Industrial food on the shelves and how to choose a healthy product?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Completely abandoning industrial processed food is a task for those who are strong in spirit and those who do not disdain farming and agree to exchange a supermarket and a metropolis for a vegetable garden and the silence of a rural backwater.

Cultivation of the diet at home can not be discussed - even its simple preparation takes the lion's share of the time. Ordering food straight from the farms is an extremely unprofitable business, and interrogating each institution for the products they use is not a pleasant task. Alas, all that remains for us is to compromise. And since a collision with evil is inevitable, let's try to figure out what industrial food is, how to minimize the damage from it and what, in fact, it consists of.

Short

1. In terms of processing, human food has changed dramatically since the Industrial Revolution and the breakthroughs in chemistry and technology at the beginning of the last century.
2. Over time, deeply processed food acquired an increasingly intense flavor, a cheap price, and increased variety. At first, it was positioned as an ideal universal food.
3. Since the 60s, the fashion for natural products has been gaining momentum, fast food, semi-finished products, breakfast cereals, etc. are being thoroughly researched. It turns out that industrial food is not a panacea, but a compromise. From that moment on, it disguises itself as useful.
4. Such food is unhealthy for several reasons: fats are converted into trans fats in the process of hydrogenation, which undermine our cardiovascular system, cause diabetes, the development of chronic inflammation, etc. They are not found everywhere, but often.
5. An excess of sugar, inherent in all middlings, is a real evil: extra calories, a blow to the pancreas, and so on. Likewise, with too much salt.
6. Flavoring and flavoring additives do not harm the body - they are proven chemistry, indistinguishable from natural substances. The problem is that after it, like after sugar and salt, ordinary foods seem bland.
7. Industrial food will not kill or cripple us if we reduce our consumption to a minimum and carefully read the labels. Better yet, replace it with natural products.

Evolution of the natural

As Eric Schlosser writes in The Fast Food Nation, “the food we eat has changed more in the last half century than in the previous 40,000 years,” when mankind invented agriculture and began to cultivate plant foods. According to estimates by various authors, the figure ranges up to several million years.

The first to somehow process the food obtained was Homo erectus from among the hominids (humanoid), who used fire more constantly and creatively than his predecessors. It was he who realized that fried meat tastes better than raw meat, it is easier to chew and digest, smoking and frying allows you to store prey longer, and cooking and frying help break down and soften the cellulose of plant food and cleanse tubers of toxic toxins. So 500 thousand years ago, our ancestors first discovered the bonuses of processed food.

Subsequently, humanity gave free rein to fantasy and invented many culinary technologies from fermentation to sourdough, and the standard set of a person was replenished with bread, cheeses, wine, coffee, etc. and, in principle, was ennobled. Today, our default set also includes processed cereals, cereals and muesli, glazed cheeses, bars and frozen meals, and sometimes, may the gods of good nutrition, fast food. Taking pride of place in our refrigerators and stomachs, this industrial food star alley owes its origins to the second revolution in food processing. It is associated with the industrial revolution of the 19th century and the changes in the first half of the last century, when a mass of scientific discoveries in the field of chemistry (the creation of synthetic organic substances, the use of pesticides and herbicides in agriculture) and food preparation and storage technologies, ranging from microwave ovens and autoclaves and ending with the proliferation of refrigerators.

In the 1920s, the main evil of the gastronomic industry, fast food, appears, although the very phenomenon of junk food - junk food - arose even earlier: for example, soda has been drunk in Europe since the end of the 18th century, and hot dogs materialized on the shelves of New York back in 1867. … Thanks to scientific and technological progress, fast food has gradually developed - its taste has become more intense, the price is cheaper, and well-thought-out PR has completed the overall picture of universal and affordable food.

