R O B E R T L.

S H E W F E LT

I T’S N OT N E A R LY A S B A D A S YO U T H I N K
In Defense of Processed Food
Robert L. Shewfelt

In Defense of Processed
Food
It’s Not Nearly as Bad as You Think
Robert L. Shewfelt, Professor Emeritus
Department of Food Science and Technology
University of Georgia
Athens, GA, USA

ISBN 978-3-319-45392-7 ISBN 978-3-319-45394-1 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45394-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016956245

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017

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This book is dedicated to all of my former
undergraduate and graduate students,
particularly to those students who listened
to me carefully but were not afraid
to challenge my thoughts and ideas.
Preface

A Note on Science and a Note on Food

Today’s denial of inconvenient science comes from partisans on both ends of the political
spectrum. Science denialism among Democrats tends to be motivated by unsupported sus-
picions of hidden dangers to health and the environment. Common examples include the
belief that cell phones cause brain cancer (high school physics shows why this is impossi-
ble) or that vaccines cause autism (science has shown no link whatsoever). Republican
science denialism tends to be motivated by antiregulatory fervor and fundamentalist con-
cerns over control of the reproductive cycle. Examples are the conviction that global warm-
ing is a hoax (billions of measurements show it is a fact) or that we should “teach the
controversy” to schoolchildren over whether life on the planet was shaped by evolution
over millions of years or an intelligent designer over thousands of years (scientists agree
evolution is real).—Shawn Lawrence Otto
What separates science from all other human activities (and morality has never been suc-
cessfully placed on a scientific basis) is its commitment to the tentative nature of all its
conclusions. There are no final answers in science, only varying degrees of probability.—
Michael Shermer

To many people today, the term food science is an oxymoron. To others, it is the
evil arm of the food industry which makes us fat by processing nature’s good stuff
out of foods only to replace it with unhealthy ingredients. This narrative suggests
that food scientists force Americans to eat a witch’s brew of addictive and harmful
chemicals against our will. In Defense of Processed Food is an attempt to counter
the idea that processed foods are a hazard to our health and responsible for most of
the problems associated with the American diet.

A Note on Science

To the nonscientist in American society, science is about the accumulation of facts

providing definitive answers about the world around us. In this view, scientists
develop theories from which they derive hypotheses, design experiments to test

vii
viii Preface

these hypotheses, and prove beyond all doubt what is true and what is not true.
When something declared to be true in years past is now proven to be untrue, it is
believed that society has become a victim of Bad Science. Also, if a report on the
news goes contrary to personal belief, the finding is rejected as musings of academi-
cians in their ivory towers who don’t really understand how the real world works.
Unfortunately, science is just not that simple. Shawn Otto points out that ideology
drives much of which scientific findings are accepted and which ones are not, but
science is not really about facts and proofs. Science is more about data—collected
and interpreted from scientific studies—as suggested by Michael Shermer.
Contrary to popular belief, science is not about certainty. It is more concerned
about reducing uncertainty. It is not as much about providing answers as it is about
asking questions to get us closer and closer to the truth. In our polarized society,
scientific results have become pawns in the ideological battle that pervades modern
America. As suggested by Shawn Otto above, results that are compatible with an
ideology represent proof of strongly held beliefs, while those concepts that are not
compatible are rejected out of hand. We envision the Ghost of Science Past who
brought society nuclear bombs, industrial pollution, and genetically modified organ-
isms. The Ghost of Science Present is one who has been captured by conservative
corporations who exploit the poor or by liberal university professors who advance
their social-engineering agenda. The Ghost of Science Future, however, appears to
be a much rosier spirit who promises wondrous outcomes with few if any adverse
consequences.
Physicists and chemists are able to design experiments that provide yes-or-no
answers, either something happens or it doesn’t, such as an explosion, a dramatic
color change, or some other clearly measurable event. Biologists, social scientists,
nutritionists, and food scientists conduct experiments and draw inferences based on
probabilities as suggested by Michael Shermer. The world these scientists study and
see is much more complex than the yes/no world we envision and crave.
SPOILER ALERT (if you have not seen the third season of Downton Abbey
and plan on watching it in the future, skip to the next paragraph). In an episode
of the popular drama, one of Lord Grantham’s daughters has gone into labor with
her first child. Something is going very wrong; the mother-to-be is in trouble. The
country doctor diagnoses her with eclampsia and recommends immediate transport
to a hospital. A famous obstetrician from London who is an invited guest at the
Abbey says that there is nothing wrong with Sybil. Lord Grantham asks both physi-
cians if they are certain. The visitor from London has no doubts, but the country
doctor indicates that there are other possible explanations. Lord Grantham decides
to go with certainty. Tragically, Sybil dies from eclampsia as she gives birth to a
baby girl.
When faced with a choice, we tend to avoid uncertain outcomes for certain
ones—even when a predicted outcome turns out to be wrong. Television pundits
and Internet bloggers who offer clear statements or authoritative predictions, labeled
hedgehogs, are frequently incorrect but continue to pontificate. Those commenta-
tors who provide more nuanced views, termed foxes, get less airtime and less cred-
ibility than their more adamant colleagues.
Preface ix

As society continues to value the words of celebrities over that of scientists, we

seem to be partitioning to two worldviews. We fear what we don’t understand.
Science works in the form of paradigms. In a mature field of study, the prevailing
paradigm embodies a set of rules that is accepted by a consensus of scientists in that
area. As scientists explore the area to increase their understanding of the topic, some
disturbing results, or anomalies, start appearing. At first these scientists figure that the
experiment was just screwed up, and these strange findings are not reported in their
manuscripts. As reports of anomalies begin to appear in literature, however, someone
will develop a new paradigm that challenges the prevailing one. A battle ensues, and
one side wins such that the old school patches up the prevailing paradigm or the new
school overthrows the establishment resulting in a scientific revolution.
Much of what we hear of science in the media is an oversimplification of a single
study. The qualifications on the conclusion the authors make in the journal article
tend to be stripped out or at least de-emphasized in the news report. America is a
bottom-line society looking for hedgehog pronouncements and not the nuanced
view of foxes. In an overcommunicated universe, findings that contradict estab-
lished science are more likely to penetrate our mind than those ideas that merely
confirm what we already believe. Stories that advance a viewpoint with headlines
like “What ____ don’t want you to know” attract more attention than those stories
that describe current thought in a particular field. Stories from established science
tend to be less exciting than what is needed to attract an audience.

A Note on Food

We all have an intimate and intricate relationship with food. It has been estimated
that the typical American makes up to 200 food decisions a day. We like to think
that these decisions are made consciously, but research suggests that most of them
are reactive and made without much thought. Most of us want to eat healthy, but the
pace of life tends to overcome our best-laid plans. An abundance of blogs, books,
listicles, news stories, videos, and websites are available to provide instant guidance
to healthy eating. There is so much information out there on food that is good for us
and food that is not. It is difficult to judge which recommendations come from care-
ful study and which are based on oversimplifications, erroneous suppositions, gut
feelings, and hidden personal or commercial agendas.
The American public has become skeptical about any scientific approach to food
and nutrition. Much of the news is contradictory. We have all experienced dramatic
turns in dietary recommendations and wondered why food that used to be bad for us
is now good for us or vice versa. Part of the problem lies with the idea of certainty we
ascribe to science. Diet surveys and long-term documentation of food habits are very
difficult to perform and rarely able to provide clean-cut answers. Conclusions from
such research are usually highly qualified and sprinkled with cautionary statements.
Serious articles by food journalists tend to become drowned out by sensationalistic
x Preface

stories that overexaggerate a specific result. By the time the results filter down to the
public through the media, nuanced views are translated into absolute answers. In
alternative sources of dietary advice, results tend to be highlighted if the view of the
author is supported and challenged or ignored if the author’s view is refuted.
A recent example of the distortion of science includes the 2015 Dietary Guidelines
saying that it is OK for us to eat eggs now. Early recommendations to limit (not to
eliminate) consumption of eggs were based on the knowledge that buildup of cho-
lesterol in the form of plaque in our arteries can lead to blockages and increase our
chances of getting a heart attack. Scientists who have been reading journal articles
about eggs have known for some time that the cholesterol produced by the body is
much more a significant factor in plaque accumulation than dietary cholesterol. The
latest recommendations reflect this understanding. It is still not a good idea to con-
sume a single food item, including eggs, to excess, but egg consumption is not as
much of a concern it once was.
In the last 50 years, I have noted a major shift in the perception of nutrition by the
general public. When I was in college and there were less than 15% Americans who
were obese, a healthy diet was one that included foods that provided sufficient pro-
tein, vitamins, and minerals. A balanced diet, it was believed, was best derived from
a wide range of foods. Later, megadoses of selected vitamins were thought to lead to
better health. Today eating healthy means consuming only “good” foods while avoid-
ing “bad” foods such as products filled with fat, salt, and sugar. Vitamins, minerals,
and protein have become almost an afterthought. Supplementation by pills, powders,
and potions is now recommended for any of these deficiencies. The concern has now
become the prevention of overnutrition rather than avoiding undernutrition.
Likewise there has been a major shift in the perception of processed foods and
food science. In the 1960s, processed foods were those items that were available in
the supermarket with most of the flavor and nutrients depleted. Then came a magical
kitchen appliance, the food processor, which allowed us to fix processed foods in our
own homes from numerous ingredients. Now processed foods have become those
products that make us fat by enticing us to eat too much fat, salt, and sugar. Food
scientists worked below the radar for most of my career only to surface in the 1990s
as Clark Griswold in National Lampoon’s Vacation movie series. Clark’s day job was
to incorporate additives into foods that did not need them. Today food scientists are
being blamed directly for many of the ills associated with the American food supply.
The main contention of the book is that for all of the talk about healthy eating,
we are not eating any healthier today than we have since the beginning of the obesity
epidemic almost 40 years ago. Many foods proclaimed as healthy are not nearly as
beneficial as indicated, while many of those products rejected as unhealthy are not
as detrimental as stated. Classifying foods as “good” or “bad” tends to obscure the
tradeoffs that consumption of any food entails. Popular diets may or may not be
effective. “Processed food” is a derogatory term that is usually not defined even
though any product that comes to us in a package with a Nutrition Facts statement
has been “processed” in some way, shape, or form. We are looking for simple solu-
tions to complex problems and then become frustrated when a simple solution fails
us. This book seeks a more serious discussion about food.
Preface xi

Looking Ahead

The format of the book is in a Q&A style. Each chapter title poses as a question
followed by seven bold statements that serve as potential answers. Some of these
answers reflect conventional wisdom; some, alternative perspectives; and others,
hypothetical solutions provided by past or current scientific research. All of them
are at least partially true, but many of them are misleading and tend to obscure a
better understanding of food and health. After each statement, I provide my per-
spective on the relative merits of answers based on my reading of evidence-based
knowledge and research questions that are still being explored. At the end of each
chapter, I summarize my perspective as it relates to the issue in question.
Chapter 1 jumps into the fray asking “Why is America so fat?” as much of our
conversation about food in the country today centers on obesity. In Chap. 2, I pres-
ent alternate definitions of processed foods, describe what foods are processed, and
explain why they are so despised. Fresh and local foods are the focus of Chap. 3 and
how whole foods differ from processed foods. Chapter 4 tackles the idea that we are
addicted to certain foods, particularly those products that contain specific ingredi-
ents. Concern about chemicals in our foods continues to grow, and I address this
issue in Chap. 5. Some authors wish to simplify our eating experience by narrowing
it down to some simple rules, but the validity of such rules is called into question in
Chap. 6. Nutritional quality and safety of the American food supply are covered in
Chaps. 7 and 8, and how processed foods fit in to a planet sustainability is the topic
of Chap. 9. In the final chapter, I present my case as to why I believe that processed
food can be a part of a responsible diet.

Critical Thinking Skills

I do not proclaim to represent “talent on loan from God” or the definitive answer to
everyone’s dietary needs. What I do hope is that this book will help spur a wider,
more rational conversation on controversial issues about food in American society
and what we can do to help solve them. I find it ironic that a nation that prides itself
in its ability to think critically accepts the following assumptions without question:
• Whole foods are always better than processed foods.
• Natural is good; artificial is bad.
• Science and technology should not intrude on our food supply.

Department of Food Science and Robert L. Shewfelt, Professor Emeritus

Technology
University of Georgia
Athens, GA, USA
Warning

If you bought this book in search of simple solutions to America’s diet and health
problems, YOU WERE RIPPED OFF!
This book contends that the relationship between diet and health is much more
complex than we have been led to believe by popular books on the subject. It chal-
lenges ideas expressed by writers I have labeled the food pundits as well as the push
by Big Food to pander to health fetishes popularized by the pundits. Many readers
will feel left wanting by my failure to express definitive opinions on certain issues,
while others will feel outraged when I slam cherished assumptions. This book is
written to provide another side of the conversation about food we are having in
American society. My basic premise is that a conversation is more about an exchange
of ideas than about who can shout their opinions the loudest.

xiii
Contents

1 Why Is America So Fat? ......................................................................... 1

1 America Is So Fat Because of All the Fast Food We Eat.................... 2
2 America Is So Fat Because We Eat Too Much ................................... 4
3 America Is So Fat Because We Drink Too Much ............................... 5
4 America Is So Fat Because We Don’t Exercise Enough..................... 7
5 America Is So Fat Because Our Parents Are So Fat ........................... 8
6 America Is So Fat Because We Lack Willpower ................................ 9
7 America Is So Fat Because It Is So Much Harder
to Lose Weight Than to Put It On ....................................................... 11
It Is Hard to Point to a Single Reason America Became So Fat ..... 13
2 Why Does Processed Food Have Such a Bad Reputation? ................. 17
1 Processed Food Is Neither Fresh Nor Produced Locally .................... 19
2 Processed Foods Are Addictive .......................................................... 21
3 Processed Foods Are Filled with Additives and Other Chemicals ..... 24
4 Processed Food Is Not Real, Natural, or Healthy ............................... 25
5 Processing Removes Important Nutrients ........................................... 27
6 Processed Foods Have Been Responsible for Outbreaks
of Food Poisoning ............................................................................... 29
7 Most Mass-Manufactured Foods Are Not Organic............................. 31
The Bad Reputation of Processed Food Is Not Deserved ............... 32
3 Why Can’t We Find More Locally Produced and Fresher
Food in Our Supermarkets and Restaurants? ..................................... 35
1 Big Food Can’t Handle the Logistics of Fresh, Local Food ............... 37
2 Fresh Foods Rot More Quickly Than Processed Foods ...................... 40
3 Fresh Food Is More Expensive Than Processed Food ........................ 41
4 Many Local Growers Would Rather Sell Directly
to the Consumer Than Deal with Supermarkets and Restaurants. ...... 43
5 It Is Less Expensive to Handle Processed Foods Than Local,
Fresh Foods ......................................................................................... 45

xv
xvi Contents

6 Many Locally Available Foods Are Not That Local ........................... 46

7 Fresh Foods Do Not Fit As Easily into a Modern Lifestyle ............... 48
Fresh and Local Are Not Always Enough ...................................... 50
4 How Widespread Is Food Addiction in Our Culture? ......................... 53
1 Big Food Claims That the Use of the Term of Addiction
Trivializes the Drug Problem in the Country ...................................... 54
2 Flavor Scientists Claim That Addiction Is an Overstatement
for What Is Really Craving or Pleasure .............................................. 56
3 Most of Us Give in to Temptation When Hungry, Tired,
and Stressed, Particularly When Bombarded with Enticing
Advertisements ................................................................................... 58
4 People Living in Food Deserts May Succumb to Junk Foods
Due to the Lack of Available Fresh Fruits and Vegetables ................. 59
5 Well-Publicized Eating Disorders Are Frequently the Result
of an Attempt to Avoid Tempting Foods............................................. 61
6 Food Addiction Is an Area of Study in Psychology,
But It Is Not Clear Yet if Food Creates Addicts in the Same Way
that Street Drugs Do............................................................................ 62
7 Some People Are More Susceptible to Desires for Tempting
Combinations of Salt, Sugar, and Fat Than Others ............................. 64
The Extent of Food Addiction in American Society ...................... 65
5 Why Are There So Many Chemicals in Our Food? ............................. 69
1 Chemical Ingredients Are Cheaper Than Real Ingredients ................ 71
2 Most Chemicals in Foods Are Unnecessary ....................................... 73
3 It Is Difficult to Know Which Chemicals in Our Foods
Are Safe and Which Ones Are Unsafe ............................................... 75
4 Processed Foods Contain Some Chemicals Not Even Listed
on the Label......................................................................................... 77
5 Chemical Preservatives Are Added to Slow Rotting
and Prevent Food Poisoning................................................................ 79
6 Big Food Is Moving Toward More Consumer Friendly Products ...... 80
7 Chemicals Are So Ubiquitous in Our Food Supply
from Farm to Table that They Are Impossible to Avoid ..................... 82
So Many Chemicals So Little Time ................................................ 85
6 How Can We Tell Which Foods Are Real? ........................................... 89
1 Real Foods Are Those Our Great-Grandmother
Would Have recognized as Food......................................................... 91
2 Real Foods Are More Likely to be Located on the Perimeter
of a Supermarket and Not in the Middle Aisles .................................. 94
3 Real Foods Rot .................................................................................... 95
4 Real Foods Are Cooked by Humans and Not by Machines ............... 97
5 Real Foods Grow on Plants But Are Not Made in Plants ................... 98
Contents xvii

6 Real Foods Include Meat, Eggs, Cheese, and Whole Milk................. 100
7 Real Foods that Are Sweet Grow on Bushes, Stems, and Vines......... 102
Real Food vs. Foodlike Substances................................................. 104
7 How Does Food Processing Change the Nutritional
Value of Foods? ....................................................................................... 107
1 Raw Foods Start Out With More Essential Minerals
and Vitamins Than Processed Foods .................................................. 109
2 Canned and Frozen Foods Tend to be Higher in Salt
Than Other Foods ............................................................................... 110
3 Hyperpalatable Foods Are Filled With Too Much Sugar and Fat....... 112
4 Refined Grains Are Usually Enriched with Artificial Vitamins.......... 114
5 Any Food that Is Heated Loses Vitamins and Flavor.......................... 116
6 Home Cooking Uses Real Ingredients for Healthier Meals................ 117
7 Fine Dining Restaurants Promise Healthier Meals
than Those Offerings from the Chain Restaurants .............................. 120
Changes in Nutritional Quality When Food Is Processed .............. 121
8 How Safe Is the American Food Supply? ............................................. 125
1 Pesticides Are Highly Toxic Molecules .............................................. 126
2 Food Additives Are Still Permitted in Formulated Food Products ..... 128
3 It Is Not Always Easy to Tell if a Food Has Gone Bad ...................... 129
4 Millions of Americans Become Poisoned
by Their Food Each Year and Thousands of These Victims Die ........ 131
5 Some Restaurants Do Not Always Pay Enough Attention
to Sanitation ........................................................................................ 133
6 The American Food and Water Supply Is One of the Safest
in the World, But Microbes Are Still a Major Threat ......................... 135
7 New Challenges and Opportunities for Food Safety
May Reside Inside Our Bodies ........................................................... 137
The Safety of the American Food Supply....................................... 140
9 How Can We Eat More Sustainably to Save the Earth
for Our Children and Grandchildren? ................................................. 143
1 Eat Organic Food ................................................................................ 144
2 Eat Fresh and Local Food ................................................................... 146
3 Buy Products in Bulk to Reduce Packaging Waste............................. 148
4 Reduce the Amount of Food We Waste .............................................. 149
5 Buy Only Products that Have Sustainability Labels ........................... 152
6 Eat Less Meat Products and Maintain a Healthy Weight.................... 154
7 It Will Take More Than Individual Efforts to Provide
a Sustainable Future ............................................................................ 155
Eating More Sustainably ................................................................. 158
xviii Contents

10 Can Processed Food Be Part of a Responsible Diet? ........................... 161

1 We Have a Social Obligation to Eat More Sustainably ...................... 163
2 Food Processing Generally Improves the Safety of Foods ................. 165
3 Technology Produces Products that Can Either Improve
or Threaten Our Health ....................................................................... 167
4 Simplistic Slogans and Rules Are Not the Way
to Develop a Healthy Diet ................................................................... 169
5 Everything We Put Into Our Mouths Is Chemical .............................. 170
6 An Eating Addiction Is More Likely Than a Food Addiction ............ 171
7 Fresh and Local Food Is Not Always the Best Option ....................... 172
Processed Food in the American Diet ............................................. 174
Making America Thin Again .......................................................... 175

Acknowledgements ......................................................................................... 179

Notes ................................................................................................................. 181

Bibliography .................................................................................................... 247

Index ................................................................................................................. 267

Chapter 1
Why Is America So Fat?

It’s time we had a real and public dialogue about food and weight, and the threat they pose
to the nation’s security. We have to. Right now, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention tells us that two in every three Americans is either overweight or obese. We also
have 12.5 million children, ages two to nineteen, who are obese–that’s three times as many
as we had in the 1980s.—Mika Brzezinski
Nothing is simple in obesity as a disease entity: etiology, causes, associated morbidity,
treatment, economic burden of the disease, cost/benefit ratio of weight loss, genetic basis,
prevention, and other aspects are all highly complex and intimately associated with other
diseases whose prevalence is augmented by our present way of life.—Claude Bouchard

America is facing an obesity crisis, and it is growing bigger every year. It is esti-
mated that 34–36 % of Americans are obese (BMI of 30 or higher) with a higher
percentage of obese women than obese men. Since 1999, however, men are begin-
ning to catch up with women. Among adolescents and children, the gender roles are
reversed as almost 19 % of boys are obese compared with 15 % of girls. The USA has
become one of the fattest countries in the world, but obesity is not just an American
crisis. Obesity has surpassed hunger and starvation as the leading cause of concern
among food-related issues. It is estimated that 34 % of the world’s population is
either overweight or obese. Obesity is a concern because it is a factor in the develop-
ment of arthritis, cancer, diabetes, heart attacks, stroke, and many other diseases.
Not only is America fat, we are in denial about our fatness. While we wring our
hands and demand action from the government, the food industry, parents of fat
children, and fat people themselves to solve the problem, we appear to have little
concept of how fat it takes to be labeled obese. For those of us unaware of our BMI,
we can look it up on one of the many calculators on the internet. In the interest of
full disclosure, while writing this book my BMI has varied from a low of 24.4 (nor-
mal weight) to a high of 26.6 (pre-obese or overweight). To provide some perspec-
tive the average height of an American woman is 5 feet 4 inches and the average
man is 5 feet 10 inches. Any man or woman who is 5/4 is considered obese if they

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 1

R.L. Shewfelt, In Defense of Processed Food,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45394-1_1
2 1 Why Is America So Fat?

weigh 175 pounds or more, pre-obese if between 146 and 174, and considered a
health risk if 134 or more (BMI 23). Likewise someone 5/10 is obese if over 209,
pre-obese if between 175 and 208, and at risk at any weight above 160.
Few Americans would deny that obesity is a major problem. Television personal-
ity Mika Brzezinski and many others have issued a call to action condemning fast
food, processed food, the food industry, and our government for not doing enough
to prevent obesity in this country. Obesity researchers like Claude Bouchard suggest
that the problem is more complex than what we learn from popular books, the
media, and the internet. By oversimplifying the nature of obesity, we may be making
the problem worse instead of better. This chapter seeks to understand the possible
reasons why America is so fat. As indicated in the Preface, each chapter is titled in
the form of a question followed by seven statements as subtitles that represent
potential answers to that question. Under each subtitle I discuss the answer from my
perspective as a food scientist. The purpose of the book is to facilitate a discussion
about processed food and not to indoctrinate my readers.

1 America Is So Fat Because of All the Fast Food We Eat

The news media tends to associate obesity with fast food. The role of fast food in
the development of obesity is of particular concern among children and adolescents
(ages 2–19). Obesity stories on television or movie documentaries show a short
video loop of nothing but huge people walking around about their business. Such
footage is extremely misleading as the people filmed most if not all of whom are
extremely obese (a BMI of 40 or higher, which represents less than 7 % of the popu-
lation). Meanwhile an unseen voice is telling us that more than one-third of us are
obese. The contrast between the footage and the commentary gives those of us who
are overweight and obese comfort as we are not nearly as fat as they are!
Between the years of 1977 and 1998 adolescents and children increased con-
sumption of calories from sodas, hamburgers, and French fries. During this time
period the calories consumed in restaurants, both fast and not-so-fast food, increased
from 4.8 % to 14.8 % with a decline in calories consumed at home from 75.2 % to
64.2 %. Studies suggest that obese children do not tend to consume more calories at
fast-food outlets than non-obese children, but the heavier child may not burn off
their calories as readily as a thinner one. Increased consumption of sodas, fats and
oils, and sodium regardless of the source was associated with an increased inci-
dence of obesity in children. An increased consumption of low fat milk, other dairy
products, fruits, and vegetables was associated with lower incidence of obesity.
Major fast-food restaurant chains are much more accessible than major supermar-
ket chains which provide access to fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats. People in
poverty are much less likely to have a vehicle to get to the supermarket and thus
become isolated in food deserts. A food desert is described an area with no supermar-
ket within a one-mile radius and is usually characterized by easy access to fast-food
restaurants and convenience stores. It is clear that people in impoverished minority
1 America Is So Fat Because of All the Fast Food We Eat 3

groups are more likely to be overweight or obese than those in the middle class. Also,
neighborhoods with fast-food restaurants are more likely to be poor and heavier than
those with less fast food and more opportunities for walking available.
The fast-food industry would point out that shutting down their restaurants in
impoverished areas and building better recreational facilities in those disadvantaged
neighborhoods would not likely lead to dramatic losses in weight. Likewise, repre-
sentatives would argue that more fast-food restaurants and reduced walkability in
the “healthier” neighborhoods would not necessarily lead its inhabitants to start
gaining weight. Spokespersons would probably say that their wealthier clientele is
more likely to have a motor vehicle and that there is a drive-thru less than a mile
away from about 75 % of Americans in cities or the suburbs.
While obesity is increasing in America, it is growing even faster around the
world. Although the fast-food industry is expanding to other countries, particularly
in big cities, obesity is growing rapidly even in areas where fast food is not yet read-
ily available. It is difficult to blame fast foods when countries like China have seen
dramatic increases in obesity recently. Although McDonald’s and other American
fast-food chains have infiltrated Beijing and Shanghai, obesity precedes fast foods
in rural China. Increased time spent with computers and television leads to decreased
physical activity and greater exposure to snack foods. Dietary reasons for obesity in
rural China include increased consumption of meat and high-calorie food with the
percentage of calories coming from fat and protein increasing at the expense of
calories coming from carbohydrates. There also may be a genetic component as
BMI tends to underestimate body fat accumulation in the Chinese population.
I must confess that I occasionally enjoy fast food, particularly when I am traveling.
When I was at a convention in Chicago I ate lunch daily at a McDonald’s. The obesity
epidemic was on my mind as I wolfed down my food. With a sudden burst of insight
I noted that there were very few fat people eating around me. Most customers were
reasonably thin like me. Many of the staff were obese, but obesity was the rare
exception among the customers. I made similar observations at McDonald’s in New
Orleans and Las Vegas.
Certainly unrestricted consumption of fast food is obesogenic, but is fast food the
major reason we are becoming so fat? I think that it is more complicated than what
we read in blogs or hear in the media. The conclusion from my McDonald’s experi-
ence is that fast-food restaurants don’t necessarily make people fat. I was shocked
to learn that I was straddling the borderline between being normal weight and over-
weight. People classified as overweight or obese were a whole lot thinner than I
originally imagined. The obese people we see on TV or in movies like Supersize Me
are not representative of obese people in America. I suspect that fast food is contrib-
uting to obesity in American youth but less so in the adult population. It is prudent
for frequent fast foodies to cut back on menu items, particularly when other factors
point to unwarranted weight gain, but the numbers don’t add up. It is not mathemati-
cally possible for 15–18 % of our calories coming from fast-food restaurants to
cause 67 % of our population to be overweight or obese. Too much fast food is
partly responsible for the fattening of America and the world, but it may be that we
are just eating too much food in general.
4 1 Why Is America So Fat?

2 America Is So Fat Because We Eat Too Much

As we grow fatter, we consume more food. As America has become heavier, food
in general has become more accessible and less expensive. We are also exposed to
more media through print, video and the internet with more advertising and more
temptation to eat more food, particularly food high in calories. The total amount of
fat consumed by those the young (ages 2–19) has increased slightly although the
percent of calories from fat has actually decreased with the percentage of calories
from carbohydrates increasing. The top five sources of those carb calories are breads
(12.1 %), milk (10.2 %), ready-to-eat cereals (8.6 %), sweet snacks such as cake and
cookies (6.6 %), and sodas (4.9 %). One surprising finding, though, was that over-
weight children do not eat many more calories than those of a normal weight—less
than enough to account for the difference in weight between overweight and normal
weight young people. Concerns about breakfast cereals contributing to weight gain
appear to be overblown as young breakfast eaters tend to gain less weight than those
who skip breakfast. There is evidence, however, that snacking, particularly salted
and sugared foods, contributes to increased calorie consumption among the young.
Many of us don’t pay that much attention to what we eat and how much of it we
eat. We tend to be influenced by the size of the package or plate in front of us and
consume more if there is a bigger variety of items available at a meal. We bolt our
food down while we are thinking about something else rather than focusing on the
food itself and eat at irregular intervals based on our social situation rather than when
we are hungry. Research at Cornell University over many years suggests that
Americans make as many as 200 decisions a day on what we eat without much con-
scious thought. Portion sizes for fast food have increased over the last 50 years, but
portion sizes have increased across the board at all restaurants and in the home envi-
ronment over the same period. The more food we see in front of us the more food we
are likely to eat. Vending machines reach out to us with their bright graphics. Food
images are everywhere enticing us to eat and eat more. Foods high in calories, fat, salt,
and sugar seem to increase our desire to eat more food rather than to satisfy hunger.
It is clear that people who live in poor neighborhoods are more likely to consume
more high-calorie foods and that these residents have less access to supermarkets
than people living in wealthier developments. In food deserts residents are less
likely to buy and consume fruits and vegetables and more likely to be forced to
purchase and eat high-calorie foods. Government programs and market pricing
appear to encourage purchase and consumption of these junk foods, but culture may
also play a role in what is bought, prepared, and eaten by people from different heri-
tages. While living in a food desert does affect obesity but not as great as we might
expect. The obesity rate is 30 % among persons living in a food desert with a low
income; 25 % living in a food desert with a moderate or higher income; 28 % with
access to a supermarket but a low income and 26 % with access to a supermarket and
a moderate or high income.
Another major change from the 1960s when I was young and now is that we have
gone from the standard three meals a day to increased levels of snacking. It is esti-
mated that Americans consumed an extra 160 calories per day per person in the
3 America Is So Fat Because We Drink Too Much 5

mid-1990s than in the late 1970s, and we presumably consume even more calories
per person now. Unfortunately, increased snacking does not appear to be compen-
sated by fewer calories during meals. I remember that during my childhood when
the family was traveling that a low gas gauge meant that we stopped for gas. An
attendant would come out to pump the gas, the buildings had no food of any kind,
and a key with a huge fob was required to use the restroom. Somewhere along the
way most gas stations also became snack oases. Stopping for gas today also means
loading up on snacks. One recommendation suggests that we even out our calorie
consumption over the day by eating five-to-seven mini-meals instead of the stan-
dard three large ones to allow us to even out our daily metabolism. This plan sounded
like a good idea to me. I tried it and found that I was noticeably gaining weight. I
guess my mini-meals were not mini enough.
Studies around the world have not shown conclusively that professional pro-
grams to change people’s diets actually work on a large-scale basis to overcome
obesity. These observations do not mean that such programs are unable to succeed,
but weight-loss studies are incredibly difficult to perform and interpret. When these
programs don’t work, there are always other targets to blame including individuals,
parents, the food industry, and governmental policies. The culprit is quickly labeled
as the Western Diet as it spreads its wares and waistlines around the world. The
Western Diet is made up of highly processed foods which contain too much sugar,
fat and salt, piling on the calories. The problem I have with this explanation is that
America has been consuming a Western diet for at least a century and it has not been
until the last 40 years or so that we have grown so fat. There must be more to the
problem than eating too much food. Maybe the excess calories are liquid calories.

3 America Is So Fat Because We Drink Too Much

Beverages are considered to be liquid foods. Some evidence indicates that we pro-
cess liquid calories differently from solid calories, particularly when we consume
liquid and solid foods separately. Our perception of satiety or a feeling of fullness is
related to stomach expansion and blood-sugar level. Liquids go through the stom-
ach without contributing to the feeling of fullness we get when we consume solid
foods. Also, we can drink a large amount of dissolved sugar before our bloodstream
lets us know that we have had enough. Our bodies have an ability to compensate for
extra calories consumed, but high-calorie beverages may be much less likely to
register than those coming from solid foods. In addition, obese people appear to
have a weaker feeling of fullness than their non-obese counterparts. It is unclear
whether heavier people lack this ability altogether or they have just lost it over time.
Sugared beverages have seen an increase in consumption in the last two decades
of the twentieth century at the expense of milk consumption. Calories from soft
drinks increased from 3 % of calories consumed to 6.9 %, fruit drinks (including
juices) went from 1.8 % to 3.4 % of total calories while milk consumption decreased
from 13.8 % to 8.3 %. Although the relative amounts of calories from these three
6 1 Why Is America So Fat?

beverage categories changed, the percentage of total calories of these items in the
diet stayed at 18.6 %. The increase in consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages
(non-diet sodas, sweetened fruit drinks and sweetened tea) was a reliable predictor
of development of obesity. I can attest personally, as a maker of tea for a native
Southerner, that sugar-sweetened tea is higher in sugar than commercial sodas. The
secret is to create a super-saturated solution while the tea is still hot and cool it
slowly to retain a higher level of sugar than possible if adding it to cold tea. Although
it is convenient to blame the inclusion of high-fructose corn syrup in sodas in the
early 1980s, it is probably the increase in sugar consumption in all forms rather than
high-fructose corn syrup that is the villain.
There are other sugared beverages that have increased in the American diet in the
past few years that have also contributed to waistline expansion that receive less
attention. Boutique coffee consumption has increased dramatically. At the most
well-known corner coffee-shop across the country, calorie contents vary from the
smallest sizes of cappuccino (110), latte (190), and mocha (330). Smoothies also
contribute more calories than expected running from 180 to 964 calories in the
smallest size (20 oz.) at a popular chain with most selections over 300 calories.
Smoothies offer a benefit of some dietary fiber that are not found in other sugar-
added beverages, but the fiber content is lower than one might think. Smoothies can
be deceptively obesogenic as these beverages are considered healthy because of
their healthy image due to the presence of fruits and vegetables as ingredients.
The last beverage category that contributes to calories is alcohol. Although we
associate expanded guts with excess beer consumption, alcohol does not get the
same rap against it as fast food or sweetened beverages. It is estimated that the
average American consumes 6 % of total calories from alcohol with the number
increasing to 10 % for the social drinker and over 50 % for the alcoholic. One
4-ounce glass of wine is less than 100 calories; 12-ounce light beer, 105 calories;
beer, 155 calories; and mixed drinks ranging from 135 to over 300 calories a glass.
I suspect that alcoholic beverages are bigger contributors to obesity in American
adults than fast food. Many of us can’t have just one drink at a meal, party, or other
social occasion.
Beverage consumption in America has increased in the American population
during the growing obesity epidemic. Too many calories from beverages, particu-
larly those sweetened with sugar and those containing alcohol have contributed to
the collective weight of our country in addition to too much eating of solid foods
and too much fast food. We can overcome the sugared beverages by substituting
water or diet drinks for the high-calorie items. To be effective in fighting obesity,
however, these consumption changes must be part of an overall plan to reduce total
calories. It does no good to consume low-calorie beverages if we decide, con-
sciously or unconsciously, to make up for those calories elsewhere. To this point
we have been discussing overconsumption of food and beverages, but energy bal-
ance is what affects whether we maintain, gain, or lose weight. The other side of
the energy-balance equation is how many calories we burn relative to how many
we consume.
4 America Is So Fat Because We Don’t Exercise Enough 7

4 America Is So Fat Because We Don’t Exercise Enough

Our weight is governed by our energy balance. Theoretically if we consume more

calories than we burn through physical activity we will gain weight. If we burn more
calories than we consume we lose weight. A rule of thumb is that if we consume an
extra 3500 calories more than we burn we will store those calories and gain a pound
or conversely if we can exercise 3500 off more than we consume we will lose a
pound. The 3500-calorie rule is the theory behind statements such as consuming
one extra pat of butter (36 calories) each day will lead to gaining 3.75 pounds over
the course of a year. For reasons I will reveal later in the chapter, this rule is not all
that accurate or useful.
Although some obesity experts blame consumption of more calories today than
decades earlier as the primary contributor to the obesity epidemic in this country, oth-
ers place the blame on reduced physical activity. I tend to agree with those scientists
who suggest that a combination of increased calories consumed and decreased exer-
cise have both contributed to the cause of the problem. Previous sections in the chap-
ter have provided evidence for change in the calories consumed. Increased levels of
physical activity have been identified in normal weight young people (age 12-18) with
increased time sitting associated with an increased risk of being overweight. Possible
explanations for reduced exercise in children include fewer active recesses and physi-
cal education classes in school, more screen time in front of the television or com-
puter, less walking to and from school, and less outdoor activity. Adults today tend to
have longer commutes, less active jobs and more leisure activities, and more opportu-
nities to conduct business transactions without leaving the vehicle thanks to drive-thru
banks, dry cleaners, drugstores, and fast-food restaurants.
Americans mean to exercise more than they do, but other stuff gets in the way.
Gym memberships peak each January only to see participation drop off rapidly in
subsequent months. Some workplaces provide exercise facilities and encourage par-
ticipation by employees, but mandated exercise programs appear to produce only
modest improvements for individuals who are overweight or obese. A few episodes
of strenuous exercise weekly may not be as effective as more prolonged activity
such as biking, walking, hiking, or jogging on a daily basis. Some studies suggest
that exercise in a more natural environment is better for both the body and the soul.
Even such simple things as taking the stairs at work rather than using the elevator
when feasible or periodic stretching exercises to break up long periods of staring at
one or more LED screens can be beneficial for physical and mental health.
We actually burn energy in three different ways—physical activity, basic metab-
olism, and temperature control. For many of us, exercise plans don’t deliver the
calorie burning that we expect. Possible reasons for disappointing results are a lack
of sufficient exercise to make a meaningful impact and the increased consumption
of calories as physical activity increases. Basic metabolism needs energy in the
form of calories to perform routine metabolic tasks such as breathing, pumping
blood, digesting food, repairing cells, and a host of other daily activities we take for
granted. These metabolic processes generally require about 1200–2000 calories per
8 1 Why Is America So Fat?

day depending on height, weight, gender, and age of the person as well as other
factors. However, the more we sit either at work or during our leisure times, the
more the body is likely to slow down our metabolism to conserve energy. Finally,
shivering when cold is another way to burn calories.
Decreasing calorie consumption and increasing physical activity can help us lose
pounds and prevent problems later in life associated with obesity, but for some it is
much more of a struggle than for others. There is evidence accumulating that careful
observers can predict the incidence of adult obesity by studying children at the age of
two suggesting that the obese are pre-programmed early for a lifetime of excess fat.

5 America Is So Fat Because Our Parents Are So Fat

Obesity appears to be at least partly genetic. If one of our parents is overweight or

obese, then we are more likely to be overweight or obese. If both our parents are
obese, then we are even more likely to become obese. The debate then centers on
whether it is genetics or the home environment that leads to bigger bodies. Both
genetics and the environment appear to play a role in the development of childhood
obesity, but there appears to be a genetic tendency towards obesity in children of
two obese parents. Studies of twins separated early in their lives indicate that identi-
cal twins are more likely to grow up with a weight similar to each other than to the
children with whom each twin was raised. Children who were adopted show similar
trends, but the relationship is not as strong. Genetics do not condemn some of us to
be obese, but our genetic profile can change the odds.
The genetics of obesity is a hot area of research. No single “fat gene” has yet been
identified, and it is unlikely that the solution to the obesity problem will be that simple.
There are several genes that are being studied that appear to be involved in predispos-
ing someone to become overweight or obese. The most probable relationship between
nature and nurture is that the type and amount of food presented to young children
trigger specific genes. The result can be to consume more calories and store more of
those calories as fat. Many authors discount genetic factors claiming that the rapid
increase in obesity cannot be matched by biological changes in such a short time
period. Such authors tend to see genetic effects as static and fixed rather than dynamic
and variable and fail to account for environmental triggers to hidden genetic events.
If obesity has only become a huge problem in the last few decades, then how can we
blame obese parents for producing children who either become obese during childhood
or become obese adults? One explanation by obesity researchers is termed “assortative
mating.” In simple terms, fat people are more likely to marry other fat people, and thin
people are more likely to marry other thin people. Furthermore, there is growing evi-
dence that fat couples are more likely to have babies than thin couples. By adding this
factor in to the greater availability of inexpensive, high-calorie foods and the decline in
physical activity in our daily lives, the obesity explosion is easier to understand.
As if the burden of having fat parents isn’t enough to deal with, there is growing
evidence that the diet of the mother during her pregnancy can set the child up for a
lifetime of obesity. Low birth-weight babies are more likely to become obese than
6 America Is So Fat Because We Lack Willpower 9

those of a normal weight, supposedly because these babies overcompensate as they

grow up for what they missed out on in the womb. Too much food, particularly too
much fat in the mother’s diet, also appears to increase a baby’s chances of becoming
overweight later in life. The research to this point indicates that diets high in fat dur-
ing pregnancy predispose a child to a lifetime desire to over-consume food, particu-
larly fatty food. Most of the research on high-fat diets during pregnancy has been
conducted with rats and other laboratory animals. There is now greater appreciation
among scientists who study obesity that diets of pregnant mothers can have long-
term consequences for the adult that the fetus becomes. It seems unfair to condemn
a person for their diet consumed prior to being born.
The causes for our weight problem do not stop at birth. Diet in first 2 years of life
also appears to have its consequences. The lean years of the Great Depression in the
1930s gave way to the post World War II Boom of the late 1940s. Accumulation of
baby fat became the sign of a healthy child. Now it appears that the health of the
child and the adult the child becomes may be adversely affected by too much food,
particularly too much fat, too many calories, or both consumed by a child in its first
2 years of life. Diets during and after birth appear to trigger certain genes in infants
inducing many to become overweight in adulthood. Furthermore, the microbes a
baby accumulates during the birth process and in the first 2 years of life may play a
role in its chance for becoming obese.
Another reason that could affect a child’s chances of becoming obese is parental
guidance and control. The foods one becomes exposed to and the activity patterns
adopted are primarily a function of family culture. Children gradually gain their
independence at different paces depending on personal interaction with parents,
guardians, siblings, teachers, coaches, caregivers, and other significant influencers
in their lives. The age that children begin to accept personal responsibility for their
own actions can vary widely, but children are more likely to mimic behavior of their
parents and other role models in their lives than follow their instruction.
Despite all the books, blogs and films that blame the industrialized food system
(aka Big Food) from farmer to the place of purchase of our food, America still
seems to hold parents and fat people responsible for the problem. In a survey of 800
Americans, most placed the greatest blame on fat people themselves (80 %) fol-
lowed by parents (59 %), the food industry (35 %), restaurants (20 %), government
(18 %), supermarkets (10 %), and farmers (4 %). Conservatives were more likely to
blame fat people and parents while liberals focused the blame more on the food
industry, government, agriculture, and the cycle of poverty. Are liberals just shifting
blame away from the primary culprit—the fat person?

