that makes you obese and prone to diabetes. The starch is a glucose bomb for the body.
6. Popcorn should be corn seeds rich in cellulose fibers and low in calories, made in some healthy vegetable oil. Read the label of a marketed microwave popcorn: those fats (especially butter) have nothing healthy in them, and the flavor enhancers ... just useless toxins.
7. Sliced and packaged bread is a main factor of obesity and diabetes. Bread should be made just of flour, some salt and yeast. But packaged white bread should stand longer and this is achieved through additives and a changed composition, with sugars from corn syrup, which makes it an "enhanced" fattener. Not to mention that preservatives sometimes give it a limestone taste...
8. Cereals (wheat, barley, rice, oats and corn) have formed the base of alimentation for most people for over 10,000 years. They are rich in protein, starch and vitamins.
But what we call today breakfast cereals is based on real cereal, but with a high addition of sugar, corn syrup, colorants and preservatives that won't keep you and your children healthy.
9. Vegetables and fruit are healthy. That's true. But "five-a-day" pre-packed salads will not bring all the vitamins necessary per day. This is just advertising!
Pre-packaged salad has been cut up so the vitamin content is reduced or non-existent. It is washed in a chlorine solution and prepared in a way that means it doesn't appear to deteriorate even though it may be up to a month old.
10. Ecological food means there are no contaminants (pesticides and fertilizers) used for growing it. But what reaches the supermarkets has to be cheap and the organic milk comes from caged cows force-fed organic grain, but grazing on a calm mountain pasture (do you really believe the advertising?). Organic junk food is masked as healthy by the organic label.
11. Today, pizza is an icon of the junk food. For a good reason. While in Italy it is made only from certain types of flour, tomato, mozzarella, olive oil, basil and oregano, and thus a healthy Mediterranean meal resulting, what is marketed around the world hardly mimics that.
The mass is filled by odd-flavor preservatives, cheap fats and cheeses (very few have eaten a mozzarella made pizza) and...who the hell invented ketchup, a colored something, filled with sugars (glucose, dextrose or fructose) with a petroleum taste? Or the cheap salami and sausages added, made mainly from industrial soy protein, and little meat remaining?
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