Junk food gained particular popularity in the 1950s, "The Golden Age of Processed Foods." Then several conditions accumulated for their frenzied popularity: acting out for the shortage of the post-war years in the form of an excessive variety of products, the fashion for futurism and socialist realism in the 30-50s and, as a result, the poeticization of the metropolis, all industrial and artificial. As a result, there was a large-scale boom in the field of industrial processing - the advanced part of humanity abandoned the beds and rushed to tubes and soups in cans. Andy Warhol, with his Campbell soup, refers to this era of mass hysteria.

Over the course of 10 years, a whole army of freak dishes such as "packaged potato salad", gelatin salad and frozen "chicken of the future", as well as familiar products such as chips, cereals, toast, canned food, instant coffee and others, have appeared on store shelves. The emancipation of women, who were actively turning from housewives into careerists, was quickly appropriated by American advertisers, which generated a wave of popularity of semi-finished products. The restaurants proudly served canned soups, and some went even further: Tad's 30 Varieties of Meals, for example, built their concept around frozen dinners. Visitors were asked to choose a plastic container with filler and heat it up in the microwave.

At the same time, by the end of the 50s, scientists figured out that some types of food do not benefit the human body, and deep processing is not a panacea at all, but a cruel compromise. Products actively lose their beneficial properties in the process of being converted into semi-finished products, synthetic vitamins do not adequately replace natural ones, and industrial fats harm the body. Already by the beginning of the 60s, a campaign was launched in the USA to protect people from a lack of vitamins and an excess of unhealthy fats, the cult book "Silent Spring" about the dangers of the industrial was published, and "natural" was finally gaining its ground on the wave of interest in hippies, fitness, vegetarian and organic products. This will have an interesting effect on industrial food - from now on, it will try with all its might to resemble healthy food.

This process will launch the formation of the industry of false opinions (ILM) - this is when we buy yogurt, because it is useful and enriches us with bifidobacteria, although both are just a publicity stunt. We can still see insidious ILM trends today, when the fashion for detox, superfoods and ecological products conquers the world, magazines and blogs urge you to return to Homo erectus and get hooked on the paleo diet, and McDonald's, which will outlive us all, is rebranding and introducing phrases like "Farm products", and in the interiors - wood and green. Packages of goods do their best to disguise products as enriched, the meaningless "helps to remove toxins from the body" looms on the labels of yoghurts, and bottles with vegetable oil are decorated with the inscription "cholesterol-free", which a priori cannot be in this oil. At the same time, the production technology of both McDonald's nuggets and yoghurts does not change.

We are surrounded by industrial "wholesome" food, the real value of which is not even close to natural products such as unprocessed cereals, milk, eggs, fresh meats, fish, vegetables and fruits. Each stage of processing a particular food product allows it to be stored longer at the cost of reducing vitamins, living bacteria, fiber, trace elements and, ultimately, taste. Since life is not sweet to anyone without the latter, manufacturers resort to tricks like food additives, increasing the amount of sugar, salt and fats. They also come out sideways to us, turning at least neutral food into a completely harmful one.

Fatty fats and sugars

In 1986, Harvard Medical School professor Frank Sacks chromatographed the McNuggets, and chemical analysis of breaded chicken pieces showed that their "fatty acid profile" (unique composition) was more like beef than poultry. Then fast food was cooked on animal fat, now - on vegetable fat, but not everything is so smooth here.

Just as in the production of semi-finished products, vegetable fats are partially hydrogenated here (in the course of complex chemical manipulations, hydrogen is added to them), due to which the shelf life of the product increases, their density increases, and their cost decreases. The result of this shamanism is that unsaturated fatty acids are converted into saturated, and their molecules - into trans isomers, changing the internal configuration - these are the great and terrible trans fats.

In the early 90s, Dr. Walter Willett published a study showing that trans fats are extremely bad for our cardiovascular system. The study was confirmed in practice: having found out what is the average portion of trans fats sent to their bodies by 85 thousand women with excellent health, Willett monitored changes in their health and recorded mortality for more than eight years. It turned out that those who loved margarine sandwiches were more likely to die from sudden cardiac arrest and suffered from atherosclerosis. There is a ton of research like this to date, and we know that trans fats also contribute to diabetes, chronic inflammation, heart disease, and weight gain. That is why WHO carefully recommends that we give up an extra portion of butter, and more caring European countries obliged manufacturers to indicate the presence of trans fats on the packaging or even banned their use.