6 America Is So Fat Because We Lack Willpower

In American culture we frequently blame the victim. It is clear that the primary
victim of obesity is the obese person. Secondary victims are those who help and
care for those who are obese. In the previous section we looked at the influence of
parents and other older people in the life of a child with respect to weight gain
10 1 Why Is America So Fat?

during adolescence, but how much culpability can we place on the individual over-
weight or obese adult? All of us have some control over the amount and type of food
or beverage that we consume as well as the extent and rigor of the physical activity
we choose. However, obese adults should not be held accountable for the genetics
of their ancestors, their mothers’ diet when pregnant, nor their home environment
until old enough to take responsibility for their own actions. If early childhood is not
enough to give us pause, there are even more reasons to give fat people a break.
Fat people tend to place at least some of the blame on themselves but resent the
stigma associated with their body structure. A child who becomes obese is more
likely to be teased and bullied than a child who is within the normal range of weights
in a setting. As a result, obese children are less likely to participate in group physical
activities either by personal choice or shunning by the group. Overweight youth
tend to be ostracized. To make matters worse, stigmatized obese persons tend to
consume excess calories and not exercise as much. Obesity is a cause of discrimina-
tion in jobs, health care, and therapy. Legislation is being proposed to prevent dis-
crimination against obese persons, but this move will probably lead to a backlash
initially making matters even worse.
In our effort to simplify obesity we as Americans have ignored some important
differences in how people become obese. For example, females tend to have more
body fat than males, and boys tend to be more active than girls. Use of the BMI to
assess proper weight classifies more women and fewer men as obese than is war-
ranted. The two genders vary markedly in hormonal effects before, during and after
puberty. Girls and boys also tend to react differently to socio-cultural challenges.
Overweight girls tend to be judged more harshly than overweight boys. There
appears to be more pressure for a girl to be slender and more susceptible to anorexia,
bulimia and other eating disorders. Those girls who become overweight may be that
way by being less active than boys at a similar stage of puberty.
Each person may establish a set point in their energy balance, probably due at least
in part to genetics and the diet in the last few months as a fetus and the first month or
two after birth. People who maintain weight at their personal set point tend to be less
concerned about their weight than those above or below it. A person who attempts to
maintain weight below that set point is likely to be frequently hungry, irritable and
craving food, particularly high-calorie foods. To avoid these temptations, persons
below their set point may increase levels of exercise only making a difficult situation
worse. Persons who exceed their set point do not have the same problems but are more
likely to refrain from exercise as the extra weight accumulates making physical activ-
ity more difficult. The question then becomes how much changes in diets, neighbor-
hood environment and economics play in resetting the set point.
Obesity scientists have also observed subtypes in the population with respect to
energy balance. Some people can adjust their energy balance easily to either gain or
lose weight. The body automatically compensates for changes in diet and activity in
other people making weight loss incredibly difficult. I am apparently in the former
subtype as my body weight appears to fluctuate based on the amount of exercise I
get. When able to combine biking, swimming, and walking for a total of about
30–60 minutes a day, I can generally adjust my calorie intake to either lose or
7 America Is So Fat Because It Is So Much Harder to Lose Weight Than to Put It On 11

maintain my weight as desired. When I don’t exercise regularly, my snacking tends

to increase and the pounds accumulate. As long as I don’t slip outside of a BMI
between 23 and 27, I will be able to prevent myself from becoming obese. Subtypes
at the other end who are predisposed to obesity will have a much more difficult task
to lose weight. These subtypes appear to be prevalent in certain subpopulations in
the American community. In light of these energy-balance subtypes it is difficult to
continue to believe in the 3500-calorie rule mentioned earlier in the chapter.
There has been a debate in the medical community today as to whether obesity
should be classified as a disease instead of a lifestyle choice. Obesity has officially been
seen as a condition brought on by diet and exercise choices that leads to the develop-
ment of many diseases but not as a disease in and of itself. The American Medical
Association has recently classified obesity as a disease to allow physicians to treat
patients and prescribe medicine early in the process to help prevent its onset. It is also
thought that labeling it as a disease will help remove some of the stigma associated
with obesity. Opponents counter that physicians are more likely to prescribe drugs than
recommend sound nutritional plans. These critics also suggest that obese individuals
will have less incentive to lose weight and avoid high-calorie foods and perhaps
become dependent on prescription drugs if their obesity can be claimed as a disease.
It becomes easy for “normal weight,” overweight (the new normal) and even
slightly obese Americans to judge those heavier persons as irresponsible because of
a lack in willpower. As each of us makes those 200 or so decisions daily about when
and what to eat as well as how much or how little to be active, we are confronted
with an obesogenic environment. Tasty temptations seek us out as we pursue busy
lifestyles while modern transportation and entertainment options detract from an
active lifestyle. As the stresses of modern life intersect with the pre-programming of
our personal genetics and pre-pubescent experiences, it is not surprising that we
take little time to make a conscious effort to control our energy balance. Lack of
willpower is a simplistic way to blame the victim for a very complex series of events
resulting in obesity. It may make us feel better to blame fat people for their problems,
but it doesn’t really help the situation. It would seem plausible, then, to just put our
collective thoughts together to slim down America first and then the world.

7 America Is So Fat Because It Is So Much Harder to Lose

Weight Than to Put It On

Dieting, diet pills, and exercise are large profit centers for many companies, but we
don’t seem to be very successful in losing weight and keeping it off. Most of us have
known friends or relatives who have lost 50 pounds or more. Some of us have known
big losers who have been able to keep it off for several years. Unfortunately, most
successful dieters have been less successful in maintaining it. It takes massive
amounts of willpower to lose large amounts of weight. It takes even more willpower
to maintain a healthier weight for all the reasons listed previously in the chapter.
12 1 Why Is America So Fat?

There are many reasons why diets are unsuccessful. Diet plans, particularly those
that result in major losses, involve voluntary starvation. Low-fat diets eliminate the
component in our food that carries flavor and enhances the eating experience during
chewing, termed mouthfeel by food scientists. Since fat stays in the stomach longer
than other food components, the time between feeling full and feeling hungry again
for a low-fat dieter is shorter. People on these diets tend to be hungry most of the
time. High-protein, low-carb diets are more desirable and filling but tend to be high
in fat unless whole foods are abandoned for protein powders, shakes, and bars. Diets
high in water and fiber are filling and low in calories, but a lack of variety can
become monotonous fairly quickly. All of these diets tend to eliminate favorite
foods. It is possible to tell ourselves that we can forgo these temptations until we
reach our target weight, but it is harder to be true to a diet if it means forever abstain-
ing from what gives us pleasure.
Less drastic diets that involve a decrease in calorie consumption by a moderate
amount (300–600 calories per day) and are accompanied by a reasonable exercise
program tend to be more successful in both the short and longer terms than crash
diets. These more moderate diets don’t usually eliminate favorite foods, but tend to
lower portion size. These diets usually result in loss of 5–10 % of body weight. Such
losses may be successful in reducing an extremely obese person to obese, an obese
individual to overweight, an overweight one to normal, but moderate changes in
weight are less likely to be noticed by others. Modest losses don’t solve the obesity
problem throughout the country, but the new weight may make a difference in the
health status of an individual.
Unfortunately, most Americans are all-or-nothing people. We tend to either opt for
no-fat, no-sugar, very-low-calorie foods or the full-fat, high-sugar, high-calorie ver-
sions. Intermediate items featuring reduced fat, reduced sugar, reduced calorie foods are
not usually as big sellers, and, all too often, we reward ourselves for eating diet foods by
overcompensating with larger portions of higher calorie foods. The food industry has
responded by decreasing portion size of items such as cookies and snack cakes to
100-calorie packs or miniature cans of soft drinks. Critics indicate that individuals just
consume more packages without really reducing the amount of calories consumed. For
some individuals, these packs only increase packaging waste, but extensive research
shows that large packages are a major reason many people overeat.
A successful dieter is one who has the motivation to lose the weight in the first
place and is willing to make difficult changes in lifestyle to maintain the newer weight.
Failure to lose weight initially or to keep after the diet is over can doom future attempts
to develop a successful plan. Greater success occurs if the dieter is part of a group
effort. Wellness programs have been established at many companies including tobacco
cessation, diet and exercise, but the results are mixed and do not demonstrate effec-
tiveness. Part of the problem is that these programs are difficult to evaluate and there
is a lack of carefully planned studies. Most of these studies calculate average weight
changes of all subjects. It could be that these programs are very effective for some
obesity subtypes and either ineffective or counterproductive in other subtypes.
Many experts in the obesity field have essentially given up on helping fat adults
and are concentrating on children and adolescents. These scientists believe that
slimming down American adults is a hopeless cause and that prevention of obesity
It Is Hard to Point to a Single Reason America Became So Fat 13

in the young has a much better chance of success. All too often, however, treatment
tends to take on one or two dimensions of the problem without adopting a more
multidimensional approach. If the country is really going to win the war on obesity
we need to go beyond simplistic solutions to a more comprehensive means.

It Is Hard to Point to a Single Reason America Became So Fat

In this chapter I have listed seven possible explanations why Americans have become
so fat and my thoughts about each explanation. There are many other possibilities
including advertising, cheap food, lack of sleep, the microbes in our guts, food addic-
tion, television and video games, quitting smoking, and hormones. Each of these
explanations has advocates and detractors. As Claude Bouchard notes in his opening
quote, obesity is much more complex than how it is portrayed in the media today.
Something happened starting in the late 1970s, and proceeded through the 1980s and
1990s that saw us bust out from 15 % obese in 1976 to over 30 % obese by the year
2000. Any strategy for solving the obesity problem in the USA must be able to
explain both why we did not get fat before Jimmy Carter took office and how we
became so bloated between his and George W. Bush’s administrations (see Fig. 1.1).
Public opinion on obesity tends to lurch from one news report to another. In 2013
there was a report showing a decline in childhood obesity to a collective sigh of
relief by the public. We must be wary of any single report such as this one as any
indication that we are winning the war. Estimates of obesity in any age group are
incredibly difficult to obtain. Estimates from year to year show wide fluctuation, the
result of the people tested each year not being the same. A surprising increase or
decrease may or may not mean anything. It is usually beneficial to have at least three
consecutive reports pointing in the same direction before declaring a trend. Any
fluctuation of numbers permits writers trying to make a point to carefully select the
first and last numbers reported to exaggerate or minimize the difference on any
topic. Such a ploy is prevalent for all sides of the obesity issue.
Despite encouraging and discouraging reports, the current picture shows that we
are too fat, and mathematical models predict we are going to continue to get fatter.
The solution to the obesity problem in America is going to be difficult, but the
approach should be clear based on an understanding of the cause. For those who
believe that the problem is primarily that we consume too much food, particularly
fast food and other processed foods, the solution comes in
• convincing fat people to eat less burgers and fries and more fruits and
vegetables,
• preventing the food industry through law suits, increased taxes and other means
to manufacture less unhealthy food, and
• developing governmental policy that rewards healthy eating while punishing
unhealthy eating.
For those who believe that fat people and their parents are responsible for the
problem, the solution is that the responsible parties should be made to pay for
14 1 Why Is America So Fat?

Fig. 1.1 The changes in extremely obese (BMI = 40.0 and above), obese (BMI = 30.0 to 39.9), and
overweight (25–24.9) individuals between 1960 and 2010 in the USA. Note that there has been
little change in the 50 years in the percentage of overweight Americans, a major change in obese
individuals in the 30 years between 1976 and 2006 and the concern raised with respect to extremely
obese people that still seems to be increasing. Reprinted from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hes-
tat/obesity_adult_09_10/obesity_adult_09_10.htm

increased medical costs associated with their condition. My perspective, however, is

that the problem cannot be reduced to a single factor and that a much more compre-
hensive approach is merited. Blaming the food, like blaming the person, seems to
be a diversion from solving the problem.
Fat, salt, and sugar in processed foods are blamed for the rise in obesity. There
are certainly many processed foods that contain high levels of salt, sugar, and fat.
Many of these items are appropriately called junk foods because they are low in
vitamins, minerals, and protein. Then there are other processed foods that are high
It Is Hard to Point to a Single Reason America Became So Fat 15

in one or more of the detrimental three components but also have some beneficial
nutrients. Smoothies and granola bars, which are frequently high in sugar and fat,
are also good sources of various vitamins, minerals, and proteins. Fat becomes a
likely target as an ounce of fat contributes roughly twice the number of calories as
an ounce of protein or carbohydrate. Some popular diets are based on increased
protein with little or no carbohydrate. If we are limiting calories from fat and sugar,
we have only three other sources of calories—complex carbohydrates, proteins, and
alcohol. High-protein, low-carb diets have become very popular, but these popular
diets can lead to loss of calcium in the bones and are considered dangerous for those
with kidney disease or diabetes. Seeking a balance of calories from fat, carbs, and
protein is difficult but appears to be more prudent than attempting to severely limit
one or more types of calorie sources.
Unidimensional solutions rarely work in solving complex problems. Many spe-
cialists suggest that moderate changes in the foods we eat to lose a few pounds and
keep them off are much more beneficial than crash diets that tend to be unsuccessful
in the long term. Exercise should be a part of our routine even if it doesn’t lead to
weight loss, as it tends to make us feel better and contributes to overall health.
Prevention strategies are much more likely to be successful than treatment, and
focusing on children is critical. We should build neighborhood environments that
are friendlier to walkers and bikers. Food policy councils that can create competitive
advantages for purveyors of healthier foods should be appointed. Greater subsidies
for growing fresh fruits and vegetables funded by taxes on junk foods used to
subsidize healthier foods is a possible solution. Making nutrition information prom-
inent at the point of purchase for restaurant meals and vending machines is also a
good idea. Other suggestions include restricting advertising and access to unhealthy
foods to children, developing school wellness policies and working with food com-
panies to develop healthier options.
The ‘Let’s Move’ program advocated by Michelle Obama incorporates many of
these ideas. Despite criticisms from the right because of her last name and the left
for not being radical enough, the plan focuses on children where it is likely to make
the most difference. It combines better food choices, less food and more exercise as
part of a more comprehensive plan that involves school-lunch programs, restau-
rants, manufacturers of processed foods, and governmental agencies. Mika
Brzezinski suggests that we reason with children, listen to them, go shopping for
groceries with them, and preparing meals together. This strategy is more likely to
succeed than lecturing. She also suggests that stigmatizing overweight children or
adults is not productive. In Taste Barb Stuckey cautions us to slow down when we
are eating, taste and savor it and refuse to eat what does not bring us pleasure.
Americans are fat because they eat too much, drink too much and don’t get
enough physical exercise, but there is more to obesity than food, drink, and activity.
The solution is more difficult than telling overweight people to go on a diet or blam-
ing processed food. Comprehensive programs should be available to any adult who
wishes to lose weight, but our best bet is to focus on children to help them from
becoming obese in the first place. We need a much better understanding of what
happens in the womb and the first 2 years of a child’s life that contributes to obesity
in later life and what can be done to reduce the chances of becoming obese.
Chapter 2
Why Does Processed Food Have Such a Bad
Reputation?

When Rob went to the grocery store, he bought distinct meal products—a package of
tortellini, a frozen pizza, a quiche. When Julia went to the store she bought ingredients—
eggs, sugar, flour—and Rob was amazed that she could spend $200 and when she came
back there was still nothing for dinner.—David Brooks
“It doesn’t matter. Try it,” he told Akash, who for the past four months refused to eat any-
thing other than macaroni and cheese for dinner. To Ruma he added, pointing to Akash’s
plate. “Why do you buy those things? They are filled with nothing but chemicals.” When
Akash was younger she had followed her mother’s advice to get him used to the taste of
Indian food and made the effort to poach chicken and vegetables with cinnamon and carda-
mom and clove. Now he ate from boxes.—Jhumpa Lahiri

I was at a faculty awards banquet one April evening and seated next to the hus-
band of one of the awardees. The banquet was held in a huge room of the hotel and
conference center with all the partitions pushed back and at least 200 guests present.
When the gentleman next to me learned that I was a food scientist, he picked up a
baby-blue packet of Equal and said that his wife wouldn’t eat anything like that or
any processed foods. During the banquet I looked around at what we were eating.
We had a salad with dressing. I suspect that the greens came out of a bag, and the
dressing did not separate because the processor had added emulsifiers. The main
entrée was their famous Celestial Chicken which by a strange coincidence was the
same size and shape on everybody’s plate. Were all the contributing chickens the
exact same size?
We all had vegetables that may have been purchased locally that morning at a
fresh market but were probably delivered to the receiving dock, precut, and frozen.
We selected our own desserts from tables at the back of the room. These desserts
may have been mass manufactured from highly processed ingredients, pre-sliced,
frozen, shipped, thawed out 12–24 hours before being transferred to dishes about an
hour before serving. The faculty member who won the award skipped the Equal,
adding sugar packets to her coffee, but she seemed to enjoy the rest of the dinner as
much as I did. I was particularly impressed with the coffee and asked a server what
kind it was. He came back a few minutes later to inform me it was Maxwell House.

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 17

R.L. Shewfelt, In Defense of Processed Food,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45394-1_2
18 2 Why Does Processed Food Have Such a Bad Reputation?

Numerous books, posts, and media stories have told us how bad processed food
is for us, but few sources actually define it. Everyone has their own concepts of what
a processed food is and what it is not. Processed foods are ubiquitous in our food
supply and sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between those that are and are not
processed. Scientists may need to deal with ambiguous answers to complex ques-
tions, and scientists like to have clearly specified definitions for any term used. Here
are some of the definitions or descriptions I was able to piece together:
1. “highly processed, herbicided, genetically modified, ready-to-eat, high-fructose-
corn-syrup-filled, just add water food products, the ones packaged with cartoon
characters, sports figures, and other cleaver marketing ploys.”
2. “In the context of center aisles, ‘processed’ is a code word for foods of low or
minimal nutritional value—‘junk foods’ for those of us who are less polite.”
3. “products of capital-intensive agriculture, processed into homogeneous, stan-
dardized edibles, designed to maximize efficiency and profit over other values
such as taste or sustainability.”
4. one that will not rot contains more than five ingredients—many of them unpro-
nounceable—or was not cooked by humans.
5. “canned or packaged foods that are high in sodium, saturated fat, hydrogenated
oils and preservatives.”
6. produced by processes such as “drying, milling, cutting, sorting, baking.”
7. “a product that has been modified to improve its safety, extend the shelf life,
enhance its quality, and improve its convenience.”
Examples that fit into most of these definitions of processed foods include boxed
macaroni and cheese, candy bars, chocolate milk, frozen pizza, hot-dog wieners, ice
cream, potato chips, sodas, and sugared breakfast cereals. A carcass hung on a butch-
er’s hook; freshly caught, whole fish; raw whole milk; and whole grains in bulk bins
all would qualify as unprocessed. The problem comes in as how to classify every-
thing else we eat. The first six definitions are from sources that are generally opposed
to processed food; the last one is my definition and would be accepted by most food
scientists. For example, I would consider items like bottled, organic tomato sauce;
coffee; cooking oils; dark chocolate; frozen orange-juice concentrate; plain oatmeal;
raisins; salt-cured ham; and wine as processed foods. None of the last group fit under
all of the first five definitions. What about all those foods we eat when eating out?
Attempts have been made to clarify the situation by using the terms highly pro-
cessed, ultra-processed, industrially processed, or hyperpalatable. Unfortunately,
these terms are almost as nebulous as processed. One way to distinguish different
types of processes is to separate them into primary and secondary processes. Primary
operations such as chopping, gutting, peeling, and washing turn inedible substances
into edible ones and are sometimes referred to as minimal processing. Secondary
processes convert primary ingredients into edible food products.
A further separation can be made between processed items and formulated foods.
Simple processing operations such as heating, freezing, drying, fermenting, or con-
centrating turn a whole food into a product with less than five ingredients. Formulated
products involve the mixing of numerous ingredients that are not recognizable as
1 Processed Food Is Neither Fresh Nor Produced Locally 19

the whole food from which the ingredients were made. In the David Brooks quote
above, Julia is essentially buying primary items that can be used as ingredients for
a homemade meal, while Rob is looking for secondary items, preferably ones that
have been formulated. Likewise it is these formulated foods that Akash eats which
disturb his grandfather. It is those traditionally processed items by canning, freez-
ing, etc., that are criticized for depleting flavor and nutrients, and those formulated
foods that entice us with “addictive” ingredients. Food technology is becoming
more sophisticated by replacing traditional processes to reduce the loss of flavor and
nutrients while making the food look less processed.
While I reject the common usage of “processed” as too restrictive, I am more
comfortable with the term “junk food.” Junk is still an ambiguous term that fits most
of the first four definitions of processed food, but it does not eliminate a host of
other items that we consume daily. Not all of the authors of those definitions would
agree with me, however, and would probably include more products in the junk
category than I would. Also, many of these sources would turn around and not
include homemade items such as cakes, cookies, and pies as “junk” even though
items made at home may have just as much sugar and fat as their commercial coun-
terparts. Processed foods apparently are judged more harshly than other foods made
from processed ingredients.
Food pundits rely on a list of 13 fear factors to scare the public away from processed
food. We are told that any food made by a corporation or has an unfamiliar ingredient
is not natural. We are warned about foods that even remotely pose a personal threat,
pose a risk to children, or could lead to catastrophic consequences years later in life.
The perception of these risks may be much greater than reality, but it is perception that
counts when making a decision to buy and eat a specific product. Many of these fear
factors have direct relevance to food and our fear of processed food. In the remainder
of the chapter I will describe the steps involved in processing of several foods in the
context of charges leveled at processed food. One thing that clearly distinguishes pro-
cessed foods from fresh foods is that processing extends shelf life.

1 Processed Food Is Neither Fresh Nor Produced Locally

Fresh foods rot as stated in Definition #4 above, but processed foods are much less
perishable. Highly perishable items should be eaten soon after harvest or kept cool
to keep them from rotting. Processed products are shelf-stable which means that we
don’t have to worry about them going bad so quickly. Many processed foods are
more convenient than fresh foods. These formulated foods are also considered to be
prepared foods qualifying them as processed by Definition #1. Prepared foods take
little preparation before consumption to Rob’s delight and Julia’s dismay. We can
open up a can or other container, scoop out the food, heat it up, and be ready to eat.
Processed products fit into a modern home or restaurant kitchen helping save time
and energy. Besides, fresh foods from the supermarket or in our favorite restaurants
are not necessarily as fresh as we think they are.
20 2 Why Does Processed Food Have Such a Bad Reputation?

For example, most of us would consider a bag of baby carrots as a fresh whole
item that is neither a junk nor a processed food. These babies are actually small
pieces coming from large carrots that go through primary processing before ship-
ment to markets across the country. The steps from field to market in the life of a
baby carrot include harvesting, removal of the leaves in the field, transportation to
the processing plant, washing to remove soil and disinfecting with chlorine, and
chilling in ice water. After sorting by thickness, the carrots are cut into uniform
2-inch pieces, roughly peeled, polished, weighed, packaged, and refrigerated. In
Europe all such processing operations are conducted at 50° to protect the workers,
but in North America processing usually occurs below 40° to protect the vegetables.
Carrots are less perishable than most other vegetables and thus processed close to
the field and shipped all over the country. We are familiar with carrots so many of
us are more likely to trust bagged carrots in the produce section while fearing some-
thing in a box with many ingredients produced by a huge corporation which might
not have our health and wellbeing in mind.
Like other terms used when referring to food, fresh can be relative. Fresh apples
are no longer fresh when baked into an apple pie. The rapid loss of sweetness in
fresh corn on the cob can be captured in frozen creamed corn. Fresh eggs can be
turned into a cheese omelet and oranges squeezed into juice. Raw milk can have the
cream removed and be pasteurized, while fresh fish can be battered, breaded, and
fried. Fresh items are transformed from fresh to unfresh either in a home, restaurant,
local processing plant, or large manufacturing facility. Each transformation, regard-
less of where it occurs affects the quality, nutritional value, and safety of the food.
At which point and under what conditions does that fresh food become a processed
food? Then, of course there is the penetrating aroma of fresh bread which can
obscure the possibility that it came from frozen dough.
Fresh foods can lose flavor and nutrients when prepared or processed, particu-
larly when exposed to heat. Heat leads to destruction of vitamins by changing their
chemical structure from those nutrients that our bodies can use. Once a food is
cooked or processed both the nutrients and flavor are stabilized. Very little loss of
vitamins, minerals, and food flavors happen once the food is preserved (cooking
uses heat to preserve foods). As long as these foods are properly packaged and
stored properly (cooked foods that are leftovers should be refrigerated), the product
maintains nutritional value and flavor.
Fresh fruits and vegetables rapidly lose nutrients at room temperatures and even
when refrigerated. The loss of vitamins in fresh fruits and vegetables tends to be
more rapid than spoilage and loss of flavor. Vitamin C content can be used by food
scientists as a freshness index as this vitamin deteriorates more rapidly than most
other nutrients. Fresh meats spoil rapidly with a much shorter shelf life than fresh
fruits and vegetables. Meat must be refrigerated, cooked, or processed (canned,
frozen, salted, dried, etc.) within a few hours of slaughter. Thus we do not worry as
much about nutrient losses in fresh meats as in fresh items from plants. Many of the
flavors we enjoy in meats are actually generated during cooking. Some of us prefer
the flavor of meats with less heat such as a rare steak or raw seafood in some sushi
dishes.
2 Processed Foods Are Addictive 21

In recent years the idea of eating local has become popular. Accounts of eating
almost all local foods for a year have appeared with the joys of growing, preserving,
preparing, and consuming the foods we eat both for their eating pleasure and to pro-
tect the environment. Local can be a flexible term as it can mean within a county or a
state, but 100 miles has been set as a standard. In addition, a fresh item does not stay
all that fresh for a very long time. Most fresh fruits and vegetables rot quickly and lose
their vitamins rapidly at room temperature. These changes can be delayed by refrig-
eration resulting in a higher-quality item that has been transported from one coast to
the other in a refrigerated truck than one the same age that has been harvested locally
and stored at room temperature. Food miles can be a misleading indicator as transpor-
tation is rarely a major factor in the environmental footprint of a product.
As a faculty member who conducted research as well as taught, I was approached
on separate occasions by a small, local processor, and the technical director of a fast-
food chain. The former was swamped with butter beans in season. He wanted to
freeze his beans during the season, thaw them out throughout the year, and sell them
as fresh foods. I told the processor that I didn’t think that it was honest to do what he
wanted with his butter beans and refused to help him. The chain was making a big deal
in its marketing pitch of using only fresh ingredients and wanted to know if I would
do a study to see how using frozen chicken would affect the acceptability of its fried
product. I mentioned that I had a class on food flavor coming up in two months that
could take on the chicken project, but the chain representative never got back to me.
Not only are processed foods resistant to rot, they are considered addictive.

2 Processed Foods Are Addictive

The idea that processed foods are addictive is a controversial area. Many authors of
popular books are convinced that any processed food with sugar, salt, or fat is addic-
tive while Big Food claims that these foods are highly desirable but not addictive.
Whatever we call them, many formulated foods are designed to be tempting enough
to be eaten to excess. Part of the discussion on food addiction may be a matter of
semantics, but there is an emerging field in psychology and neurobiology looking at
the potential implications of food addiction.
Dr. Howard Moskowitz developed what he called the “bliss point” when working
with tomato sauces for pastas. By varying levels of key ingredients he was able to
tell what levels were best to increase consumer satisfaction and company sales.
During his research, he found that consumers had very different likes and dislikes
when offered a variety of combinations. He was not the first food scientist to divide
consumers into groups with different desires for a type of product, but his research
showed that a rather pedestrian product like tomato sauce is perceived very
differently by different people. Thus, by increasing their variety of the offerings
companies could sell more sauce. The “bliss point” has been cited by critics of Big
Food as the smoking gun proving that it is out to addict the American public to its
wares, but few have claimed that tomato sauce is a major factor in the demise of
American health.
22 2 Why Does Processed Food Have Such a Bad Reputation?

Food scientists have developed tools to test desirability of their products by con-
sumers. The most common tool has been the “taste panel.” To improve the accept-
ability of military rations the Army’s Quartermaster Corps developed the widely
used Hedonic scale which consists of nine points ranging from 9 = like extremely to
1 = dislike extremely. Sensory scientists, a subset of food scientists, study individual
properties of specific foods to observe the relationships between perception by the
five senses and consumer likes and dislikes. Large consumer panels help identify
what consumers like or don’t like. Small, trained panels can describe specific sen-
sory notes associated with the food and how much of a certain ingredient it takes to
make a difference between samples. A more recent tool has been adapted from the
medical field, the fMRI, which stands for functional magnetic resonance imaging.
Basically a helmet device is placed on the head of the subject and wires from the
helmet are connected to an imaging device which maps human response to the
brain. This device is now being used by psychology researchers to scan brains to
help show which food ingredients and products could be addictive.
Popular books have focused attention on fat, salt, and sugar as key addictive
agents in foods. The authors suggest that hyperpalatable (junk) foods act on our
brains like addictive drugs. Chemicals from marijuana or cocaine react with specific
receptors in the brain to form a very specific reaction that can lead to chemical
addiction. Two common chemicals in the food supply—alcohol and caffeine—are
psychoactive substances. Certain stimuli such as the thrill of gambling or the surge
of joy that shopping brings can elicit psychological addiction in susceptible indi-
viduals. The distinction between these types of addictions is not trivial as sugar
could be chemically addictive, but sweet would be psychologically addictive. If it is
the sugar, the addict can still enjoy artificial sweeteners. If not, even naturally occur-
ring, non-caloric sweeteners such as stevia should be avoided.
One product that consumers proclaim to be addictive is chocolate to the point of
labeling themselves as chocoholics. Few critics of processed foods directly chal-
lenge chocolate which is high in saturated fat and can be high in sugar depending on
the % cacao in the product. Many consumers do not think of chocolate, particularly
dark chocolate as a processed food, and internet humor has proclaimed it healthy by
classifying the cacao bean as a vegetable. We tend to laugh off addiction to choco-
late most of which is full of sugar and saturated fat, but we take as a personal threat
to us and our children processed foods with hidden sugar and fat that could addict
us and make us fat.
All chocolate products are highly processed (see flowchart in Fig. 2.1). To pro-
duce Baker’s chocolate (100 % natural chocolate) before anything else is added
white to pale purple raw beans are fermented to remove the pulp and peel, kill the
germ, and modify the flavor and color. The fermented beans must then be cleaned,
roasted, winnowed (removal of the bitter husk from the bean), milled, and ground to
form the chocolate liquor. This liquor is non-alcoholic, despite its name and that it
is a fermented product, consists of approximately 55 % fat, most of it saturated. To
make the products many of us love, openly or in the privacy of our own homes,
involves the combining of ingredients, mixing and refining. Next comes conching—
a 24–72 hours slow mixing process that turns the hard brittle Baker’s chocolate into
2 Processed Foods Are Addictive 23

Crops (Botanical sources)/harvesting cocoa pods

Ripe cocoa pods: cutting/ splitting, and extracting wet beans

Cocoa beans:Fermenting

Drying and bagging / Roasting / Winnowing

or
Drying and bagging / Winnowing / Roasting

NIBS HULL

Grinding (Coarse)

“Mass” (COCOA Blending with sugar and /

LIQUOR) or milk (optional)

Pressing Grinding (Fine)

Conching
COCOA POWDER COCOA BUTTER

Enrobing Molding Panning

Fig. 2.1 Flow diagram of the chocolate manufacturing process. Reprinted with permission from
Guiterrez and Perez, 2015 in Chocolate: Cocoa Byproducts Technology, Rheology, Styling, and
Nutrition

a smooth concoction that melts deliciously in our mouths. The chocolate is then
tempered (heated above melting temperatures and slowly cooled to achieve the pre-
ferred structure of chocolate crystals) and molded or enrobed depending on the type
of product. The same steps are followed by large commercial manufacturers and
local chocolatiers.
Once again critics of the American lifestyle have taken a very complex area of
scientific inquiry and oversimplified it to a Thou shalt not list of activities and foods
to be prohibited. A more reasoned conversation on the semantics of cravings and
addictions might be merited. While addiction may be too harsh a term for most food
and cravings a convenient dodge by Big Food, it cannot be denied that processed
foods are laden with chemicals.
24 2 Why Does Processed Food Have Such a Bad Reputation?

3 Processed Foods Are Filled with Additives and Other

Chemicals

Virtually all processed foods contain chemical additives as Akash’s grandfather

proclaims. Processed foods are criticized for containing food additives, but most
books and websites that condemn additives don’t define or describe additives. One
definition of the term from a medical perspective is “any of a large variety of sub-
stances added to foods to prevent spoilage, improve appearance, enhance flavor or
texture, or increase nutritional value.” These statements mention direct food addi-
tives but ignore indirect ones. Direct additives must be listed on the label in the
ingredient statement, but indirect additives do not. Indirect additives end up in the
product either incidentally or as processing aids. Incidental additives include clean-
ing materials used to sanitize processing equipment, pesticide residues, and packag-
ing materials that migrate from the package into the food. Processing aids include
bleaching agents such as chlorine, antimicrobials used to prevent growth of microbes
that can cause food poisoning, and the enzymes used to make un-ripened cheese.
All direct food additives must have a clear function and must be efficacious (i.e.,
an additive must be able to achieve that function with the amount present in the
product). Indirect food additives don’t have a direct function in the food and are
present at very low levels. Thus indirect additives do not appear on the label. All
direct and indirect additives must pass safety tests as judged by FDA guidelines or
must be Generally Regarded as Safe (GRAS). The GRAS list was drawn up in
1957 in anticipation of the passage of the Food Additives Amendment to the Food,
Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1936. Scientific studies are reviewed by the FDA, and
items can be added or removed from GRAS status. Scary additives on the GRAS list
include ammonium hydroxide, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), calcium citrate,
hydrogen peroxide, monosodium glutamate (MSG), potassium glycerophosphate,
and sodium benzoate. All spices in processed foods are also food additives. Some of
the other common additives on the GRAS list include acetic acid (vinegar), caffeine,
linoleic acid (an omega-6 fatty acid found in oils and fats), pectin (added to com-
mercial and homemade jams and jellies), riboflavin (a B vitamin), and sodium chlo-
ride (sea, kosher, and table salt).
The rule for declaring food additives on the label is that the company can list the
common name instead of the chemical name (such as Vitamin C instead of ascorbic
acid and caffeine instead of trimethylpurine dione). If a specific chemical does not
have a common name, the manufacturers stuck with putting the chemical name on
the label. Because the chemical name scares many people off, Big Food has found
a way to get around these pesky rules—clean labels. A clean label is one that has
only common ingredients and no chemical-sounding names. Thus, the food scien-
tists working for Big Food must come up with a clean ingredient that either contains
the chemical in question or a chemical that performs that same function. For exam-
ple, soy sauce can be used instead of MSG. Soy sauce, either in the formulated or
fermented versions, contains essentially the same chemical to give foods its distinc-
tive umami taste. Chemicals that occur naturally in an ingredient don’t need to
appear on the label.
4 Processed Food Is Not Real, Natural, or Healthy 25

Kimchi is a popular fermented food in Korea and is becoming popular in America

as fermented foods are considered to be healthy and nutritious. The steps in making
kimchi include trimming of fresh Chinese cabbage, cutting it vertically, salting
(usually with rock salt), washing, draining, mixing and adding the ingredient mix
between each layer of cabbage leaves, and fermenting for about one week. The
ingredient mix contains fermented fish paste and a number of other components
such as chopped salt brine, chopped cucumber or radish, ginger, crushed or ground
chili peppers, garlic, onion, and various other spices. Whether it is made at home
and stored in a traditional clay pot or made in a manufacturing plant and packaged
in a can, jar, or plastic pouch, the steps are similar. Processed kimchi is made in
much bigger quantities with larger equipment. Kimchi is an example of one of many
foreign dishes we welcome to our dinner plates. At the same time, we regard label
ingredients with equally exotic names as suspicious and probably harmful.
Some other things not generally understood are that most whole foods also con-
tain additives and that all foods are chemical in nature. Baker’s chocolate, for exam-
ple, contains over 600 chemical compounds before any additives have been mixed
into a chocolate product. Any food in a package has been through primary process-
ing and has been cleaned or handled on equipment that has been cleaned has picked
up indirect additives. Any plant material contains either pesticide residues or micro-
scopic insect parts and probably both. Natural pesticides that are approved for use
are chemicals, and many of these compounds are as dangerous as and more persis-
tent than synthetic ones. Finally, if all the chemicals are taken out of a food, we are
not left with air but with a vacuum as nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and other
trace gases are in the air. We should not forget that the most common chemical in
our food is H2O. In addition to the chemicals present, many authors don’t consider
processed foods to be real, natural, or healthy.

4 Processed Food Is Not Real, Natural, or Healthy

Processed foods have been called edible foodlike substances. Many pundits don’t
consider processed products to be real or natural, but it is not as easy to separate real
from unreal foods or natural from unnatural foods as one might think. Surely raw
eggs, fish, fruit, meat, milk, nuts, and vegetables are both real and natural. Are these
items still real, however, when cracked, cleaned, washed, sliced, skimmed, ground,
or chopped? Are foods still natural if boiled, fried, blended, grilled, refrigerated,
roasted, or stir-fried? Is their status affected if fermented, canned, dried, cured, pas-
teurized, homogenized, or frozen? Does it make any difference if any of these items
are combined together with added salt, spices, or other minor ingredients? What if
an additive is extracted from plant materials? Are foods less real or natural if the
processes are done by a large corporation or a small, family business than if foods
are prepared in the home?
“Real” is a term that is in the mind of the beholder. Visualize a continuum of
foods in a local supermarket from refrigerated egg whites to canned tuna fish to
26 2 Why Does Processed Food Have Such a Bad Reputation?

fresh-baked apple pie to 2 % milk to a bagged spring mix. All of these products have
been processed to some extent. Does that process make a food any less real? What
about more formulated products such as a Twinkie, frozen fish entrée, strawberry
ice cream, a can of chunky chicken-noodle soup, and a granola bar? Again, each of
these foods is processed, some might say highly processed and many of these prod-
ucts contain excess salt, sugar, and/or fat. What makes some foods less real or natu-
ral? Is it the simplicity of the label, where it is made or something else?
“Natural” is also a very nebulous term. The most likely characteristic of a natural
food is that it rots. “Fresh” foods rot faster than processed foods. Food scientists are
obsessed with extending shelf life. The main ways these scientists extend shelf life
is to kill or slow the growth of harmful microbes and to halt the natural processes in
plant and animal tissue that cause it to deteriorate. Some processed foods rot very
readily such as frozen foods that have been thawed and left out at room temperature.
“Natural” is a word that food companies, both Big and Not-so-Big, use to make
their customers feel better about buying their products. When it comes to ingredi-
ents, how natural is natural? Extraction is a common food process to provide ingre-
dients for formulated foods. “Natural” flavors and colors are generally extracted
from formerly living plant tissue. Brewing of chai, coffee, tea are water-extraction
processes many of us perform frequently at home. Natural is a soothing word, but
we tend to fear anything that is man-made as that can’t be good for us.
One of the most notorious ingredients on any anti-processed food campaign is
high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Acid and enzymes are added to cornstarch to form
corn syrup which is primarily glucose and is not very sweet. Another enzyme, glu-
cose isomerase, is then used to convert almost half of the glucose to fructose. Further
processing can get the total up to 55 % fructose and 45 % glucose. “High-fructose” is
part of the common name because corn syrup is not sweet and has little or no fruc-
tose. Many people who shy away from HFCS in their soft drinks embrace cane sugar.
To make the cane syrup (roughly 50 % fructose and 50 % glucose) compatible with
the sweetening of a soft drink, water is added to sugar crystals and the syrup is acidi-
fied. Then it is treated with the enzyme invertase to break the sucrose (table sugar)
into glucose and fructose. The resultant invert syrup is sweeter and more likely to
stay in solution than pure table sucrose. Most pundits consider HFCS to be unnatural
and cane syrup to be natural, but it is a distinction without a difference.
Even if we are able to distinguish real and natural foods from otherwise pro-
cessed products, does that make a food healthier? Advocates of healthy eating use
“real” and “natural” as code words for healthy. Big Food has used “natural” to cover
up those foods that are high in fat, salt, and sugar. Lawsuits are now underway
across the country to halt the use of “natural” on labels of foods with questionable
nutritional value, but there are no clear guidelines as to which foods and ingredients
are natural and which are not. Companies wary of lawsuits are now substituting
even more nebulous terms such as “naked,” “pure,” and “simple” for “natural” and
will go as far as they can using these terms without losing credibility with their loyal
customers. Again, such terms ease concerns about products, but such foods are not
any healthier. Another concern about processed foods is the loss of nutrients during
processing.
5 Processing Removes Important Nutrients 27

5 Processing Removes Important Nutrients

Another criticism of food processing is that it destroys nutrients. While it is true that
processing involves loss of nutrients, such comments ignore the losses of nutrients
that occur in items that are not processed. From the time that a fresh food is harvested
until the time it is consumed, it is undergoing change. Both plants and animals are
living creatures. When a plant part such as a fruit or vegetable is removed from the
parent plant, it undergoes trauma, giving off ethylene gas. The wound at the place of
detachment must heal to prevent invasion of microbes that can lead to rotting. After
detachment, enzymes continue the life activities in that plant part destined for some-
one’s snack or meal. The scientific field that studies these life processes is known as
postharvest physiology. Harvested seeds remain dormant until germination. Unlike
plant materials, food from animals undergoes the physiology of death termed post-
mortem physiology with the most pronounced change from muscle to meat. When a
fresh product like kale is put in shopping cart, it has lost some nutrients already.
Depending on when we choose to eat the product, we may or may not consume equal
quantities of nutrients that may be present in that food’s processed version.
The greatest losses of vitamins come during heating whether it happens during
commercial processing or cooking at home. As much as 80–90 % of certain vita-
mins can be lost during canning. Although some critics of processed foods are con-
cerned about the loss of natural enzymes, enzymes are second only to microbes in
spoiling food. Despite the popular belief that natural enzymes in foods aid in diges-
tion, almost all enzymes lose their strength once mixed with the acid in our stom-
achs. Because food processing is harmful to vitamins, some people resort to canning
and freezing food from their gardens at home or in community canneries. Since
food companies tend to have more information on what it takes to produce safe
foods, their processes tend to be safer and less destructive to vitamins than those
items canned at home. Steaming, roasting, and cooking in a microwave oven are
less destructive than boiling in water. Processing methods like drying and freezing
are less damaging to nutrients than canning. Methods that damage nutrients tend to
be as destructive to fresh flavor. For example, frozen green beans taste more like
fresh beans than canned or boiled green beans, but some of us prefer the flavor of
canned beans than fresh or frozen.
My dad grew up on a farm, but he married a city girl. When I was young we lived
in Canada, and he grew a big garden in our back yard. We stored carrots and pota-
toes in a root cellar under the house. Mother canned or froze much of the crop so we
could eat home-grown fruits and vegetables all winter. It was long, hard, hot work,
and woe to the child who needed attention while she was in the throes of “putting
food by.” In the summer before I entered 7th grade, we moved to South Carolina
where the soil was not as fertile, and we did not have the yard to accommodate a big
garden. After a few failed attempts at growing a garden down South, dad, the food
scientist, did the calculations and determined that he could get his fresh and pro-
cessed fruits and vegetables for less money at the local supermarket. Mother, the
home economist, did not seem to miss the hours sweltering in her kitchen, but dad
28 2 Why Does Processed Food Have Such a Bad Reputation?

did miss his garden. Dad bought a piece of land outside town to do some farming.
Because of their backgrounds in food science and nutrition, neither parent felt that
we were at any nutritional disadvantage by relying on the local supermarket for our
fresh produce.
A misconception is that vitamins in fresh fruits and vegetables do not change
during storage. Those pesky enzymes mentioned above break down vitamins with
greater losses occurring in hot fields or the back of pickup trucks after harvest than
storage at room temperature. Furthermore, losses can be greatly decreased when
fresh produce is refrigerated. Some vegetables are better able to hold on to vitamin
C than others. For example, 4 ounces of raw spinach contains 32 mg (53 % daily
value) of vitamin C. During canning, about half of the vitamin will be lost, but cook-
ing by boiling causes a loss of almost 2/3 of vitamin C. On the plate, however,
because of wilting and the loss of water of the spinach, a cup of canned spinach will
contain almost 4 times the amount of vitamin C as a cup of raw spinach. A cup of
the boiled spinach will contain a little more than twice the amount of the vitamin as
a cup of raw spinach.
Spinach is available in fresh, loose or bagged, and processed, frozen or canned,
forms. The spinach is harvested in the field, cooled with water and taken to the
packinghouse, if fresh, or the processing plant. Fresh spinach is washed with water,
graded to remove damaged leaves, soaked, spun to remove excess water, and bagged
with a concentration of gases to keep it from spoiling too rapidly. All of these steps
would be done at about 40°. The leaves to be frozen are washed, graded, probably
chopped, heated to inactivate enzymes, packaged either before or after freezing, and
kept at temperature at or below 40° prior to shipment. Canning involves washing,
grading, heating to inactivate enzymes, placing in the can, and venting of the air in
the can prior to sealing. Sealed cans are then, placed in a steam retort to cook it for
several minutes at about 250°, cooled down rapidly and stored in a warehouse at
room temperature.
Milling of grains is also destructive to vitamins and minerals. As the outer layers
are removed, most of the dietary fiber and some of the key vitamins and minerals
remain with the outer layers. Whole-grain breads and cereals come from less mill-
ing or adding back some of the outer layers that were removed back to the flour.
Adding nutrients to breads and cereals can make up for lost vitamins, but addition
of dietary fiber is more difficult. Some grain products that are described as whole
grain have only minimal amounts of fiber. A whole-grain slice of bread should have
at least 2 g of fiber and a breakfast cereal at least 8 g per serving. The other day I
was looking for some whole-grain pasta and was dismayed that none with sufficient
fiber were available. Almost half of the selections on the shelves were gluten-free.
Our general attitude seems to be if there are products that are “free” of a certain
ingredient or component, we fear its presence and removal makes the product
healthier. As a country we do not consume enough fiber and avoiding gluten can
lead to diets low in essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber.
Food pundits tend to deal in absolutes and neglect to indicate that most if not all
foods have nutritional tradeoffs. It is easy to describe a negative aspect of a food and
declare it “unhealthy” or a positive aspect to declare it “healthy” while ignoring
6 Processed Foods Have Been Responsible for Outbreaks of Food Poisoning 29

anything else that contradicts their talking points. While united in their opposition
to processed foods, these pundits are much less unified in recommending which
foods and diets are “healthy” and which ones are not. Eliminating all processed
food and adopting an alternate plan is signing up for an experiment based on the
“gut feelings” of someone who might or might not have any training or education in
nutrition. Eliminating these products and adopting no plan may even be worse. In
recent years the media has shone the light on processed foods and their role in food-
poisoning outbreaks.

