We Are Hostages to the Food Industry and There Is No Way Out
Have you ever entered in the supermarket committed to buying only healthy food? Then after spending 15 minutes going through the aisles you looked at the chart and noticed you had no choice but buying processed food or you would starve?
One of the most powerful sectors in the world is the Food Industry. Simply because the whole planet depends on them and is quite manipulated by them. We know we need to stay away from processed food but the majority of the food in our kitchen has gone through some process. Bread, tomato sauce, mayo, crackers... basically everything despite fresh fruits and veggies are made of things we have no idea about. We know it, still we don't do anything about it. In fact, there's nothing we can do about it.
I've tried many times to have the most natural diet possible, but the truth is that it's extremely hard. Without the flour, sugar and fat we found in the industrialized products is hard to feel satiated. Processed foods, rich in sugar, salt and fat are biologically addictive. They are smartly developed this way to make us food addicted. We are held hostage by the food industry. We are programmed to like salt, sweet, and fat tastes.
In addition, the marriage of science, economics, and technology gave all the tools the industry needed to provide us food in the most economically efficient manner. The industry is not aimed at feeding the planet for the sake of just feeding and keeping us healthy. They want the money and they will do anything to have the highest ROI possible. They will produce the nutrient-poorest products and sell as the best options to our children. They will remove 20 vitamins of the flour to enrich it back with only 3. They will buy scientists to convince us that the colorings and other chemistries in our drinks don't cause cancer.
Despite being nutrient-poor and danger our food is also becoming tasteless, probably because the industry has chosen the cheapest and low-quality primary products. I remember when I was a child when the two things I loved to eat the most were Kinder Surprise and a Brazilian cookie called Passatempo. Today when I eat these products to have the taste of my childhood I always get frustrated because today they don't taste the same. Kinder now tastes sugary and Passatempo tastes like flour. Similarly to the food industry, the traditional agriculture operates on the same virtue of efficiency. With the help of pesticides, herbicides, and the science of chemical engineering our fruits and veggies have become more beautiful and bigger, but also tasteless.
The big problem is that we have no option. We obviously don't have space or the know-how to plant and produce our own food, and organic products costs higher than the regular ones. Thankfully, science has been, even if slowly, shedding light on the truths about the products used by the industry and their effects in our bodies. Unfortunately, they don’t have the marketing budget like the retailers, but we as a community of thinking people who want real information can speak out, can spread the word and demand more transparency and better products.
I'd love to hear you opinion. Share your thoughts about it above on the comments and upvote!
Grow Your Own was once the way to not just eat, but to survive. We've relinquished control over our food and at the cost of our health & wellness. Food should not cause disease; food is sustenance. It should keep us healthy, not do the opposite.
The key is to rely on yourself more - you have the ability to take control! The Internet is packed full of knowledge on how to grow and sustain your own food sources. I really see a growth in the number of homes growing at least some of their own food. I think more people are realizing that they CAN do it. We reap what we sow.
And you're right, @ariane -- the snacks many of us ate in our youth is long gone - it may still be around today, but it's not the same. If anyone needs some help getting started, feel free to throw questions at me anytime! Grow Big, Grow Home 😎
I see a growth in the number of people being more aware of the importance of knowing where their food comes from as well. And I guess it's this awareness of demanding more quality products that can change the industry's vision in the future. Hopefully.
We ultimately have the power to choose what we eat. If less people buy certain foods/goods - they will make less of it. The industry is driven by choices; it is our collective choice. The industry cannot sell us what we are not willing to buy. Hopefully, you're right & their 'vision' changes.
Interesting argumentation.
While I agree that supermarket's are highly invested in these food-stuffs that are treated with way too many additives that haven't been sufficiently tested, or whose testers have been bought, it also depends a lot on the supermarket in question.
we're in the era of chain supermarkets, with the same names popping up everywhere due to the immense infrastructure needed for a person to even think of setting up a supermarket, and that's without mentioning the suppliers and transporters, who all are under contract with said supermarket chains.
I think, though, that with the emergence of more efficient farming methods combined with vertical farming and drones for delivery, we'll see a re-emergence of small "supermarkets" (Tinymarkets, maybe ?) that'll produce their own goods and deliver them just in their local city / village.
The main bottleneck is probably the laziness of the general population...
Anyone up to convincing people they need to actually cook their food for themselves, and not just heat something up in the microwave ? (I'm partially guilty of this... when stressed financially/academically, I'll fall back on relatively unhealthy recipes mainly based on lots of pasta with different kinds of sauce... though I always make the sauces myself as much as possible)
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I'm pretty happy you remembered to include that Science has been working on repairing the damage all those sell-outs and cover-ups have done.
Ah, if we could only create some kind if Science State somewhere applying itself to completely ethical research in all domains under ethical commitees but otherwise free from regulations... Can't wait for the first person to open a Research station on the Moon or on a Sea-based city !
)
The only real solution I see for the moment is to browse around. Find the Farmer's markets, local producers, buy Bulk non-perishables online from the best producers, etc...
Oh, and reading Poorcraft. That's a valid solution too !
The recipes given in the part of the comicbook on food nearly all rely on just fresh produce and non-perishable staples.
Thanks for the reference! :) I also agree we need to support the local market. Definitely our best solution by far.
When you stop eating sugar for a while, food like fruit starts to taste delicious, and when you go back and try to eat sugar again, you find that everything is way over sugared. It is actually distasteful. Uncomfortably sugary.
Of course, after a few snacks your taste buds reset back, so it takes diligence to maintain a more healthy taste spectrum.
For me, the pleasure of watching food grow is almost equal to the pleasure of eating it.
Even better is watching my kids eat it.
Totally agreed. Same with salt.
But that means that we have to learn to be happy with existing in the middle of our taste spectrum rather than at the edge, and to learn to see extremes as problematic rather than delicious ;-)
But the edge is in constant motion! You adapt to the sweetness and then you crave more. Just human nature I guess.
Yes, that's how neurons work. We crave the edge, but the edge is bad for us!
Regular chain grocery stores have 90% garbage with very small produce sections. Farmers markets and maybe whole "paycheck" foods ie whole foods are somewhat of a better alternative however for whole foods now that Bezo's Mr. Amazon has purchased them who knows how whole foods will pan out (pun intended)
If we are enslaved by the big companies
Oh yes definitely! Countless stuff I used to eat and enjoy when I was a kid, don't taste the same anymore.
Regarding the rest of the article, I think it's pretty feasible to eat healthily - or relatively healthily - without even having to buy organic. You just need to learn how to cook.
About organics and their cost, I think when you buy fruits and vegetables, buying organic won't do much, and the chemicals aren't as dangerous as some claim I think. I think if you want to buy organic, it's best to spend your money on organic meat, so as to avoid the antibiotics they feed them with. Also consuming meat products like cheeses and yogurt is a good idea. Cheeses and yogurts that are made traditionally are healthy. I basically try to follow Michael Pollan's rules when I'm buying at the supermarket. On my page I have 2 recipes up by now (and planning to add more), that are healthy and cheap, and one of them (and more that are to come) will feed you for days.
I recall a Tesco exec kept calling his stuff "food products" - so little of it was edible or nutritious. Unless you define nutrition like McD, as the property of having nutrients.
Upvoted and resteemed.
From Minnows Accelerator Project - Six of the Best MAP2
Im honestly upset when I see young people who don't have enough money to live on, buying expensive processed foods, when if they just bought some fresh ingredients and made food from scratch they would not only have more money but be healthier too.
Amazing dear