In the CIS, it is not customary to indicate the presence of unhealthy fats in large letters, therefore trans-villains in our supermarkets look out from under the inscriptions “hydrogenated / partially hydrogenated oil” or “vegetable / cooking fat”. Having found them on the cake label, do not hesitate to throw the cake on the floor to prevent infection.

I must say that the danger of encountering trans fats is great - they are found in almost all semi-finished products, from cutlets to fish sticks. Approximately 40% of the products from typical Auchan are at risk: almost all ready-made baked goods, breakfast cereals, filled chocolates and chocolates, chips, crackers, sausages and some dairy products. In short, watch the dexterous hands of manufacturers and carefully study the labels.

Most of the fats that our body needs, we should get in the form of unsaturated fats (sesame, avocado, fish oil, nuts, flaxseed oil, etc.), but saturated ones will also work well if just a little. There is no link between moderate consumption of saturated fat and heart disease, research suggests, so a little palm oil or beef won't hurt us. Industrial food, even if you manage to avoid trans fats, will somehow turn out to be rich in saturated fats, which is why you need to keep it to a minimum. Replacing them with products with zero fat content is also not worth it - to refresh this processed corpse and give it at least some taste and texture, manufacturers do not skimp on thickeners and sugar. Now let's deal with them.

As Elena Motova writes in the book “My best friend is the stomach. Food for smart people "," in developed countries, the average consumer of industrial food and sugary soda daily receives 7-10 tablespoons of sugar with them, which is equivalent to 350-500 calories. This food provides clean energy, but no additional nutrients. " For example, an ordinary box of breakfast cereals in the column with ingredients happily announces that it contains sugar - the second in a row after the actual cereals. Add the molasses, glucose, dextrose, or corn syrup listed below and you will see even more sugar. The mocking postscript “fitness” on the cereal package hides 3-4 tablespoons of sugar per 100 g of cereal, and synthetic vitamins added on top, alas, do not save it. Flakes to maintain a beautiful figure turn out to be pure junk food.

Regular excess with sugar is not only a loading dose of calories, but also a serious load on the pancreas (up to the development of cancers), which is responsible for its adequate processing. Moreover, by accustoming yourself to industrial products, you change your own taste habits, and natural products gradually become insipid in taste.

Not surprising, because in addition to the excess sugar and salt, industrial food is torn at the seams by flavorings: colors, flavors and preservatives. Especially additives responsible for the delicious smell of the food we eat. The fact is that in the process of processing industrial food seriously loses in the position of "flavor", and the human body reads the taste of food by almost 90% focusing on its smell. Thanks to evolution - in the process of survival, we developed a keen sense of smell so as not to bump into poisoned food. Typically, edible plants smell sweet, while poisonous plants smell bitter.

Trying to use our biology to its fullest, manufacturers do not skimp on flavored supplements. Leaving behind the scenes the complex chemistry of obtaining odors from volatile substances (and the devices are able to calculate and use about 0, 000000000003% of the odor particle), here is an example of the "artificial strawberry aroma" in a banal milkshake from Burger King, which we often choose as the more useful from the general the menu of this gourmet restaurant. So:

amyl acetate - fruity smell; amylbutyrate - the smell of pear and banana; amylvalerate - floral scent; anethole - smells of anise and mint; anicil - the smell of herbs and herbs, benzyl acetate - the smell of jasmine, benzyl isobutyrate; butyric acid; cinnamyl isobutyrate - fruity aroma; cinnamil valerate; cognac essential oil; diacetyl - the smell of butter and sour cream; dipropyl ketone - peppermint smell; ethyl acetate - fruity smell; ethylamyl ketone, ethyl butyrate, ethyl cinnamate - fruity odor; ethylheptanoate; ethylheptylate - pineapple smell; ethyl lactate - fruit and vegetable smell; ethyl methypheniglycidate - the smell of strawberries; ethyl nitrate - apple smell; ethyl propionate - fruity smell; ethylvalerate - the smell of strawberries; heliotropin - a floral-spicy scent; hydroxyphenyl-2-butanone (10% dilution in alcohol) - the smell and taste of raspberries; alpha-nonon - the smell of violets with a fruity note; isobutyl anthranilate - fruity smell; isobutyl butyrate - berry and cherry smell; lemon essential oil; maltol - a raspberry-tinged smell; 4-methylacetophenone - bird cherry smell; methyl anthranilate - a fruity scent with a hint of orange; methyl benzoate - a floral-fruity scent with notes of ylang-ylang; methyl cinnamate - fruity scent with a hint of strawberry; methyl ester of heptine carboxylic acid - the smell of fresh greenery; methylnaphthyl ketone - mint smell; methyl salicylate - the smell of spices; mint essential oil, neroli essential oil - the smell of fresh flowers; nerolin - the smell of orange and acacia flowers; neryl isobutyrate - a specific wormwood smell; violet oil - the smell of the violet root; phenylethyl alcohol - a floral scent with a note of rose; rose essential oil; rum ether; 7-undecalactone - fruity note, vanillin and solvent base.

In a strawberry milkshake with a strawberry shake flavor and a strawberry shake look, you can quite easily add hexanal (the smell of freshly cut grass) or 3-methylbutanol, that is, body odor. It sounds and looks scary, but here we need to dispel one boring and obsolete myth: artificial additives are not our enemies at all. Their traumatic effect is simply that we tend to prefer processed food to regular foods - its taste is banally more intense (and indeed, some scientific evidence suggests that fast food - the ultimate expression of industrial food - can cause dependence on hamburgers in those who often replaces them for lunch). But by themselves, flavoring additives do not harm our body - they only duplicate similar chemical compounds of natural products. For, as the atomic-molecular theory says (the basic laws of chemistry, established about 300 years ago): the chemical properties of food do not depend on their origin. In other words, a formula is a formula.

For example, the taste of lemon and the lemon taste of marmalade slices have identical chemical composition to each other, although their components are called differently. There is no point in comparing the “level of utility” - it is the same. And sometimes synthetic compounds are less harmful, as is the case with almonds, which naturally contain benzaldehyde (the smell itself) and hydrocyanic acid (the poison that protects the plant). The artificially obtained flavor contains only benzaldehyde, no toxins. However, man evolutionarily adapted and developed a susceptibility to hydrocyanic acid, but formally synthetics outplay organics. There are a lot of such examples.

That is why you should not slander the letter E that causes phobias in the composition of products - this is only an international name that confirms the safety of the substances used and saves space on the label and in scientific research. Moreover, according to Sergei Belgov, a chemist and flavorist (creator of artificial fragrances) who also works with fast food monopolists, out of 8000 natural substances suitable for obtaining smells, about 4 thousand are allowed, which have passed a thorough check of international authorities and do not cause and shadows of doubt. In fact, about a thousand are used at all.

Harsh handling and attempts to mitigate the effects of excess salt, sugar, and trans fats make industrial foods unhelpful - these are the very things that should be avoided. Studies show that regular consumption of deeply processed foods increases the risk of cancer, especially growths in the breast area. Interestingly, this does not apply to products with little technological processing: fresh bread, hard cheese, etc.

Ideally, the amount of industrial food that overcomes the snow and the flames of the conveyor should be reduced to nothing - fast food and convenience foods should be replaced with homemade food, breakfast cereals - with whole grains, industrial sweets - with fruits and natural dark chocolate. The compromise option involves moderate consumption - glazed curd will not kill anyone if you don't eat it often and look at the package for trans fats. The good news is that you don't need to run after diet programs, spirulina and chia seeds to take care of your own health and appearance, you just need to take a closer look at your grocery basket.