6 Processed Foods Have Been Responsible for Outbreaks

of Food Poisoning

Food-poisoning outbreaks are reported frequently in the news. For example, in

recent years there have been outbreaks reported for frozen meals (2010), sprouts
(2011), peanut butter (2012), soft-ripened cheese (2013), cucumbers (2014), and
raw tuna in sushi (2015). I selected these outbreaks because each one is associated
with food purchased by consumers in a market and not from a restaurant or served
at a community function. Each of the outbreaks has a link to a story as reported by
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). We are more likely to hear
about an outbreak through news or social media if people die and multiple victims
are affected across several states.
How food-poisoning outbreaks develop is not well understood in popular culture.
Most food poisoning is due to the presence of natural microbes originally on the
food and not due to something added during processing. One of the main purposes
of heating steps in primary processing is to destroy harmful microbes. When a pro-
cessed food becomes unsafe, it is usually because it was under-processed not over-
processed, and the offending microbe was not killed by the process. A contaminated,
processed food is dangerous because it is distributed to a larger number of deaths in
a wider geographic area.
From the six outbreaks listed above, most of us would consider the sprouts and
cucumbers to be the least processed foods. Fenugreek sprouts contaminated with
E. coli infected more than 4000 people in 16 countries including six cases in five
US states. The original European seeds were apparently contaminated. Heating can
be used to kill the microbes on an infected seed, but such a treatment also prevents
such seeds from sprouting. Salmonella caused the cucumber outbreak and was
tracked back to a single farm on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. An estimated 275 victims
in 29 states and DC were identified. The results were not as clear cut as the CDC
would like with respect to this outbreak. The microbe may have been present on
other produce items. It is more difficult to pursue a case with fresh produce than
with processed foods as items like cucumbers rot within about 2 weeks making it
more difficult to track down the contaminated product. Outbreaks involving
fresh items can spread across several states, however, if contaminated foods are
distributed through major supermarket and restaurant chains.
30 2 Why Does Processed Food Have Such a Bad Reputation?

Two products involved in these outbreaks, cheese and sushi, are minimally pro-
cessed. The cheese was made from unpasteurized milk in France, shipped to the
USA in wheels, and cut into wedges prior to sale. Pasteurization kills those microbes
that can make us sick but does not kill all microbes that can spoil the food. Cheeses
made from unpasteurized milk are called artisan cheeses and are very popular in
Europe. If aged for the proper amount of time (generally 90 days), the harmful
microbes in the cheese will die and the cheese should be safe. Either these cheeses
were not aged long enough or there was contamination later in the process. Only
five cases were reported, all of which were purchased from one of two grocery
stores in Minnesota. Listeria was the microbe that was responsible. With the sushi,
it was raw tuna infected with another type of Salmonella that caused 53 illnesses in
eleven states. The ground raw tuna was frozen in Indonesia and shipped to the USA
for use in sushi. Food scientists tend to be suspicious of any process that does not
have a specific step designed to kill dangerous microbes.
Of the six outbreaks mentioned previously, the frozen meals and peanut butter
were clearly processed. The frozen chicken and rice dinners were contaminated with
Salmonella resulting in 44 identified cases across 18 states. There were variations on
the types of dinners, but all of these products contained chicken and rice. The prob-
lem was that the meals had not been fully cooked prior to freezing, but the consumers
assumed that the item had been cooked and thus only reheated the product before
eating it. A different type of Salmonella was responsible for the peanut-butter out-
break. In it, 41 consumers were sickened in 20 states. The roasting process was either
not thorough enough to kill all of the Salmonella present or there was contamination
of the product after roasting and before packaging. It was once thought that there is
not enough water present to create a food-poisoning concern in products like peanut
butter, chocolate, and honey as water is needed to support growth of microbes. After
recent outbreaks in these types of food, research has shown that Salmonella can be
present on the raw peanuts and can survive the roasting process.
The manufacturing steps in the production of peanut butter include removal of
the peanut shell from the rest of the peanut, grading and sizing, dry roasting, cool-
ing, removing the skins, and screening to remove burned or otherwise unacceptable
nuts. Then the peanuts are ground, mixed with other ingredients to form the final
product which is cooled and then packaged. The probable source of contamination
would be the peanut shells. Shelling should occur away from the rest of the manu-
facturing process as removal of the shell can send the microbes into the air and can
contaminate the processed product. We are particularly fearful of threats to our
children, and peanut butter is part of the cultural heritage of American childhood.
Although most of these particular outbreaks were linked to Salmonella, it is not
the predominant microbe causing illness in the country. The main point in this sec-
tion is that all foods (unprocessed, minimally processed or processed) are suscepti-
ble to contamination that can lead to a food-poisoning outbreak. A processed food
is less likely to cause an illness as the process is designed to decrease safety hazards.
Any unsafe food that is distributed across state lines, however, such as the peanut
butter, cucumbers, and sprouts will affect more people than one distributed locally.
Finally, processed food has a reputation for damage to the environment.
7 Most Mass-Manufactured Foods Are Not Organic 31

7 Most Mass-Manufactured Foods Are Not Organic

We are frequently reminded that Earth is the only planet we have and that we must
take care of it. Soils are being depleted, prime farming land is being turned into
parking lots or athletic venues and pollution is contaminating our air and water sup-
plies. In addition, packaging materials are clogging streams and despoiling the
ocean, while forest land is being cleared to grow crops that are not needed. From
industrialized agriculture to food processing to cross-country and global distribu-
tion Big Food is proclaimed as the biggest barrier to a sustainable planet. As if that
isn’t enough of a challenge, the planet is expected to grow from just 7 billion people
in 2011 to over 9 billion by the year 2050. These additional people will be heavier
and demanding even more food. How can the planet survive the pending devasta-
tion? We fear the catastrophic consequences of global collapse and the conse-
quences that will be faced by our children and grandchildren.
One solution advanced is to buy organic food. Advocates tell us that not only is
organic farming more sustainable, but also the food it produces is chemical-free and
healthier for us. Talk about WIN-WIN-WIN. Maybe, but it probably is not that
simple. Yes, organic farming returns nutrients to the soil and reduces runoffs from
synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, but crop yields are reduced meaning that it takes
more land to produce the same amount of food. Use of advanced agricultural tech-
niques that don’t violate organic practices can reduce that yield gap but not elimi-
nate it. As to being chemical free, crops don’t grow without the chemical compounds
H2O and CO2 or the elements N2 (molecular nitrogen), P (phosphorus), K (potas-
sium), and O2 (molecular oxygen). Many other chemicals are also required for
growth. The health benefits of eating organic foods are not nearly as clear as advo-
cates would have us believe.
Processing of milk starts on the farm as the milk is collected and stored. A truck
comes by the farm to collect the stored milk. While loading it on the truck, the driver
carefully collects a sample of milk and puts the sample on ice before going to the
next farm. Once the truck arrives at the processing plant, and a sample is collected
by laboratory personnel who test it for the presence of antibiotics, hormones, and
pesticides. If the amount of any of these substances is higher than what is allowed,
the milk is dumped. Then samples from individual farms are checked, and any farm
that exceeds the level is billed for the lost milk. Uncontaminated raw milk is centri-
fuged to separate out the fat which is then added back to make 1 %, 2 % and whole
milk. Products are pasteurized to kill Campylobacter, E coli, and Salmonella typi-
cally found in raw milk. It is then homogenized to prevent separation of the cream
from the rest of the milk. Many milks are fortified with vitamins A and D before
packaging and shipment to retail stores.
The main differences between organic and non-organic milk are that the dairy
farmers are certified for organic production, the limits for antibiotics, etc., are more
stringent, and the expiration date is longer for organic products. The main reason for
longer periods before expiration is that organic milks are less likely to be locally
produced and are thus subject to a more stringent pasteurization treatment to allow
32 2 Why Does Processed Food Have Such a Bad Reputation?

a wider range in which to ship and sell their product. Most organic milk for sale in
supermarkets is actually ultra-pasteurized and may not even require refrigeration.
Unrefrigerated milk is not as popular so the items are placed in the refrigerator sec-
tion of the supermarket. The expiration date stamped on these products is much
sooner than necessary to trick the consumer into believing that the milk is perish-
able. Despite claims that raw milk is safe, there have been CDC documented 2384
illnesses, 284 hospitalizations, and 2 deaths attributed to raw milk between the years
1998 and 2011 with young children being the most likely victims.
Organic is only one way to judge whether a product has been produced sustain-
ably. Sustainability “meets the needs of the present without compromising the abil-
ity of future generations to meet their own needs.” Organic farmers use pesticides
and fertilizers that are considered to be natural, but these chemicals such as copper
sulfate, zinc phosphide, and pyrethrin may be as dangerous as their synthetic coun-
terparts. Rather than judging products based on a label such as organic, the Keystone
Policy Center in Colorado is developing strategies to measure true benefits to the
environment. By these means organic farming methods are sometimes best for
the environment and sometimes not as sustainable. The problem is being able to
communicate which products are most earth-friendly to the consumer.
Another major environmental problem is waste—wasted energy, wasted water,
animal and plant waste, packaging waste, and food waste. Innovative farming tech-
niques such as ones illustrated in the movie Food, Inc. use integrated systems to
recycle most of water, energy, and waste materials. Packaging waste is visible and
comes under scrutiny, but food waste is not nearly as visible and even more damaging
to the environment. Every time food is wasted, the energy, water, and other inputs
at each stage of development, transportation, processing, and handling are also
wasted without any benefit.
A conversation in many Big Food boardrooms is how seriously the company
should take this whole sustainability thing. Some voices claim it to be a passing fad
that should be ignored. Others opt for a marketing solution to tell consumers what
they want to hear to keep them happy. A third view is that sustainability should be
embraced and, when done right, can actually be used to save the company money.
In many large food companies, the third view is taking hold, but if it is not supported
by increased sales or major cost savings, most food companies will revert to either
ignoring or greenwashing the problem. This chapter has responded to the many
charges against processed food. Are these charges justified?

The Bad Reputation of Processed Food Is Not Deserved

Processed food has such a bad reputation because in these two words pundits can
distil down everything that is wrong with the health and wellbeing of the American
food supply. Processed food is a useful term for the critics as it is rarely defined, and
it can mean different things to different people. The term serves as a jumping-off
point for concerns about obesity, freshness, unnatural substances, addiction,
The Bad Reputation of Processed Food Is Not Deserved 33

nutrition, safety, and sustainability. In Pundit World, the stars all seem to align with
goodness if a food is whole and unprocessed and align with badness if a food is
processed. In reality, no food, unprocessed or processed, meets a standard of
supremacy or inferiority in all categories.
Stereotypes tend to obscure our understanding of people and inanimate objects.
Processed foods suffer from such stereotypes. All processed foods are not junk foods,
and all junk foods are not processed. To condemn all processed food as junk food
seems to me as rather harsh. Even though we might not agree on what is a junk
food, such a distinction allows us to consume many foods that would otherwise be
forbidden. Our society seems to be influenced by hedgehogs (Fig. 2.2) who want us
to divide everything we do including the foods we eat into good and bad. Pundits
are skillful at using fear factors in their cause to label certain foods bad while tending
to ignore negative aspects of foods considered good. We live in a world that cannot
be so easily described in terms of good and evil. A more nuanced view of food
paired with rational decisions appears to be a wiser choice. Scientific studies rarely
present evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, but a consensus usually emerges from
the preponderance of the evidence. All too often, however, opinion makers force
complex information into clear-cut recommendations.
What the opposition to processed foods won’t tell us is that there are tradeoffs
with each food we choose to eat or avoid. Natural and organic items may or may not
be local. Real foods can be unsafe; formulated foods may provide added health
benefits. Relying on oversimplified rules like numbers of ingredients in a product,
and an inability to pronounce the name of an ingredient can turn us into mindless
automatons. We can’t avoid chemical compounds in our foods in the field, on the
way to market or in our homes. It makes more sense to learn which chemicals are
healthy (such as protein, vitamins, and minerals), and which compounds can help

Fig. 2.2 Hedgehogs are purveyors of certainty who want us to divide everything we do including
the foods we eat into good and bad. Sketch by Emily McCallion
34 2 Why Does Processed Food Have Such a Bad Reputation?

keep our foods safe and less likely to spoil. We also need to know which molecules,
natural or artificial, are harmful by making us sick or interfering with digestion of
the nutrients we need to maintain good health. Processing steps like canning, dry-
ing, fermenting, and freezing help prevent illness and waste. In a society that craves
certainty, science can’t provide it like a confident author or blogger (the food pun-
dits), but science can help us avoid major mistakes.
The remainder of the book will focus on the substance of what is known about
processed food from a scientific perspective. I will outline the benefits and limita-
tions of processed and whole foods and how each can play a part in a healthy, safe,
and sustainable diet. Also, I will expose tricks that both Big Food and food pundits
use to manipulate us to their point of view. Food is a source of enjoyment, a part of
our cultural heritage, a vital ingredient in maintaining health, and an expression of
personal choice. We need to make those choices based on credible information and
not be beguiled by sophisticated marketing tools of Big Food or ideological appeals
and gut feel by food pundits.
Chapter 3
Why Can’t We Find More Locally Produced
and Fresher Food in Our Supermarkets
and Restaurants?

More than a month ago, I bought a chocolate-chip muffin from one of those would-be
Italian chain coffee bars. In its homespun-looking paper wrapper, the muffin looked as
though it had just come from the baker's oven. It bore no ingredients list – that's perfectly
legal for food sold loose – but having a shrewd idea from my investigations into the
processed food industry of the likely ingredients, I didn't eat it.
Instead, this muffin has become an illuminating experiment. It's still sitting on my desk,
looking exactly as it did at the end of January: no mould, no dryness, no obvious signs of
age.—Joanna Blythman
Given these buying patterns about the organic Twinkie and a “parallel food system” made
with organic ingredients was misguided. Organic-growth advocates argued that making an
organic Twinkie would “Grow the market! Convert more land!” The purists said “No!
Organic food should be kept pure and the Twinkie banned!” What neither side imagined
was that consumers might buy the conventional Twinkies and wash them down with organic
milk, or that such mixed consumption might be preferable.—Samuel Fromartz

Americans are pushing for fresher more local food, but it is hard to know how
fresh is fresh. As covered in the previous chapter, the definition of “natural” is
ambiguous at best. “Fresh,” on the other hand, has at least two distinctly different
definitions related to food which at times contradict each other. Fresh is used to
distinguish fruits and vegetables that have not been processed from those items that
have. Freshness of a fresh fruit or vegetable is also an indication of how long it has
been since it was picked. Freshness of a bakery item dates back to how long ago it
came out of the oven. Consumers are urged by nutritionists and pundits to choose
fresh produce over canned, dried, and frozen. At the same time supermarkets are
criticized for calling their produce fresh even though it may have been a long time
between the time when it was picked and the time it was bought.
Joanna Blythman shows dismay at the longevity of her chocolate-chip muffin
and wonders why there is not a time-frame associated with baked products in a cof-
fee shop or the supermarket indicating just how fresh the food actually is. As a
veteran, investigative journalist who prides herself in keeping up with Big Food’s
tricks, she is mystified at the technology that provides artificial freshness to her muf-
fin. Whom can we blame for the lack of “freshness” in supposedly fresh foods?

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 35

R.L. Shewfelt, In Defense of Processed Food,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45394-1_3
36 3 Why Can’t We Find More Locally Produced and Fresher Food in Our Supermarkets…

• the manufacturer who has designed fresh-looking baked goods?

• the store which knowingly purchases such goods to save money on labor? or
• the customer who buys the item in a store with no strong aroma of fresh baked
goods?
In that same article, Blythman fingers me as the person who coined the term
“fresh-like” to describe foods that are not exactly fresh and not exactly processed.
When I used the term back in 1987, it was in reference to bagged salad items that
were just beginning to be introduced into the American market. I did not think that
I was coining a term nor did I envision it being applied to processed food, but the
term does seem to fit. My motive was to clarify the difference between fruits and
vegetables that were harvested with little processing from those fruits and vegeta-
bles that were “minimally processed” (later referred to as “lightly processed”).
These products were designed to link freshness and convenience to compete with
processed versions. Such products are also slower to rot.
Unfortunately keeping fresh food from rotting is not as simple as pundits would
like the public to believe. Most vegetables lose quality rapidly and eventually rot
with some types like peas and beans rotting faster than those like carrots and celery.
While quality loss cannot be stopped, it may be slowed down by refrigeration or
modifying the gases surrounding the food. Although refrigerated foods are now
generally regarded as fresh, originally refrigerated foods were not considered to be
fresh foods. When done correctly the flavor and nutritional value of the vegetable
can be maintained for a longer period of time. When done incorrectly the shelf life
may still be extended at a cost of off flavors and loss of vitamins. The flavor of alco-
hol may be appreciated in a fine wine, but it is never a desirable odor in bagged
lettuce. Of course, when covered with enough ranch salad dressing, who would
know the difference?
There are two main categories of fruits: climacteric and non-climacteric. The
former ripen off the plant, and the latter do not. Bananas, mangoes, peaches, and
tomatoes are fruits that soften and develop desirable flavors after picking. Bananas
and tomatoes are frequently picked when not completely mature, shipped to a metro
area with lots of customer and gassed with the molecule ethylene to start ripening.
Although most of these fruits will never be as flavorful as those picked from the
plant and eaten shortly thereafter, many artificially ripened fruits can provide both
eating pleasure and health benefits. Tropical fruits picked at peak maturity for ship-
ment to more temperate human habitats require air transport across continents or
oceans to prevent major loss of quality and rotting. Fruits that do not ripen after
harvest like blueberries, cherries, grapes, and oranges typically lose quality more
slowly if refrigerated quickly. These fruits can withstand longer shipping times by
train or by truck if refrigerated. In addition, some fruits and vegetables such as
bananas, beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes are susceptible to refrigeration tempera-
tures and need to be held at slightly higher temperatures.
In scientific articles published in the 1990s I argued that handlers of fresh and fresh-
like produce should be more concerned about achieving expected life rather than
extending shelf life. My position was that the emphasis by many in the fresh-produce
1 Big Food Can’t Handle the Logistics of Fresh, Local Food 37

industry was to develop and use technology to keep fresh produce “fresh” longer to
allow for a longer time on the supermarket shelf. Instead, I recommended moving the
fruits and vegetables to market faster with enough life left after purchase to please the
ultimate consumer. At a meeting of academic types and distributors of fresh produce, I
learned that some managers in the industry were playing the market. These managers
would hold un-ripened tomatoes in their coolers if the price was low and then gassing
the fruit when the price rose. Too often the emphasis was on appearance while sacrific-
ing flavor. In too many warehouses that I toured operators were using compromise
temperatures that were bad for both types of produce (those that could withstand low
temperatures and those that could not). A better practice is to have at least two storage
temperatures—one for items sensitive to low temperatures and one that was as cold as
possible without danger of freezing.
My research in the 1990s took me from fields to packinghouses to warehouses to
supermarkets to learn
• how fresh is fresh,
• how long consumers expect produce to last once it comes home (expected life),
and
• how quality was affected by management practices used by fruit and vegetable
handlers.
I had no concept of how my ideas might apply to other fresh foods such as baked
goods, eggs, fish, meat, milk, and spices. As processes become more complex, par-
ticularly in the drive to produce clean labels, the distinction between fresh, fresh-
like, and unfresh food becomes more difficult to make. Later in the book I will
expand on how foods are evolving to blur these distinctions and suggest that fresh-
ness might not be the most important thing we should be looking for in our food.

1 Big Food Can’t Handle the Logistics of Fresh, Local Food

The logistics of delivery of fresh produce from the farm to market are more compli-
cated than would seem necessary. Few of us spend much time thinking about how
food gets to market, but it takes time and effort by everyone from the picker in the
field to the produce manager in the store. As a part of a team I helped trace the qual-
ity of green beans, peaches, and tomatoes from the field to the supermarket.
On one of the green-bean trips the team was at a small packinghouse in
Donalsonville, Georgia. From the loading dock, I could see a grocery store, certainly
not big enough to call it a supermarket, a few blocks away. I asked the packinghouse
manager how a box of his green beans would get to that store. “Well, you see, first
one of our trucks would travel to Atlanta and drop off some or all of the boxes at the
chain’s warehouse where beans would be stored for a few hours and maybe a day or
two. Then the warehouse would pack up a load of fresh produce to fill orders from
some of their stores down here and deliver them to the back dock of that store.” The
trip to Atlanta is about 220 miles. If done right, the beans would be kept refrigerated
38 3 Why Can’t We Find More Locally Produced and Fresher Food in Our Supermarkets…

from entering the packinghouse until being bought at a store. It would take at least
2–3 days for those beans to get from that packinghouse to the store a few blocks
away. Now there may be side deals made between local packinghouses and local
stores allowing the produce manager to pick up some boxes in season. The logistics
become difficult for the packinghouse, however, if too many stores must be supplied
and for the stores if too many packinghouses must be involved.
With an increase in demand for fresh fruits and vegetables out of season and
greater globalization of the produce trade, transportation systems are becoming
much more sophisticated. While many consumers become involved in community
gardening and visiting farmers markets, most fresh produce is still bought at the
supermarket. Much of that fresh food is not grown locally. Americans have access
to exotic tropical fruits as well as more familiar imports that are out of season.
Thanks to real-time computer projections to match weather conditions in growing
areas around the world with sales information from specific locations, distributors
know what products to send where. Technological advances in every operation from
the field through the chain of events efficiently and effectively move items to the
supermarket closest to us. Ironically, it may be easier to deliver a fresh mango from
Chang-Mei, Thailand, or a fresh tomato from Las Cruces, New Mexico, to our local
supermarket than fresh beans grown within 10 miles of our house.
Some supermarket chains are working on accommodating local produce. Many
years ago, my father-in-law-to-be grew strawberries in a lot across the street from his
house. My mother-in-law-to-be negotiated a deal to supply a local chain store with
fruit in season. The problem was that my future in-laws could not provide a consis-
tent supply of strawberries early enough in the morning to keep the manager happy.
Some days she would arrive late creating a mad dash in the produce department, and
other days she would have none. Supermarkets pride themselves at having a full
lineup of produce displayed at all times. Customers tend to get upset when their
favorite store has run out of fresh cauliflower, green beans, strawberries, or tomatoes,
particularly when in season. I worked with a supermarket chain that wanted to fea-
ture fresh, locally grown peaches in their stores during season. A display area was set
up in each store highlighting the idea. Packers made a round of deliveries each morn-
ing, and produce managers monitored the displays. Unfortunately, the packers found
it difficult to meet the demands of the produce managers, and the produce depart-
ments frequently had display areas with only a few bedraggled peaches.
Meat is an entirely different story. Many supermarkets have gone away from hav-
ing on-site butchers. Others may have a real butcher or an employee dressed in a
butcher coat present for show even if many of their packages of meat were actually
cut and packaged at a central location and delivered to the store. It is generally less
expensive to ship bulk beef and pork from large slaughter facilities in the Midwest to
large packing facilities near major population centers on the east and west coasts. At
these packing facilities, the partial carcasses are broken down into individual cuts of
meat, sorted, packaged, and wrapped in the familiar white trays, and sometimes even
labeled with the price and chain logo. These “case-ready” meats are then boxed and
stored for delivery to the chain warehouses. At the warehouse boxes are further bro-
ken down for individual stores for display in refrigerated cases.
1 Big Food Can’t Handle the Logistics of Fresh, Local Food 39

Thus, many of us flock to local produce stands or farmers markets. Not everything
there is fresh and local. When surveying the quality of peaches available in local
supermarkets, I would use a produce stand just outside the experiment station gate as
a negative control. This stand always had the poorest quality, least fresh peaches. The
owner was apparently going up to the Atlanta State Farmers Market in Forest Park to
get his fresh produce. Most of the shipments of fresh produce not going directly to
chain warehouses in the Atlanta area are delivered daily to this terminal market. At
this vast market there are numerous companies operating on top of a hill who supply
restaurants and grocery stores not affiliated with major chains in the metropolitan
area and beyond with fresh produce. Down the hill are stalls for direct sale of fresh
fruits and vegetables to consumers. Among the many fine companies who operate
out of the market, there are some distributors who purchase truckloads of one or
more fruits or vegetables that were rejected by major chains or other warehouses.
Some of these items either find their way to individual stalls elsewhere on the market
grounds or to produce dealers looking for a low price and a quick sale.
I-75 in Georgia is lined with fresh peach stands. Unsuspecting tourists find baskets
of beautiful peaches at high prices. Locals understand that the fruits displayed were
picked partially green to provide a longer shelf life at the expense of quality. Customers
who identify themselves as locals are offered peaches from underneath the counter that
don’t look as good but were harvested too late to be shipped up north. The price is more
reasonable as well. This fruit has the full flavor of a sweet Georgia peach, but peak
flavor doesn’t last long. Georgians are prepared to eat each ripe peach within a day or
two as a ripe one will quickly turn to mush. Peaches that are not fully ripe should be
held at room temperature. Once a peach starts smelling like a peach and gives slightly
to a soft squeeze it can be refrigerated, but it should be enjoyed in less than 24 hours.
All that is local is not necessarily handled well. Produce offered for sale that is
grown and sold locally may not be that fresh as can be detected by an experienced
eye. For example, a fresh strawberry is glossy red that fades as it ages. Vegetables
harvested on a small farm may or may not be refrigerated soon after harvest. An
item that is held at 60° will rot about twice as fast as one held at 40°, at 80° it rots 4
times as fast as at 40°, and at 100° 8 times as fast. Also, just because a load of veg-
etables is put in a room cooler doesn’t mean it will cool down quickly.
Fresh fruits and vegetables are alive (technically physiologically active) and gen-
erate their own heat even after being placed in a cooler. Packinghouses use cold
water to cool peaches and ice to cool greens. For fruits and vegetables that are sensi-
tive to water or ice like strawberries, packinghouses use huge fans to circulate the
air through the mass of fruit to quickly lower the temperature. If an open pickup
truck is used to collect fresh produce from several farms in the hot sun, the
temperature is sure to rise, and boxes will jump at every major bump or pothole in
the road. The farmer in the video Still Mine learned this lesson the hard way when
his load of freshly picked strawberries was turned away. An important point is that
quality of a fruit or vegetable is not just due to how long it has been since it was
harvested, but also how well it was handled along the way. The use of fossil fuels
for single peach in load in the back of a small pickup load may be greater than one
in a transcontinental shipment of a full load. How can we tell which peach, local or
transcontinental, is freshest, and which one will rot first?
40 3 Why Can’t We Find More Locally Produced and Fresher Food in Our Supermarkets…

2 Fresh Foods Rot More Quickly Than Processed Foods

After spending the first 14 years of my academic life at an experiment station away
from the main campus, I moved to the main campus to begin my teaching career. As I
unpacked way too many books and copied articles into way too small an office, a
young woman knocked on my door asking me if she could be my graduate student. She
had spent some time on a mission trip to Bangladesh and was distressed that so much
of their fresh fruits and vegetables rotted before ever reaching the market. She wanted
to do a graduate project on canning fresh produce to reduce the massive amounts of
waste. Fortunately, my department had a miniature steam retort used for canning that
would be perfect for her research. In addition, the author of the textbook used around
the world to teach thermal processing (the category that includes canning) was on the
departmental faculty. Unfortunately, there was no money available to support her
research and no one, including me, to direct research in such a simple but fundamental
project. After some discussion, she walked away, and I never saw her again.
Many food pundits have become as obsessed with eating only food that will
quickly rot as food scientists are obsessed with extending shelf life. The biggest
challenge facing food sustainability may be the amount of food that is wasted
around the world. In many developing nations the problem is that too much food
rots before it gets to market, and this problem can be solved by improving the tech-
nology of handling foods between the field and market. In more “technologically
advanced” countries, food waste is encountered in the marketplace and the home as
the food loses its freshness and appeal. Some of this waste is recovered by sending
it to food pantries, but most of it ends up as garbage. Unfortunately, all the water,
other chemicals (fertilizers and pesticides—organic or not) and fossil fuels used to
grow, distribute, and market that specific rotten piece of food have been wasted.
Furthermore, as garbage from formerly living matter rots, it contributes to carbon-
dioxide buildup in the atmosphere.
Budweiser introduced the concept of the “born on” date for its beer. Could this idea
be a solution for fresh foods? It would be relatively simple to affix a born-on, picked-
on, baked-on, caught-on, or slaughtered-on (maybe that one needs a little work) date.
A similar sticker to the one on fresh apples that identifies the variety could be affixed
to most fresh produce, baked goods, fish, or meats. Then we would have a better idea
of how fresh a food really was, though it still would not tell us if the item had been
abused during handling or held at an inappropriate temperature. The greater problem
with born-on or similar dates is that many consumers look for the most recent date
leading to the freshest items selling first and the less fresh items more likely to rot to the
point of becoming unsalable. Concerns about expiration dates causing food waste
could likely be even greater with picked-on, etc., dates. At least one bartender bemoaned
the situation on the internet where customers rejected his Buds based on the born-on
date. Apparently Budweiser has abandoned the concept because of wasted beer.
In the early 1990s I had the opportunity to travel to England. I was escorted
around the country by the colleague who had built the mobile lab at the University
of Georgia. He was on a study leave and wanted me to see how the UK was handling
3 Fresh Food Is More Expensive Than Processed Food 41

fresh foods. I was impressed with the sophistication of their storage facilities and
how the major chains were able to speed up handling of foods produced either
locally or in distant lands. Getting food to the market in the freshest state while
stored and transported under the best of conditions was a higher priority in Great
Britain than in the USA. After arriving home, I saw an article in a trade magazine
that indicated one British chain had shortened the expiration date of a packaged
salad from 21 days after it had been packed to about 10 days. The reason for short-
ening the time was not because the salad was rotting that quickly. Consumers would
not buy the product disbelieving that a salad could stay fresh that long. UK consum-
ers resumed buying the product with the artificially shortened shelf life. That brings
us to why fresh fruits and vegetables cost so much.

3 Fresh Food Is More Expensive Than Processed Food

We hear about the middlemen between the farmer and the supermarket who add to
the cost of food. Middlemen include everyone in the chain from pickers to packers
to fork-lift drivers to dispatchers to loaders to truck drivers to the unpackers and
display makers who are responsible for the relatively low prices we pay for food.
Most of these workers are paid low wages for critical functions that keep the bounti-
ful supply of food we expect every time we go to the store. It is easy to blame the
farmers and the middlemen, but large supermarket companies hold the power on
pricing of fresh foods as seen in the video Food Chains. Corporate headquarters of
major supermarket chains squeeze producers to reduce costs to be able to discount
food sold in the stores.
There are added costs to fresh foods, however, that nonperishable processed
products do not have to consider. Fresh foods have a short shelf life. Their value
declines as appearance declines. As mentioned earlier, fresh foods are refrigerated
as soon as possible to slow rotting, but refrigeration requires energy which increases
costs. When possible, fresh foods are refrigerated in the field, packed at low tem-
peratures, transported in refrigerated trucks, stored in refrigerated warehouses, and
displayed in refrigerated cases. Although produce items have no expiration dates,
once a fresh fruit or vegetable starts to wilt, discolor, or show other signs of age, it
will soon be marked down, donated to a food bank, or thrown in the garbage. Many
processed foods can be stored, transported, and displayed at room temperature and
are not as likely to reach their expiration date before selling.
In the video Food Stamped a young, successful couple decides to see if they can
live on food stamps for a week. We see the couple go to the supermarket with $50.00
($1.19 for each meal for two people for seven days) to get their week of food. They
buy beans, eggs, and similar foods for their protein. We see how the partners meticu-
lously plan and prepare their meals. Field trips to a community food bank and on a
shopping spree by an overweight recipient of food stamps on his once-a-month trip
to a large food warehouse are featured. The food bank emphasizes how about half
of the food distributed is fresh minimizing the amount of processed food given out.
42 3 Why Can’t We Find More Locally Produced and Fresher Food in Our Supermarkets…

The couple is obviously not pleased with the healthiness of the processed selections
made by their overweight, unemployed, pre-school teacher. At the end of the week
the couple is satisfied with their ability to successfully buy enough healthy food on
their food-stamp allotment without experiencing serious hunger issues. We learn
that it took much more time to prepare meals on a food-stamp diet than normally,
that the diet did not allow for snacks at any time, and that it was sometimes hard to
concentrate on normal weekly activities.
At the end of Food Stamped the couple proudly takes their itemized record to a
registered dietitian for a nutritional analysis of the diet. Unexpectedly, they learn that
their diet is not sufficient to meet their nutritional needs for some nutrients and particu-
larly for calories. The dietitian indicates that a week on such a diet would do little or no
harm, but extended periods on such a diet could cause weight loss and eventually lead
to poor health. Here the couple concludes that the money provided by food stamps
alone is not sufficient to provide a healthy diet. From their experience, it becomes
apparent that living on food stamps requires extra effort to plan and prepare meals and
that too few calories in a daily diet lead to fatigue and lack of concentration.
The beginning of the video introduces a simplistic idea of how food stamps are not
serving the needs of the poor and how the system could be fixed. As the story unfolds,
however, the couple learns that problems with food stamps and hunger are much more
complex than indicated in the opening scenes. At the end of the movie, however,
instead of learning from their experience to provide a more nuanced solution to the
problem of food stamps, the filmmakers go back overly simplistic view that introduced
the film. The couples places the blame directly on political will for not providing more
money for the food-stamp program and “a big industry in this country that has a (sic)
entrenched interest in the status quo.” At that point the video abruptly ends.
As a former professor, I was disappointed that the video did not use this teachable
moment to provide useful information. I suspect that as poor as the diet of the over-
weight shopper was, it was probably healthier and gave him a better chance of get-
ting and keeping a job than someone who followed the couple’s diet. I also suspect
that a single, working mother with more than one child would benefit from reason-
ably healthy, convenient, processed-food products rather than the time-consuming,
calorie-deficient diet the couple designed, prepared, and ate. The video-makers could
have spent more time with the dietitian to discuss ways that people on food stamps
can improve their diet as well as to ways the overweight shopper could have improved
his selections to better meet his dietary needs.
During my last two summers as a faculty member I taught a graduate class on
food issues that are facing society. The class watched a contemporary video on a
specific issue each week and studied relevant articles from the scientific literature.
The students and I were particularly interested in how the popular view of a specific
issue related to what had been studied scientifically. When studying Fair-Trade
Coffee, two of the eight students were particularly concerned about worker welfare.
Both students had bought coffee with the Fair-Trade label, but neither was particu-
larly impressed with the quality. One of students continued to buy and consume the
substandard coffee; the other gave up after being dissatisfied with brands he had tried.
Growers participating in such programs apparently received only an additional
4 Many Local Growers Would Rather Sell Directly to the Consumer Than Deal… 43

8–28 cents a pound for their coffee. The $116 to $405 a household receives per year
hardly seems to be enough money to provide a fair wage to coffee workers. I under-
stand that some independent coffee shop/roasting plants are able to contract directly
with growers or grower cooperatives that both reduce the cost of a cup of coffee and
increase the return to the growers and workers.
Organic products tend to be more expensive because it costs more to farm organi-
cally than nonorganically. A well-managed organic operation can more than make up
for increased costs by higher prices consumers are willing to pay for organic foods.
Organic farming can be more labor intense, and there are extra steps that must be
taken to maintain an organic operation. Part of the organic philosophy involves paying
attention to human and animal welfare, both of which can add to their expenses. In
addition, there is greater expense in fulfilling all the requirements to gain organic
certification. Some farmers essentially follow all or most of the rules associated with
organic growing but sell directly to consumers at open markets using terms like
“chemical-free” rather than organic because their farms are not certified organic by
USDA. Large growers, organic or not, can produce food at lower costs than interme-
diate and smaller growers by using the same equipment over a wider area and buying
supplies in bulk at discount prices. Small growers may be able to sell their crops at
higher prices to niche markets, but it is those growers who are intermediate in size that
are caught without either the benefits of large-scale farms or small-scale markets.
When it comes to organic products one can consider whether to support Big
Organic or Small Organic. Big Organic products come from large farms that are part
of national distribution systems that transport and sell branded products across the
continent to major supermarket chains. In many ways after leaving the farm, Big
Organic foods are more similar to nonorganic items than those foods available from
Small Organic. Small Organic items come from small farms that sell their products
locally. These farms are generally family run businesses that don’t run ads on televi-
sion. The farmers usually either sell direct to consumers at the farm, local farmers
markets, or local cooperatives that market their wares to local restaurants or alterna-
tive grocery stores. Small Organic adheres strictly to the organic philosophy even if
not large enough to get organic certification and is favored by heavy users of organic
products. Purists tend to cringe at Big Organic labels, but others point out that if the
environment on American farmland is to change both Big and Small Organic will
need to be parts of the mix. The casual consumer, as Samuel Fromartz points out,
considers organic as a choice and not as a philosophy.

4 Many Local Growers Would Rather Sell Directly

to the Consumer Than Deal with Supermarkets
and Restaurants.

The idea of the head chef of a restaurant going out shopping in local markets each
morning for fresh foods to be served at the evening meal is not nearly as common
as portrayed on food shows on television. Such an idyllic arrangement may be true
44 3 Why Can’t We Find More Locally Produced and Fresher Food in Our Supermarkets…

for upscale restaurants with limited seating and high prices. For most restaurants
that serve large numbers of diners from 11 AM to 9 PM, such a scenario is logisti-
cally impractical. One way to find out who is supplying a particular restaurant is to
observe the delivery trucks that arrive from 5 to 11 in the morning or the boxes that
accumulate at the back dock mid-to-late morning. Such deliveries greatly speed up
service and increase the numbers of clients that can be served. Just how fresh are the
fish, meats, fruits, vegetables, and miscellaneous ingredients being served? It is
more likely that the evening specials are fresh and local than the selections on the
printed menu. Another option is to thoroughly quiz the wait staff to determine the
freshness of the food and the naturalness of the ingredients used if such a practice
does not destroy the ambience of a special meal out.
From the previous stories about beans, peaches, and strawberries I indicated that
the daily schedules of growers do not usually mesh with those schedules of produce
departments. Also, small farmers, organic or not, are not generally welcome to sell to
supermarkets because of “they don’t produce enough volume at a cheap enough
price to make purchases worthwhile for a large chain.” For a small grower it is easier
to sell directly to consumers at a local farmers market, to a cooperative that gets a cut
of the profits, to a natural foods store or by starting a subscription service for loyal
customers. For shoppers at these markets it is not always clear as to who the real
growers are and who is just selling whatever “fresh” foods available on a wholesale
market. Also, freshness is linked to how often the crop is picked, how long it is kept
after harvest, and how it was stored between harvest and sale. If the local grower
only sells product at one market each week, the fresh items may either not have been
picked at their peak and may have been sitting around for as much as 6 days.
The availability of fresh-like bagged salads, baby carrots, and related products
allowed chain restaurants to introduce salad bars to their customers. Labor is the
biggest expense at most restaurants, and owners are squeezed between business
costs and the prices charged for a meal. Bagged vegetables allowed places that
could not afford to have their staff to cut up fresh vegetables to buy and stock items
that just needed someone to open a bag and pour out the vegetables into the appro-
priate container on the salad bar. Just as many supermarkets are cutting out their
butchers, small coffee shops can buy fresh-like baked muffins and similar products
while letting the baker go.
It will be interesting to see how large mandatory increases in the minimum wage
of cities and states combined with the federal changes in overtime rules will affect
the freshness of foods available in restaurants. Advocates promote these changes to
help workers have better shot at working for a living wage, while businesses are
concerned about laying off some of their employees to survive or could even go
under. Much of the emphasis has been on fast-food workers, but wages in the res-
taurant industry tend to be low across the board. One way for owners to keep afloat
will be to minimize wait staff through automation of ordering and payment. Store
managers could also shift fresh purchases to fresh-like and to assemble meals from
components heated in plastic bags in a microwave oven.
Fresh and local foods are not only more difficult for many supermarkets and
restaurants to buy and handle. Serving fresh and local foods is also frequently more
expensive than relying on processed foods.
5 It Is Less Expensive to Handle Processed Foods Than Local, Fresh Foods 45

5 It Is Less Expensive to Handle Processed Foods

Than Local, Fresh Foods

Fresh foods command a higher price than processed foods, but unacceptable fresh
food is worthless and can be bad for business. Fresh foods rot and rapidly lose
value. In any business employees that handle fresh food are responsible for making
sure that as little fresh food is wasted as possible. Most customers judge quality on
the basis of appearance as defects in appearance usually appear first. Vegetables on
display in a supermarket or salad bar will be picked over by customers who want
the freshest items.
There are not many good options for managers who see the quality of fresh foods
deteriorate. Cooks and employees in the back rooms of the supermarket may be
tempted to use items that don’t look good with no noticeable off flavors in dishes that
have sauces or condiments as cover or in cut-up fruit bowls if necessary. Supermarkets
can mark down fresh produce for quick sale. As a food reaches the end of its shelf
life, fresh foods can be sent to the nearest food bank, soup kitchen, or dumpster. To
soften this problem buyers may favor foods that have superior appearance at a sacri-
fice in flavor such as fruits picked prior to or succulent vegetables picked after peak
maturity. My research taught me that the best quality as delivered to the consumer is
achieved by picking close to peak quality, shortening the time between the farm and
final sale, and keeping produce under the best conditions to slow quality loss.
Otherwise, produce items will not last very long after purchase.
Management must reduce “shrink” in any fresh-food operation. Within the trade
shrink is roughly the difference between actual sales value in dollars and cents of a
food and the expected sales value. Shrink most often occurs when water evaporates
from the produce in items sold by the pound or in removal of picked-over fruits or
vegetables to either be tossed or donated. It is to the manager’s benefit that all fresh
fruits and vegetables remain fresh and appealing while in the store. Typically shrink
in grocery stores runs from 6 to 10 % of projected sales. Anything less than 6 % gen-
erally guarantees a profit while anything above 10 % probably costs managers their
jobs and, if continued over a long period of the store’s survival could be at stake.
Handling fresh foods is much more challenging than handling packaged goods.
Fresh foods must be handled with care from farm to market and beyond. Packaged
goods, particularly those products that do not require refrigeration, can generally
withstand more abuse than a fresh item. A perishable product that requires refrig-
eration will rot much faster if inadvertently left out at warm temperatures at a farm
or packinghouse, on a loading dock, at a warehouse or anywhere else along the
journey. Fresh fruits and vegetables are usually available in bulk displays and may
be fondled by the buyer to the point of causing visible dents, breaks, and bruises.
Fresh fruits at their peak ripeness tend to more susceptible to abuse than those
fruits with less flavor but better appearance. Mangled, fresh bread loaves become
unsaleable when squeezed by an overly enthusiastic consumer. In general the
supermarket shopper is searching for the best-looking choice as freshness is
directly linked to appearance.
46 3 Why Can’t We Find More Locally Produced and Fresher Food in Our Supermarkets…

Inventory management and timely ordering are also keys to higher profits. A
handler of fresh foods must have an accurate count of what items are available and
a good guess of what will be needed for sale until the next delivery. Accumulation
of too much of any item will lead to crowded storerooms and eventually discarded
food. Running out of a key fruit or vegetable before the next delivery results in bar-
ren displays and angry customers. Therefore, it is often a delicate balance between
too much or too little of any given item. Sometimes, store managers will be informed
by the powers that be that the chain warehouse is either overstocked or under-
stocked, and are left to deal with the consequences. Techniques such as FIFO (First
In, First Out) can be effective if all the deliveries are of equal quality, but it can lead
to progressively less freshness if the product is overstocked. LIFO (Last In, First
Out) is more appropriate when a shipment comes in that is more perishable than
what is already in the storeroom or when the produce manager wants the freshest
foods available to the consumers. With LIFO, eventually the older items will need
to either be displayed in an unfresh condition or tossed.
Access to fresh fruits and vegetables is particularly limited in food deserts. As
described in the first chapter, consumers in food deserts do not have access to a
supermarket within at least a mile of their home. Fresh produce can make the differ-
ence between profitability and bankruptcy for a grocery store in a food desert.
Corner stores in these neighborhoods generally stock very few fresh fruits and veg-
etables. Federal mandates will now ensure that such stores will offer fresh items to
be eligible to accept food stamps. Time will tell whether such mandates will improve
the diets of people who live in food deserts or merely increase food waste and jeop-
ardize local businesses.

6 Many Locally Available Foods Are Not That Local

As mentioned earlier, local is another nebulous term. A pick-your-own location

guarantees freshness, but we can only be assured of high quality fruit like blueber-
ries if we know how to pick the berries at their peak. The berries can look ripe when
not ready for picking. These berries do not ripen after picking. When too many ber-
ries are picked, and we fail to eat enough before the freshly selected fruit starts to
rot, our berries are no longer fresh nor desirable. With respect to local farmers mar-
kets, is it really a local farmer that is selling those tomatoes and squash? Local may
be from within the county, across county lines, within the state or just across the
state line. In addition, a vegetable such as green peas harvested yesterday and stored
without refrigeration may not be as “fresh” as those vegetables shipped across
country kept in the cold from harvest to market.
Studying empty boxes at farmers markets can give us a clue as to how close the
food we buy was grown and packed. Most boxes of produce from a packinghouse
have the name and location of that facility declared on the box. This type of investi-
gation is not fail safe since smaller farms may reuse boxes discarded from other
operations. My next-door neighbor for many years grew the best fresh tomatoes my
wife and I could ever hope to eat. He was very generous with the fruits of his labor.
6 Many Locally Available Foods Are Not That Local 47

He avoided the local farmers market held downtown every Friday in season because
he was convinced that most of the fresh vegetables were coming out of Florida and
not up to his standards for freshness. He had a close-knit group of gardener friends
who swapped out their bounty with each other to share the best fresh vegetables in
the county. Some of these deals were discussed over breakfast before the men’s
Bible study each Wednesday morning at the local Dairy Queen. Other shoppers at
farmers markets, however, are proud of their shopping habits even if some items
bought are substandard foods for sale at elevated prices.
Then there are those fresh-made cakes and pies available at our favorite restau-
rant for about $5.00 a slice. Were these treats made by the restaurant baker that
morning for service that evening? For those businesses who don’t want to employ
their own baker(s) there are food companies who specialize in mass production of
fancy desserts. After the dessert is baked and ready, a large machine slices the pie or
cake into pieces of equal size and insert partitions between each slice before quick
freezing. These specialty desserts are then packed and shipped across country to
make their way into chain restaurants as well as many that are not a part of a chain.
About 10–12 hours before the evening rush, the desserts are placed at refrigerated
temperatures to thaw and allow the staff to lift the perfect slice from its tray to a
plate for the patron. Would it be any better or fresher if made in the kitchen? Maybe
and maybe not. A fresh food is generally assumed to be better than one that has been
frozen and thawed, but I know that is not necessarily the case. Many of my friends
rave about foods purchased at a chain restaurant thought to be fresh but have really
been frozen and thawed.
The pattern of delivery of fresh foods changed dramatically during the Great
Depression. Subsistence farmers who could no longer feed their families became
independent truckers allowing agribusiness to bypass unionized trucking. Fresh
foods were shipped long distances at low rates leading to low prices for food and
low wages for workers in the delivery chain from farm to market. Trucks proved to
be more flexible than trains at delivering fresh meats, milk, and produce to ware-
houses and supermarkets closer to where people lived and worked. Large supermar-
ket chains were able to create a fierce competition between transporters, distributors,
packers, and farmers to dictate the terms for all the companies down the line. Only
large corporations could challenge their dominance in pricing and distribution. The
free market does not always work well, particularly with perishable products. For at
least a century, government has played the role of referee in matters of fresh food,
primarily to prevent oversupply which cuts farm income and undersupply which
increases prices for consumers. Such actions affect all players in a chain but favor
those groups who have the most political clout and flexibility to change.
We are still left with the need to know just how fresh is the fresh food in our
local store to keep Joanna Blythman happy. Expiration dates are not really appro-
priate as the packer has little control over how a vegetable like fresh corn on the
cob will be handled and stored after it leaves the packinghouse. Another potential
solution to the freshness-in-the-supermarket problem is the use of time-tempera-
ture indicators. Several years ago, food engineers developed these indicators that
helped provide some idea of freshness. These devices can be a part of the label that
changes colors say from green when fresh to yellow when not so fresh and red
48 3 Why Can’t We Find More Locally Produced and Fresher Food in Our Supermarkets…

when expired. The technology worked, but it probably is not practical for
unpackaged foods. Supermarkets and processors did not like the idea even for
packaged foods as it was another way to increase shrink and essentially rejected it
in favor of expiration dates. Freshness is not the only problem with fresh foods as
there is also the question of convenience.

7 Fresh Foods Do Not Fit As Easily into a Modern Lifestyle

Perhaps the biggest advantage for processed over fresh food is that Americans crave
convenience. Whole foods, particularly those items that have not been processed
and packaged in any way, require preparation. Frozen foods were among the first
convenience foods, but it took technological advances in refrigeration both in the
food chain and the home for frozen products to penetrate the American market. We
live in a society that is on the go. We want food and we want it now. In most loca-
tions in America we are not very far from a vending machine, fast-food restaurant,
convenience store, or other venues selling snack foods. Unfortunately, it is so tempt-
ing to trade off healthiness for convenience.
Prior to the women’s movement, a housewife was expected to prepare three
meals a day for an appreciative family. My mother was rarely up early enough to fix
breakfast. I generally fixed my own breakfast consisting of breakfast cereal such as
Sugar Pops or Sugar Smacks. When I was in high school, dad had a plate of bacon
and eggs ready for me when I returned from my early morning newspaper route.
When living in Canada, my family all ate the noon meal at home (school was out
from noon-1:30). The noon meal was always the biggest one of the day—a meat,
potatoes, a vegetable, and a dessert. She made great pies, but sometimes dessert was
as simple as fruit cocktail from a can or Jell-O. The evening meal was lighter and
frequently consisted of sandwiches but always had a dessert. My sister and I enjoyed
fresh baked cookies or raw cookie dough for a snack when the two of us got home
from school. Mother must have spent at least 3–4 hours a day in meal preps. I’m
sure that my grandmothers spent even more time preparing meals.
If there is one thing more important than what goes into children’s mouths, it is
what goes into their minds. With wildly divergent evening schedules of family
members, too often meal preparation must compete with quality time between par-
ent and child. Despite the liberation of women in American society, meal prepara-
tion time generally still falls on the woman in traditional marriages. Single parent
homes are more likely to be headed by a woman who either is responsible for pre-
paring or serving meals or delegates it to the oldest child, frequently the oldest girl.
Hot meals that are easy to prepare or foods that require little attention while cooking
in a conventional or microwave oven are favored over ones that take more time and
effort. What the students in my introductory class invariably found when interview-
ing an older person (at least 50 years old) was that the biggest thing the interviewees
missed from their youth were family dinners. The biggest thing older adults would
miss if transported back to the 1950s or 1960s was their microwave oven.
7 Fresh Foods Do Not Fit As Easily into a Modern Lifestyle 49

Almost every book that recommends avoiding processed food suggests that we
need to take up cooking starting with basic ingredients. Most authors sell the idea that
cooking allows us to be creative and to prepare healthier meals. Other advocates of
preparing our own meals suggest ways to minimize preparation times and prepare
healthy foods ahead of time to more conveniently fit into our busy schedules. When we
are rested and have some time available, cooking can be a rewarding activity. Even the
most dedicated health-food advocate, however, can succumb to the convenience of
processed food after 12-hours of back-breaking work with inadequate facilities at
home to prepare a meal from scratch. Something out of a can, hot from a quick-service
gas station on the way home from work, or a sandwich from the nearest fast-food place
is often more attractive than taking at least half an hour to prepare something fresh.
Several years ago my wife, who worked full time, announced at a Sunday evening
meal that she had been preparing three meals a day for over 30 years, and she was
giving up cooking. Now that was an exaggeration as she rarely fixed me breakfast,
even on weekends. I either had a frozen entrée or ate fast food for lunch during the
work week, but she did have a point that I had not done my share when it came to
preparing meals. I took on the task and have been the main preparer of meals in the
family ever since. When I was still working I spent 3–4 hours almost every Sunday
afternoon preparing meals for the rest of the week. My wife and I typically had a
fresh-cooked meal Sunday evening, ate grain salads (a cooked whole grain with a
meat or other protein source, and vegetables) at our desks for lunch during the week,
and had leftovers for our evening meals together. Now that I am retired, I prepare
about three meals a week from mostly fresh ingredients for an evening meal.
Acri Gola was a movement started by a dedicated member of the Italian
Communist Party. The Party would serve food at rallies associated with local festi-
vals. Unfortunately, the food was less than satisfactory. Carlo Petrini believed that
attention to the quality of the food was as important as adherence to Communist
ideology. He brought about a revolution in the way meals were prepared, served,
and savored. Sparked by a protest of a McDonald’s opening in the Piazza di Spagna
in Rome, Acri Gola morphed into the Slow Food Movement which embraced a
wider, more sophisticated philosophy than protesting a type of restaurant. Slow
Food disdains “corporate cuisine” and is about cultivating local cuisines from native
crops and sustainable production. The movement urges us to take all the time we
need to properly prepare foods and spend adequate time to enjoy each bite in a
social atmosphere. While some of the concepts of the movement are popular here,
few Americans seem to be patient enough to join the movement.
Despite all of the publicity on the healthiness of fresh fruits and vegetables,
Americans are nowhere near consuming the recommended amounts of fruit-and-
vegetable servings daily. A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) states that only 13 % of Americans consume the recommended
two servings of fruit a day ranging from less than 8 % in Tennessee to a under 18 %
of Californians. Even worse, only 9 % of Americans are eating their three servings
of vegetables daily ranging from a low of under 6 % in Mississippi to a high of 13 %
in California. The problem is far deeper than providing oases in food deserts. We
must do more than preach eating and preparing fresh foods to people who hear the
call, believe the message, and promptly ignore it for more convenient options.
50 3 Why Can’t We Find More Locally Produced and Fresher Food in Our Supermarkets…

Fresh and Local Are Not Always Enough

We can’t find more fresh and local food at supermarkets and restaurants for many
reasons. When possible, these establishments opt for processed or fresh-like foods
because the logistics are more difficult for truly fresh foods. Fresh food is frequently
more expensive, and businesses lose money when fresh foods rot instead of being
sold. There is frequently an uneasy relationship between store managers and grow-
ers of fresh, local food. Store managers are bound to more rigid schedules and
stricter rules than producers can deal with. It is much easier for a manager to order
from a single warehouse than from a large number of small farmers. Likewise, local
producers hate to see their wares disappear behind closed doors to receive a check
later that does not seem adequate for their effort. Many local farmers would rather
deal directly with their customers (as at a farmers market pictured in Fig. 3.1).
One clever technique used by food pundits is to bait and switch—using specific
examples that exaggerate their general point. For example, in Food Stamped as the
shopper leaves checkout a voice over a display of chips and related snacks con-
cludes that there is just too much cheap processed foods available to poor consum-
ers. None of the food shown was bought by the shopper. Likewise, consumers are
urged to buy “fresh”’ fruits and vegetables, but supermarkets are blamed for not
indicating how fresh these items are or how quickly such produce will become
unacceptable. In another example an author notes that harmful microbes leading to
“upset stomach, diarrhea and more serious illnesses” have been found in drinking
water and sodas, but encourages the consumption of raw milk. It is not mentioned
that the raw milk is much more likely to contain these dangerous microbes in much
higher amounts. Another pundit cautions us against the natural sweetener stevia

Fig. 3.1 Fresh, appealing produce at a farmers market. What happens to these items if not
purchased?
Fresh and Local Are Not Always Enough 51

because it has been taken “out of its natural environment, thus altering its natural
form” while recommending flavoring ingredients such as blueberry essence and
pure vanilla extract. Processes that produce essence and extracts also alter the
natural forms of foods and ingredients.
The objectives of the food industry are to (1) extend shelf life; (2) increase vari-
ety of safe, wholesome, and affordable foods in the diet; (3) provide and maintain
necessary nutrients; and (4) make money for the company. Processed food has the
advantage over fresh food in the logistics of getting a wide variety of products to the
consumer in a single location. In addition, processing lowers the likelihood that a
food will lose quality and rot before it is eaten. Packaged products also tend to be
convenient and easy to prepare. As a defender of processed food and the American
food supply, I understand the reasoning behind many of the criticisms aimed at
processed food even though I believe that the logic of many food pundits is fre-
quently flawed. The one criticism that I have the most difficulty understanding,
however, is that processed food does not rot. Fresh fruits and vegetables have a
healthy image, but even in California, a state abundant in fresh produce, less than
20 % of the population is getting their recommended Five-A-Day.
What, then, is so wrong with “fresh-like”? If a food can hold on to its nutrients
and fresh flavor for a longer period of time before it rots, that should be a good
thing. One of the most important things to increase sustainability of the food supply
is to prevent food waste. Premature discarding of fresh foods that don’t seem quite
fresh enough is neither admirable nor desirable. Developing techniques to slow rot-
ting and stock-rotation schemes that minimize the amount of fresh food that ends up
in the garbage bin should be praised and not condemned. Obsession with either
extending shelf life beyond what is reasonable or with eating only the freshest foods
and tossing the rest are not helping us save the earth. Age of a fresh food from
“birth” should not be as critical as its actual quality when bought and subsequently
eaten. The emphasis should be to provide consumers with fresh foods for sale with
enough life so that the food can be eaten before it rots and must be thrown away.
Concerns have been raised about the high price of fresh foods and the low wages
of workers in the fresh-food industry. A solution is not clear-cut, particularly when
the two issues are being addressed separately. Some supermarket chains have
adopted the penny-a-pound increase for tomato pickers as highlighted in Food
Chains. Efforts to boost the minimum wage could be beneficial to many food work-
ers, but raising wages will likely raise the price of food. Government can play a role,
but it has only blunt instruments to control complex situations, and such actions can
lead to unintended consequences which usually end up benefitting large corpora-
tions. Big, Medium, and Small Food are all driven by economics. Pressuring Big
Food tends to lead to greater reliance on technology with increasing industrializa-
tion of agriculture. Smaller businesses, however, tend to be squeezed the hardest in
such circumstances. Bagged salads, case-ready beef, pre-cut tomato slices, fresh-
like muffins, and other “miracles of food technology” might help replace the
minimum-wage worker in the back of the corner store or independent restaurant.
More fresh-like foods could help save such businesses if changes in quality and
prices can still attract enough customers.
Chapter 4
How Widespread Is Food Addiction
in Our Culture?

For obvious reasons the word addiction is a particularly touchy subject among food
manufacturers. They prefer saying a product is crave-able, likable, snack-able, or almost
anything other than saying it’s addictive. For them the term addiction conjures images of
strung-out junkies who hold up 7-Elevens at gunpoint for the money they need for another
fix.—Michael Moss
You can tell people not to eat the French fry. You can give them pamphlets about the risks
of obesity. You can deliver sermons urging them to exercise self-control and not eat the fry.
And in their nonhungry state, most people will vow not to eat it. But when their hungry self
rises, their well-intentioned self fades, and they eat the French fry. Most diets fail because
the conscious forces of reason and will are simply not powerful enough to consistently
subdue unconscious urges.—David Brooks

Addiction is a term that has shock value. As Michael Moss indicates, the word
conjures up visions of tragic celebrity deaths, street crime, crack houses, and aban-
doned children. Although the quote above and the subtitle of his book, How the Food
Giants Hooked Us, are as close as Moss gets to accusing Big Food of addicting us to
junk foods, the book and associated tour brought national attention to the topic. Other
authors have not been as careful in using the term. Some, like Moss, suggest that the
linkage of food addiction to drug addiction is either coincidental or unfortunate, others
indicate that the two forms of addiction are of equal consequence. Use of a term out
of place to induce shock can be a clever tool to force us to rethink an idea or position,
but continued use of the same term as stated fact distorts a conversation.
Clinical addictions can be classified as substance abuse or behavioral. Substance
abuse leads to physical dependence on a chemical to provide relief from physical
symptoms associated with withdrawal from the drug. For addicts, inhalation or
ingestion of the chemical leads to direct interaction with receptors in the brain pro-
viding relief from physical symptoms and overriding any warnings to regulate the
substance. In contrast, behavioral addictions alter brain chemistry in response to an
activity or situation. Psychological dependence is generally a direct response to a
triggering event. In both substance and behavioral addictions, the brain loses
control over the ability to self-regulate.

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 53

R.L. Shewfelt, In Defense of Processed Food,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45394-1_4
54 4 How Widespread Is Food Addiction in Our Culture?

In substance abuse, there are some chemicals such as methamphetamine (meth),

benzoylmethylecgonine (cocaine), and diacetylmorphine (heroin) that are highly
addictive leading to changes in behavior and increases in crime. Prescription medi-
cine to alleviate physical pain such as epoxyhydroxymethoxymethylmorphaninone
(OxyContin) and methylmorphine (codeine) are another source of addictive chemi-
cals. Other compounds such as ethanol (alcohol), nicotine, and tetrahydrocannabi-
nol (THC) can be addictive and personally destructive but not to the extent of the
psychoactive drugs. Not everyone who consumes ethanol, for example, becomes an
alcoholic, and the amount of trimethylpurine dione (caffeine) needed to stay alert
varies widely within the population.
Behavioral addictions have been attributed to danger, foreign oil, gambling, “get-
ting something for nothing,” internet surfing, pornography, sex, shopping, smart
phones, and video gaming. When referring to food addictions, it becomes necessary
to clarify which type of addiction is being discussed. Since fat, monosodium gluta-
mate (MSG), sugar, and salt as well as a host of food additives are chemical in
nature, it is possible that junk foods act on our brains like street drugs. On the other
hand, responding to the bliss point mentioned by Moss may be more closely related
to a behavioral addiction such that junk-food addicts are like people who can’t stop
gambling, playing computer games, or shopping. With respect to food addiction,
these responses may not be mutually exclusive. For example, MSG might act like a
street drug while specific combinations of sugar and fat could reach a bliss point
that exceeds all the pleasures of sex. The remainder of this chapter will explore the
behaviors associated with these questions and how we can deal with them.

1 Big Food Claims That the Use of the Term of Addiction

Trivializes the Drug Problem in the Country

The news hit in October, 2013, that Oreos are as addictive as cocaine. Rats trained
on a maze with Oreos were even more responsive than those rats trained with
cocaine. The brain patterns of rats on Oreos lit up just like those rats on cocaine. Just
like some of us, the rats even went for the white stuff in the center first over the hard
chocolate cookie. Hot on the heels of the publication of Salt Sugar Fat the story lent
support to the growing concern of food addiction. True to form, Big Food scoffed
and stated that such findings obscured the serious problem of drug addiction in
America. It turns out that the news value of this research was based on a press
release about an undergraduate research project that has not yet been published in a
scientific journal. An earlier, less publicized study that was published in a peer-
reviewed journal, however, did show a relationship between the reward associated
with cocaine and Oreos (see Fig. 4.1).
As indicated in the previous chapter, the driving force for food companies and a
key goal of new product development is to make money. Product developers and
chefs know that something that pleases the palate is more likely to sell than some-
1 Big Food Claims That the Use of the Term of Addiction Trivializes… 55

Fig. 4.1 As addictive as

crack cocaine?

thing that does not. Sensory scientists employed by Big Food are becoming more
sophisticated with their techniques in finding which aspects of a food entice the
consumer to buy and eat products made by the company. Chefs tend to be more
concerned about pleasing their own palates with the idea that what they like intel-
ligent diners will also like. The skill of the partnership between product developer
and sensory scientist is at the heart of whether the new product will be a success or
a failure in a very competitive marketplace. Likewise, culinary talent of the head
chef and finding customers with compatible palates is at the heart of whether a fine-
dining restaurant will succeed or fail. Many corporate headquarters of restaurant
chains and manufacturers of packaged foods are now hiring people with a culinary
background to supplement the product development team. An ideal developer is a
person with a background in both food science and the culinary arts.
Drug abuse is a serious issue in America. Drug addiction tears families apart.
Feeding a drug habit requires cash. At the same time the addict may not be able to
perform duties on the job which at best could merely prevent career advancement
and at worst could cost that job. Street drugs are associated with violent crimes,
while white-collar crime to pay for more upscale habits is less visible. There is also
a disparity in treatment options available for those individuals from impoverished
and middle-to-upper class neighborhoods. In 1971 President Nixon declared a war
on drugs that continued to be waged throughout the 1980s and beyond. With the
lack of success in countless battles, society has moved on to engage in the culture
wars, a war on terror and the battle against obesity. It seems that the drug problems
we face as a nation have become something that we just have learned to live with.
We would rather not think about drug addiction and its effect on society, particularly
if we are not directly affected. More recently, however, concerns have surfaced with
respect to opioid addiction, perhaps due to its disproportionate victimization of the
upper middle class.
56 4 How Widespread Is Food Addiction in Our Culture?

Big Food rejects the idea that foods are like addictive drugs suggesting that the
attention to food addiction will draw attention and funding away from issues of
substance abuse. It is clear that Oreos and other tempting junk foods do not cause
the street crime or devastation to personal interrelationships as hard-core drugs, but
obesity continues to be a major health problem in the USA. If highly sugared foods
that have just the right amount of fat to addict millions of Americans, it is certainly
an area that needs to be investigated. Brain scans have been used by sensory scien-
tists to determine liking of particular foods or ingredients, but the scans have found
more useful application by psychologists and neurobiologists investigating addic-
tive behavior.
Such claims and counterclaims leave us asking how real is food addiction, how
widespread is it, and is there anything we can do about it. Is our response to highly
desirable foods similar to that of street dugs, prescription pain-killers, or other types
of chemical stimulation? Or is Big Food right that what we enjoy in our foods is
nothing like what addicts seek out in their drug of choice? First we must look at
what we mean by craving.

2 Flavor Scientists Claim That Addiction Is

an Overstatement for What Is Really Craving or Pleasure

Both sensory scientists who work for Big Food and neurobiologists who study addic-
tion talk about craving, but the two groups use the word differently. Craving in a
sensory lab means an intense desire to consume a specific food; while in an addiction
facility it means a compulsion that must be satisfied. An intense desire for a candy
bar or dish of premium ice cream might represent pursuit of pleasure in the same way
as for mother’s meat loaf or the most expensive item on the menu of the fanciest
restaurant in the city represents. Use of words associated with addiction such as crav-
ing is proof to scientists studying food addiction that food companies realize that
they are addicting the general public. What Big Food has going for it over mother
and a top chef, however, are multimedia advertising campaigns. Quick flashing of
drug paraphernalia to addicts elicits similar patterns in brain scans as quick flashing
of popular junk-food packages affects brain response of obese individuals.
The appeal of a food relates to its presentation, the flavor impact it delivers, and
the tactile sensations it provides during chewing. Presentation involves not only
how a course or an entire meal looks on a plate but also how the package graphics
of a processed food jump out at us. Color, other aspects of appearance and the
aroma of the food can either entice us or underwhelm our sense of anticipation.
Some of us take tiny bites and savor each second as the sensations of sweet, sour,
bitter, salty, and umami interact with our tongue and the gentle aromas waft through
the back of our throats and into our nasal passages. Others of us take bigger bites
anticipating a much less nuanced impact of sweet, salty, and strong aroma to satisfy
our desires. At the same time we react to the way those bites, big or small, tactile
2 Flavor Scientists Claim That Addiction Is an Overstatement… 57

sensations in the mouth such as the creaminess of melted chocolate, the crunchiness
of fresh carrots, the gumminess of peanut butter, or the heat of chili peppers amplify
the impact.
At a wine and cheese party, sophisticated guests swish the liquid around the par-
tially filled goblet to sniff the delicate bouquet before imbibing the nectar of the
gods as it delivers the appropriate sweetness and smoothness. The aromatic sensa-
tions bathe the nasal passage, while the warmth of the liquid as it travels down the
gullet soothes the soul. Once arriving in the stomach, particularly one that is not
filled, the alcohol rushes to the blood stream where it sends signals to the brain
which can accumulate with more refreshment to a growing buzz in the forehead and
more interesting conversations. Meanwhile, the selected cheese provides a sharp
contrast in appearance, aroma, and resistance to chewing as it rapidly changes in
creaminess and flavor before swallowing. Wine and cheese tasters have their own
language to describe these sensations. Sensory scientists tend to have more rigid
classifications of such sensations and a more systematic way of analyzing the
response to wine, cheese, and other foods.
Due to a course conflict in college I was unable to take a required course in Food
Biochemistry as an undergraduate. The professor of the course arranged for me to
write an extended term paper on a relevant topic. I chose to study the development of
flavor in fresh fruits during ripening. It was my first real taste of reading, understand-
ing, and critiquing scientific articles. I never worked harder for course credit, spending
hours on the top floor of the college library lifting down heavy volumes of bound
journals from shelves above my head. I learned that dozens of chemicals contribute to
the aroma of fresh fruits and that many reactions contribute to produce the signature
aroma of a specific fruit. Flavor-impact compounds like benzaldehyde in cherries
single-handedly produce its distinct aroma. Flavor development for oranges is much
more complex. Flavor chemistry became a major interest of mine in future years. My
MS research project would have been on mango flavor, but Uncle Sam’s Navy made
me an offer I could not refuse. During my academic career, a pursuit of melon flavor
took me to Australia for six months. My graduate students pursued projects on flavor
of mangoes, tomatoes, and aromatic rice as well as off-flavors in wine.
Food scientists use the tools of flavor chemistry and sensory science to better
understand what consumers like. Flavor involves both taste and aroma. Sugars taste
sweet; acids, sour; table salt, salty; many compounds, bitter; and MSG or similar
compounds, umami. Each of these tastes are perceptible even when we hold our
nose or are stopped up with a cold. What makes foods unique are the aromatic com-
pounds, those molecules that evaporate from the food. These molecules find their
way into our nose either directly before we put the food or beverage in our mouth
or subversively through the back of our throats during chewing and swallowing.
There are over 250 chemicals that have been identified in the aroma of fresh-
squeezed orange juice, 500 in cocoa and 1000 in fresh-brewed coffee. The flavor-
impact compounds mentioned previously mimic the flavor of a food. Other
chemicals blend to form unique sensations, provide background, or enhance or
mask other contributors. In one experiment one of my students found that the natu-
ral level of methanol in fresh tomatoes, a toxic chemical in antifreeze, had no odor
itself but enhanced the power of key contributors to tomato aroma.
58 4 How Widespread Is Food Addiction in Our Culture?

When we say we are addicted to our Oreos; Chocolate-Chip, Cookie-Dough Ice

Cream; or other tempting food item, what do we mean? Desire for junk foods can
range from enjoying a sugar-sweetened, high-fat snack once a month when out with
friends to a nightly binge in the comfort of our own homes. Most of us live between
these two points on a continuum from guilty pleasure to serious eating problem.
Where, however, on this continuum should we draw the line between acceptable
behavior and addiction? Would the place we draw the line change if the potential
addict was underweight, “normal” weight, overweight, obese, or morbidly obese?
Many of us have trouble enough with temptation when we have the power of choice.
Do we just become more vulnerable as our resistance is broken down when we are
not in our normal, alert frame of mind?

3 Most of Us Give in to Temptation When Hungry, Tired,

and Stressed, Particularly When Bombarded with Enticing
Advertisements

As Americans, we eat for many different reasons at many different times. With a few
notable exceptions, we all eat at least twice a day and usually more often. Frequently
we are rushed and food, while necessary, is not at the top of our priority lists. Other
things get in the way such as getting the kids off to school, catching the 7 AM flight
out to Chicago, preparing for that staff meeting at 9, keeping up with emails, and
finishing our contribution to that big project that’s due tomorrow. Turning down that
donut brought in for the morning break is much easier than ordering a salad at that
business lunch which is easier than avoiding a piece of cake and some finger foods
for the monthly birthday celebration. We can skip Happy Hour with colleagues
before going home and even that is easier than bypassing the cabinet and pulling out
our favorite snack food for respite in front of a screen before heading off to bed. The
longer the day, the greater the temptations, the more tired and hungry we become the
more susceptible we are to craving what we should not be eating.
Food habits are directly linked to an individual’s culture as derived from regional,
ethnic, religious, and many other influences. Food cultures are centered in a few staple
foods and then supplemented by additional items that increase variety. The nutritional
health and wellbeing of a people depends on the wisdom of the food choices it makes
both collectively and individually. The diet of people from the Great Plains consists
primarily of meat and potatoes. Backyard gardens in rural communities supplement
these diets with vegetables and some fruits. Large metropolitan areas in the East and
Midwest feature havens of ethnic communities that brought food cultures from the
Old World. Southern cuisine is largely influenced by the intersection of African and
Scotch-Irish cultures. Fresh fruits and vegetables are supreme in the rich, fertile val-
leys on the West Coast, while Latino culture has taken hold in the Southwest.
Major changes hit America after the Great Depression and World War II as we
became the richest, most powerful country on the globe. Many workers moved to the
suburbs as cars became more plentiful. The car took Americans out of their homes, but
4 People Living in Food Deserts May Succumb to Junk Foods Due to the Lack… 59

advances in electromagnetic technology lured us back. Radio offered a new way to

advertise products to a listening audience. Television was even more effective with
visual images enticing a growing middle class into a more materialist society. The
Interstate highway system encouraged the public to take road trips, and entrepreneurs
established restaurants and motels to accommodate them. Regional food cultures
started to break down, and staple foods lost their power. Ethnic foods became restau-
rant fare and were Americanized to appeal to a wider demographic. The American
culture and its food became homogenized, and regional cuisines became oddities and
specialties out of the mainstream. Women entered the workforce in much greater
numbers, processed foods provided convenience and reduced preparation times, and
advances in transport opened up new markets for farmers and agribusiness.
Food has become more than just sustenance. It no longer represents three meals
prepared in the home daily by a full-time cook, maid and caretaker of children like
my mother. Meals are no longer family gatherings to describe what went on at work
or school or to pass on thoughts, ideas, and values from one generation or another.
We now eat where and when we can minimizing interference with our daily activi-
ties. We overeat when we are happy; we overeat for comfort; we overeat when we
are depressed; we overeat at meetings; we overeat before, during, and after sporting
events, concerts, or other social gatherings. Many times we eat while standing or
driving, activities which favor finger foods. We eat when we are hungry; we eat to
be social; and we eat without thinking. On many occasions we supplement those
eating opportunities with a drink or two or maybe even more.
Ads for junk foods that artfully combine salt, sugar, and fat meet us wherever we
go on billboards, in print, on screen, in businesses, or at events we attend. Vending
machines are scattered throughout every building we visit during a day except per-
sonal homes and maybe houses of worship. Not coincidentally, these ads reinforce
foods that are easy to prepare and serve, appeal directly to our senses, can be eaten
with fingers, and fit nicely into social settings. Most of these foods contain at least
one and frequently two key components: sugar, salt, or fat. We find many ways to
overeat and binge from time to time. All too often we are sucked in by the French
fry dilemma David Brooks describes. Giving into temptation when tired or hungry
may cause us to overeat and gain weight, but such cravings are not necessarily com-
pulsions leading to addiction. There are other people in American society, however,
whose choices in finding readily available, healthy foods are much more limited.

4 People Living in Food Deserts May Succumb to Junk

Foods Due to the Lack of Available Fresh Fruits
and Vegetables

As described earlier, food deserts provide little or no access to healthy food, leaving
the impoverished with little choice but cheap, unhealthy food. Not only do these
locations have no supermarket within a mile, these deserts are populated with fast-
food outlets, liquor stores, and corner stores that sell little or no fresh produce. As if
60 4 How Widespread Is Food Addiction in Our Culture?

that isn’t enough, many inhabitants lack transportation to go to the nearest

supermarket or farmers market. These areas lack recreational facilities and the
streets are not safe enough to do recreational walking. Solutions to health problems
associated with food deserts include requirements for corner stores to stock health-
ier items. Efforts are also being made to bring farmers markets and urban vegetable
gardens to inner cities. Some concern has been raised, however, about excess lead
in the soil of inner-city locations that could pose risks to children who eat vegetables
grown in urban gardens.
A somewhat oversimplified explanation of drug addiction starts with people
seeking out drugs to experiment with them. A need does not develop at first, but the
promise of a high lures potential addicts back. With more use, it takes more of that
drug to achieve a high, so the future addict uses more of the substance. At some
point the purpose switches from getting high to dulling emotional pain which may
be the key point when the drug becomes addictive. Experimenters with drugs who
are able to keep control stop use before becoming addicted. An addict or alcoholic
who comes clean goes through withdrawal but is always susceptible to relapse.
Cues that trigger reuse leading to a relapse can be a specific location, pictures of
drug paraphernalia, aromas, people, or other reminder of past experiences.
Treatments can include the use of medications, psychological therapy, behavioral
modification, or a combination of these techniques. Impoverished neighborhoods
appear to have more drug activity because it is more difficult to fund and hide a drug
habit for the poor than for the wealthy.
By substituting food for drug in the preceding paragraph, we can see both paral-
lels and differences. Food is not illegal, and eating an Oreo may not be quite the
same as smoking a joint. Enjoyment of a chocolate bar may not provide the buzz of
a few beers. It may take more cupcakes to get the same amount of pleasure as the
first time a cupcake was ever tasted, but the escalation of desire is probably not the
same as for cocaine. The pain of depression or excess stress can lead to food binges
of one or more sugary, salty, fat-laden treats to provide solace from the world, but
that may not be the equivalent of relief from physical pain delivered by OxyContin.
Impulsive people are likely to be drawn to both methamphetamine and key-lime pie
but not necessarily with the same intensity. Cues for food addiction could be the
local ice cream shop, junk-food wrappers, ads on the screen, familiar aromas or
friends. Food addictions, which lack the behavioral aberrations associated with
alcohol or heroin abuse, are easier to hide than drug addictions. Food addiction
might not be as visible, as intense, or as traumatic as drug addiction, but it could
lead to poor health outcomes for those consumers who are hooked.
What disturbs me, however, is that if food addiction does exist, what is the cause?
It is easiest to blame the food and thus Big Food and its drive for profits with its
promiscuous display of ads in the media, at sporting events, concerts, or other popu-
lar venues. Big Food may be just as culpable for food addiction as Big Alcohol is
for alcoholism. We can also blame the neighborhoods who supply way too much
junk food and way too few fresh-fruit-and-vegetable alternatives to a captive popu-
lation. This explanation is somewhat oversimplified as drug addicts tend to be
impulsive people, and those persons who exhibit more control are much less likely
5 Well-Publicized Eating Disorders Are Frequently the Result… 61

to become addicts. Advocates of declaring foods addictive blame hyperpalatable

foods, another term for junk foods containing a potent mix of fat, salt, and sugar.
Fresh foods and low-fat milk may be in short supply at corner stores, but there are
many staple foods available at food pantries that are processed foods but not neces-
sarily junk foods. It seems by painting processed foods with such a broad brush,
food pundits are painting themselves into a corner.
Finally, how much blame can we place on the food addict? Such a proposition is
put forth by the medical psychologist, Andrew Hill
Having overconsumed, people search for a reason why and choose between the food and
themselves as agents of this behavior. Blaming the food is a personally and socially accept-
able justification that resonates with reasoning about why people smoke cigarettes and
drink alcohol. It also illustrates a bias in self-attributions, where, for events with negative
outcomes, the cause is more often seen as external or situational (the food) rather than the
result of internal, psychological features.

As discussed in the first chapter, I am hesitant to blame either the food or the
person when it comes to obesity. The same inclination holds when it comes to food
addiction. Rather, as in alcoholism and drug addiction, the brain of a food addict has
a disordered reward system that needs to be identified and treated.

5 Well-Publicized Eating Disorders Are Frequently

the Result of an Attempt to Avoid Tempting Foods

While most of the public’s attention is focused on overeating and obesity, eating
disorders may also be related to food addiction. When we think about eating disor-
ders, we generally think about anorexia and bulimia which appear to be the exact
opposite of food addiction. Although both of these disorders represent mental distur-
bances that involve many aspects, the fear of getting fat is part of the obsession.
Other, less publicized eating disorders include binge eating, binge-and-starve, and
night eating syndrome. Then there are the orthorexics whose interest in healthy eat-
ing narrows down the types of foods permitted to the point of consuming an unhealthy
diet. All eating disorders involve compulsions to overeat, to not eat, to eat and purge,
or to eat so selectively as to deprive oneself of essential nutrients. All of these habits
put health at risk, are very hard to break, and usually require intervention.
When teaching my classes about obesity, it seemed that the only students listening
to me were the anorexics or bulimics. In addition to the normal signs of developing
symptoms of vitamin, mineral, and protein deficiencies, anorexia and bulimia can
lead to weight loss and development of intestinal disorders such as spastic colon. If
caught early enough, these health problems can be reversed. If not, eating disorders
can be lifetime sentences. In my classes through extra-credit papers I read painful
stories of students who struggled with an eating disorder or trying to help a roommate
deal with such a disorder. One such student was forced to drop out of my class during
the semester only to return the next semester in recovery after treatment. I never
learned if she was able to maintain that healthy relationship with food or if she relapsed
after completing my course.
62 4 How Widespread Is Food Addiction in Our Culture?

It seems ironic that 795 million people in the world are unable to get enough food
to maintain health, while too many college students have volunteered for starvation.
Anorexia and bulimia are serious problems in high schools and on college cam-
puses, disorders which do not get enough public attention. I can’t help but wonder
if the junk-food ads provide cues for relapse of food addicts. Also, does the steady
stream of stories about of our growing obesity, problem including this book, provide
cues for relapse of recovering anorexics and bulimics?
The eating disorder with most relevance to processed food, however, is binge-eating
disorder. “Binge eating is defined as eating unusually large amounts of food during
discrete periods of time (i.e., within 2 hours) while experiencing a subjective sense of
loss of control.” It generally victimizes people who are not particularly hungry. It is
assessed as a disorder when it occurs two or more times a week over a six-month
period. As one might expect many binge eaters become obese. It turns out that there is
evidence from animal studies that cravings associated with bulimia are similar to those
of binge-eating disorder. Despite its lack of publicity, binge-eating disorder is esti-
mated to affect 2.8 % of the population as compared to 0.6 % for anorexia and 1.0 % for
bulimia. Unlike food addiction which is not officially recognized as a medical condi-
tion, binge-eating disorder does have that distinction. Could food addiction and binge-
eating disorder be the same thing, just looked at from different perspectives?
Food additives have been suggested as addictive substances. One such chemical is
MSG, a star ingredient on the food pundit hit list. This molecule is personal for me, as
it was the subject of the first term paper that I wrote as a grad student. The problem
then was that MSG had been identified as the cause of Chinese Restaurant Syndrome.
Chinese restaurants were adding large amounts of MSG to their soups for flavor. It
was suspected that when MSG hit empty stomachs, much like alcohol, it had a more
rapid trip to the brain leading to dizziness, flushing, and headaches. This work, long
ago discredited, has now been raised as a concern with respect to increasing the temp-
tation to eat too much causing weight gain and obesity. The last few weeks before I
retired, I went to a series of lunches with people across campus who meant much to
me during my years in Athens. An English professor and I went to a small Asian res-
taurant that he particularly liked across the street from the famous arches. We were
there early, and vendors were still delivering supplies for the kitchen through the front
door. I observed a 20-pound sack of MSG come in on one trip. My colleague was
remained blissfully unaware. How much should we fear such chemical ingredients?

6 Food Addiction Is an Area of Study in Psychology, But It

Is Not Clear Yet if Food Creates Addicts in the Same Way
that Street Drugs Do

Human brain scans clearly show that areas of the brain that light up for drugs in
addicts also light up for junk food. Scans in and of themselves, however, are not
conclusive as indicated by Markus Heilig
6 Food Addiction Is an Area of Study in Psychology, But It Is Not Clear Yet if… 63

The fact that a brain area lights up in conjunction with a particular behavior or experience
does not necessarily mean that this brain area causes that behavior or experience. I cannot
repeat enough times: correlation does not equal causation. This is the main weakness that
plagues the exploding field of functional brain imaging, and the field of addiction is no
exception. But when brain imaging results converge with the results of animal studies in
which we can most likely gain important insights about mechanisms that cause rather than
just correlate with addictive behaviors. That does seem to be the case with cue-induced
craving and the brain networks that produce it.

Animal studies have shown that there are similarities between drug addiction and
food consumption in behavior. The biochemical mechanism (the series of chemical
reactions that lead from the food or drug binding with a specific receptor in the brain
to the signals sent from the brain providing a high) for food addiction is not clear.
Some studies relate food addiction to the endocannabinoid pathway associated with
marijuana addiction. Others point to signals in the stomach and intestines that mod-
ify the action of ghrelin, the hormone that regulates appetite, and the feeling of
fullness. The explanation described by a majority of studies involves dopamine in
the mesolimbic pathway, the one that cocaine, meth, and caffeine use to induce their
highs. In addition to being a key molecule in addiction, dopamine is an essential
chemical in motivation. Medications have been shown to block dopamine formation
in humans, but the blockage turns the patients into virtual zombies who lack motiva-
tion to do much of anything. For this reason it has been impossible to develop an
effective medication to treat cocaine and meth addiction.
Inherent in the theory of food addition is that there is a single chemical com-
pound or a series of a few chemical compounds that are found in hyperpalatable
foods responsible for addiction. All addictive substances identified to this point are
either single compounds like cocaine, ethanol, and THC or in a family of com-
pounds such as the opioids which include heroin, morphine, and the amphetamines
including meth. With the exception of ethanol, all others have specific molecular
targets in the brain which fire when in contact with the chemical. If there is a spe-
cific addictive chemical in food other than alcohol or caffeine it is some form of
sugar. The difference between sugars and addictive drugs is that the brain needs
circulating glucose to function.
Fructose, specifically as it is found in corn syrup as HFCS, has been identified as
an undesirable chemical in foods and beverages. Table sugar is half glucose and half
fructose. HFCS and honey contain about 55 % fructose and 45 % glucose. Agave
nectar is 90 % fructose. Fructose has the advantage of not increasing blood sugar,
but it has been suggested that fructose accumulates in the liver and contributes to
liver disease. The experiments studying glucose and fructose when consumed in
equal amounts suggest that fructose does not contribute to nonalcoholic fatty liver
disease. When fructose is consumed in large amounts relative to glucose as in agave
nectar, it can lead to liver problems. Both glucose and fructose are metabolized
through glycolysis in cells throughout the body. I know of no way that cells in the
body can tell whether glucose or fructose delivered through the blood stream is
added to a processed food product or comes from a whole food like honey or fruit.
Hyperpalatable foods are described as foods that combine high levels of at least
two of the killer components—sugar, fat, and salt—and contain more than five
ingredients. Examples include French fries, frozen pizza, ice cream cones, and
64 4 How Widespread Is Food Addiction in Our Culture?

sweetened breakfast cereals. Refined diets loaded with cooking oils, high-fat dairy
products, salt, starches, and sugars, particularly sugar-sweetened beverages are con-
sidered to be addictive. Addiction to refined foods takes two forms: (1) periodic
binging or (2) grazing throughout the day. Treatment requires abstinence from all
refined foods resulting in withdrawal symptoms of “nausea, headaches, shakiness,
disorientation, cravings, frequent urination, irritability, disrupted sleep, nightmares
and lethargy.” Children who become food addicts are considered to be likely candi-
dates for drug and alcohol abuse when reaching adulthood. Thus junk food could be
viewed as a gateway to more serious problems. Another explanation, as mentioned
previously in the chapter, is that impulsive people are more likely to become
addicted to drugs than those individuals who are more able to delay gratification.
Such impulsiveness is also associated with food addiction.
An alternative view is that addiction to hyperpalatable foods is not substance
abuse, but it really is a behavioral addiction to eating more like an addiction to gam-
bling than one to cocaine or meth. With the exception of putting a close friend into
treatment for alcoholism and a compulsion to play Minesweeper for hours on end on
my computer when I should have been working, I have had very little personal expe-
rience with addiction. In addition, before writing this chapter I had no concept about
the science of addiction. Before I could complete this chapter I read extensively—
both books and journal articles. I claim no direct expertise in addiction, but I consider
myself to be a competent food chemist. From that knowledge I am very skeptical that
investigators will find a specific chemical compound or family of compounds that act
like the single chemicals associated with classical substance abuse. The search is on
to find the key molecule like alcohol, cocaine, heroin, or THC that addicts people to
certain foods and leads to obesity. In the absence of a specific chemical eliciting
addiction, it is more likely to be an eating addiction than a food addiction.
As a food chemist who has dabbled in sensory science, I have confidence that
competent food scientists and chefs have the skills to design highly palatable foods
that bring great pleasure to consumers and could feed an eating addiction. To
develop or prepare such tempting items, the food scientist or chef does not rely on
single alluring ingredients. Rather, product developers use a combination of ingre-
dients to enhance appearance, aroma, taste, and texture which build on each other to
lower resistance and enhance pleasure. As an unfortunate side effect such items
could lead to uncontrollable cravings and associated weight gain. If the work on
food addiction is leading us to an eating addiction, is everyone who regularly con-
sumes hyperpalatable foods likely to become an addict?

7 Some People Are More Susceptible to Desires for Tempting

Combinations of Salt, Sugar, and Fat Than Others

Despite extensive research on food addiction, it is not recognized as a disorder in the

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). The DSM is the
gold standard for what is and what is not considered a mental disorder, including
addiction. For example, anorexia, binge eating, and bulimia are recognized by
The Extent of Food Addiction in American Society 65

DSM-5. Binge-eating disorder did not appear in DSM-4, but it was recognized in
the most recent edition. The criteria for anorexia and bulimia changed from the
fourth to fifth edition. Gambling is the only recognized as a behavioral addiction in
DSM-5. Internet Gaming Disorder has been identified “as a condition warranting
more clinical research and experience before it might be considered for inclusion in
the main book as a formal disorder.” Both alcohol and caffeine are recognized as
intoxicants in the manual. Alcoholism is recognized as a substance-abuse disorder,
but caffeine use is not considered to be substance abuse. It will be interesting to see
if either a food or eating addiction is recognized in DSM-6, but it will probably not
be until sometime in the 2020s before it is published.
If food addiction does exist, then it is much more serious than a flip comment
about some delectable hors d’oeuvre at a cocktail party, the latest sensation for sale
at the local chocolatier, or everybody’s favorite cookie. As many as 12–13 % of
social drinkers can become alcoholics. Despite the highly addictive nature of street
drugs it is estimated that about 23 % of those persons who experiment with heroin
and 15–16 % of those individuals who try cocaine at least once become addicts. The
concept of food addiction is relatively new, and the only estimate I could find was
that about 5 % of the American population could be addicted to hyperpalatable
foods with more females than males affected. As the disease becomes more clearly
defined, that percentage could either increase or decrease but probably not to levels
as high as for alcohol, cocaine, or heroin.
Certainly many individuals not in control of their eating habits become obese on
their way to becoming morbidly obese unless eating excess food is combined with
bulimia. Most of us would agree that drug addicts and alcoholics are better off in a
treatment program than on the streets. Likewise serious food addicts should be in
treatment. In drug addiction and alcoholism, there are other issues than just the drug
or alcohol. Treating symptoms does not seem to be as effective as changing the
environment and addressing the underlying problems. Addiction is a chronic,
relapsing disorder which means that an addict is never cured and could revert to
dependence on the substance at any time. Many types of treatments emphasize
12-step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous as an
integral part of treatment. Overeaters Anonymous has been the primary organiza-
tion for food abuse, but Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous has been established
more recently. Long-term management of the disease with appropriate medication
is also becoming common. Before treating a food addict for obesity, it becomes
important to treat both the reasons for the addiction and for obesity.

The Extent of Food Addiction in American Society

I must confess that as I started to write this chapter, I gave no credibility to the con-
cept of food addiction. The idea of addiction to food appeared to me to trivialize
very serious problems with drugs and alcohol. I felt that applying addiction to food
tended to relieve overeaters from personal responsibility leading to blaming the
66 4 How Widespread Is Food Addiction in Our Culture?

food and not themselves. I also believed that labeling people as food addicts would
not be helpful to the halting obesity. With my background in the complexity of the
chemistry of foods, I find it to be oversimplified to be able to identify one or just a
few chemicals in foods as addictive and wholly responsible for the current obesity
epidemic. Discovery of a single compound or series of similar compounds would
provide activists with a powerful weapon in lawsuits against manufacturers of hyper-
palatable foods. Big Food would also benefit from such a discovery by being able to
remove the offending chemical and promote their products “addiction free.”
Based on my current understanding of published work on food addiction and my
background in food chemistry, I conclude that it is not possible to know how wide-
spread food addiction is in our culture. First we do not know if food addiction as
such even exists. Despite the massive amount of studies in the area, it is not yet
recognized as an addictive disorder, but it sometimes takes a long time for the medi-
cal establishment to catch up with the science. Second, I do not know of any other
type of substance abuse that relates to a broad category of substances (such as
hyperpalatable foods) rather than a single chemical (alcohol, cocaine, heroin, meth-
ylamphetamine, etc.). An eating addiction seems to me to be much more credible
than an addiction to food. If an eating addiction is similar to an eating disorder, then
as much as 5 % of the American population could be affected. Others would argue
that any American who is obese is a victim of food addiction.
Longer-term solutions are being proposed to fight the addictive nature of hyper-
palatable foods. Such strategies are modeled after the fights against tobacco, drugs,
and alcohol. Decreasing tobacco use has been far more successful than the war on
drugs or the campaign against alcohol abuse. Information and education programs
have been largely ineffective for tobacco, drugs, and alcohol. Mass media cam-
paigns with hard hitting ads have worked with tobacco but appear to have been less
successful with drugs and alcohol. Increasing taxes on products has been effective
for tobacco but not as much for alcohol. Banning advertisements and marketing
efforts such as sponsorship of public events reduced the footprint of Big Tobacco,
but the public is much less supportive at this time to put the same restrictions on Big
Alcohol. Warning labels have worked for tobacco but not so much for alcohol.
Making drugs illegal has not decreased their appeal, and legalization does not seem
to help, either.
Lawsuits and taxes on unhealthy foods are the preferred vehicles of some advo-
cates against Big Food analogous to Big Tobacco. Tobacco was an easier target than
junk food will be as it was confined to a single product that could be tied directly to
a single disease. Lawsuits were the undoing of Big Tobacco, but the effort took over
40 years to make a significant impact. Food has a much more diverse set of products
made from a more diverse set of ingredients that can result in a more diverse set of
undesirable outcomes. I suspect that taxes on specific ingredients could be a more
promising route, even though raising taxes is not a very popular move politically in
this era. Taxes can work if set high enough (France taxes sweets, chocolate, marga-
rine, and vegetable fat at 20 %), but the tax must be passed directly to the consumer
to be effective and not absorbed by the manufacturer. Common ingredients high in
salt, sugar, and fat used by home cooks should not be exempted from such taxes.
The Extent of Food Addiction in American Society 67

Educational programs are not likely to be that effective as a vast majority of con-
sumers already know that junk foods make humans fat, but Americans continue to buy
and eat these products. Working through school lunch programs and providing health-
ier alternatives can make an impact, but it will be hard to overturn habits learned at
home. Mass media campaigns may work but only if the public is buying what activists
are selling. The most promising way to decrease visibility and consumption is to limit
advertising and marketing events, particularly those ads directly aimed at children.
Vending machines have been removed from over 80 % of elementary schools,
but the machines are still more prevalent in many middle schools and high schools.
A complete ban on vending machines and kiosks that purvey mostly sugary sodas in
schools and the workplace would greatly restrict availability to the general public.
Expect Big Food to fight marketing restrictions and vending-machine bans, and an
uprising amongst the voting public.
All of these suggestions are aimed at the food itself, but the solutions do not deal
with deeper societal issues. Food is an inherent part of any culture and who we are
as individuals. It seems to me that the idea of paying more attention to what we eat
has a better chance to be effective than restricting access. Big Food will always be
one step ahead. In the 1950s, Kellogg’s turned a relatively innocuous food, Rice
Krispies, into a powerful junk food by putting the recipe for Rice Krispy Treats on
the back of the cereal box. I can distinctly remember where I was when I had my
first homemade, Rice Krispy Treat at a party at a friend’s house in the 1950s! Now
we can buy the Treats already prepared, but Big Food will have lots of ways to turn
clean, familiar ingredients into irresistible, hyperpalatable foods with a minimum of
effort if companies can’t sell the real thing pre-prepared. Ban the recipes from the
package, and soon there will be an app for that.
When we become familiar with a concept, it no longer has the power to shock
and induce fear. For example, “Beverages containing alcohol and caffeine are so
embedded in modern society that it is easy to forget that they contain relatively
powerful drugs.” Michael Moss probably did more to bring the idea of food
addiction to the attention of the American public than any other person. He was so
successful, however, that food addiction became a more familiar idea and thus a less
scary one. Ironically, as scientists learn more about the true scientific nature of
potential addictions associated with food, the public will have been at least partially
immunized against the concept. Along the way society has become less concerned
about the danger of food packed with tempting combinations of sugar, salt, or fat,
and more concerned about food with too many preservatives and other chemicals.
This concept is in direct contrast with Moss’s statement that “In time, the public
concern about the potential toxicity of chemical additives with long scientific names
would be eclipsed by a more basic concern about three others with the simplest of
names: salt, sugar, and fat.”
Chapter 5
Why Are There So Many Chemicals
in Our Food?

TBHQ is one scary chemical. It’s created from butane (a very toxic gas) and can only be
used at a rate of 0.02 percent of the total oil in a product. Why is such a limit imposed?
Maybe because eating 1 gram of this toxic preservative has been shown to cause all sorts of
issues, from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children to asthma, aller-
gies, dermatitis, and dizziness. It can even cause stomach cancer in laboratory animals.—
Vani Hari
Shouldn’t we able to admit that we already know that chemicals have always been in our
food, and that food is made of chemicals? In fact, food additives—some as old and simple
as salt and sugar—keep good food from going bad, and thus prevent food from occasionally
killing us. In fact, all food chemicals and all cooking is chemistry (“Cooking is the science
that’s tasty” the old saying goes). Remember the chemicals hydrogen oxide, cellulose,
hemicellulose, malic acid, dextrose, fructose, pectin, sucrose, amylacetate, and citric acid
are found in nature’s perfect food: the apple (in fact, that is the apple’s complete ingredient
list).—Steve Ettlinger

The thought of chemicals in our foods conjures up bad memories from chemis-
try labs of nasty jars filled with foul smelling powders and bottles with pungent,
corrosive liquids. Or maybe when thinking of chemistry we recall Walter White,
the chemistry teacher who went rogue in the popular television series Breaking
Bad. Either vision obscures the role of chemistry in our everyday lives. We live in
a material world from the furniture in our rooms and offices to the vehicles that get
us to and from work or school to the electronic devices that keep us plugged into
the world to the very utensils and dishes we use to convey the foods we eat to our
mouths. All of these materials owe their very existence to a complex mix of
chemicals.
Those of us who grew up in the 1950s remember ads proclaiming “Better Living
through Chemistry.” Something happened, though, as now we are bombarded with
messages about all the damage that chemicals do to our environment and our bod-
ies. What caused us to go from the wonders to the condemnation of chemistry and
its consequences in a modern world? The short answer is publication of Silent
Spring in 1962 and the environmental movement it spawned. Rachel Carson brought
the use and misuse of pesticides to popular attention and offered a wakeup call to

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 69

R.L. Shewfelt, In Defense of Processed Food,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45394-1_5
70 5 Why Are There So Many Chemicals in Our Food?

the dangers of pollution and environmental degradation. The movement came of

age in a turbulent time, and the watchword became “Question everything!”
Intentionally or not, Silent Spring invoked a visceral fear of anything chemical. We
then become forced to choose between the idea that we owe all the good things in
modern life to chemicals and the premise that all chemicals are toxic. These two
perspectives represent idyllic and illusory extremes on a continuum, ignoring the
tradeoffs we face in the modern day world that is held together by chemistry.
My life in chemistry began one Christmas morning when I opened a package that
I hoped would be a board game and turned out to be a chemistry set. I remember
small jars each filled with different colors of powders or liquids and a guide to all
sorts of neat experiments. I played with it for an hour or two that afternoon and once
or twice more, but my true passion at the time was Monopoly. I took a Chemistry
class in high school. There was little money for lab exercises so we went into the lab
only once or twice the whole year. The main thing I learned in lab was not to sit
down on those tall, wooden bar stools while doing experiments. I sat on one that was
coated in a thin layer of hydrochloric acid thanks to a careless classmate. I ended up
with a blistered butt. I took eight college courses in Chemistry (two general, two
organic, biochemistry, quantitative analysis, and two physical). None of these
courses turned me on. During the first week of my first Food-Science course, I stud-
ied potatoes and how the starch broke down into sugars when the tubers were refrig-
erated. If the potatoes were not warmed up before processing, the chips would turn
dark brown to black during frying and lose their appeal. Now that was chemistry
I could use. I was hooked on applied chemistry!
Substance abuse was a major topic in the last chapter, but, in a broader sense, we
all are chemically dependent. Without breathing in the element oxygen, a chemical,
in the air we can survive only a few minutes. Failure to consume water (H2O) either
by itself, in a beverage or in the food we eat leads to dehydration and death in a mat-
ter of hours or days. Prolonged shortages of vitamins (organic chemicals) can lead
to diseases like pellagra, rickets, and scurvy. Likewise we need minerals (elemental
chemicals), such as calcium and iron to prevent osteoporosis and anemia. Protein is
broken down in the intestines into amino acids, eight of which our bodies cannot
make, that are used in building and repairing necessary proteins in our body. In a
similar fashion fats release fatty acids during digestion, two of which are essential
to good health. In addition we benefit from other chemicals in our foods such as
antioxidants and dietary fiber.
Everything we put into our mouths is chemical. Some of these chemicals are
necessary but many are not necessary. Fortunately chemicals in our food make it
more palatable. Fruits and vegetables contain numerous chemicals such as
• the pigments that provide the natural colors;
• compounds that evaporate from the surface to convey a distinct aroma;
• sweet sugars, sour acids, natural salty salts, bitter components, and savory nucle-
otides or amino acids;
• structural carbs that form cell walls; and
• the protein/fat structures that form membranes around each cell.
1 Chemical Ingredients Are Cheaper Than Real Ingredients 71

Meat that was formerly muscle has specialized protein molecules that relax and
contract when alive and form a rigid complex known as rigor as it turns into meat.
Rigor is resolved in meat by enzymes which speed up chemical reactions after death
at refrigerated temperatures. The changes in color of meat are due to reactions of the
pigment myoglobin with oxygen. Many food additives are simple and pure mole-
cules that do not match the chemical complexity found in whole foods derived from
animals or plants. Preservatives such as antioxidants, antimicrobials, sequestrants,
and stabilizers slow rotting and other types of spoilage. Artificial and natural colors,
flavors, sweeteners, and thickeners enhance the eating experience.
As it is used today, “chemical” is invariably a negative term; “molecule” is gen-
erally a positive term; and “compound” is more neutral. Food pundits use “chemi-
cal” as a warning that something is dangerous. Advertisers of supplements use
“molecule” to soften the image of the latest, greatest pill or potion that will enable
us to drop pounds without effort, improve our sex lives, or enhance our moods.
Although each term has a specific meaning in chemistry, in the sense these three
terms are used in popular culture, chemical, molecule, and compound are syn-
onyms. To change the point of reference in the chapter I will use “chemical” for
natural components of food that are both familiar and non-threatening and “mole-
cule” for components that are unfamiliar, sound scary, and tend to be difficult to
pronounce. When it comes to condemning a chemical in a popular context, dangers
are emphasized with little or no mention of potential benefits. Also, guilt by associa-
tion is a frequent tool used by pundits such as the association with butane in the Vani
Hari quote. To explain the reason why there are so many different molecules in
food, I will use a similar technique.

1 Chemical Ingredients Are Cheaper Than Real Ingredients

There are two types of ingredients in foods: those with familiar names that we can
visualize in our minds and others that are unfamiliar that have unusual names. It is
easy to visualize ingredients such as pure vanilla extract, pasteurized milk, roasted
peanuts, tomato juice, and whole grain wheat flour. Ones that don’t sound as entic-
ing include acesulfame K, disodium guanylate, polysorbate 60, thiamine hydrochlo-
ride, and xylitol. Between these extremes are less familiar ones like citric acid,
modified food starch, tahini, whey protein concentrate, and yeast extract. The more
difficult to pronounce an ingredient and the more its name sounds like a chemical
the scarier it becomes. Why would Big Food resort to adding chemicals when there
are many more natural alternatives?
Big Food, pushed by food pundits and activists, is working at replacing controver-
sial ingredients with more familiar ones. Generally speaking, chemical ingredients are
cheaper, more pure, and easier to deal with than ones with names we recognize.
Although we think of ingredients such as pure vanilla extract as chemical-free, it is a
complex combination of many chemical compounds. For example, pure vanilla
extract can contain the chemicals coumarin, ethyl vanillin, vanillic acid, and vanillin
72 5 Why Are There So Many Chemicals in Our Food?

(hydroxy methoxy benzaldehyde). The molecule vanillin can be synthesized, and it

conveys a flavor that is reasonably close to that of the pure extract at a much lower
price. Food purists seek out the pure extract and reject the synthetic vanillin, but
few regular consumers will be that bothered if vanillin shows up in the ingredient
statement. It might be a different story if labeling regulations required manufac-
tures to declare it as hydroxy methoxy benzaldehyde. Contrary to popular wisdom,
the pure extract contains additional chemicals and is less transparent than vanillin
by itself.
Whole Foods Market has been at the forefront of requiring cleaner labels on the
processed products in its center aisles, many of which represent the most sophisti-
cated items manufactured by Big Food. Many chains such as Chick-fil-A, Chipotle,
Panera Bread, Starbucks, and Subway have changed their ingredients to “clean up”
their products. Consumers are demanding labels with familiar ingredients, but the
cleaner products are neither safer nor more transparent. For example, the other day
as I was checking out of one of the two small grocery stores where I shop. I was look-
ing for a hyperpalatable snack to replace my normal package of 2 Reese’s peanut
butter cups. Down on the bottom shelf I found a package of Justin’s 2 dark chocolate
organic peanut butter cups with a cleaner label. I could not resist the allure of Justin’s
cups and bought both types primed for a taste test at home. One difference I noticed
about the two products before I even left the store was that my standard item cost me
99 cents while Justin’s set me back $1.99.
It was now time for a serious comparison of an organic product with my favorite
guilty pleasure. In reading the Nutrition Facts I learned that each package contrib-
uted 210 calories of energy. The organic version had 14 g of fat (7 of which were
saturated) compared to 13 g of fat (4.5 saturated) in the more well-known brand.
Reese’s included 21 g of sugar compared with 17 in Justin’s. In addition, Reese’s
had an extra gram of protein as well as 2 % of my daily requirement for calcium and
4 % for iron. No minerals were declared on Justin’s label. Since I don’t consume
peanut butter cups for the nutrition, I was much more interested in what happened
after each product entered my mouth. Reese’s cups had a much better flavor than
Justin’s, but that was probably because I didn’t like the dark chocolate in the organic
cups. In the only time I ever tried Reese’s dark chocolate cups I felt that the two
strong flavors clashed with rather than complemented each other. Most disturbing,
however, was the brittleness of both the chocolate and particularly the peanut butter
in Justin’s product when compared with Reese’s.
Each ingredient in a processed food must perform a specific function. The func-
tionality of an ingredient is due to the properties of the combination of molecules in
that ingredient. For example, Justin’s peanut butter cups contain organic soy lecithin
as an emulsifier in the organic dark chocolate to keep the fat from coming out of the
chocolate and leaving whitish gray spots on the outside. Reese’s uses both soy
lecithin and PGPR as emulsifiers to do the same thing. The PGPR on the label
stands for polyglycerol polyricinoleate. Reese’s also uses the antioxidant TBHQ
(tert-butylhydroquinone) described at the beginning of the chapter by Vani Hari to
keep it from going rancid. Justin’s label does not list a specific antioxidant probably
because chocolate is higher in saturated fats which do not go rancid like unsaturated
2 Most Chemicals in Foods Are Unnecessary 73

ones do. I understand that Reese’s is going clean by the end of the year and will
probably be eliminating ingredients like PGPR and TBHQ. I hope that the quality
of my Reese’s peanut butter cups won’t lead to rancid chocolate surrounding brittle
peanut butter.
“Eat Clean Live Dirty” is a new mantra. I’ll get to the living dirty part in Chapter 8,
but eating clean refers to fewer ingredients we identify as chemicals. When cleaning
up a food label food scientists identify the offending ingredient(s) and note the
functional properties of the ingredient(s). For example, the molecule calcium pro-
pionate is an excellent inhibitor of bread mold. To get rid of the chemical-sounding
name in the ingredient statement, the food scientist looks for an ingredient with a
less offensive name. An example of a replacement ingredient is raisin juice concen-
trate. The active chemical in raisin juice to reduce the mold is propionic acid which
is just a slightly altered form of the molecule calcium propionate. Instead of adding
a single chemical, however, adding raisin juice concentrate also adds more sugar,
anthocyanin, tannin, and numerous other natural chemicals to the product. Finding
the right amount to add can be tricky. Too little raisin juice concentrate and the
bread will mold too quickly. Too much of it and the crust will become darker, the
bread will have a slight aroma of raisins and more yeast will be needed as chemicals
in the raisins prevent proper yeast growth.
Adding specific molecules to a food product lowers the cost of ingredients for
Big Food, makes the design products for new foods easier, and actually reduces the
number of chemicals present. It does seem, however, that there are way too many of
these molecules invading our food supply that are not really necessary.

2 Most Chemicals in Foods Are Unnecessary

As noted in previous chapters, natural is a rather elusive term. Fruits, vegetables

nuts, insects harvested in the wild, and meats from animals killed in unmanaged
lands by indigenous peoples are probably as close as humans get to natural foods.
Such areas are dwindling with the press of global population growth. Most of man-
kind would not be able to survive on purely natural food. Processed food is not really
natural and the chemicals derived from these products are even less natural. Natural
flavors and extracts are found in the real world, but, when used as ingredients, each
of these chemicals has been taken “out of its natural environment.” There are many
ways to obtain pure vanilla extract, each of which has a slightly different chemical
composition. The most popular extraction method in the USA involves chopping
up and immersing the pods in ethanol (drinking alcohol) to draw out the flavor
chemicals, and then evaporating off the excess alcohol. The number of compounds
extracted and the amount of each chemical depends on the conditions of extraction
such as the temperature and the time the chopped beans are left in the alcohol.
This chemical extraction can be done at home with vanilla beans and vodka.
Most of us enjoy eating food in a cultural setting. A vast majority of the chemicals
we consume are not necessary for health and wellbeing. Some people, particularly
74 5 Why Are There So Many Chemicals in Our Food?

young computer geeks who have little time for meals, have opted for Soylent, a
powder that supposedly contains all the chemicals necessary for health. Just add
water, stir, and finish it one sip or gulp at a time to get back to quality screen time.
There is no need for artificial or natural flavor, color, or thickening agents to enhance
drinking pleasure. Another option is a powder from one or a combination of several
vegetables. Of course any powder must be processed by washing, juicing, concen-
trating, and drying among other steps—a classic example of primary food processing
at its best. I suspect that each vegetable in such a product was processed separately
into a powder and then the powders were thoroughly mixed in giant dry mixers
before packaging the final product. My devoted dog, Sweetie, is on a low-fat canned
diet. She has a certain place on a floor pillow she rests when she is ready to be
served. Sweetie gets the same food (one flavor only) three times every day, loves it,
and thrives on it. Most of us, however, prefer meals with a variety of flavors, colors,
and textures.
Although almost all of the chemicals are not essential to good health, unneces-
sary chemicals are what turn a survival diet into cuisine. Two of the most widely
consumed chemicals (alcohol and caffeine) in the world can bring pleasure, but
neither one is necessary for health and wellbeing. Exotic flavors are what draws us
into a fine restaurant or give us the opportunity to be creative cooks. Just a few of
the chemical compounds that make up the tantalizing aroma of one type of American
mushroom include bornyl acetate, dichloromethoxybenzaldehyde, methyl cinna-
mate, octenol, and pinene. Octenol, found in less exotic American mushrooms, is a
natural molecule that can be extracted from the bastard balm herb found in Italy and
other parts of southern Europe, generally by distillation to give us natural mush-
room flavor. By the way, dichloromethoxybenzaldehyde has been found as a trace
contaminant in pulp and paper mills waste effluents. Methyl cinnamate is a toxin
that could be harmful if absorbed through the skin, gets into the eye, inhaled or
swallowed. Octenol is found in mosquito traps to attract the pesky little insects.
Pinene is found in pine trees and is a key chemical in turpentine.
A natural foods store near campus during my teaching days featured a food bar,
natural foods, and shelf upon shelf of bottles containing rather simple chemicals.
These chemicals are supplements that contain essential chemicals such as common
vitamins, minerals, and numerous compounds for promoting good health. My first
visit to the store was in search of whole grains to avoid ordering these healthy foods
online. It took me a long time searching through the shelves of “chemical-free”
foods to find a collection of whole grains less diverse than what I could find in my
local, small-town grocery store. Any bottle containing pills, potions, or tablets is no
more natural, less chemical or less processed than natural flavors, colors, or sweet-
eners on a label of a food package.
Thiamine hydrochloride is a molecule added to soups to enhance the flavor.
Thiamine mononitrate is formed by further molecular reactions and is added to white
flour to replace the natural thiamine that was lost during the milling of grains. Thiamine
is an essential vitamin that is found in beans, meat, peas, and whole grains. Insufficient
thiamine in the diet leads to beriberi, a crippling disease with many symptoms such as
shortness of breath, lost feeling in hands or feet, and mental confusion. The chemical
3 It Is Difficult to Know Which Chemicals in Our Foods Are Safe and Which Ones… 75

thiamine can also be found in supplements in either natural or artificial form, but the
vitamin can induce allergies in susceptible people when not consumed in food. When
overconsumed in pill form it can lead to an overdose and a trip to the emergency
room. Too much thiamine during pregnancy can be transferred to the mother’s milk
and should be used with caution if breast feeding.
The natural chemicals that we consume in whole foods are found in many other
places than just food. Although food pundits use scare tactics by associating a spe-
cific molecule with a specific objectionable source, we should not be fooled. Just
because mushroom compounds can also be found in mosquito traps, paper-waste
effluent, or turpentine doesn’t mean that we should avoid mushrooms. Likewise,
just because a molecule is toxic to the eyes, nose, or skin when handled in its pure
form or can lead to an overdose when consumed in tablet form doesn’t mean we
should be concerned when it shows up on a food label. What is more important is
whether the compound is safe or unsafe at the dose at which it is consumed.

3 It Is Difficult to Know Which Chemicals in Our Foods Are

Safe and Which Ones Are Unsafe

Whom can we trust to ensure food safety? I personally trust governmental agencies
like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to look out for my health. From
observations over my career the agency uses the best science available to make deci-
sions on the additives permitted in formulated and processed food despite protesta-
tions from Big Food and food pundits. Scientists from the food industry frequently
moan about how long and difficult it is to gain approval from FDA for a new mol-
ecule to be added to food. I heard Sandy Miller, when he was the Director of the
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) at the FDA, as the after-
dinner speaker at a banquet, tell industry scientists to be patient. “The easiest thing
for the FDA to do is to say ‘No,’ and that is what the agency will do if pressured,”
he stated. The idea that Big Food gets upset because FDA does not approve addi-
tives fast enough runs contrary to the idea expressed by food pundits that FDA has
never met a chemical it didn’t like.
My experience indicates that FDA is a very slow and deliberate agency, frustrat-
ing both food pundits and food scientists. Those consumers suspicious of govern-
ment agencies can turn to a watchdog group, Center for Science in the Public
Interest (CSPI), for guidance. CSPI is much less accepting of some of the FDA
findings and no friend of Big Food, but it still proclaims “Most food additives are
safe even if they have long chemical names such as sucrose acetate isobutyrate or
sodium erythorbate. Try to avoid the most questionable additives and you’ll avoid
many of the least healthy foods.” CSPI also warns “And don't forget to cut back on
sugar and salt, which cause more harm than all the other additives combined.”
Food pundits introduce short cuts to proclaim some foods superfoods and other
foods toxic. One of the most common techniques used is to condemn any ingredient
that is unpronounceable. It seems that we too often use unfamiliarity as an excuse to
76 5 Why Are There So Many Chemicals in Our Food?

reject a word, a person, or an idea. Another rule is to avoid any food product that has
more than five ingredients, but it apparently does not apply to homemade foods.
Even in an age of political correctness we certainly would not reject ideas pro-
claimed by Brzezinski, Krzyzewski, Schweitzer, Schwarzenegger, and Yankovic
while accepting those ideas from Kraft, Nixon, Obama, Putin, and Trump simply on
the pronounceability and the number of letters in their names.
The risks and benefits associated with specific foods and ingredients tend to be
exaggerated in popular media sources. No tradeoffs are mentioned in most cases as
many superfoods have downsides and many food molecules have upsides. For
example, soy is frequently listed as a superfood. Beneficial chemicals present in
soybeans are folic acid, omega-3 fatty acids, phytoestrogens, potassium, and alpha-
tocopherol (vitamin E). We can get soy from such products as frozen edamame,
miso, soymilk, tofu, and veggie burgers (all of which are processed foods). Skeptical
pundits note that soy can come from genetically modified organisms (GMO), may
be linked to breast cancer, and is extracted by hexane (“a main constituent of smog”)
to make veggie-based meat substitutes.
One molecule that comes mentioned by food pundits to highlight the dangers of
food additives and the lax authority of FDA is thalidomide. This molecule caused
severe birth defects by pregnant women who took it in Europe to relieve morning
sickness from 1957 to 1961. The comparison of thalidomide with food additives is
unfair as thalidomide is a drug (not a food additive), was never used in food, and
was not approved for use as a drug in the USA until 1998. It is used under only care-
fully controlled conditions to treat leprosy and cancer. Of more concern is the use of
partially hydrogenated vegetable oils in processed food. The hydrogenation process
increases the saturation of fatty acids in vegetable oils to make margarine more
spreadable. One of the molecular byproducts of hydrogenation is a trans fatty acid.
The dangers of these molecules have been highlighted by food pundits, but the
source referenced also considers saturated fats to be half as dangerous as trans fats.
The FDA is phasing out partially hydrogenated oils, which will greatly reduce, but
not eliminate trans fats.
Our food decisions are too often made on the basis of emotion and not logic. We
are influenced by our culture, our friends, the types of food we grew up with, adver-
tisements, convenience, mood, the latest book we read, our palate, and our ideology.
We like to think that we eat for good health, except those times when we indulge in
guilty pleasures. Either way, most of us eat on the basis of the image of a food—good
or bad—rather than its true nutritional value in the context of the other foods we are
eating. Our lives become so complex that we use shortcuts to knowledge about food
and other philosophical matters as observed by the fictional character Otto Ringling.
This, I said to myself, is where all the mumbo jumbo leads. You start worrying about every
little thing—Is the coffee free trade? The chicken free range? Should you stop looking at
attractive women? Recycle the wrapper of your chewing gum? Should you go home, lock
yourself in your room, and pray, as the Bible instructs, without ceasing?

Ideology fuels much of what we believe and do. We tend to take little time to
challenge our own assumptions. It is often easier to listen to someone else and fol-
low than to think and lead. Parents of autistic children face difficulties every day to
4 Processed Foods Contain Some Chemicals Not Even Listed on the Label 77

care for their sons and daughters who have been stricken with this cruel disease. The
long reach of the internet gave parents of autistic children the power to communi-
cate with each other and help dictate directions of autism research. Unfortunately
the direction parents demanded, the association of autism and vaccines, led nowhere.
A decade worth of research into gaining a greater understanding of the causes and
the development of a cure for the disease was lost. There is now a push to associate
autism with molecules in our food. A look in this direction is worthwhile as long as
it doesn’t hijack the whole field of autism research like the vaccine obsession did.
One molecule that was successfully removed from our breads was azodicarbon-
amide, dubbed the yoga mat toxin. Addition of the compound during the bread-
baking process improves the texture of the final product. It “has been linked to
respiratory problems, including asthma in factory workers, and when heated, it pro-
duces semicarbazide, a known carcinogen.” Another compound under attack is
acrylamide which is found in French fries, other grain products and coffee, but it
can also be found in dyes, plastics, and smoke from cigarettes. It serves no function
in foods, but it is formed from natural chemical reactions that occur in foods when
heated. Acrylamide is considered to be a carcinogen. The highest levels in foods are
found in fried potato products because the potato is high in the amino acid aspara-
gine which reacts with free sugars in the potato to form acrylamide.
Azodicarbonamide appears on the label of packaged foods, but acrylamide does
not. Neither molecule is declared in restaurant food which has different rules for the
ingredients present. FDA does not find fault with azodicarbonamide, but CSPI has
called for the FDA to ban the molecule from foods. Acrylamide is of concern to
FDA and CSPI, but short of banning coffee and starchy vegetables or grains, we are
stuck with it in our foods. It is bad enough that we have to read the fine print on a
food label to find out what molecules have been added to a food, but how can we
find out about those chemicals that are there and not declared?

4 Processed Foods Contain Some Chemicals Not Even Listed

on the Label

The chemicals that Steve Ettlinger mentions in the opening quote are not exactly the
complete ingredient list for apples. A food or ingredient derived from a natural source
is not required to list its chemical components, but all grains, fruits, vegetables, spices,
meats, and dairy products are complex combinations of numerous natural chemicals.
In addition to being the primary odor of bananas amyl acetate is part of the aroma of
apples, is used as an added fruit flavor, and can also be found in lacquer and paint.
Citric acid is the chemical that provides the sour taste to balance the sweet in citrus
fruits and drinks, but it is also present in metal polish. Of at least 30 chemicals found
that contribute directly to the odor of fresh apples, Ettlinger left out limonene which
is found in virtually all fresh fruits and is used to make resins. Decanol, also naturally
present in fresh apple aroma, is used to manufacture lubricants and plasticizers, can be
as a narcotic, and is harmful when inhaled or ingested in its pure form.
78 5 Why Are There So Many Chemicals in Our Food?

In his book, Twinkie Deconstructed, Ettlinger seeks out the source or potential
source of all of the ingredients listed on the label of a Twinkie. To his surprise he finds
that there are chemicals used to make a Twinkie that are not listed on the label. Among
those molecules not listed include chlorine used to bleach the flour and purify the water,
sodium hydroxide to remove chlorophyll from the vegetable oil, and hydrochloric acid
to make the sugars from corn syrup. He also talks about how sodium acid pyrophos-
phate, monocalcium phosphate, and baking soda are not only added to produce
Twinkies but also bagels and biscuits that are enjoyed for breakfast.
In 2012, Chef Jamie Oliver made a video about pink slime found in hamburger
and how it is treated with ammonia before it is added to the ground meat allowing
the meat industry to use contaminated cheap trim as a filler. The original video is
graphic and dramatic to make a point, but it is inaccurate in some key points. In the
actual process it is ammonium hydroxide and not household ammonia that is added
to ensure the safety of what is officially called lean, finely textured beef (LFTB). It is
true that when mixed in with the more expensive cuts, that the ammonium hydroxide
forms ammonia but in a very controlled form in much lower amounts. This process
helps prevent the spread of Salmonella, E. coli, and other harmful bacteria that
could be present in either the “pink slime” or the choicer cuts. Big Food in the form
of McDonald’s, Safeway and many other companies rapidly scrambled to stop put-
ting LFTB in their hamburger products. Since the video surfaced, beef consumption
in the USA has gone down by 6.6 % while prices have gone up by 16.4 %. It is
unclear as to what, if any, effect the pink-slime controversy had directly on either
the consumption or price of ground beef.
Packaging materials are also a source of molecular additions to a food, particu-
larly bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates. From a purity standpoint glass is the best
food packaging material because it does not interact with the product and it is easily
cleaned for reuse. Other packaging materials interact with the food either by mole-
cules moving from the package into the food or by capturing chemicals like vita-
mins and flavors from the food into the package. BPA is a molecule that moves from
hard plastics or enamel-coated cans into liquid foods. Phthalates represent a class of
compounds also found in plastics that can find their way into a food products well
as in cosmetics and children’s toys. BPA and phthalates have shown up in the blood
and urine of both children and adults. Birth defects and reproductive issues have
been linked to BPA and phthalates, but their role in health at levels found in foods
is controversial. Toxicologists believe that toxicity of any molecule is related to its
dose, either at a single time (acute exposure) or total accumulation over a longer
period of time (chronic exposure). Environmental chemists argue that the time of
exposure, such as a fetus in the womb, is more important than the dose.
Incidental additives like the molecules chlorine, sodium hydroxide, ammonium
hydroxide, BPA, and phthalates have all been approved by the FDA and are consid-
ered Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS). We take many other ingredients on the
GRAS list for granted. These ingredients thyme (thymol, the key chemical, is also
used in perfume as a fungicide and an embalming agent) and tocopherol (vitamin E
which at high doses can lead to excessive bleeding). Processed food is filled with
numerous preservatives, and that can’t be good, or could it?
5 Chemical Preservatives Are Added to Slow Rotting and Prevent Food Poisoning 79

5 Chemical Preservatives Are Added to Slow Rotting

and Prevent Food Poisoning

The use of preservatives is one of the oldest forms of food processing and one of the
most controversial. Two molecules that have been used for centuries to preserve
food are sodium chloride (table salt) and sucrose (table sugar). Other preservatives
with a long history are spices. Some historians suggest that it was the spice trade as
much as anything that led to the European colonization, domination and exploita-
tion of the rest of world. Spices were not only used to enhance the flavor of food but
also to slow rotting of and cover up the putrid odors of food that had already become
rotten. Europeans were able to obtain cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, pepper, and
numerous other spices from Ceylon and other Spice Islands, many of which now are
part of Indonesia. The primary means of preserving meats until the early 1900s was
the curing process. Specific salts such as saltpeter (sodium and potassium nitrite)
were shown to be effective in preventing food poisoning as early as 1800.
To a food scientist preservatives are merely ingredients in food that help keep it
safe and keep it from rotting. A more well-known and popular perspective is
As you stroll down the aisles of the grocery store, start thinking about the shelves of boxed,
canned, jarred, and packaged foods as caskets holding dead food. It’s all embalmed with
preservatives that will make you feel dead, too.

Foods that are alive are ones that contain millions of microbes per ounce. Microbes
are responsible for most spoilage of food and most cases of food poisoning. The delib-
erate choice of the shock word “embalmed” is somewhat appropriate as both food
preservation and embalming are means of preventing microbial decay. Spices such as
cinnamon and cumin were used as preservatives and embalming agents in ancient
Egypt. Cinnamaldehyde and cuminaldehyde, the active chemicals in these spices,
contribute to both the odor and preservative nature of these two spices.
Food poisoning is something that is greatly feared and greatly misunderstood.
Dangerous microbes are present in freshly cut meat, freshly harvested produce, and
whole grains. The advantage of whole, unprocessed foods is that they generally rot
before becoming unsafe. Once Big Food or a real person starts to process whole
food by chopping, gutting, and peeling, bad things can start to happen. Microbes
can jump from a person, implement or machine into the food. Contaminating
microbes are redistributed through the food to get access to previously unavailable
nutrients to allow the organisms to grow and create mayhem. Further processing to
either kill by heat or slow growth by freezing, drying, or adding preservatives are
the primary ways to prevent rapid spoilage or potential food poisoning. Contrary to
popular belief rotten food can be safe and unsafe food may not look, feel, taste, or
smell bad.
Popular fermented foods include alcoholic beverages, kimchi, vinegar, and
yogurt. Saccharomyces cerevisiae produces ethanol in a liquid mash of barley to
preserve it in the form of beer. Acetobacter species can turn the wine to acetic acid
which we add to our salads in the form of vinegar. Lactobacillus bulgaricus and
similar species produce lactic acid to preserve milk in the form of ripened cheese or
80 5 Why Are There So Many Chemicals in Our Food?

yogurt and preserve cabbage as kimchi and sauerkraut. All of these fermentations
result from bacteria, either from the air or added by humans, acting on a whole food
to turn natural chemicals in the food to other chemicals that act as preservatives.
Instead of forcing foods to change their chemistry, we can add preservatives to
prevent the growth of organisms that can either spoil the food or make it unsafe.
Preservatives are listed on a food label either as individual molecules or as clean
ingredients. The difference is that there is no indication of which specific chemicals
in clean ingredients are acting as preservatives. Some common preservatives that
show up on the label include sodium and potassium benzoates and sodium and
potassium sorbates. These molecules are merely salts of acids, benzoic and sorbic,
that are found in fruits but are usually prepared artificially. Benzoic acid, for exam-
ple, is at high levels in cranberry juice and may be one of the chemicals responsible
for protection against urinary tract infections (UTIs). What is the problem with
using embalming spices such as cinnamon and cumin instead of molecules like
potassium sorbate? To serve as effective preservatives, spices must be effective at
doses that will not add undesirable flavors to the product.

6 Big Food Is Moving Toward More Consumer Friendly

Products

Clean labels are Big Food’s answer in the drive to make foods fresher, more natural,
and chemical-free. Conversion to a clean label is a deceptive but effective strategy.
Whole Foods has developed a long list of ingredients that are not permitted for sale
in their markets in the interest of cleaner foods. Medium and Small Food rush to
formulate items that meet these guidelines. Big Food is unlikely to develop a prod-
uct strictly for a few upscale chains unless the product will have more mass appeal
because large corporations have higher sales targets for success than smaller com-
panies. At an evening talk that I made on the science of chocolate, I met a choco-
latier who owned a store in a small chain of shops. I came to know him and love his
products. During the 2008 recession, he was looking for a way to get some of his
items into Whole Foods, but needed to clean up his ingredients. I put him in touch
with two of my former students who were working in greater Atlanta. Both of these
food-science graduates had the time and talent to help him. Unfortunately, it was too
little too late, as his store went under along with many other businesses during those
bleak economic times.
When it comes to food, we must be careful what we ask for. Time and time again
Big Food has given us what food pundits say we want, but their requests tend to go
for outward appearances and not underlying causes. Food companies find it easier
to deliver a quick fix than to provide a longer-term solution. Chilled foods in plain
plastic containers in a supermarket, for example, are inherently less safe than simi-
lar items in fancier packages even if the item appears to be fresher, more local, and
more natural with fewer chemical ingredients.
6 Big Food Is Moving Toward More Consumer Friendly Products 81

The push by food pundits and chains like Whole Foods Market for cleaner
ingredients and labels has led to a chemical arms race. There are at least three main
ways food scientists clean up food labels. First the product developer can search for
an ingredient that either has the same chemical that would be added ordinarily. Then
the developer ensures that the unnecessary chemicals in the selected ingredient do
not negatively change the color, flavor, or texture of the product. A second strategy
is to chemically modify an ingredient such that it still qualifies as a clean ingredient
but can function as an unpronounceable one. The most subtle way is to use more
sophisticated processing techniques that change the chemistry of the food. For
example, the pre-prepared guacamole in a plastic dish available in the market keeps
its green color by going through high pressure processing and elimination of all
oxygen. Unlike the standard ways to heat foods like ovens, jolts of electricity sent
through the food to cook it evenly throughout. This process only heats the product
when the switch is on and thus it does not overcook the food.
Antioxidants are chemicals that protect biological cells from activated oxygen.
Our lives with oxygen are complex. Without oxygen we and the animals that supply
milk and meat can’t survive, but oxygen has a dark side. Within living cells, oxygen
can morph into some dangerous chemical forms such as the hydroxyl free radical,
singlet oxygen, and superoxide (I’m not making this up!). These rogue forms of
oxygen attack the fats that are the major part of the membranes which surround
every living cell as well as those fats contained within cells. Fortunately, our cell
membranes have a defensive line of protection from dangerous forms of oxygen led
by the chemicals alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) and beta-carotene (pro-vitamin A).
Beta-carotene gobbles up the singlet oxygen and alpha-tocopherol inserts itself into
the membrane. The latter chemical is able to move back and forth among the fatty
acids and sacrifices itself to prevent injury to the fatty acids it is protecting. A series
of chemical reactions must occur to reactivate the alpha-tocopherol. A molecule of
ascorbic acid (vitamin C) reactivates tocopherol but loses its activity. The ascorbic
acid can be reactivated by changes to other compounds within our cells.
To keep our line of defense strong, we should consume antioxidant vitamins
(A, C, and E), preferably from foods. The other compounds referred to in the previ-
ous paragraph that help reactivate ascorbic acid are produced by the body from the
polyphenolic phytochemicals found in blueberries and other fruits proclaimed to be
antioxidants. A strong defensive line helps us maintain health, but it is not 100 %
effective. When the line is breached, the repair team comes in to remove damaged
fatty acids which are replaced with fresh ones. Replacement of chemicals in body
structures such as cell membranes is a natural, chemical process. As we age, how-
ever, our defense and repair efforts become weaker and damage to membrane fats
accumulates. As I stated in a seminar I gave at the Volcani Center in Bet Dagan,
Israel, these oxidative chemicals serve as little time bombs that threaten the health
of the cells. My talk was on plant damage leading to cell death, but similar changes
occur in human cells as well. It was the “time bomb” statement that drew the most
discussion after my talk, perhaps because the seminar room I was speaking in doubled
as the Center’s bomb shelter.
82 5 Why Are There So Many Chemicals in Our Food?

The rogue oxygen forms described above not only attack fats in humans but also
attack fats in foods. Saturated fats found in meat, milk, and chocolate as well as
monounsaturated fats found in olive oil are immune from these types of attack.
Polyunsaturated fats, particularly omega-3 fatty acids, are very susceptible. If left
unprotected in foods or supplements, dangerous molecules, some of which are
carcinogenic, can form in foods. Protection against such dangerous molecules
comes from the addition of antioxidants. Unfortunately, the natural antioxidants
that work so well in our bodies like alpha-tocopherol and beta-carotene are not
very effective in packaged foods and supplements. Artificial antioxidants such
as butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), and tert-
butylhydroquinone (TBHQ) are effective in very small amounts in preventing oxi-
dation of fats in vulnerable products. I am much more concerned about consuming
the molecules produced by oxidation that form in unprotected foods than the protec-
tive chemicals added to prevent oxidation. See some chemical structures are shown
in Fig. 5.1.
By now it should be clear that we live in a world completely governed by chemi-
cal reactions. It is my belief that rather than fearing chemicals we should try to learn
which molecules are a threat to health in the amounts we consume them and which
chemicals are beneficial.

7 Chemicals Are So Ubiquitous in Our Food Supply

from Farm to Table that They Are Impossible to Avoid

When we think about chemicals in our food we tend to think about pesticides, fertil-
izers, and food additives, but these molecules represent a very small amount of the
compounds that end up in our food. Pesticides are applied to organic and non-
organic crops to prevent attack by insects, disease, and weeds. Such molecules are
highly toxic when applied to the plant. Environmental chemicals are regulated by
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and an approved pesticide must
decompose rapidly before harvest. Although organic pesticides are more natural,
the idea that organic pesticides are safer chemicals than non-organic pesticides is
probably not valid. The type of fertilizer used is not directly related to food safety
unless the fertilizer is not properly composted, particularly if it contains animal
manure. It should be noted that restrictions on the use of animal manure are much
stricter for certified organic crops than for more conventional ones.
Ripening involves massive changes in the chemical makeup of a fresh fruit.
A fully developed green banana is not sweet, but astringent (puckers the mouth),
bitter, and sour. When it reaches a certain point it starts generating ethylene gas, the
ripening hormone. This chemical starts a wide range of reactions that break down
the green chlorophyll to reveal the yellow flavonoids in the peel and directly convert
the starch to sugar. The astringent, bitter, and sour compounds begin to disappear.
Among at least 30 chemicals that contribute to banana aroma, amyl acetate
7 Chemicals Are So Ubiquitous in Our Food Supply from Farm to Table… 83

a
HO OH
O O
HO

HO OH

c
HO

d
e

H O
O

O
H

H
O
H H

HO O O

O
f OH

NH

Fig. 5.1 Which one of these molecular structures represents an artificial antioxidant? All the other
structures are of natural chemicals. Answer is at the end of the chapter
84 5 Why Are There So Many Chemicals in Our Food?

( aka methylpentyl acetate) is the most banana like. Butyl butanoate (a marine
pollutant that irritates skin and eyes) and eugenol (aroma of cloves which can also
cause liver damage at high doses) are also present in banana aroma. The thick white
part of the peel under the yellow skin turns into sweet flesh as the peel becomes
thinner and thinner. The enzyme polyphenol oxidase turns the polyphenols from the
flesh to dark brown spots in the peel. Other enzymes act on cellulose and other fiber
compounds in the flesh to soften it. As the flavor compounds begin to accumulate,
the flesh becomes too soft, and we either reject it as overripe or turn it into banana
bread or a smoothie.
The development of a single chicken egg is a chemical masterpiece. The two most
familiar chemicals are water and cholesterol. Other chemicals in eggs include miner-
als and vitamins like thiamin, riboflavin, and biotin. The yolk forms in the ovary
producing many proteins such as lipovitellin and phosvitin and fatty compounds
including cholesterol. Another key chemical in the yolk is lecithin which keeps water
and fat from separating. The proteins in the white, including lysozyme, ovalbumin,
ovomucin and ovotransferrin, are formed in the oviduct of the hen which is where the
white and yolk combine and are coated with a calcium-carbonate shell. The white is
mostly water with no fat. In addition, the egg has an effective chemical shield to
protect it from invading microbes. Some of these natural preservatives present are acyl-
oxyacyl hydrolase, avidin, cathepsin, cytokines, follistatin, ovocalyxin, and serpins.
The ingredient statement for the Greek yogurt I had as part of my breakfast
yesterday reads
INGREDIENTS NONFAT YOGURT (PASTEURIZED NONFAT MILK), BLACK
CHERRIES, EVAPORATED CANE JUICE, WATER, CHERRY JUICE CONCENTRATE,
PECTIN, LOCUST BEAN GUM, NATURAL FLAVORS. CONTAINS LIVE AND
ACTIVE CULTURES S THERMOPHILUS, L BULGARICUS, L ACIDOPHILUS,
BIFIDIA AND L CASEI

The label is acceptable in some ways and fails in others. None of the ingredients
sound like chemicals, but the cultures have weird, unpronounceable names. The
active cultures are the probiotics that contribute to gut health and do not seem to
elicit the same concern from the pundits as unpronounceable chemicals. Even not
counting the cultures the product contains three more ingredients than the five
recommended by many pundits. Despite a relatively clean label, the product is a
complex mix of chemicals. Although the yogurt is almost solid, about 80 % of it is
made up of the chemical water. The nonfat milk provides the 12 g of protein found
in the Nutrition Facts, but it also contains calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium,
and many vitamins. The active cultures convert much of the milk sugar, lactose, into
lactic acid which gives plain yogurt a sharp, sour taste. To counter the sourness, the
company has added evaporated cane juice and cherry juice concentrate which
include the chemical sucrose to make it slightly sweet contributing to a total of 16 g
of sugar. Pectin and locust bean gum, both sources of fiber, are there to provide a
smooth mouthfeel, but there is not enough fiber in the product to show up in the
Nutrition Facts.
So Many Chemicals So Little Time 85

Manganese is described as an essential mineral when found in blueberries and as

a neurotoxin when it appears in tap water or migrates from a soda can into the drink.
Once again we are dealing with oversimplification to advance an agenda. Both
descriptions are true on their face and wrong in the context presented. Manganese is
indeed an essential mineral, but it is found in many processed and unprocessed
foods. We need very little of the mineral to be healthy, and it would take a very
restricted diet to be deprived of enough manganese. Likewise, the amount of man-
ganese it would take to be dangerous is much greater than anything we would ever
consume in foods or beverages. There could be a problem, however, if someone
decided to consume excessive amounts of manganese in the form of supplements.
A general principle for any essential chemical is that too little can affect health in
the form of a deficiency disease and too much can be toxic.
Much as we might like, we cannot ignore the chemical nature of our food supply
and the chemical reactions that occur around the clock within our bodies. As men-
tioned earlier, we are all chemically dependent on oxygen, water, vitamins, minerals,
protein, carbohydrate, and fat. At the same time we can be threatened by otherwise
health-promoting molecules that are overconsumed.

So Many Chemicals So Little Time

All foods are made of chemicals. Pretending that whole foods are chemical-free and
that the only chemicals in foods are those present in processed products doesn’t get
us anywhere. Cleaning up labels might make us feel better, but it does not make a
food any healthier or safer. A cleaner label just increases the total number of chemi-
cals in a food product. It is important that we move away from guilt by association
and toward rational discourse.
Food pundits have challenged the use of chemicals in our foods with a campaign
of rhetorical tricks that require no evidence and are rarely challenged. The biggest
trick of all is to pretend that we can avoid chemicals if we mostly buy foods with a
few ingredients that are all pronounceable. Pundits continue to bait and switch by
condemning all processed food and then using the worst cases such as sodas, chips,
and candy as examples. The guilt-by-association trick is exemplified by mentioning
that cellulose is an additive in cheeses and found in sawdust but failing to indicate
that it is also one of the major chemicals in apples and a primary component of
dietary fiber. Certain natural antioxidants such as tocopherol are considered to be
healthy even if not very effective foods, while artificial alternatives such as BHA
and TBHQ are condemned despite being much better at protecting us from oxidized
fats. The whole idea of dividing foods and ingredients into healthy and unhealthy
categories can lead to imbalanced diets and orthorexia. Almost every food has trad-
eoffs, and it is important to know and understand how to balance positive against
negative aspects as we make our daily food choices.
86 5 Why Are There So Many Chemicals in Our Food?

While food pundits have been deceiving us about the chemicals in our foods,
Big Food has been listening. Big Food studies what the pundits say, and their
food scientists design new foods that adhere to the letter of the concern but not
to its spirit. Nowhere is this practice more evident than in clean labels. Clean
eating is described as “the act of basing your diet on whole, unprocessed, prefer-
ably organic foods.” Food pundits and alternative processors have focused on
clean labels.
As a food scientist do I worry about these changes? I admit to some concerns.
Many of these changes are merely superficial and have no serious implications.
Some clean-label products may sacrifice quality such as flavor and mouthfeel. I hope
that doesn’t happen to my peanut butter cups. An emphasis on the name of the ingre-
dient rather than in preventing growth of dangerous microbes in the food during
storage is a concern, particularly if the microbes become dangerous before the food
is obviously spoiled. Replacement of more effective ingredients with ones that are less
effective can lead to shorter shelf lives and increased food waste. One of the benefits
of the clean-label movement is the window it is providing for new, more sophisticated
processes like high pressure processing to replace older methods like canning. The
new methods are gentler on vitamins and flavor without making the food any less
processed. I also worry about using techniques like modifying a molecule or an ingre-
dient so close to the edge of its definition of a clean ingredient and what it is going to
do for the quality, safety, and stability of the food.
No food is free of chemicals. To pretend otherwise is to set us up for disappoint-
ment and maybe even tragedy. In my life I try to face difficulties and challenges head
on rather than to invent a new reality. The hedgehogs of the world try to subdivide
life into black and white or good and evil and food into healthy and unhealthy or
processed and whole. I believe that as a more enlightened society we need to run with
the foxes who use their brains and knowledge to explore tradeoffs. How did we come
to this distinction in the safety of the food we eat, and is it as simple as the food
hedgehogs would have us believe? (see Figs. 5.2 and 5.3)

Fig. 5.2 Hedgehogs

subdivide life into black
and white or good and evil
and food into healthy and
unhealthy or processed and
whole. Sketch by Emily
McCallion
So Many Chemicals So Little Time 87

Fig. 5.3 Foxes use their brains and knowledge to explore tradeoffs. Sketch by Emily McCallion

Answer to question posed in Fig. 5.1: The correct answer is B. Structures shown are
A. ascorbic acid (vitamin C), B. BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene), C. α-tocopherol
(vitamin E), D. cholesterol, E. aflatoxin B1, and F. capsaicin (the chemical that
causes the heat in chili peppers).
Chapter 6
How Can We Tell Which Foods Are Real?

We eaters, alas, don’t reap nearly as much benefit from nutritionism as food producers.
Beyond providing a license to eat more of the latest approved foodlike substance, which we
surely do appreciate, nutritionism tends to foster a great deal of anxiety around the experi-
ence of shopping for food and eating it. To do it right you’ve got to keep up on the latest
scientific research, study ever-longer and more confusing ingredients labels, sift through
increasingly dubious health claims, and then attempt to enjoy foods that have been engi-
neered with many other objectives in view than simply tasting good.—Michael Pollan
The notion that humans got to a point in evolutionary history when their bodies were some-
how in sync with the environment, and that sometime later we went astray from these
roots—whether because of the advent of agriculture, the invention of the bow and arrow, or
the availability of the hamburger—reflects a misunderstanding of evolution.—Marlene Zuk

Perhaps no one has changed the way we think about food in the twenty-first cen-
tury as much as Michael Pollan. I confess that his writing, in part, inspired me to
write this book. As seen in the quote above, he has introduced the concept of “nutri-
tionism” which from his perspective has focused attention on eating to supply nutri-
ents rather than on eating simple foods. His mantra has become “Eat food. Not too
much. Mostly plants.” He decries an obsession with healthy eating based on the
“chemical principles of nutrition” which change so rapidly that it is difficult to keep
up. He also criticizes the food industry for manipulating such information to their
benefit and our detriment. He asks us to forgo “foodlike substances” for real foods.
Food pundits criticize nutrition science because the guidelines change so much
from month-to-month and sometimes even week-to-week. Big Food is ready to
jump on the bandwagon by picking up on the latest change and marketing a product
to fit popular culture. Nutrition science gets the blame, even though the standard
recommendations change very little from year-to year. It is the steady stream of
news stories in the media, books from the pundit class, and endorsement by celebri-
ties that are fueling the confusion, and not the advice of nutritionists and dietitians.
Resistance to processed foods is not anything new. Reverend Sylvester Graham
advocated strict vegetarianism and criticized commercial white bread for removing
bran and adding unhealthy ingredients in the mid-1800s. His mission was picked up

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 89

R.L. Shewfelt, In Defense of Processed Food,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45394-1_6
90 6 How Can We Tell Which Foods Are Real?

by the Kellogg brothers of Battle Creek, Michigan, who opened up a sanitarium to

cure the ills associated with unhealthy diets. The Kelloggs turned common grains
into healthy products that were meant for more than just breakfast. Thomas Welch,
concerned about the evils of liquor and the temptation of communion wine, extended
the shelf life of grape juice through pasteurization. In the twentieth century, Wendell
Berry led a movement against “chemicalization” of food and agriculture and for a
purer, healthier diet.
Diet fads may be more widespread today than at any time in American culture,
and Big Food is there to satisfy the needs and desires of the public as the industry
seeks to capitalize on emerging trends. Detox diets and the Paleo Diet are only two
popular fads promoted by American celebrities. Such diets are typically rated by
panels of nutritionists as health endangering rather than health promoting. In one
such survey, the Paleo Diet was ranked 32nd out of 32 diets evaluated and criticized
for limiting the permissible foods to the point of missing out on some essential vita-
mins and minerals. Paleontologists like Marlene Zuk clearly state that the Paleo
Diet is not even historically accurate. Food books, particularly diet books and cook-
books, continue to be best sellers. New mantras are emerging such as “be suspicious
of anything invented after Taylor Swift was born” (December 13, 1989).
Processed foods have changed their face since the arrival of the classic foods of
the 1950s and 1960s. Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, Little
Debbie snack cakes, Pringles Potato Chips, SPAM, and Wonder Bread have with-
stood the test of time and are still available. More recent hits including low-carb
energy bars, Greek yogurt, guacamole, hummus, and California sushi rolls have
taken over niche markets. Emerging products invented after Taylor Swift was born
have been designed to appeal to people interested in health and wellness. Such prod-
ucts include Argo tea, Guyaki organic Yerba Mate tea, siggi’s Icelandic style
strained whole-milk yogurt, and Way Better Snacks.
Big Food has been successful at exploiting food trends that bubble up from the
bottom. New product evolution frequently follows a curious path from obscurity to
sales stardom:
• a publication or website will advocate a particular food or ingredient for its
health-promoting properties,
• a small company will produce and market a processed version of that food or
ingredient capturing its nutritional essence,
• the mainstream media picks up on the product and its health benefits bringing it
widespread attention,
• Big Food picks up on the hype and either buys out the small company or designs
a competitive product that will benefit from its logistical superiority,
• a strong advertising campaign makes the product a big star bringing even more
attention from the mainstream media, and then
• food pundits point out that the product is not nearly as healthy as originally
claimed and blame Big Food for deceiving the public.
One example is bottled water. In the 1970s, a movement against municipal water
supplies revealed the presence of small amounts of chemicals in the water supply.
1 Real Foods Are Those Our Great-Grandmother Would Have recognized as Food 91

To address consumer concerns, small companies provided “spring” water in glass

and plastic bottles. Intermediate-sized US and European companies entered the
market with catchy brand names. Since major soda companies already purified
water for their products, these corporate giants introduced their brands of bottled
water which quickly dominated the market. Their superior product distribution net-
works and massive purification equipment already in place along with advertising
prowess gave the beverage giants a huge competitive advantage. Other examples of
products that proceeded through many, if not all, such evolutionary steps include
agave syrup, decaffeinated coffee, Graham crackers, healthy-grain breads, pome-
granate products, and nondairy milks. How many of the emerging brands mentioned
in the previous paragraph will follow this pattern? Yet, for all the concern about
health and wellness, there was a great public outcry over the demise of the American
icon, the Twinkie, and great celebration for its rebirth!
It appears to me that many of the food pundits have adopted Michael Pollan’s
perspective on nutritionism and a rejection of nutrition science. The beginning of
the “chemicalization” of nutrition was the discovery of vitamins and their role in
disease prevention. It was through this knowledge that humans were able to combat
the dread diseases of beriberi, pellagra, pernicious anemia, rickets, scurvy, and other
such disorders. Food scientists working in new product development for Big Food
companies have been particularly successful at improving the flavor and lowering
the costs of products aimed at promoting health and wellness. With all the confusion
that has been generated Pollan stepped in to give us some simple rules to help dis-
tinguish real food from foodlike substances. In the remainder of the chapter I look
at a few of these rules to see if the rules are simplifying the situation or adding more
confusion. Note, unlike the bold statements in previous chapters, those listed below
are straight from the thoughts of food pundits. My responses in this chapter will
directly challenge the assumptions supporting these rules.

1 Real Foods Are Those Our Great-Grandmother Would

Have recognized as Food

According to Pollan, food was much safer and healthier back in the days before
vitamins and minerals were discovered. He rejects foods that would perplex our
great-grandmother or grandmother suggesting that we return to a simpler time, long
before Taylor Swift was born. We are asked to avoid products widely advertised to
kids, particularly those found in the refrigerated food section with cute names, bear-
ing long lists of ingredients and filled with salt, sugar, or fat. In other sections of the
store we should avoid items advertised in modern media and coming with excess
plastic packaging. Many of these foods are superfluous, contributing little to the
American diet other than convenience, enjoyment, and excess calories. The rule
implies, however, that in the good old days when most foods in contrast to today
where most products called foods are bad.
92 6 How Can We Tell Which Foods Are Real?

Using great-grandmothers or even grandmothers as a guide presents a wide

range of options based on age. My great-grandmothers were born in the 1800s and
saw many innovations in processed foods in the early 1900s. They would not have
recognized most of current packaged foods, however, or most items that required
refrigeration. From what I have pieced together from family genealogy, my great-
grandmothers lived into the 1920s. At least three of them lived on farms most of
their lives before moving to town in their twilight years. My great-grandparents
presumably grew and processed much of their own food. Without refrigeration,
their meat was probably highly salted to keep it from rotting. My great-grandmothers
lived in Canada benefitting from a short but productive growing season and the abil-
ity to store their vegetables in a root cellar. They probably never cooked on a gas or
electric range and would have bartered for staples like flour, salt, sugar, and tea. My
great-grandmothers lived through the meat scandals described in The Jungle. After
moving off the farm into town, they would most likely have bought and consumed
unfortified, white bread.
My grandmothers, and the great-grandmothers of my nieces, lived primarily in
the twentieth century, seeing the refrigerator replace the icebox and a growing num-
ber of packaged foods available at the corner store. The Williams family lived in the
big city and enjoyed home delivery of milk. Grandfather Williams preferred milk
that wasn’t homogenized as he skimmed the cream off the top for his coffee and left
the remaining skimmed milk for my grandmother who was a late riser. He had
strong opinions on everything, including his food and would not eat white bread.
Grandfather Williams was the last of seven children and claimed that he didn’t
know there was any part to a chicken except the back and neck until he was a
teenager. The chicken platter was passed down from oldest to youngest. He lived
into his 1980s; Grandmother Williams had a debilitating stroke in her 1950s and
died after several years as an invalid in a care facility.
I never knew my father’s father. He was apparently obese and died of a heart attack
before I was born. Grandma Shewfelt who was short, thin, and wiry lived into her
1980s on the family farm. She grew a vegetable garden and collected fresh eggs from
the chicken house every morning to go with fresh bacon. Much of what she prepared
for herself and for large family gatherings was on a wood-fired stove (see Fig. 6.1)
later replaced by a small, electric range. She loved to go to town to the picture show
and to buy food and ingredients she couldn’t make at home. She had a sweet tooth and
was known for her pies, particularly lemon meringue and rhubarb. When my parents
were out of town she came to take care of my sister and me, spoiling us with a bounty
of food, particularly sweets. I’m sure that she would have recognized Oreos, Coke,
chocolate bars, potato chips, ice cream, butter, whole milk, and sugar-coated cereals
as food. She would have regarded anything that went into a microwave oven, diet
drinks, gluten-free anything, pizza, sun chips, or smoothies as not real food.
Now Grandma Shewfelt fixed meals of a meat, potatoes, two vegetables, and a
dessert, but she is someone society would not want feeding today’s children. My
mother, and a great-grandmother to my niece’s children, was a great cook. Each
lunch and dinner was the standard meat-potato-vegetable-dessert combination. Her
blueberry, cherry, pumpkin, and raisin pies were delicious. The blueberry and cherry
1 Real Foods Are Those Our Great-Grandmother Would Have recognized as Food 93

Fig. 6.1 A wood stove

that is somewhat
reminiscent of the one my
Grandma Shewfelt cooked
on for most of her life.
Shown is the 2002-B
Margin Gem Wood Cook
Stove available for sale
http://www.antiquestoves.
us

fillings came out of a can and Crisco was an ingredient of choice for the divine
home-made crusts. She was not a fan of spicy foods—Pepperidge Farm croutons
were at her limit for spiciness. She loved very bland Chinese foods but considered
Mexican and Indian food an abomination. Later in life she lived in a retirement
home within a 5 minutes walk to a grocery store. She had a very limited grocery
list—instant oatmeal, bananas, cottage cheese, Lean Cuisine, and soft batch
chocolate-chip cookies.
The point of this section is that the great-grandmother rule is relative to one’s
age. Processed food has been around for a longer time than many people realize.
Cracker Jacks and Hershey bars go back to 1900. Other popular brands like
Twinkies were introduced in 1930; Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, 1937; Jiffy Pop
Popcorn, 1951; Sweet ‘N Low, 1957; and Pringles Potato Chips, 1961. Many of the
more modern, processed foods introduced to the American diet in the past few
decades that are considered real would not have been recognized even by my
mother such as almond milk, chai, quinoa flakes, soy burgers, and tahini. A corol-
lary to the great-grandmother rule is that “If your great-grandmother was a terrible
cook or eater, you can substitute someone else’s grandmother—a Sicilian or French
one works particularly well.” I suspect that most of us would need to travel across
the sea to find an ideal great-grandmother, but do we really want to turn in our
loved-ones for strangers?
Avoiding highly, salted, sugared, and/or fatty foods is a good idea, but the great-
grandmother rule seems to me over the top. Another food rule to keep it real involves
hugging the exterior of the supermarket and avoiding its interior.
94 6 How Can We Tell Which Foods Are Real?

2 Real Foods Are More Likely to be Located

on the Perimeter of a Supermarket and Not in the Middle
Aisles

Pollan urges us to keep out of the middle aisles if we are to avoid foodlike sub-
stances. As we move around in a grocery store we generally proceed through a
bakery, to produce, meats, and dairy—more likely than not to encounter whole
foods than those that have been processed. Numerous books including nutrition
texts agree that whole foods are more likely to be real foods than those in boxes,
cans, or jars that appear in the middle aisles. Also, foods on the perimeter rot faster
than those in the middle aisles. There are obviously foods in the middle aisles that
are tempting and not so healthy, but are we willing to give up on staple foods and
important ingredients that are displayed in the middle aisles?
Since retiring and moving to a warmer location I am fortunate to live within bik-
ing distance of two very nice grocery stores. I shop at both stores because each has
some features which I prefer over the other. On the perimeter of each store I can find
breads that were baked fresh that day, a somewhat limited supply of fresh vegeta-
bles, an excellent selection of wines and beers, refrigerated dairy and related prod-
ucts, along with great meat and seafood departments staffed by real butchers. I tend
to spend most of my shopping time on the perimeter, but I also select items from the
middle aisles of each store for processed items that I would have trouble doing
without.
Skipping the middle aisles of the store essentially eliminates most packaged,
unrefrigerated foods. Where else would I be able to buy a high-fiber breakfast
cereal, oatmeal, pasta, tomato sauce, long-grain rice, and a host of other items used
at least once or twice a month? Also, ingredients used to prepare home-made meals
such as flour, salt, sugar, coffee, condiments, and spices require trips up the middle
aisles. My purchases also include some not-so-highly-thought-of products like
energy bars, diet sodas, and ice cream. I usually wait until the check-out line to pick
up peanut butter cups or an acceptable substitute.
I bike to a wonderful farmers market every Sunday morning after church open from
8:00 AM–1:00 PM for the eight months of the year it is open. My first stop is to order
a baked-while-you-wait, wood-fired, Neapolitan, chorizo-and-red-pepper, 12-inch
pizza which I share with my wife. The selection of fresh produce is broader than the
local grocery stores, particularly with respect to exotic, tropical fruits, but the prices
tend to be higher than the local grocery stores. Also, I can find beignets, ice cream,
high-sugar snacks, artisan breads, strudel, chocolate, tea, coffee, and meaty or meatless
casseroles. Some items are organic; others are not. Some items come with ingredient
statements; others do not. Finding an item at a farmers market presumes that it features
nothing but clean ingredients, but how are we supposed to know for sure?
Judging foods on the basis of their location in the supermarket or their availabil-
ity at a farmers market does not appear to me as all that useful. Such rules imply that
we are not smart enough to judge the value of a food based on its merits. Then again,
if we want to eat natural food, it is not really natural unless it rots.
3 Real Foods Rot 95

3 Real Foods Rot

Food pundits and I agree that the only really natural food is one that rots. Big Food
wants us to believe that their customers can have natural food while not having to
worry about it rotting, but naturally processed foods and natural cooking are oxy-
morons. From the time we buy a natural food until the time we eat it the rotting
clock is ticking—much faster for some foods than for others. Those of us who live
in an affluent environment can toss rotten food in the trashcan and head over to a
nearby supermarket to pick up a fresher replacement. Consumers in not-so-affluent
neighborhoods don’t have that option. In rich countries we are prone to throw away
anything that looks the least bit objectionable. In poor countries, the ravages of rot-
ting are more likely to lead to insufficient food, hunger, and sometimes starvation.
Cooking is mainly associated with increasing the palatability of a food, but its pri-
mary purpose is to preserve a food. Thus, cooking is a crude, but effective means of
food processing. Cooked food does not rot as fast as raw food. Those vegetables that
are shuffled to the back of the crisper and start to ooze foul-smelling liquids last much
longer in a more convenient form as leftovers if cooked and then refrigerated.
Refrigeration is another form of food preservation, designed to slow rotting, an option
not available to many of our great-grandmothers. For many years any food that was
refrigerated was not considered to be fresh. At least one pundit today agrees that once
an item is cooled it is no longer fresh. In the 1950s I lived for a few months in a middle-
class neighborhood a block away from an icehouse. As someone fortunate enough to
have never lived in a home and rarely slept in a motel room without a refrigerator, I can
only imagine the difficulty associated with families who could only afford an icebox.
There are many times where fresh foods are not appropriate. When the threat of a
major storm is predicted, people flock to the nearest grocery store or supermarket to
buy bottled water and nonperishable foods located in the middle aisles. Fresh fruits,
vegetables, meats, sushi, and other items that require refrigeration or cooking are not
on most shopping lists. When disaster strikes in hurricane-ravaged areas, after a tsu-
nami or during a famine, fresh foods are not appropriate. Bottled water, biscuits, and
meals-ready-to-eat (MREs) are provided by aid agencies. The biscuits are not like
ones found for breakfast at fast-food restaurants but more like a cookie with limited
sugar content. These survival foods are highly processed, highly packaged, question-
ably palatable, safe, and nutritious designed to prevent hunger and starvation in dif-
ficult times. MREs are also highly processed, highly packaged, and highly nutritious
that resemble real food, but the rations are high in calories and high in salt. Some
religious and survivalist groups encourage their adherents to store up to as much as
year of rations for potential times of adversity. Freeze-dried and canned foods as well
as bottled water provide the foundation for many of these strategies.
Home preservation of food is not as common today as it was for my grandmoth-
ers and mother with the ready availability of food in restaurants, supermarkets, and
other venues. Home canning, freezing, and drying are part of preserving food from
a home garden or animal pen. Chickens and rabbits provide an excellent source of
fresh meat for families who live in areas where keeping meat animals in backyard
96 6 How Can We Tell Which Foods Are Real?

pens is permitted by local governments. It also helps if the family is not squeamish
about slaughtering animals at home. Such practices require land, time, and effort
which many of us are either unable or unwilling to commit. Killing and dressing
wild game is still a rite of passage for many boys and some girls in rural areas, but
hunting seems to be a dying pastime in many parts of the country. Other popular
methods of food preservation are fermentation and baking—more sophisticated but
just as effective as cooking.
Throughout history human resources have been poured into providing enough
food to sustain existence. Hunter-gathering societies survive on the availability of
game and edible plant life in the surrounding area which can become endangered
when agriculturists move in. When the range can no longer support a tribal popula-
tion, the community may become nomadic. Hunter-gatherers seek to live in har-
mony with their surroundings, while agriculturists seek to change their environs.
“Advances” in modern civilization have crowded out many of areas on the globe
that used to support a hunter-gatherer society. In the state of Georgia, the Ocmulgee
River divided the state. As European settlers invaded the state, an amicable settle-
ment was reached between the farming Europeans and the hunter-gathering tribes.
The settlers were confined to the area on the east side of the river and the tribes were
free to live in and roam the land on the river’s west side. This arrangement worked
out well as it takes more land to support a hunter-gatherer lifestyle than an agrarian
one. Unfortunately, peaceful coexistence ended when settlers increased in popula-
tion and needed more land to grow crops and raise animals.
The twentieth century brought major cultural changes to the USA. Between 1900
and 2000, the percentage of Americans living on farms decreased from 39 % to 1 %.
Crop failures during the Great Depression led to abject poverty in rural society and
breadlines in the cities. The Dust Bowl started a migration of poor Midwestern
farmers to the fertile valleys of California as fruit pickers and other manual laborers.
Once economic conditions started to improve, racial discrimination drove a migra-
tion of the minority population in the South to the industrial North. Introduction of
new agricultural practices including the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides as
well as the replacement of draft animals with machines freed up a wide range of the
population to pursue nonfarm occupations. The industrialization of food products
slowed or prevented rotting. Shelf-stable foods, the development of ready-to eat
products, and use of microwave ovens dramatically decreased food preparation
times which may have contributed to the entry of more women into the workforce.
In 1950 women made up 28 % of employed workers in the country, and by 2000 that
figure had risen to over 47 %.
Eating fresh, perishable foods before any sign of rotting is a true delight. The
industrialization of food and agriculture has contributed to the consumption of less
fresh-cooked meats and vegetables than a century ago. I find it difficult to imagine
a transformation from a large rural society to the modern urban landscape, however,
without major changes in how food is grown, harvested, and processed. I do not
think that it still possible to return to the idyllic times of our great-grandmothers. I
also do not believe that there are enough people living in cities and working in sky-
scrapers willing to leave their high-paying jobs to return to small organic farms to
4 Real Foods Are Cooked by Humans and Not by Machines 97

feed those of us who wish to live and work in cities or suburbia. Not only have there
been changes in agriculture and the types of food available to Americans over the
past century, but home cooks also have new tools to prepare food.

4 Real Foods Are Cooked by Humans and Not by Machines

Home cooking can be a highly personal and highly creative activity. A dedicated
cook can design meals specifically tailored to preferred tastes of a nuclear American
family. The meal really starts in planning and selection of just the right ingredients
during shopping at the market. It is assumed to be more likely that home cooks will
serve smaller portions that contain less salt, sugar, and fat than those concoctions
cooked by corporations. A meal prepared by loving hands adds even greater than
just its flavor and healthfulness. If we can’t eat at home, then we are urged to eat at
a place where real people prepare real food instead of food cooked by corporations.
The family meal may, however, be another victim of the modernization. Few fami-
lies now eat three meals a day together as my family did in the 1950s. My sister and
I walked to school, my dad walked to work, and we all came home for the noon
meal. Mother did not have a job outside the house and always had a hot meal ready
for us when we came home.
Once again we are confronted by a question of semantics. Cooking implies many
things that may or may not be necessary steps. Some traditionalists insist that cook-
ing begins with selecting of fresh ingredients. Is the human cook diminished if the
fresh ingredients are delivered to the door through an online service? Another
essential step may be the mixing of fresh ingredients by the cook and not using
premixes or highly processed ingredients found in the middle aisles. A microwave
oven may not be appropriate, but most American homes are equipped with either
gas or electric units. Newer technologies like convection ovens with pre-
programming for specific foods, some containing two chambers to allow cooking at
two different temperatures simultaneously, are now available. 3-D printing is her-
alded as the next step in kitchen technology. How much advanced technology is
permitted before the human element is no longer evident?
When does a food lose its human touch and become machine-made? The answer
may not be as simple as it first appears. Obviously, someone who chops down a tree,
cuts it up into firewood, and roasts meat over an open fire, on a spit, or in a pit is
cooking that real food without the aid of machines. Roasted game that was shot by
the cook or meat from an animal raised from infancy and slaughtered humanely by
the cook would be even more real. My wife and I lived in a pecan grove which pro-
vided an ample supply of fallen limbs to make a fire to roast hot-dog wieners which
we inserted into white-bread buns and garnished with ketchup mustard, home-made
chili, and cut-up onions. I’m not sure how many processed products one can use
before it becomes merely food preparation and not real cooking. If someone roasts
their own game or local meat in a gas or electric oven, does that constitute cooking
by a human or is the oven considered a machine? Certainly cooking a frozen entrée
in a microwave oven would be more machine cookery than human involvement.
98 6 How Can We Tell Which Foods Are Real?

I have had the opportunity to visit many historical homes such as in Sturbridge
Village in Massachusetts, the Hermitage in Tennessee, the Florida winter home of
Edison, and Biltmore Estates of North Carolina. Many of these homes are magnifi-
cent until the tour arrives in the kitchen. Even the most enthusiastic cook of the
twenty-first century would be challenged by the primitive conditions of these places.
Kitchens built in the nineteenth century were usually attached to, but separate from,
the main house to decrease the chance for a fire from the wood stove burning down
the main house. Like Grandma Shewfelt, most kitchens got their water from a hand
pump not sheltered from rain or snow. None of the kitchen devices that many of us
rely on such as a coffee maker, dishwasher, garbage disposal unit, juicer, toaster, or
water filter were available to my great-grandmother cooks. How many of these use-
ful tools does it take to turn modern-day cooking from a human activity to a
machine-assisted task?
As described previously, heat can bring out hidden flavors in foods with just the
right touch, but excess heat can damage delicate flavors and nutrients. The more
sophisticated the technology, the easier it will be to heat a food just enough to cook
safely and achieve the best flavor without destroying nutrients. As Americans we
complain about technology taking over our lives, but we seem to never fail to invite
advances in kitchen technology when it promises to make our lives easier or better.
Then there is the whole question of inviting manufactured food into our homes.

5 Real Foods Grow on Plants But Are Not Made in Plants

Pollan has a wonderful way with words and phrases. Eating what comes off of
plants is a good thing. Many authors and groups are urging us to eat more fruits and
vegetables and less meat. As in the previous rules, the idea that we should increase
fresh produce is admirable. Yes, many manufactured foods are junk foods and
should be consumed only occasionally, if at all. Visions of massive equipment play-
ing with our food instead of being prepared by loving hands is impersonal and
somewhat unnerving, but is a clever play on words a good substitute for personal
judgment?
Unfortunately, most foods harvested from plants are not as convenient as pack-
aged foods and take more time to prepare than many of us would like. Fresh corn
needs to be husked; fresh kale, washed (unless it comes in a bag); fresh potatoes and
carrots, peeled; peas, shelled, and on and on. Such tasks can be fun on weekends
with plenty of time to be creative, particularly when off the grid with helpers and
family conversation. The same efforts can quickly turn to drudgery if done each
evening after a long day at work with hungry mouths wanting to know when supper
will be ready. Convenience, the biggest advantage Big Food offers, once again rears
its ugly head! Even “fresh” fruits and vegetables at the local supermarket probably
have been through a packinghouse for washing; sizing; grading; sorting; packing
into boxes; storing in large, refrigerated warehouses; and shipping across the coun-
try. With the some notable exceptions every produce packinghouse I have walked
through has a similar feel to every food processing plant I have visited.
5 Real Foods Grow on Plants But Are Not Made in Plants 99

During my student days and as a faculty member I had the opportunity to get up
close and personal with how many foods were made or handled in plants. I have
scooped and sold ice cream in the dairy of the local college, worked in the ware-
house of an asparagus canning plant, and performed routine tests in an analytical lab
for a company that made condiments and packaged spices. I managed the lab for a
plant that produced juice concentrate and distilled spirits from peaches and helped
develop products for a company that made bite-sized, egg rolls. In addition I have
taken the opportunity to visit packinghouses for fresh tomatoes, peaches, green
beans, sweet onions, and blueberries. I have toured food processing plants that
slaughtered chickens and cows and packed the meat; turned potatoes into chips;
made hot-dog wieners; produced glass bottles for beverages; manufactured tofu;
mixed and froze ice cream; clarified, separated, pasteurized, homogenized, and
bottled milk. None of these plants looked anything like the horrors that some authors
associate with food processing but much more like those scenes in the television
show Unwrapped.
Avoiding anything made in a plant eliminates much of what many of us enjoy
daily. Forget the junk food. What about all those useful products or ingredients
found in the middle aisles? We would have to do without bread, breakfast cereal,
tomato ketchup, dried fruits, and frozen vegetables. Around the perimeter we find
milk, butter, meats, fish, and eggs. Again, almost everything in the supermarket has
been through a processing plant or packinghouse. Even many of the foods found at
farmers markets have probably also been through packing operations or plants. Now
one might quibble about what the word “made” means, but if an item has been
through a packinghouse or plant it has been handled as much or more by machines
as it has by human hands. Chances are the last hands that touched the fresh fruit
before it shows up in a package at the supermarket were hands of an undocumented
worker earning less than a living wage.
The size of ovens and other cooking and mixing equipment in major food manu-
facturing plants is much larger than what is found in homes, but many of the prin-
ciples are the same. Mixing is done with giant mixers, but humans still weigh and
add individual ingredients in many plants. Many ingredients may have been pro-
cessed in other plants in forms not available to home cooks. Ovens in the food
industry are not only much larger than what is found in the typical American kitchen,
but processors may be using more advanced technology. Many of these advance-
ments, however, are in use in restaurants that we frequent. Rotary-hearth ovens,
used in pizza kitchens, move the trays inside it such that the food can be loaded and
unloaded through the same window. Impingement ovens found in some sandwich
shops heat the food from both sides at the same time cutting the heating time in half
with more even heating. I once sampled cookies coming out of a football-field-
length, impingement oven in a plant that produced vending-machine snacks. The
hot cookies were almost as good as mother’s home-made ones even though the
cookies coming out of the machine don’t do anything for me.
The point here is that kitchens in fast-food to fine-dining restaurants are not that
much different from kitchens in a typical American home except that the appliances
take up more space and take advantage of more sophisticated technology. Likewise,
100 6 How Can We Tell Which Foods Are Real?

food manufacturing plants are not that much different from the typical American
restaurant kitchen except that the equipment takes up more space and takes advan-
tage of more sophisticated technology. Just as the American home kitchen has
evolved from wood-burning stoves to gas and electric ranges to convection ovens,
some of the advanced techniques now employed in restaurant kitchens and food
processing plants will move into the home. 3-D printing offers the promise to mix
and layer ingredients in the home in ways humans have found difficult or impossible
in the past. On the one hand, we are urged to eat more food from plants and less
meat, while other pundits encourage us to eat more food from animals.

6 Real Foods Include Meat, Eggs, Cheese, and Whole Milk

This rule, not from Pollan but from another pundit, seems to contradict the previous
one. Contradictory statements between books that reject processed food are com-
mon. One of the most controversial areas in which foods we should eat and which
ones we should avoid comes down to food from animals and food from plants.
Although there is general agreement among pundits recommending an increase of
foods from plants with a decrease in meat consumption, some arguments against a
vegetarian lifestyle are coming from unexpected sources. A prominent nutritionist
recommends consumption of red meat no more than one to two times a month.
Michael Pollan himself seems conflicted about eating flesh with his recommenda-
tion to eat mostly plants in one book seemingly contradicting his eloquent ode to the
joy of preparing and eating pork barbecue in another. A former vegetarian has writ-
ten accounts of wanting to eat healthy who become concerned of depriving them-
selves of essential nutrients.
A general misconception about meat and other animal products is that it is only
valuable to us as a source of protein. Meat, milk, and eggs are rich sources of nearly
complete protein, but these whole foods are also excellent sources of vitamins and
minerals. Red meat provides iron in a form that can be readily absorbed and used by
the body. Milk from animals is rich in calcium that is not present in as high levels in
milks from plant sources supplemented with chemical additives. The major nutri-
tional concern about eating food that comes from animals is that it is generally high
in fat, particularly saturated fat. Thus, the dietary guidelines suggest that we cut
back on animal products, particularly red meat and whole milk.
Books advocating the elimination of some or all grains do not allow much mar-
gin for error for a vegan. It is very difficult to design a healthy vegetarian diet with-
out grains. Vegans and other vegetarians must be careful make other changes in
their diet than just eliminating meat. Such a move can deprive the body of sufficient
protein and other important nutrients. Lacto-ovo vegetarians generally have no trou-
ble receiving enough protein, vitamins, and minerals. Strict vegans need a deeper
understanding of nutrition to ensure that adequate mixing of proteins and preventing
the development of vitamin- or mineral-deficient diseases. The genius of successful
indigenous, vegetarian diets is the mixing of complementary protein from grains
6 Real Foods Include Meat, Eggs, Cheese, and Whole Milk 101

and beans. Over-consumption of food from animal sources tends to show up in the
form of increased weight gain and bad medical reports. Under-consumption of nec-
essary nutrients is slower to become evident, but it can also result in debilitating
diseases if not caught early enough.
Vegetarianism has a long history in America as an alternative to the standard
meat-and-potatoes fare, but it has never made it into the mainstream. Perhaps the
most influential vegetarian in American history was Sylvester Graham. Many of the
principles of the movement against processed food were either started or adopted by
him as early as the 1830s. He became a vegan; advocated the consumption of more
fruits and vegetables, preferably raw; was a strong opponent of white bread; and
believed in water cleanses. One of Graham’s ideas not accepted today was the elimi-
nation of spices which he believed promote violence and sexual deviancy. His
movement gained credibility when his followers did not become victim to a major
cholera outbreak that ravaged the meat-eating community. He developed the coarse,
whole-grain flour that bears his name, probably did not invent the Graham cracker,
and would likely condemn the modern product. Graham was vilified for his advo-
cacy of vegetarianism. He died at a relatively early age, 57. His detractors blamed a
lack of nourishment because he did not eat meat. His supporters attributed his
decline in health to his diet before he became a vegan.
Many advocates favor vegetarianism due to religious objections, concern for the
welfare of farm animals, and the association of meat with obesity and other diseases
of civilization. Two other arguments against meat are equity and sustainability. Lack
of fairness in food distribution around the world and the increased natural resources
needed in meat production are driving forces behind a switch from meat to food from
plants. People in wealthier nations around the world are being urged to eat less red
meat so the world will be able to feed the expected increase in population in the next
30 years. A complete elimination of meat from diets may not be necessary as farm
animals are capable of eating crops that are difficult to digest by humans. Significant
decreases of meat by observing Meatless Mondays and other schemes may be useful
if adopted by enough people. Unfortunately, the decrease in meat consumption in
wealthier nations will likely be dwarfed by increases in meat eating as incomes rise
for people who are currently vegetarians by economics and not by choice.
Another problem with meats, particularly processed meats, is that consumption
is associated with increased cancer risk. Meats cured with nitrates and nitrites, such
as bacon and luncheon meats can form nitrosamines which are carcinogens. Big and
Small Food use the labeling laws to get around this difficulty by using a clean ingre-
dient such as celery salt which is naturally high in nitrates and nitrites. The warning
about cancer goes beyond cured meats, however, and includes smoked and grilled
meats, particularly red meats. Dangerous molecules including benzopyrenes and
other polyaromatic hydrocarbons form at the high temperatures of grilling and from
the smoke generated over open fires. Reports that red and processed meats are as
dangerous as alcohol, asbestos, and smoking appear to be over-exaggerations.
Removing red meat completely from the diet makes it difficult, but not impossible,
to obtain some necessary vitamins and minerals, particularly iron. Maybe that is
why the noted nutritionist who wants to limit red meat from the diet also recom-
mends a daily multivitamin tablet.
102 6 How Can We Tell Which Foods Are Real?

In looking further into the future, I envision a shift to more fruits, vegetables, and
grains—away from meats and other animal products. We may face a world without
red meat for all but the very wealthy and those who raise the animals themselves.
Concerns about animal welfare, particularly on factory farms; the economic and
environmental concerns associated with raising animals; and the need for more land
to satisfy the demands for more fruits and vegetables will drive these changes. Such
a shift will not be without problems. The fertility requirements for the soil for rais-
ing animals differ from conditions for growing grain crops and for growing fruits
and vegetables. Major changes in cropland will be needed to produce enough fruits
and vegetables for Americans to meet the current dietary guidelines. A major reduc-
tion in the numbers of meat animals on farms will greatly reduce manure available
as fertilizer to grow organic crops. An increase in eating fruits and vegetables leads
to less calories from fat, particularly saturated fat in the diet. Unfortunately, it is not
clear if such changes will lead to expected decreases in total calories consumed.
Maybe we need to focus on the American sweet tooth.

7 Real Foods that Are Sweet Grow on Bushes, Stems,

and Vines

Humans are hard-wired for a sweet taste, and nature provides fruits to satisfy our sweet
tooth. Bushes and trees supply apples, bananas, mangoes, oranges, and pomegranates
for our pleasure and enjoyment. Brambles in thickets offer us blackberries, cloudber-
ries, gooseberries, and raspberries. On vines we find grapes, kiwifruit, melons, and
strawberries. There are some fruits like cucumbers, pumpkins, squashes, and tomatoes
that are not sweet and some vegetables such as carrots, corn, sweet onions, and sweet
potatoes that provide natural sugars. This rule encourages us to eat the fruit but not
drink the juice. With such a bounty of fruits available, why do we need any other sweet
foods? People around the world for centuries have sought out other sources of sweeten-
ers, generally through some type of primary processing. If we are truly looking for
sweets “as you find them in nature,” then we greatly limit our quest for sweetness.
There are only a few ingredients that are recommended as real sweeteners by
food pundits. These ingredients include maple syrup, honey, and jelly. Two of these
ingredients, however, undergo primary processing to make the sweeteners more
palatable and less likely to rot. Removal of water by heating is a major step in mak-
ing maple syrup and jelly and can be a minor step in preserving honey. In all three
products, it is the high level of sugar that acts as a natural preservative against bac-
teria by binding available water, the main principle behind most natural and added
preservatives. The steps in maple syrup manufacture include tapping the maple tree,
vacuum collection of the syrup, pumping into a collection tank, filtering, removal of
water, boiling to further concentrate the sugar, and filling into containers and seal-
ing. Making maple syrup is similar in large processing plants and small family
operations with the exception that there is generally more control and better sanita-
tion in larger operations. The maple sap contains about 2–3 % sugar while the fin-
ished syrup is about 65–70 % sugar after processing.
7 Real Foods that Are Sweet Grow on Bushes, Stems, and Vines 103

Following the sweet-food rule eliminates consumption of almost all chocolate

products. Most of us consider items like M&Ms, milk chocolate bars, and peanut
butter cups as junk foods. Are darker chocolate items permissible, and how much
cacao content makes it OK? Milk and dark chocolate products without added fruit,
nuts, or peanut butter are made up of primarily cocoa and sugar, meaning that any
product with less than 50 % cacao has at least 50 % sugar. Pure cacao is 55 % cocoa
butter (99 % or more pure fat) and 45 % cocoa powder (less than 1 % fat), meaning
that an 80 % cacao bar contains about 45 % fat and almost 20 % sugar. Honey con-
tains about 80 % sugar. Like maple syrup, honey is water based and not compatible
with chocolate. Most honey processing involves pasteurization which kills bacteria
present. Heat damages minerals, vitamins, and enzymes in raw honey, but the
impact of their loss on health is minimal unless one eats massive amounts of honey
and thus massive amounts of sugar. Note that the ratio of free fructose to free glu-
cose in honey is about the same as for HFCS. Raw honey is not pasteurized, but its
bacteria can be deadly to children under the age of 12 months.
Jams and jellies represent another potential opportunity for eating sweets as
nature intended. The steps in making strawberry jam at home include picking straw-
berries; washing jars, lids, and berries; hulling and crushing fruit; adding pectin;
cooking to a full boil; skimming off extra foam; testing for jelling; filling and seal-
ing the jars; heating in a boiling water bath; and removing and cooling the finished
product. Similar to processed jelly adding table sugar is optional, but this practice
may defeat the purpose of a natural product. Without added sugar, however, the jam
may or may not jell. Without added pectin, usually extracted from apples and puri-
fied, the jam remains liquid. Jelling occurs during boiling of the fruit due to a chemi-
cal reaction between sugar, acid, and pectin. The sugar content of jams and jellies
runs from about 65–70 % and the steps are similar if made in the home or in a pro-
cessing plant. Jams, jellies, fruit juices, maple syrup, and most honey are not sweets
“as you find them in nature” but rather are taken “out of its natural environment.”
Raw honey is the exception.
Pollan further encourages us to “Buy your snacks at the farmers’ market” and
“Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.” These rules seem
to contradict those rules on avoiding the middle aisles and eating sweets “as you
find them in nature.” Does the farmers-market rule supersede the sweets-in-nature
rule allowing me to sample the beignets, ice cream, and high-sugar snacks at my
local farmers market? Does it make a difference if these items look like they were
prepared by a human in a home and not made in a plant? Can I use processed sugar
and other dubious ingredients found in the center aisles if I am allowed to eat any
“cakes, pies and ice cream” as long as I make these tempting items myself? Does
this rule allow for sharing treats I made myself with family and friends or will that
corrupt those I know and love? Where does that leave us as we try to develop good-
eating habits? One food pundit boldly tells us that we just need to minimize eating
any sweets, period. Should we just stick with fresh fruits to satisfy our sweet tooth?
It seems to me that, when it comes to food, “real” is an even more squishy word than
fresh or natural.
104 6 How Can We Tell Which Foods Are Real?

Real Food vs. Foodlike Substances

One way to cleverly remove a perceived threat from something we don’t like is to
label it as not real, whether it relates to processed food, household devices, litera-
ture, music, or people. Again, such labels can be beneficial when forcing us to
rethink our positions on issues, but it becomes detrimental when serving as a short-
cut to avoid thinking critically. The use of the term “real food” by a food pundit is
used to support a preconceived idea that may or may not be based on any verifiable
criteria. On the other hand, “foodlike substance” is affixed to products that do not fit
into that pundit’s agenda. Big Food heavily markets junk foods that have little or no
nutritional value and should be eaten only rarely if at all. We do not need either Big
Food or the food pundits to tell us which products we eat are real or foodlike
substances.
I have a colleague whose favorite phrase is “that sounds real good when you say
it real fast.” Many food rules sound real good when read real fast, but these guide-
lines tend to be contradictory and difficult to follow. I suspect that such rules are not
issued to be hard and fast, but that these rules are aimed at getting us to think about
the food we eat and how it fits into our lives. At the end of his book full of rigid rules
Pollan tells us to “Break the rules once in a while.” Many rules toward the back of
Food Rules are similar to the suggestions made in Mindless Eating, such as control-
ling portion size and eating only when hungry. The major problems that I have with
food rules in general are the stereotyping of all processed foods as bad and the
substitution of arbitrary rules for conscious thought. It seems overly simplistic to
divide up everything in a complex modern world including the food we eat into
good and bad or healthy and unhealthy. Should we embrace technology in every
other area of our lives while banning it in our pantries and kitchens? Are we to
become zombies when it comes to our food under the complete control of the food
pundits or Big Food, or can we develop food habits that will help us live happier
healthier lives?
Without that lemon meringue pie grandmother made to spoil my sister and me or
the pies and cookies mother made with loving hands, I feel that I would have missed
an important part of my childhood. Food preparation was an important part of their
identity. Pleasing their children and grandchildren went to the heart of their self-
worth. Technology has changed. The daily assemblage two or three times a day of
everyone at the kitchen table is a vestige of the past for most families. In these
stressful times, a cook who can prepare two or three meals a day for everyone in a
family is not available to most two-earner households much less than in homes run
by single parents. Quality time between the parents and children has changed to the
point that one book author/mother has declared that “Homework is the new family
meal.” Certainly, there is the temptation to spoil children with junk food, and limits
set on sugary and salty treats make sense. It seems, however, that promoting rigid
rules that can be broken occasionally is not a good strategy. Instead parents and
children could develop a long-term plan that places junk food in the context of an
overall healthy diet.
Real Food vs. Foodlike Substances 105

The difference between food and foodlike substances appears to be in the mind
of the eater. I have read over forty popular books, cover-to-cover, to develop my (un)
popular response in the form of this book. My editor crushed my dreams of appear-
ances on NPR and Morning Joe by declaring “You’ll never see your book in an
airport bookstore.” I understand that my ideas go against popular opinion, and that
this book will probably never make it to the New York Times best-seller list or even
the top 1000 books about food on amazon.com. I do hope to stimulate readers to use
their critical thinking skills, however, to challenge common popular wisdom and
consider some of these ideas put forth in this book.
I have had the opportunity to visit both Disneyland and Disney World more than
once. On one visit I was intrigued as I observed employees dressed up as cartoon
characters roaming the streets to pick up any litter that happened to fall in the Magic
Kingdom. Every effort is made to shut out the real world and give the visitors a
special day. It may be fine to live in a made-up world, but we all need to return to
real life once we leave the park. It seems to me that food pundits are creating a Food
Fantasyland that is not compatible with modern-day life. In this Food Fantasyland
we can pretend that
• our great-grandmothers had a better food life in the past than we have today;
• the industrialization of agriculture has had only negative impacts on American
society;
• we can live modern lives without machines in our kitchens;
• we can garden without chemicals;
• we can eat food without ingesting chemicals;
• we are not dependent on such chemicals as oxygen, water, protein, vitamins, and
minerals;
• the number of ingredients in a food is more important than their quality and func-
tion; and
• long unpronounceable words represent bad things.
I am concerned that something as serious in our lives as food is becoming reduced
to either a set of arbitrary rules or mindless consumption of unhealthy junk foods.
Chapter 7
How Does Food Processing Change
the Nutritional Value of Foods?

As food science, food technology, and nutrition science progress, the food industry is
anxious to produce new products with the latest health benefits. There are far too many
examples to list in this space, but the recent change from refined grains to whole grains in
the case of ready-to-eat breakfast cereals and the addition of nutrients to foods in which
they don’t naturally occur (e.g., the addition of fiber to yogurt, the fortification of orange
juice with calcium) are just a few examples of “improved” foods with altered nutrient
content.—P.K. Newby
In matters of health, however, the public rarely requires proof. Most people trust intuition
more than they trust studies.—Mary Roach

The closest experience I ever had to primary food processing was on a summer
job at a Green Giant canning plant in Delaware. After a 24-hours bus trip, I was
welcomed with a thick manual on how to operate a steam retort, a huge pressure
cooker used to can vegetables. My greeter told me to study the manual and show up
for work that night. As the understudy of the retort operator I experienced the hottest
night of my life. We were perched with four other workers on a catwalk about half-
way between the plant floor and ceiling. Ten, 12-feet highpressure cookers at vari-
ous stages of processing were arranged in a semi-circle. Our task was to turn the
valves all the way the right way at the right time. The operator and I communicated
in hand signals as his English wasn’t much better than my non-existent Spanish.
The best case failure scenario was to ruin about $3000 of asparagus. The worst case
scenario was to turn these monster cookers under pressure into rocket ship/bombs
that would wipe out all of us on the catwalk. The next night, the regular operator
failed to show, and I was tapped as his replacement. That night was even hotter, and
I lost about 10 % of my body weight those two nights. I was transferred to ware-
house duty the next day.
My Green Giant experience at age 18 was between my first and second year in
college. Later in my food-science studies I learned that as much as half of the
B-vitamins and vitamin C can be lost during canning. I would also learn, when deal-
ing with fresh, processed, or formulated foods, that there are tradeoffs. Food
processing generally sacrifices nutrients in the short term to protect the remaining

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 107

R.L. Shewfelt, In Defense of Processed Food,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45394-1_7
108 7 How Does Food Processing Change the Nutritional Value of Foods?

ones over time by slowing or preventing rotting. Thus, food scientists are obsessed
with shelf life to the point of making short-term sacrifices to achieve long-term
stability of food products. Freezing and drying are gentler processes than canning,
but the benefits can only be realized if the food is kept frozen or dehydrated. Flash
(or cryogenic) freezing captures the vitamins in vegetables at their peak quality,
which is hard to match even in fresh foods from the market. Other options to pres-
ervation by heat include fermentation, high-pressure processing, irradiation, ultra-
filtration, and ultrasound. Dielectric heating, concentration, extrusion, ohmic
heating, and pasteurization are heat processes that are less damaging to nutrients but
more expensive than canning.
Some nutrients that are lost during processing or are missing from a diet can be
added to a formulated food to improve health. The answer to lost nutrients is to
supplement diets with vitamins and minerals. Food scientists use two tools, enrich-
ment and fortification. Enrichment involves the addition of nutrients, particularly
vitamins, which are lost during processing such as in the milling of grains. Most
breakfast cereals are enriched. Fortification, as P.K Newby indicates, is the addition
of vitamins or minerals that Mother Nature never intended. Examples of fortifica-
tion include adding vitamin D to milk and iodine to salt. The same benefits and
problems associated with enrichment and fortification come with consumption of
multivitamin pills and other supplements. More recently, practitioners of alternative
medicine and nutrition are recommending health-promoting chemicals that do not
qualify as essential nutrients, including antioxidants.
Two of the major challenges with respect to food and health are undernutrition and
overnutrition. Undernutrition occurs when we don’t eat enough food or enough of the
right kinds of foods. These diets don’t provide enough calories, protein, vitamins, or
minerals. Not enough calories or protein lead to the devastating wasting diseases such
as marasmus and kwashiorkor. Lack of sufficient protein or complete proteins can
cause loss of muscle. The widespread lack of sufficient vitamin A in diets around the
world affects eyesight, particularly in children. Likewise, insufficient folate (a B vita-
min) in a pregnant woman can lead to birth defects in her child. Scurvy is the disease
resulting from too little vitamin C and rickets from too little vitamin D. Low iron can
cause anemia; calcium, brittle bones; and iodine, goiter. Overnutrition involves eating
too much food or too much of the wrong kind of food. Overconsumption of calories,
fat, sugar, and sodium is of primary concern. Diseases associated with overnutrition
include obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and high blood pressure. Too much of
an essential mineral or vitamin, however, can be toxic.
It is generally best to consume nutrients in the form of food, foods in the context
of meals, and meals as the basis of a balanced diet. The argument for whole foods is
that their value is greater than the sum of its chemical components. Nutritionists and
food scientists counter that through scientific investigation we can better understand
which molecules in foods, such as vitamins and minerals, contribute to good health
and which ones do not. Food pundits tend to ignore those chemicals naturally present
in whole foods that prevent absorption of vitamins and minerals present. Natural
toxins that are also found in whole foods are rarely acknowledged. Nutrition is a very
complex field such that nutritionists don’t know everything about the relationship
1 Raw Foods Start Out With More Essential Minerals and Vitamins… 109

between food and health. Thus, food scientists are unable to design perfect foods
or pharmaceutical scientists, perfect supplements. Nowhere is the complexity of
nutrition more evident than when it comes to vitamins and antioxidants.

1 Raw Foods Start Out With More Essential Minerals

and Vitamins Than Processed Foods

The most important health-promoting considerations after oxygen and water are
adequate calories and protein. An estimated one billion people around the world,
many of them children, do not consume enough calories and protein to maintain
their health. Calories provide the energy to move, think, digest food, pump blood,
and keep all other activities inside the body going when awake or asleep. Protein is
needed to build muscle and to construct enzymes that perform most body activities.
Next come vitamins and minerals which assist enzymes in doing their jobs. If an
essential mineral or vitamin is unavailable, many enzymes are shut down. If this
situation continues for an extended period of time, a disease like pellagra or osteo-
porosis occurs. We can obtain these nutrients from whole foods, processed foods,
formulated foods, and dietary supplements. Whether amino acids, minerals, or vita-
mins are artificial or natural or whether nutrients come from plants or animals seems
to matter less than their bioavailability during digestion.
The presence of a vitamin or mineral in a food does not guarantee that our body
can use it. During graduate school I took the opportunity to take a nutrition course
which took an hour a day, five days a week for eight weeks focusing on digestion.
Digestion starts in the mouth and proceeds through the intestines breaking down
large molecules into much smaller chemical compounds. To make a health impact
on the body, vitamins, minerals, and protein components in the form of amino acids
must be absorbed into the bloodstream by crossing the walls of the intestines. Then,
these nutrients must be in the proper chemical form to be useful. The ability of a
beneficial food chemical to function in our bodies is called bioavailability. The
amount of a vitamin or mineral in a food or supplement means nothing unless it is
released from the food, absorbed across the intestinal wall, and present in the blood-
stream in a proper form for transport to the cells. Chemicals present in a food or
other foods eaten at the same time can either help or hurt absorption of a nutrient
and change its form either positively or negatively.
Heat can help improve the bioavailability of nutrients in the diet. As noted earlier,
whole fruits and vegetables contain hundreds to thousands of different chemical
compounds. Some of these compounds improve the absorption of nutrients into the
bloodstream and others interfere. For example, chemicals like oxalates and phytates
in beans can prevent the absorption of calcium. Heating of raw fruits and vegetables
generally improves the ability of digestion of needed nutrients by breaking down
chemical compounds that interfere with absorption. Dietary fiber is a plus in the diet
when it helps with digestion, prevention of intestinal disorders, and diversity of our
110 7 How Does Food Processing Change the Nutritional Value of Foods?

gut microbes. Too much fiber, particularly from supplements, or excess consumption
of high-fiber cereals, prevents proper absorption of minerals and can lead to bloating
and diarrhea. Some authors advocate eating only raw food, but it is difficult to even
maintain a healthy weight on a raw-food diet and to obtain the needed amounts of
essential minerals and vitamins. Raw meats and milk can be unsafe.
The vitamins and minerals in plant parts are not as available to us as similar
nutrients in animal products such as eggs, meat, and milk. Another view is that
plants, by natural selection, evolved in their internal chemistry to adapt to specific
environments. Animal-based foods are more similar chemically to human needs and
requirements than food from plants. Food from animals is also less likely to contain
compounds that interfere with nutrient absorption than food from plants. The strong
emphasis on animal products in US history has been aimed at preventing undernu-
trition. The emphasis on increasing food from plants instead of food from animals
is aimed, in part, at preventing overnutrition. The functional foods marketed by Big
Food and mentioned by P.K. Newby in the opening quote are based on the belief
that scientists know enough about nutrition to improve upon whole foods.
The situation becomes even more confusing when talking about antioxidants in
food which are more plentiful in food from plants than food from animals. The free-
radical theory of aging suggests that oxidation of fats in our bodies is the basis for
aging, development of many diseases of civilization like cancer and heart disease,
and the general deterioration of our minds and bodies. As described in Chap. 5,
vitamins A, C, and E help protect us from oxidation of fats. Minerals, particularly
iron, increase oxidation and can lead to problems if we get too much. The fats in the
body of most concern are ones that make up the membranes that surround every cell
and smaller components in these cells. Oxidation is a part of many important, natu-
rally occurring, metabolic processes in humans, including one which converts nutri-
ents in our foods into energy needed to perform any activity. Oxidation is also
destructive when not properly controlled. As we age our ability to defend against
the onslaught of oxidation decreases. Taking vitamin supplements does not appear
to be enough in itself to defend and repair damaged cell membranes.
By eating fresh, whole foods we can obtain needed vitamins and minerals to help
prevent undernutrition. Today, however, we seem to be more concerned about over-
nutrition. One molecule of particular concern is sodium chloride, found in table salt
and frequently in processed foods.

2 Canned and Frozen Foods Tend to be Higher in Salt

Than Other Foods

Most Americans consume too much sodium. Sodium is found in many processed
foods, primarily in the form of sodium chloride. It can also be found in numerous
other additives such as monosodium glutamate (MSG), sodium nitrate, and sodium
benzoate. One good thing about processed food is that the amount of salt is clearly
stated on the product label to tell us how much we are getting in a single serving. It is
2 Canned and Frozen Foods Tend to be Higher in Salt Than Other Foods 111

not so easy to tell how much is in the food at our favorite restaurant, fast or not-so-fast,
or how much we add to our food through the salt shaker. Salt can be misleading to the
taste. For example, a salted French fry or soft pretzel may not have as much salt as a
slice of bread because salt on the outside of a food tastes saltier than salt that has been
mixed in. The surprising number one source of sodium in the American diet is bread,
partly because bread doesn’t taste that salty and partly because we eat so much bread.
Food scientists add salt and many other sodium compounds to processed foods to
slow rotting, preserve quality, and help prevent food poisoning. Salt is the most
widely used preservative. Although “preservative” has become an obscenity to many
food pundits, a preservative is merely an ingredient that keeps a food safe and helps
prevent it from losing its appeal. The best place to tell how much sodium is in a
product is on the Nutrition Facts panel on a food label and not the ingredient list.
Sodium chloride contributes much more to the amount of sodium in our diet than all
other additives that have sodium in their names. To protect its image, Big Food fre-
quently uses the potassium alternative to the sodium compound such as potassium
sorbate instead of sodium sorbate. Since one of the main problems with sodium is the
amount of sodium we take in relative to the amount of potassium, this practice would
seem to be a good thing. Unfortunately, the total amount of these other ingredients is
unlikely to affect the balance of sodium and potassium in our bodies.
Too much sodium in the diet can lead to heart attacks, high blood pressure, stroke,
and other unhealthy conditions. Sodium collects in the bloodstream; potassium is
located in the cells. When the amount of sodium in our bodies is much higher than
the amount of potassium, water comes out of our cells increasing blood pressure.
When the amount of potassium is much higher than the amount of sodium, water
floods the cells. When drinking too much water relative to the amount of sodium and
potassium, the body is overwhelmed, and the water becomes a toxic chemical and
can even cause death. While most Americans are consuming too much sodium, some
of us are consuming too little. Too little sodium in the diet can lead to increased blood
cholesterol and triglycerides that could also increase the chances for heart disease.
The bottom line is that we need salt, but most of us get too much of it.
Processed food is not the only source of sodium in our diet. Fast-food restaurants
are known to be purveyors of highly salted food, and it is not just the fries. A large
order of fries from McDonald’s contains 12 % of our daily value for sodium, but the
Big Mac contains 40 % of the daily value. From the nutritional information, we can’t
tell how much of that sodium is in the bun, the burger, or the toppings. A regular
hamburger bun bought in the supermarket for a homemade burger contains 9 % of
the daily value. Since the Big Mac bun is larger, it probably contains as much or more
sodium as a large order of fries. Although, we can go online to find out the amount of
sodium is in specific fast-food menu items, it is not as easy to find out the amount
of salt added to food served in upscale restaurants. New federal guidelines may
require chains to list the amount of sodium present in their menu items in 2017.
There are alternatives to processed foods that contain too much sodium. Low-
salt canned and frozen products are available in the supermarket, but these products
have less flavor than the full-salt version and are not big sellers. Nuts have devel-
oped a healthy reputation despite being high in calories. Also, we tend to prefer
112 7 How Does Food Processing Change the Nutritional Value of Foods?

salted products over ones that are unsalted or lightly salted. The best way to tell
whether a processed food has too much salt is to look at the Nutrition Facts on the
label. Contrary to popular opinion, kosher salt and sea salt generally contain as
much sodium as table salt. For cooking purposes coarse-grain salts contain a little
less sodium in a teaspoon than fine-grain salts because the coarse grains don’t pack
together as tightly as fine grains. One trick that Big Food uses to reduce sodium in
foods processed for restaurants is to replace sodium chloride with MSG which
packs more flavor punch with less sodium than regular table salt. Too much salt is
not the only problem with processed food. Many of these products are also loaded
with too much sugar and fat.

3 Hyperpalatable Foods Are Filled With Too Much Sugar

and Fat

As indicated in Chap. 4, if food addiction exists, hyperpalatable foods are to blame.

Although salt is implicated in high blood pressure and is present in fries, chips,
pretzels, etc., it is the combination of sugar and fat in processed junk food that many
of us find too tempting to resist. Sticky buns and oversize muffins are available at
the free breakfasts that accompany a stay in a hotel or motel. If the sugar and cream
in a morning latte are not enough to get us going, we can add a sweet pastry for just
a few dollars more. Doughnuts, cakes, and cookies make regular appearances in
breakrooms at work. If the free stuff is not enough, there is always the nearest
vending machine with sugar-laden sodas next to machines loaded with candy bars,
chips, crackers, and other sweet or savory treats. No staff or committee meeting is
considered civil without snacks, usually of the hyperpalatable variety.
Americans consume too much sugar in too many forms. Sugar is always in our
face. It helps overpower the bitterness of caffeine in coffee and cola beverages.
There are at least 49 ingredients added to foods that are primarily sugar. Rather than
getting lost in the maze of sugar ingredients appearing in the Ingredient Statement,
the easiest way to see how much sugar is present is in the Nutrition Facts. The US
Dietary Guidelines recommends no more than 10 % of our calories come from
added sugar. For a 2000 calorie a day diet, only 200 calories should be from added
sugar or roughly 50 g of sugar. That amount of sugar is a very small amount for a
red-blooded American. For some perspective, a glazed doughnut is 10 g, a package
of two regular peanut butter cups is 21 g, a 12-ounce can of soda is 39 g and most
smoothies contain over 50 g. Although added sugars are considered the enemy,
dietitians question the difference between added and natural sugars in fruits and
their products. For comparison, a medium orange contains 14 g of sugar; a medium
ripe banana, 19 g and a large apple, 25 g.
Americans also consume too much fat, often not visible to the naked eye. The
biggest problem with fat, however, is that an ounce of fat has roughly twice the
amount of calories as an ounce of protein or carbohydrate. The first foods that come
3 Hyperpalatable Foods Are Filled With Too Much Sugar and Fat 113

to mind are fast foods and fried foods. Seafood, chicken, and even some vegetables
are battered, breaded, and deep-fried, with the breading particularly effective at
soaking up oils which count as pure fat. Deep-fried vegetables tend to be even
higher in fat per serving than deep-fried meats as there is more breading around the
surface of smaller veggies like okra soak up more fat. Bacon and cheese, together
or separate, are ingredients that add appeal and fat calories to any product. Not so
obvious fat-filled products are casseroles, salad dressings, and sauces.
Food scientists have designed sugar-free, no-sugar-added, low-fat, and reduced-
fat alternatives to gut-busting, hyperpalatable foods. Despite citing the dangers of
sugar and fat, many pundits indicate that the alternatives to be even worse than the
products mimicked. Molecules such as aspartame, sucralose, and acesulfame K are
found in many artificially sweetened products including diet sodas. Diet sodas are
consumed for many reasons including part of an overall plan to lower calories in a
diet, an excuse to consume higher-calorie items or an inability to control blood
sugar levels by diabetics. A report on NPR highlighted a study that showed that
diabetics consuming artificial sweeteners are just as prone to have uncontrolled
blood sugar levels as diabetics who consume sugars. It turns out that this study has
not been verified and that four of the seven participants studied were affected.
A favorite technique of some food pundits is to indicate that “at least one study has
shown that…” to imply that the claim must be true. A single published study must
be confirmed in different contexts before it becomes generally accepted by scien-
tists in the field. In addition, as Mary Roach indicates, the public trusts “intuition
more than they trust studies.”
Likewise, reduced-fat or low-fat products are considered suspicious. The Dietary
Guidelines and many nutritionists recommend diets of less than 10 % of calories
should come from saturated fat. Some food pundits, however, recommend con-
sumption of saturated fat as long as it comes from natural sources such as meat,
eggs, and milk. Foods described as good or bad are largely based on reputation.
Granola bars, smoothies, and other so-called healthy foods contain large amounts of
sugar, and some also are high in fat. Chocolate products are also high in sugar and
fat with the darker the chocolate, the lower the amount of sugar, and the higher the
amount of fat.
To call all hyperpalatable foods devoid of healthy ingredients is misleading.
Food scientists have become skilled at designing foods high in vitamins, minerals,
sugar, and fat. Depending on one’s point of view, these foods are either a ruse by Big
Food to hook people on unhealthy food or a way to deliver essential nutrients to a
population who would otherwise not consume these nutrients at all. Both points of
view probably have merit, depending on the person and the food. Imbalanced diets
are unlikely to do much damage in the short term, but the longer-term conse-
quences of such habits include diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome all of
which are very difficult to reverse. I’ve known some students and a few older
adults who absolutely refuse to eat any fruits or vegetables with the exception of
potatoes, preferably as fries. Addition of essential chemicals like vitamins to the diet
in the form of fortified processed foods, formulated foods, or one-a-day supplements
can be beneficial if daily calorie consumption is kept under control.
114 7 How Does Food Processing Change the Nutritional Value of Foods?

When foods containing fat enter the mouth, sensors in the mouth send signals to
the brain to get ready. Digestive juices in the stomach, containing enzymes that
break down the fat, are released. As the wad of partially digested food reaches the
stomach, long chains of fat molecules are broken down into smaller components.
Fat stays in the stomach longer than protein and carbs allowing us to feel full longer
than if we have a low-fat diet. As the smaller molecules of fat proceed to the small
intestine, fats break down into individual fatty acids with the amounts of saturated
and unsaturated fatty acids based on the types of fat consumed. These fatty acids are
then absorbed across the intestinal walls into the bloodstream and transported to the
appropriate cells in the body. Extra fatty acids are bound up by proteins and can end
up as triglycerides in our health records as an indicator of poor heart health.
Cholesterol, a larger molecule found in foods from animals, can also be transported
across the intestinal wall and into the bloodstream. Plant sterols found in vegetable
oils, some formulated foods such as margarines, and supplements help block our
bodies from absorbing cholesterol.
Not only can processed foods harbor too much salt, sugar, and fat, but many of
the vitamins present are artificial and not natural.

4 Refined Grains Are Usually Enriched with Artificial

Vitamins

Grains are edible seeds from grass crops that provide us with carbohydrates in the
form of starch. Although the seeds can be eaten whole, most grains are milled into
flour and processed further into formulated products such as breads and other baked
goods. Grains also contain vitamins, minerals, and protein. Vitamins and minerals
present in grains are more closely associated with the hard exterior of the seed
which is less digestible than flour from the interior and often bitter. The more a grain
is refined, the more vitamins and dietary fiber are lost, and the more palatable the
final product to most consumers. Enrichment and fortification of bread products was
introduced in the 1940s as a way of making up for the loss of vitamins and minerals
during milling. Concerns raised today about Americans not being able to qualify for
military service due to obesity echo those concerns during World War II about
military-aged men diagnosed with vitamin deficiencies.
Although grains are composed primarily of starches, they also contain protein.
The problem with protein from grains is that plant proteins are not complete pro-
teins as is found in animal products. We need to ingest the 8–10 (depending on age)
essential amino acids to build the proteins needed by our bodies. Most animal pro-
teins are close to being complete, but most plant proteins are not. By combining
products from grains such as barley, quinoa, rice, and wheat with beans, vegans can
eat diets that provide a plentiful mix of essential amino acids.
The outer hulls of grain seeds provide needed dietary fiber. Unfortunately, the
fiber in grain products is not as beneficial as that from most fruits and vegetables.
The phytate chemicals in whole-grain products bind minerals and prevent
4 Refined Grains Are Usually Enriched with Artificial Vitamins 115

absorption during digestion. Refined and bleached flours provide breads and
other baked goods that appeal around the world even though these products have
become a target of derision. Food pundits like to use the phrase “the whiter the
bread, the quicker you’re dead.” There are both nutritional benefits and limita-
tions to white bread. The vitamins and minerals added to breads and breakfast
cereals made from refined flours are more bioavailable than similar chemicals
present naturally in whole-grain breads. On the other hand, dietary fiber found in
wheat and other grains helps slow digestion in the stomach thus keeping us from
getting hungry as quickly. Dietary fiber is also considered beneficial for micro-
bial diversity in maintaining a healthy gut.
Some sources question the benefit of enrichment and fortification suggesting that
artificial vitamins are not as potent as natural ones, but most nutritionists do not
believe that natural vitamins are superior to artificial ones. In many cases an artifi-
cial vitamin is more likely to be absorbed in the gut than a natural one. Failure to get
enough of a specific vitamin or a mineral in the diet will eventually result in a nutri-
tional disease. Fortification of specific foods with essential minerals and vitamins
has decreased the incidence of deficiency diseases in Europe and the USA. The
problem with fortification and supplements is the potential of overdosing on single
vitamins or minerals.
Staple foods around the world usually have a grain component. Whenever wheat
is introduced into a culture it is generally adopted as a staple and replaces a more
traditional grain. The reason that wheat flour is so popular is that bread and other
baked goods are so soft and fluffy due to the presence of gluten in products made
with wheat flour. Gluten is a combination of two special proteins found in wheat,
glutenin and gliadin. When wheat flour is leavened either with yeast or the chemi-
cals in baking powder, carbon dioxide is produced. The gluten forms and expands,
but it does not break like proteins from other flours leading to the light, fluffy texture
that is desired around the world. Other types of breads for sale like rye bread are still
primarily made from wheat flour because the rye flour doesn’t have the magic pow-
ers of wheat flour. Gluten-free breads are produced using flours from grains such as
quinoa or rice. Design of such breads is much more difficult than from wheat
because of the lack of stretching power of the proteins in these flours. Furthermore,
gluten-free flours are frequently deficient in key vitamins and frequently higher in
sugar and fat to improve flavor.
When starches enter the mouth, the enzymes in saliva start digestion. Starches
are broken down into simple sugars, primarily glucose. Sugars are rapidly absorbed
through the intestinal wall and into the bloodstream. Sugars can be used for quick
energy. If energy is not required by the body, sugars are stored, primarily in the liver
as glycogen which is like animal starch and can make up to 5–10 % of body weight.
When energy is needed between meals, glycogen is the first source as it is broken
down to glucose. When glycogen is used up, the body needs to get its energy from
stored fat. Fiber and fat slow digestion. As described previously, fiber can help the
chewed food move through the digestive tract, but it can also prevent absorption of
needed nutrients. Heat is a key part of turning ingredients into desirable foods both
in the home and the food processing plant. Heating, however, has consequences
with respect to nutrition, safety, and quality.
116 7 How Does Food Processing Change the Nutritional Value of Foods?

5 Any Food that Is Heated Loses Vitamins and Flavor

Foods are heated to kill harmful microbes and to develop desirable flavors which we
associate with particular foods. Very few foods are sterile, e.g., are free of living
microbes. Canned foods are commercially sterile. Once a can of creamed corn is
opened and exposed to the air, it is no longer sterile as the air we breathe is teeming
with living microorganisms. Heating, through canning, cooking, or other means,
kills millions of organisms. Every other food we eat contains a mix of living and
dead microbes. Cooking changes the amount and bioavailability of vitamins and
minerals in food. Most vitamins are sensitive to heat. Vitamins can be inactivated or
converted to a form that is either not readily absorbed during digestion or not able
to be used by body metabolism. The type of cooking changes the amount of vita-
mins present. For example, boiling of vegetables in water drives water-soluble vita-
mins like the B-vitamins and vitamin C into the cooking water. Minerals such as
iron and calcium can also be lost in the cooking water. Heating in a microwave oven
or steaming vegetables are ways to help prevent these losses.
Cooking leads to major chemical transformations in a food. The difference
between the flavor of a raw food and a cooked one is due to the chemical reactions
that occur during cooking. While some heat may generate enticing aromas and fla-
vors, too much heat can destroy delicate flavors. For example, the most important
contributor to coffee flavor is roasting of the green beans. Based on the chemical
makeup of the bean, due in large part to the climate and growing location, some
beans develop richer flavors with a light roast and others with a darker roast. Many
coffee drinkers prefer darker roasts while others feel that the flavor of dark-roast
coffee is too harsh. Likewise, some steak eaters order a full-flavored, rare steak with
others preferring a well-done piece of meat.
Not all chemicals formed during heating are beneficial. Heating of foods above
250° such as in frying leads to formation of the molecule acrylamide, which is a
known carcinogen. Potato products such as French fries are particularly susceptible
to forming acrylamide since potatoes contain high levels of the amino acid aspara-
gine. It is asparagine that reacts with some sugars present in the potato during heat-
ing at high temperatures that is transformed into acrylamide. A GMO potato that
lowers acrylamide in French fries has been approved for production by the USDA,
but most pundits and many consumers are wary of consuming GMOs. Direct con-
tact of meat with an open flame promotes the formation of another potent carcino-
gen molecule, benzopyrene, such is in grilling chicken, pork, or hamburger.
Advanced processing techniques can kill harmful microbes without damage to
delicate flavors and nutrients. Although heat is very effective at killing microbes,
newer technologies are being developed to be as effective in keeping a food safe
with less loss of vitamins or flavor than traditional processes. One of the problems
with most types of cooking is that the food and its surroundings remain hot even
after the heat is turned off. Ohmic heating is a process in which electricity passes
directly through the food, and the heat stays on only when the current is on. Foods
can be put under high-pressure causing the microbes to collapse into themselves
6 Home Cooking Uses Real Ingredients for Healthier Meals 117

with little change in vitamins or flavor. Irradiation is a controversial technique that

can be effective at killing harmful microbes without as much damage to vitamins
and flavor.
When protein enters the mouth, signals are sent to the brain to turn on access to
enzymes that break down proteins into amino acids. It is the amino acids that we
need to absorb so our bodies can construct the proteins needed. Proteins that have
been heated are easier to digest than proteins from raw, whole food. Naturally
occurring protein from plants and animals tends to be densely packed with many
folds making it difficult for digestive enzymes to break the proteins apart. When a
protein is heated, it starts to unfold providing greater access for enzymes to break
the protein apart. Individual amino acids are sent to cells for protein manufacture.
The code for making a specific protein the cell needs is located in the DNA. Cellular
DNA produces RNA which is then sent to a specific location to assemble a long-
chain protein one amino acid at a time. If an essential amino acid is not present
when called on, protein assembly stops, and the cell is in trouble until the next snack
or meal. Cooking, then can be either beneficial or detrimental to the healthiness of
a food, but is home cooking superior to restaurant cooking or food processing?

6 Home Cooking Uses Real Ingredients for Healthier Meals

Home cooking from scratch is healthier than processed food only if the right ingre-
dients are used and portion sizes are controlled. Food pundits criticize processed
food for too much salt, sugar, and fat. Big Food has certainly been a primary con-
spirator in overloading us with these tempting components. The flip side of this
argument is to cook more meals at home with fewer processed ingredients. Again
that sounds real good when we say it or read it real fast, but it is much more difficult
to know how much salt, sugar, or fat we are really eating without any access to the
Nutrition Facts.
Processed food is condemned for too much salt, but how do we know how much
sodium we add at home? At least one food pundit and a government source suggest
that we need not worry about the salt added during cooking or at the table. A recipe
calling for 1/2 teaspoon of salt for a recipe of four servings contributes over 10 % of
the daily value. Recipes that use processed ingredients such as cheese, miso paste,
and soy sauce also add to the home-cooked contribution to our sodium intake. As
far as the salt some people shake on their food, the little packets of salt at fast-food
restaurants contain ¼ teaspoon or 25 % of the daily value for sodium. Of course,
anyone who adds salt to a fast-food meal probably should not complain about too
much sodium in their food. Many recipes call for sea salt or kosher salt subtly sug-
gesting that they represent healthier alternatives to table salt. Both of these salts tend
to be coarser, such that a teaspoon of kosher salt or sea salt contains a little less salt
than a teaspoon of fine-grain salt. Sea salt also contains minerals, particularly
magnesium, that is not present in table salt, but the amount of magnesium relative
to the amount of sodium is of little nutritional consequence.
118 7 How Does Food Processing Change the Nutritional Value of Foods?

Too much sugar is another concern raised about processed food. As noted earlier
in the chapter, like Big Food, food pundits and home cooks have found out ways to
disguise sugar in a recipe without calling it sugar. A sugar packet found on a restau-
rant table is the equivalent of a teaspoon (4 g of sugar). Three cups of coffee with
two sugar packets (or teaspoons) with each cup provide about 60 % of the sugar in
a can of regular soda and about half of what is recommended by the Dietary
Guidelines for added sugar in the diet. A teaspoon of pure maple syrup also contains
about 4 g of sugar, and a teaspoon of honey contains about 5.5 g of sugar.
Fat in most homemade recipes comes from butter and cooking oils, but fat can
also sneak in from other fresh and processed ingredients such as avocado, choco-
late, dairy, egg, meat, and nut butters. There are many sources to guide us as to
whether we should use saturated or unsaturated fats and which types of cooking oils
are better for us than other types. Such advice tends to obscure the nature of oils
which are 100 % fat. As chefs, product developers and skilled home cooks know,
fats are important in the development of desirable flavors and the appreciation of
how a food feels in the mouth. It becomes difficult to stick with a low-fat diet as
following one tends to change from a satisfying experience to a chore.
Home-cooked products can also be laden with salt, sugar, and fat. In studying the
recipes featured in books that have criticized our reliance on processed food, I found
some interesting tidbits. Nutrition Facts statements were produced for six recipes
that I selected from these books. The statements can be found in Fig. 7.1. Note that
each of these recipes raises at least one red flag. The miso-glazed tofu and the pork
shoulder barbeque contribute more than 40 % of the daily value for sodium. Adding
the recommended sauce to the pork would bring that total to almost 60 % of the
daily value for salt. The banana-nut cake contains 34g of sugar per serving, which
is almost as much as a 12-ounce sugared soda (39 g) and equal to 68 % of the recom-
mended calories in a day from sugar for a 2000-calorie diet in a single serving.
More than half of the calories in the Golicious Granola, pork shoulder barbeque and
roasted walnut-oil salad come from fat. The healthiest of these recipes, spicy tomato
kale soup, still contributes to 19 % of the daily value for sodium. The serving sizes
were calculated under the guidelines of the Code of Federal Regulations, just as
required for processed foods.
Now I expect these authors to protest that I carefully selected some of their more
extreme recipes to make my points, and that the salt, sugar, fat, and calories come from
natural sources and familiar ingredients. I acknowledge their point in advance, but I
believe that the authors should be held to the same standard used in their books to judge
the labels of processed foods. In addition, many familiar ingredients in the recipes such
as goat cheese, olive oil, rolled oats, and sea salt have been processed before reaching
the store and our pantry. Some natural ingredients may also be hazardous to our health,
such as the brown rice syrup in Golicious Granola which is almost pure, processed
sugar and has been associated with unacceptably high amounts of arsenic. The rice
contains arsenic which is then concentrated during manufacture of the syrup.
The main point in this exercise is that some recipes in books guiding us to healthy
eating contain hidden levels of salt, sugar, or fat just like many processed foods. The
exercise also illustrates how difficult it is to design recipes and diets that meet the
nutritional guidelines for salt, sugar, and fat. Old family favorite dishes and recipes
6 Home Cooking Uses Real Ingredients for Healthier Meals 119

Fig. 7.1 Would you consider these processed foods healthy or not? All labels were prepared from
recipes published in books that are skeptical of processed foods. They were prepared using Genesis
R&D, version 9.14 nutrition label software and guidelines published in the US Code of Federal
Regulations

published in other books magazines or on the internet are not likely to be concerned
about limiting salt, sugar, fat, and calories. The main difference in ready-to-eat pro-
cessed products and the foods made from published recipes is that the processed items
are transparent with respect to nutritional content, and most recipes are not. Note also
that these recipes represent just one dish and not necessarily an entire meal.
Finally, portion size may be a major contributor to how much Americans eat and
how obese we become. Controlling the size of plates is one way of controlling
portion size as one tends to eat what appears on the plate. Limiting the amount of
120 7 How Does Food Processing Change the Nutritional Value of Foods?

second helpings also limits the amount of food eaten and calories consumed.
Between the time I started to write this book and the time I finished, my wife gave
up on retirement and went back to work. The two of us are blessed with several nice
restaurants within a quarter-mile radius of her place of work. About once a week, we
have a picnic lunch together from a take-away entrée that costs us anywhere between
$15 and $25. Even when sharing an entrée, we tend to overeat. Portion sizes at
restaurants are becoming extreme.

7 Fine Dining Restaurants Promise Healthier Meals

than Those Offerings from the Chain Restaurants

Americans are eating out more now than ever before. It is easy to assume that the
more expensive the meal and the more it looks like real food, the healthier it is. The
traditional mid-western American meal consists of a meat, potato dish, two vegeta-
bles, and a dessert. This fare is the type of meal I grew up on. Few meals served at
restaurants or even at home limit the meat to 3 ounces or the size of a deck of play-
ing cards as recommended by dietitians. The emphasis on reducing carbs in our
diets hurt the potato growers and manufacturers of potato products, but the potatoes
served in a steakhouse or seafood restaurant tend to come in the form of a large
order of fries or a loaded baked potato. Cooked vegetables may come naked or in a
butter sauce generally high in saturated fat, salt, and maybe even some sugar. Many
salads are loaded with salt, sugar, and fat, no longer serving the purpose of eating
more vegetables. Most dessert offerings are sugar-and-fat bombs.
Let’s not forget the free bread brought to the table while waiting on the meal to
arrive. The fluffy, generous dish of butter guarantees a greater helping of fat than
those pads (4 g of fat and about 34 calories in each pad) available in cheaper restau-
rants. The alternative is the extra-virgin olive oil in a small dish with assorted aro-
matic herbs, at least a tablespoon (14 g of fat and about 120 calories) that is rapidly
absorbed by the spongy white bread. Then there is a glass of red or white wine, typi-
cally 120–200 calories per glass or 600 calories per small bottle.
What I like about fast food that I can’t get when dining at finer establishments is
that I have some control over portion size. At the nearest McDonald’s I usually
order a Big Mac, regular fries, and a diet drink which comes with 45 % of my daily
value for sodium, 9 g of sugar, 39 g of fat for a total of 770 calories. I can then adjust
other meals for the day around an anticipated fast-food meal to avoid problems of
eating too much. At my favorite pizza place I order a garden salad with ranch dress-
ing, a slice of white pizza, and an order of breadsticks dripping with liquid butter.
At times I have tried to get a half-order of breadsticks without success—it is all or
nothing. Unfortunately, I am unable to resist eating about ¾ of the breadsticks as my
wife is either slower to grab a stick dripping with liquid butter or less tempted than me.
The nutritional value of the meal is unavailable, but I suspect that the pizza meal has
double the amounts of sodium, fat, and calories as my typical McDonald’s meal.
In comparing the two meals, the pizza is more satisfying at twice the price.
Changes in Nutritional Quality When Food Is Processed 121

One feature of Obamacare is the requirement that chains with more than 20 restau-
rants must post nutritional information on their menus. Like many other parts of this
complex law, the requirement has been delayed. Congress is considering legislation to
repeal the provision due to pushback from the restaurant industry. Some areas of the
country have gone ahead and posted such information, either voluntary by the restau-
rant or mandated by state or local governments. Indications are that participating
restaurants are reducing salt, sugar, fat, and calories for at least some of their dishes.
Where does this discussion leave us? Are the food pundits right that Big Food is to
blame or can we incorporate processed food into a healthy diet?

Changes in Nutritional Quality When Food Is Processed

Nutrients, particularly vitamins, are lost when food is processed, particularly when
food is canned or grain is milled. Nutrients are also lost in fresh foods when an item
is not refrigerated or when kept in the refrigerator for a long time. Once a food is
canned, the remaining vitamins are stable. Due to the wilting and packing of canned
foods during processing, frozen vegetables remain good sources of nutrients and
dietary fiber. Milling removes vitamins and fiber which can be replaced by enrich-
ment with natural or artificial means. Despite concerns about artificial vitamins,
enrichment of white bread in the early part of the twentieth century essentially elim-
inated deficiency diseases that were a major health threat. I am not that concerned
about the loss of nutrients in processed food.
Today’s food pundits are much more concerned about overnutrition than under-
nutrition. Too many processed foods have too much salt, sugar, and fat, but at least
we can clearly see on the label how much salt, sugar, fat, and calories are present.
The nation’s health would be better if fewer of these junk foods were sold and con-
sumed. As I have tried to make clear in this chapter, however, without a label to
guide us we assume that there really is all not that much salt, sugar, and fat present
in home-cooked foods or restaurant food that looks like home cooking. When a food
is prepared by a real person rather than in an impersonal manufacturing plant, we
assume that it must be healthier for us. The amount of salt, sugar, and fat added dur-
ing cooking or at the table is probably more than most of us think. Although we may
scan the Nutrition Facts for a packaged food, we are much less likely to scan the
labels of the familiar ingredients purchased from the middle aisles and used in our
recipes. Even when we only add a little bit, those little bits add up.
In my reading I tried to find out what makes up a healthy diet according to the food
pundits. In comparing the concept of healthy eating in 21 books that recommend
greatly reducing or eliminating processed food from the diet, I found a number of
specific recommendations that contradicted each other. For example, the following
choices are given:
• The only healthy diet consists strictly of plant-based whole foods, OR plant-
based diets should be supplemented with some animal products OR animal
products should be a major part of the diet;
122 7 How Does Food Processing Change the Nutritional Value of Foods?

• Wheat and most other grain should be eliminated, OR a plant-based diet that
eliminates some, if not all, grains is dangerous;
• Saturated fats should be limited in the diet OR saturated fats are OK if found in
natural foods;
• Fats are more unhealthy than carbs OR carbs are worse than fats;
• We should consume more protein, OR consume less protein OR get our protein
from plants but not from animals;
• Sugar is not healthy, OR sugar is OK for some if it comes from natural sources like
fresh fruit, maple syrup, or honey OR sugar is OK only if we add it ourselves;
• Salt is unhealthy OR we only need to concern ourselves about salt if it comes from
processed food or restaurants but not from home cooking or the salt shaker;
• A calorie is calorie OR some calories are more unhealthy than other calories;
• The greatest danger in our food comes from unpronounceable chemical additives OR
we should be more concerned about the amount of salt, sugar, and fat in our diet;
• Vitamin, mineral, and other types of supplements are a good idea, OR we should
try to get our nutrients from real food OR supplements are nothing but a rip-off
and unnecessary;
• Buy organic whenever possible OR buy local when given a choice between
organic and local;
• Fresh is always better than processed OR minimal processing and frozen fruits
and vegetables are fine as long as there is little or no added salt or sugar;
• All processed ingredients should be avoided when cooking at home, OR only use
processed ingredients from approved processors OR familiar ingredients such as
canned tomato products are OK to use;
• Food can be classified into two groups: good for us and bad for us OR such classifica-
tions are over-simplistic and generally not helpful in designing a healthy diet;
• GMOs and any food or ingredient suspected of being GMO should be avoided
OR GMOs are not mentioned indicating a lack of concern.
It is no wonder that we are so confused about what we should or should not eat!
Food pundits blame nutritionists for the confusion of which foods are healthy and
which ones are unhealthy. It appears to me that there are more contradictions among
pundits than among nutritionists and dietitians as seen in the minor modifications
made in the Dietary Guidelines that are adjusted every five years.
To clarify, recommendations from dietitians and nutritionists include balancing
foods from plants and animals, limiting consumption of saturated fats. Sugars should
make up no more than 10 % of the calories consumed and salt consumption should
be less than 1 tablespoon each day. Other than limiting the amount of calories from
sugar, a calorie is a calorie. Vitamin and mineral supplements are recommended
when it is difficult to obtain the daily allowances from our diet, but it is usually better
to get those nutrients from food. The body cannot tell the difference between natural
and artificial nutrients. Fresh fruits and vegetables are preferred, but additional
processed foods are generally necessary to meet nutritional requirements. These
health professionals don’t classify individual food as good or bad, recommending a
wide range of foods in a diet of moderation. Organic foods and GMOs are neither
considered to be beneficial nor detrimental to nutritional health.
Changes in Nutritional Quality When Food Is Processed 123

It can’t be denied that Americans are becoming fatter and less healthy as we con-
sume too much food with too much salt, too much sugar, too much fat, and too many
calories. It is easy to blame processed food and fast food while giving homemade
meals and independent restaurants a pass. I hope that in the future, restaurants of any
size, but particularly the chains, will provide Nutrition Facts and ingredient state-
ments for every item on the menu. The same prescription holds for any book or web-
site that provides recipes, particularly those sources that make claims for the healthiness
of their recommendations. Once again the hedgehogs described earlier in the book over-
simplify nutrition and state their opinions forcefully. The foxes’ more nuanced approach
is no match for the certainty of the hedgehogs (see Figs. 7.2 and 7.3).

Fig. 7.2 Hedgehogs

oversimplify nutrition and
state their opinions
forcefully. Sketch by
Emily McCallion

Fig. 7.3 The foxes’ more nuanced approach is no match for the certainty of the hedgehogs. Sketch
by Emily McCallion
Chapter 8
How Safe Is the American Food Supply?

The public’s conception that cancer is unnatural and is principally caused by environmental
pollution is the major reason that the public has fear of chemicals and that many people seek
natural cures. Any health measure that increases life expectancy will also drive up the inci-
dence of cancer, as cancer risk increases significantly with age.—James P. Collman
In fact, the meat available in supermarkets today is less likely to be contaminated with botu-
lism or other deadly bacteria than that available in the past from local farmers or village
meat markets. But many more people are at risk. Farmers boast (with justification, I think)
that the food consumed by Americans is safer than at any time in the past. Never before in
history have consumers had such a wide array of food choices, with almost every imagin-
able food, both domestic and exotic, available at any time of year. Given the scope of the
food distribution system, it is a marvel that more outbreaks of bacterial infection, like the
one affecting spinach in 2006, do not occur. More rigorous inspection and tougher regula-
tions may allow marginal improvements, but overall, our food is safe.—Paul K. Conkin

One thing that brings food pundits and Big Food together is safety of the food
supply. Big Food obviously does not want to frighten or sicken its loyal customers.
A major recall damages their brand. A national media report of an outbreak can
have a major impact on the bottom line, and a major cover-up usually ends up in a
turnover of top management. Food pundits are genuinely interested in the health and
wellbeing of the general populace. Recalls, reports of outbreaks, and news of cover-
ups verify previous warnings pundits have issued about dangerous foods, corporate
greed, and irresponsibility by Big Food. Whenever there is such an event, Big Food
cites it as an isolated event while food pundits suggest the problem represents only
tip of the iceberg. Even consumer-friendly chains such as Chipotle, Trader Joe’s,
and Whole Foods are not immune to food safety issues.
Although most reported cases of illness and death from food are due to harmful
microbes, food pundits are more concerned with the safety of chemical ingredients.
The pundits point out that unlike widely publicized outbreaks from Salmonella, E. coli,
etc., the presence of chemicals in our foods is much more sinister than uninvited
microbes. Unlike James Collman in the opening quote, pundits suggest that cancer
is an unnatural consequence caused by unnatural chemicals. As mentioned previ-
ously, salt, sugar, and fat represent three other dangerous chemical compounds in

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 125

R.L. Shewfelt, In Defense of Processed Food,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45394-1_8
126 8 How Safe Is the American Food Supply?

our foods. Management and marketing groups within Big Food are embracing
consumer concerns about chemical ingredients in their products. Clean labels help
companies allay fears of dangerous chemicals as Hershey is finding out by becom-
ing one of the most widely admired companies among Millennials. Ironically such
an effort places pundits and Big Food on the same side. Many food scientists work-
ing in the industry, however, are wary of the gap between real and perceived benefits
of clean labels.
Unlike food pundits and Big Food, most food scientists are much more con-
cerned about dangerous microbes in the food supply, seeing little or no danger in
added food chemicals. Microbial contamination of foods sickens over 48 million
and kills over 3000 Americans each year. Most of these episodes never become
major news stories. One of the best protections against such outbreaks is through the
use of preservatives. Sugar and salt are the two most widely used chemical preserva-
tives. As the use of more potent molecules such as the benzoates, sorbates, and their
acids declines, I expect to see an increase in the use of sugar and salt and ways to
hide its presence on ingredient statements. Substitution of chemical ingredients
with clean ones can lower the quality of the product as minor changes in the mix of
ingredients can lead to major changes in product appeal. Of greater concern to food
scientists, however, is how it forces companies to skate closer to the edge of safe/
unsafe products because preservatives prevent growth of harmful microbes.
Performing such a task can also involve chemical modification of ingredients within
the confines of clean ingredients without a need to modify ingredient statements.
In this chapter I focus on food safety, starting with concerns about chemical
ingredients added to our food. Most of the chapter, however, will be devoted to
microbes in our food. There are three distinct roles microbes play in food. Microbes
are involved in food spoilage, food poisoning, and chemical modification also
known as food fermentation. Most species of microbes in foods are harmless and
have no impact on the food itself. These organisms are just hanging around. The
subject of food microbiology, however, cannot be discussed without also mention-
ing the complex of microbes that inhabit our bodies, known as the microbiome. The
microbiome—the collective body of microbes that inhabit our gut, skin, and body
orifices—is getting widespread attention. As we come to better understand the
microbes that occupy our bodies, we will need to change our thinking on how the
food we eat affects our health. Still, most Americans are concerned about the chemi-
cals that end up in their food.

1 Pesticides Are Highly Toxic Molecules

Of all the chemicals found in food, the scariest are pesticides. These molecules are
designed to kill and are deadly. Both organic and synthetic pesticides are highly
toxic, but there are more synthetic ones available for use than those approved as
organic pesticides. The reasons given for permitting these deadly chemicals on
crops are (1) pests are effective competitors for our food, particularly fresh fruits
and vegetables and (2) pesticides rapidly lose their potency from spraying in the
1 Pesticides Are Highly Toxic Molecules 127

field until harvest. The theory used by regulatory agencies is that these chemicals
pose a danger to agricultural workers but not to consumers of the affected crops as
long as the pesticides are handled properly. Critics suggest that pesticides are not
always handled properly and that children who consume “conventional” (nonor-
ganic) produce test positive for these chemicals in their blood.
There are three main types of pesticides: insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides.
Insecticides help prevent attack by insects. Biblical plagues of locusts are not just
ancient history. These insects devastated crops in the Midwest during the nineteenth
century and still affect crops in Africa today. The lack of local and state support for
farmers wiped out by the ravenous insect forced farmers to turn to technological
solutions from business and the federal government. The case has been made that
response to the crisis led to an expansion of farm equipment, introduction of organic
and conventional pesticides, and changed the direction of agricultural research to
problems of economic impact for farmers. Ironically, the best explanation for the
disappearance of the Rocky Mountain locust is that settlers along the banks of
creeks and streams in the Mountain West destroyed the insect’s habitat using cows
and plows to work the land.
Fungicides help protect crops from plant disease. It is estimated that natural
chocolate may disappear in the next few decades due to two diseases, witches broom
and black pod disease. Modern science currently lacks effective ways to combat
these diseases. Not to worry, though, as food scientists are working on artificial
substitutes! Finally, herbicides are applied to overcome competition from weeds.
Some of the controversial GMO crops have a built-in resistance to specific herbi-
cides permitting the plant to grow despite being sprayed with the chemical.
Most processed food is likely to contain less pesticide than fresh food. In primary
processing operations, major ingredients such as fresh fruits and vegetables or meats
are washed to remove dirt and microbes. During these cleaning steps, small amounts of
pesticides are removed, particularly those compounds that readily dissolve in water.
Some pesticides are resistant to water, but the molecules can be removed if a mild
detergent is used in the wash water. The two main processes that lead to increases of
pesticides in processed food are extraction and concentration. Concentration of bever-
ages such as juices removes water while increasing everything else such as sugar, col-
ors, flavors, and other natural chemicals. If the beverage starts out with any amount of
pesticide, the concentrated item will have more of it. Processors generally understand
these dangers and take steps to prevent an increase in pesticide levels.
I agree with most food scientists and the government agencies who develop and
enforce these policies and who believe that pesticides represent little danger to con-
sumers. I recall a conversation I had at a faculty reception with a colleague from
Environmental Health Sciences who had worked for years on tracing the sources of
illness and death due to environmental contaminants. She had recently started using
the same tools to study food poisoning from microbes. My colleague was amazed at
the huge differences in actual cases of illness and death from food outbreaks
compared with the often theoretical cases associated with pesticides. If the dangers
associated with pesticides are overblown, the dangers of chemical ingredients in the
food supply may also be exaggerated.
128 8 How Safe Is the American Food Supply?

2 Food Additives Are Still Permitted in Formulated Food

Products

As indicated in a previous chapter, additives can be either direct or indirect. Direct

additives are declared on the label, and indirect ones are not. Additives can either
use chemical names or common names. For example, baking soda and sodium
bicarbonate are different names for the same chemical, but the former name is
familiar and sounds much less dangerous than the latter. All food additives must be
approved by the FDA. The GRAS list was drawn up as part of the Food Additives
Amendment passed in 1958 to the Pure Food and Drug Law of 1936. Additives on
the GRAS list are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Manufacturers seeking
approval for a new additive must demonstrate both safety and efficacy (effective at
performing the stated function in the amount present in the product) of it before
FDA approves of it. The testing required to seek approval of a new additive is rigor-
ous and time consuming. One of the safeguards written into the Food Additives
Amendment is the Delaney Clause which states that no substance that has been
found to cause cancer is to be added to food. In 1996, Congress passed the Food
Quality Protection Act that replaces the Delaney Clause and shifts the emphasis
from theoretical risks to real risks.
Food additives are put in foods to make food safer, less likely to spoil, more
nutritious, and more acceptable than those without the added molecules. For exam-
ple, preservatives are added to slow spoilage and decrease the chances of a food
becoming a safety hazard. Vitamins and minerals, both natural and synthetic, are
added to increase the nutritional value of a food. Humectants like glycerin or glyc-
erol are found in meat and cheese products to keep the product from drying out.
Sweeteners, natural and artificial, are added to improve a product’s appeal. Stevia,
for example, is a natural sweetener is produced much like tea, where the leaves of
the stevia plant are dried and crushed, steeped in hot water, and filtered to remove
particles. A number of sugar-like molecules are extracted during the process. A do-
it-yourself extraction in water releases many compounds, some of which are bitter
while others leave a clinging feeling on the tongue. Commercial preparations go
through further separations by additional extraction with alcohol then purification
of select chemicals such as rebaudioside A. Such sweeteners may provide a cleaner
sweet taste but are far from the standard of “as you find them in nature.”
Food additives in America are not carcinogenic, but artificial sweeteners arouse
suspicion. Cyclamates were approved as artificial sweeteners in the 1960s. The
sweet flavor of cyclamate may be the best of all sweeteners. In high school and col-
lege I had a 5-soda-a-day habit and actually preferred Diet Dr. Pepper, sweetened
with cyclamate, to the full-sugar version. My preference was for the taste and not an
attempt to avoid sugar. In 1970, the FDA banned cyclamates, and we were stuck
with saccharin, a not very satisfying alternative to sugar. By different interpretations
of the same study, over 50 countries in the world, including Canada, still permit the
use of cyclamate as an artificial sweetener. Canada limits its use to small packets
added at the table. An attempt to ban saccharin as a carcinogen later in the 1970s by
3 It Is Not Always Easy to Tell if a Food Has Gone Bad 129

FDA met public pressure as it was the only artificial sweetener available. Later
research essentially cleared suspicion of saccharin as a carcinogen but not its sodium
salt. I remember with fondness my first Diet Coke sweetened with aspartame in
Morrison’s Cafeteria in the Macon (GA) Mall. Since then, I have typically con-
sumed about 2–3 cans of artificially sweetened sodas a day.
As noted previously, Big Food appears to be just as concerned about chemical-
sounding ingredients in their products as food activists. A massive cleanup of food
ingredients in both packaged and restaurant foods took place in 2015, providing lots
of work for food scientists to reformulate products in an effort to make the food
more consumer-friendly. The food scientists who work for these companies have
some concerns, however, as clean and fresh do not always equal safe. Food scien-
tists are taught to be more concerned about microbes in foods than about chemicals
that have been approved for use by the FDA.
Most foods and ingredients are teeming with living microbes that multiply rap-
idly. Each fresh ingredient comes with its own microflora, the mix of microbes
present in its natural setting. One or a small number of species predominate based
on their abilities to compete with other species. The amount of available water pres-
ent is very important as bacteria require more moisture than yeasts and molds. Every
microbe needs a source of carbon and nitrogen, but some microbes are pickier than
others. The general environment surrounding the food such as the temperature and
presence or absence of oxygen also affect which species will reproduce and begin
to predominate and which ones will not. The type of organism that predominates
determines whether the food has gone bad or remains stable.

3 It Is Not Always Easy to Tell if a Food Has Gone Bad

It is always frightening when confronting a leftover that has found its way to the
back of the refrigerator. Is it still good or has it gone bad? I adopted the term “rot-
ting” in Chap. 3 because of its use by several food pundits. In this chapter I use the
term “spoilage,” which essentially means the same thing as rotting or going bad, and
is more often used by food scientists. A frequent misconception is that spoiled food
is unsafe food. The three major ways foods spoil are natural enzyme activity, micro-
bial decay, and oxidation. Enzyme activity is primarily associated with fresh foods.
Microbial decay affects both fresh and processed food, but processed foods are
much more likely to oxidize than fresh foods.
Enzymes comprise a whole class of chemicals in living organisms that make life
possible. In plant, animal, and microbial cells, enzymes build larger molecules from
smaller ones, break down larger molecules when it is time to recycle cellular com-
ponents, and help perform virtually every function within an organism. Fruits and
vegetables continue to respire (take in oxygen and give off carbon dioxide) even
after harvest. After slaughter of a food animal, enzymes continue to work as muscle
tissue is converted to meat. Some enzymes enhance the quality of the food after
harvest or slaughter such as ripening of some fruits and resolving rigor in meat.
130 8 How Safe Is the American Food Supply?

Most of the changes by enzymes in food, however, are undesirable. Many food
processes are designed to either inactivate enzymes or at least slow the enzymes
down. Heating steps such as blanching, canning, pasteurizing, or cooking halts the
undesirable changes by enzymes on the quality of fresh foods. Refrigeration slows
enzyme activity which can resume once the temperature is raised.
Microbes are the number one spoilage agents of fresh and processed foods. The
ever-present microbes colonize the outside of fresh fruits and vegetables, the intes-
tines of animals, and even the oviduct of chickens and other egg-laying birds.
Spoilage microbes decrease the desirability of a particular food. Molds such as
Penicillium produce fuzzy green colonies on bread. Shewanella and other bacteria
grow on fresh and processed meat when stored in the refrigerator to form highly
objectionable putrid odors. Wine is turned into vinegar by Acetobacter and a yeast,
Debaryomyces, is responsible for the undesirable taste, odor, and sliminess of hot-
dog wieners long forgotten in the back of the meat tray. Another species of bacteria,
Erwinia, breaks down cell walls in plants leading to limp or mushy vegetables. Heat
is the most effective way to kill microbes. Drying and freezing helps prevent micro-
bial growth as long as the food stays in the dried or frozen form.
As described in Chaps. 5 and 7, oxidation is a complex process resulting from the
production of rogue forms of oxygen, called free radicals. Without oxygen we could
not live, but oxygen in the wrong form and the wrong place can damage cells.
Oxidative processes controlled by enzymes are critical components of photosynthe-
sis and digestion, but some forms of oxygen can attack the membranes that surround
and play critical roles in every living cell. Fresh foods rarely spoil due to oxidation
because of built-in antioxidants that slow its development. When foods are pro-
cessed, however, microbes and enzymes no longer pose much of a threat, and oxida-
tion proceeds through chemical reactions that may or may not require enzymes.
Oxidation leads to the development of rancid odors and flavors sometimes described
as painty, grass-like, or cardboard in older nut, soy, and frozen-fish products.
One of the main reasons that foods are processed or treated with preservatives is
to keep raw foods from spoiling. Few foods are sterile (absent of any living microbes).
The primary exception to this rule is canned food which is considered commercially
sterile as it is devoid of any living microbe that can spoil it, make us sick, or change
its chemistry in any way. Of course the sterility ends as soon as the can is opened and
microbes from the surrounding air gently land on the surface of the food.
One of my colleagues submitted a manuscript to the Journal of Food Quality on
a study of the use of plastic packaging of fresh-cut broccoli. As the editor of the
journal, I sent copies to two qualified reviewers for their comments. One reviewer
recommended publication, while the other recommended rejection. I then sent a
copy to a third reviewer, called the referee, to make the final decision. Unfortunately,
the referee was noncommittal. The controversy around the study was the finding
that while plastic packaging increased the shelf life of the broccoli by slowing
growth of spoilage microbes it did not slow growth of ones that could make it
unsafe. As such, there was a window of a few days when the broccoli was unsafe but
not spoiled. I re-read the manuscript carefully and decided that the information was
sufficiently intriguing and should be published. My decision was later confirmed
4 Millions of Americans Become Poisoned by Their Food Each Year and Thousands… 131

when other researchers in the field reported seeing similar results. These scientists
had not reported these results because they were skeptical of their findings. Further
research in this area was conducted to see if packages of other cut vegetables were
also delaying spoilage of unsafe food.
Food poisoning results from a different set of microbes than food spoilage.
Spoiled food looks bad, smells bad, tastes bad, or feels slimy in the mouth. It is
rarely a good idea to eat a food that has spoiled even if it is safe. A principle of food
regulation is that a food should spoil before it becomes unsafe. If only spoiled food
was unsafe, there would be far fewer illnesses and deaths associated with food poi-
soning than at present.

4 Millions of Americans Become Poisoned by Their Food

Each Year and Thousands of These Victims Die

Food safety is the most important mission of food science. The microbes that cause
food poisoning outbreaks are extensively investigated. When taking my first food
microbiology course in 1970 I learned that there were four major food pathogens
(microbes that make us sick). In 1975, after graduating and spending time in the US
Navy, I went back for my MS degree. To my dismay I learned that there were at least
six new pathogens that had been added to the list in five short years. It wasn’t until after
I graduated that such infamous organisms as E. coli O157:H7, Campylobacter jejuni,
and norovirus came onto the scene. Thirteen pathogenic microbes associated with food
are profiled on a government website (http://www.fightbac.org/food-poisoning/causes-
symptoms/). A recent textbook on food microbiology, however, profiles 26 different
organisms that have been directly linked to food outbreaks around the world.
Fresh foods are not usually the safest foods. For example, apples bought in the
supermarket or farmers market frequently have little quarter-inch cuts on the surface. I
understand that these cuts were probably made accidentally by the picker’s fingernails
in the orchard. Hopefully the farmer had adequate rest-room facilities available, and
the pickers washed and scrubbed their hands thoroughly before returning to their job
after answering nature’s call. Such cuts also permit entry of dangerous pathogens into
the fruit from the air, the ground, the picking containers, or other surfaces the apple
encounters. Fortunately, the sugar and acid in the apple flesh act as natural preserva-
tives, and many microbes do not survive the journey from picking to that first bite.
When food poisoning strikes, most often the last meal usually gets the blame.
One of the reasons it is difficult to identify the responsible food is that it takes time
for a victim to become ill. The fastest acting microbe is Staphylococcus aureus.
Symptoms of staph poisoning can appear in as little as 30 minutes but usually occur
within 1–6 hours. Many other organisms do not exhibit symptoms for at least
12 hours up to even weeks after eating the contaminated food. For example, a staph
outbreak in 2012 led to intestinal distress for 13 people at a military base less than
3 hours after a lunch party. The illness was traced to a chicken, sausage, and rice
dish. In contrast, an E. coli outbreak in 2015 did not develop until 1–2 weeks after
eating the contaminated food.
132 8 How Safe Is the American Food Supply?

Cross-contamination is an effective way to transfer harmful microbes from one

food to another. What happens here is that a highly contaminated food such as raw
meat (food microbiologists assume that raw meat is always going to be contami-
nated with pathogens on all outer surfaces) transfers its microbes to a food that will
not be cooked. For example, raw chicken could be marinated in a bowl. If that bowl
was not properly washed before being used to toss a salad, the uncooked vegetables
could cause illness. Dangerous microbes on the chicken are killed during cooking,
but those organisms that end up in the tossed salad remain alive, multiply, and attack
the unsuspecting diner. Kitchen utensils such as knives and forks can also transfer
organisms to other foods if the utensil is not thoroughly cleaned between uses. For
example, cross-contamination was associated with an outbreak of Listeria monocy-
togenes in ricotta cheese in 2012.
Although most food pathogens attack the gut, not all microbes lead to digestive
troubles. For example, the symptoms of listeriosis include fever, headache, confu-
sion, and convulsions but no nausea or diarrhea. The classic symptoms of botulism
include blurred or double vision, slurred speech, and muscle weakness. Symptoms of
botulism usually take 12–36 hours to develop but can become evident in as little as
6 hours or take as much as 10 days after eating the food. Commercially canned, hot-
dog chili sauce was responsible for a serious botulism outbreak in 2007 resulting in
at least 8 illnesses and a potential death. This outbreak was attributed to malfunction-
ing equipment and led to the closing down of the plant that employed 330 people,
almost all of whom had no knowledge of nor culpability for the incident.
Some dangerous microbes can hide out in dry foods. A general principle in food
microbiology is that the organisms need available water to survive. The reason that
sugar and salt are used as preservatives is that these common ingredients bind water
making it unavailable to microbes. For years it was believed that harmful microbes
could not survive in foods like dark chocolate or peanut butter due to the lack of
enough water in either product. It is now becoming apparent, however, that even
though microorganisms can’t grow in these foods, some species can survive under
unfavorable conditions. When inserted into an environment that is relatively free of
competitors, however, certain microbes can predominate and become agents of a
food outbreak. Peanut butter and related products were blamed for over 700 ill-
nesses and 9 deaths in a food outbreak that affected almost every state in the country
in 2009. Some illnesses were also attributed to peanut butter freshly ground in a
health-food store, but it was not clear if these cases were related to the same manu-
facturer. Salmonella was the organism responsible for these outbreaks.
There are two major ways microbes in foods poison us. One path to food poison-
ing occurs when a pathogen grows in the food and forms a toxin. When that food is
consumed, it is the toxin that makes us sick. This type of food poisoning is called a
food intoxication. Classic food intoxications include those illnesses produced by
Clostridium botulinum (botulism) and Staphylococcus aureus (staph). Most of us
are more familiar with alcohol intoxications, but ethanol is a much weaker toxin
than the molecules that cause botulism and staph poisoning. One feature of food
intoxications is that the offending microbes can be killed, but the toxin may remain
in the food. Another type of food poisoning is a food infection. Microbes grow
5 Some Restaurants Do Not Always Pay Enough Attention to Sanitation 133

inside the food, enter the body when the food is eaten and infect us. Campylobacter,
Listeria, and Salmonella are classic food infections. Some pathogens like the E. coli
ones mentioned can cause an intoxication, an infection, or both (toxicoinfections).
One frightening problem is that some microbial toxins, such as the one that causes
botulism, or organisms, such as some types of E. coli, can be present at very low
amounts and still be dangerous.
Preventing the survival and growth of dangerous microbes is the most effective
way of preventing food outbreaks. Food processors decrease the chances of food
poisoning by slowing the growth of pathogens (refrigeration), preventing growth
(drying and freezing), killing all pathogens (pasteurizing), or killing all microbes
present (canning). Other ways include adding preservatives (salt, sugar, sorbates,
etc.) or adding microbes that will outcompete harmful or spoilage organisms (fer-
menting). Fermentations protect foods from becoming spoiled or unsafe as the
added microbial cultures modify the chemical makeup by forming natural preserva-
tives that prevent growth of specific pathogens. Of course, the difference between
fermented and spoiled foods may be in the mouth and brain of the eater. While
many of us consider blue cheese, ceviche, kimchi, miso paste, and sauerkraut to be
delicacies. Others reject these fermented products as spoiled. Many food pathogens
are naturally present in raw food. Humans who do not practice good sanitation can
also be a source of contamination. It is critical that proper sanitation practices be
observed, particularly in places where large numbers of people are being served.

5 Some Restaurants Do Not Always Pay Enough Attention

to Sanitation

Whether in popular songs or rumors on the internet, restaurants have long been slammed
for gross unsanitary practices. From spitting on a freshly prepared meal to worse, these
stories abound. Fortunately there are websites (www.quackwatch.org www.snopes.
com) that actually track down the validity of each of these stories. A restaurant kitchen
at peak service is a pressure-driven, sometimes chaotic workplace. Guidelines for proper
sanitation practices are widely understood and posted. Problems generally occur due to
poor management, understaffing, and a push to get food out the door.
As noted above, restaurant chains are switching over to cleaner, fresher ingredients
with the direct implication that these ingredients guarantee the safety of their food.
One restaurant chain which prides itself in using fresh, locally sourced, ingredients
became victim of inadequate testing of its ingredients leading to several outbreaks in
2015. A multistate outbreak sickened 53 but caused in no deaths. E. coli was identified
as the offending bacterium which resulted in severe diarrhea among other symptoms.
For fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, etc., it becomes easier to carefully monitor a small
number of large farms or operations than a large number of small farms. Eventually a
fruit, vegetable, or herb will get mixed in with similar items from different locations
and provide an opportunity for cross-contamination of safe items by contaminated
ones. Such problems can be corrected by proper cooking, but items that are eaten
uncooked can cause an outbreak.
134 8 How Safe Is the American Food Supply?

Purchasing local ingredients has both its advantages and disadvantages. If a

chain follows a policy of buying local, any outbreak will be confined to a small
number of restaurants in a small geographic area. Wider distribution of foods har-
vested from more distant locations, however, will more likely result in a multistate
outbreak. Buying locally limits menu offerings to seasonal dishes, although many
restaurants like to feature a few signature items year round. Local purchasing also
tends to lead to interaction with a large number of smaller growers thus becoming
more vulnerable to a single operator not following proper practices.
Food scientists watch self-serve food bars with a mixture of amusement and hor-
ror. The sneeze guards help protect the food from customers of average height, but
too many sick people tend to have noses that appear above or below the range of the
guards. In addition, some unattended children prefer grabbing food with their bare
hands rather than the utensils provided. I have seen children even put the food back
in the metal compartments after tasting a morsel and finding it less than satisfying.
Attendants work hard at keeping hot foods hot and cold foods cold to prevent growth
of harmful microbes. Problems are more likely to occur, however, from inadequate
cooking in the kitchen or cross-contamination from serving utensils. Turkey and
dressing at a country club buffet in 1986 was identified as the culprit in a staph out-
break. Most outbreaks at restaurants are due to inattention to proper practices, but
there was a very famous outbreak that was intentional, sickening 751 people who
ate at salad bars over the period of a month in 1984. Deliberate contamination of
salads by members of a cult led to this Salmonella outbreak in Oregon.
It is my understanding that most restaurants take sanitation seriously and work
hard to train all employees in proper practices. As mentioned previously, restaurant
employees tend to be paid low wages and turnover of restaurant employees is high.
As a result it becomes difficult for management to keep the entire staff up-to-date
on proper sanitation. Perhaps the push to raise wages of restaurant employees across
the country will reduce turnover and improve sanitation practices. A study com-
pared restaurants that had outbreaks to those operations with none. Restaurants with
a certified kitchen manager and a policy that prevented staff from touching foods
with their bare hands were less likely to have a food outbreak than ones that did not
take these steps. Investigators also found that sit-down restaurants, particularly
those establishments serving ethnic food, were more likely to have an outbreak than
fast-food outlets serving more typical American-style foods. Even reviews on social
media are being used to help track down outbreaks at restaurants.
Viruses are particularly effective at spreading food poisoning. The most common
form of viral food poisoning is associated with the norovirus. Norovirus is the classic
stomach virus that rapidly spreads in close-knit communities like cruise ships and col-
lege dorms. This type of food poisoning is different from others in that it is readily
transferred from worker to the food, from the food to someone who eats the food, and
from an infected victim directly to other contacts. These outbreaks tend to affect large
numbers of individuals, both those people who eat the infected item and from subse-
quent person-to-person contacts. Thus, many victims never eat the contaminated food.
Evaluating which restaurants are the safest is not an easy task. Cleanliness in the
dining area does not always reflect cleanliness in the kitchen as the person responsible
6 The American Food and Water Supply Is One of the Safest in the World… 135

for one may not be responsible for the other. Food inspectors provide an important
service, but the grade sheets only give a snapshot of the conditions within the restaurant
at the time of the inspection. Sanitation associated with preparation of food in the home
is not necessarily better than what it is in a restaurant. An interesting study was done
several years ago when food inspectors went into private homes to see how these kitch-
ens rated on safety. Not very well, as most home kitchens had at least one major viola-
tion serious enough to shut down a restaurant. Neglected handwashing, improper food
preparation, cross-contamination, improper cooling of leftovers, and too low internal
cooking temperatures were the most common violations in the home. Additionally, the
safety of the water and food that enters our homes has been questioned.

6 The American Food and Water Supply Is One of the Safest

in the World, But Microbes Are Still a Major Threat

In a country that has a relatively safe water and food supply compared to poorer
countries around the world, it is hard to appreciate our good fortune as noted by a
famous politician
The volunteer loved her experience in Nepal but missed her family and all the blessings of
daily life that she had taken for granted in America. She longed for safe drinking water that
poured from faucets; meats and vegetables that she could eat without worrying they would
make her sick; enough food to eat all year round; free public schools that taught both boys
and girls; warm baths and electricity available around the clock; paved roads, and cars to
drive on them.

Municipalities in the USA are primarily responsible for the safety of the water
supply. Although there have been a few dramatic outbreaks due to contaminated
water, the record of the safety of the US water supply has been remarkable. Notable
exceptions include lead in the water of Flint, Michigan, and parasites in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin’s supply. Other countries are not so fortunate. Diseases associated with
diarrhea are the seventh leading cause of death in the world but do not rank in the
top fifteen in the USA.
Generally, processed food is less likely than fresh, whole foods to cause illness
because the major purpose of processing is to detect and eliminate microbes that
occur naturally on fresh, raw food. Any multistate outbreak will be covered by the
news media. The larger the contaminated batch, the more people who will become
sick and, in some instances, die. A mistake by a major food company affects many
more people than a similar mistake by a smaller company, however, the number of
people sickened by processed food represents only a small percent of victims of
food poisoning each year.
Of the “14 types of food that can make you sick” described by Health Magazine,
10 were either fresh or raw (berries, eggs, leafy greens, meat, melons, oysters, raw
milk, seafood such as raw tuna, sprouts, and tomatoes) and 4 were processed (soft
cheese, ice cream, peanut butter, and potatoes). The soft cheeses listed are the ones
136 8 How Safe Is the American Food Supply?

most likely to be prepared and sold as artisan cheeses made from raw milk. Potatoes
were listed for their association with cold salads at deli counters that are subject to
cross-contamination during preparation, particularly if close to raw meats. I remem-
ber watching with horror, while a woman loaded raw chicken on spindles destined
for the rotisserie in the deli department of a store right next to other employees slic-
ing deli meats and cheeses. I continue to buy their rotisserie chickens, but I will
never buy any more sliced meats and cheeses or cold salads at that store.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the primary agency for
tracking food outbreaks. The year 2015 was a particularly busy year for some well-
publicized food poisoning outbreaks. The CDC highlighted 10 outbreaks at the end
of the calendar year which implicated chicken entrées, cucumbers, ice cream,
unidentified ingredients from a Mexican grill, nut butters, pork, rotisserie chicken
salad, soft cheeses, tuna, and an unknown product. In looking through the case stud-
ies I noted that 5 of these outbreaks were associated with Salmonella (chicken
entrées, cucumbers, nut butters, pork, and tuna), 2 with Listeria (ice cream and soft
cheeses), 2 with E. coli (ingredients from a Mexican grill and rotisserie chicken
salad), and 1 with the parasite Cyclospora (unknown product). The number of states
affected were as few as 4 (ice cream) to as many as 38 (cucumbers). The reported
number of victims ranged from 10 (ice cream) to 838 (cucumbers). No hospitaliza-
tions were recorded for nut butters in contrast with 165 for cucumbers. Deaths were
documented for ice cream (3), soft cheeses (3), and cucumbers (4). These 10 outbreaks
accounted for 1724 ill consumers, 296 hospital trips, and 10 deaths.
With the exception of the two E. coli outbreaks which were classified as toxi-
coinfections, all the others were infections. Listeria monocytogenes generally
infects the immunocompromised, including the young, the elderly, and pregnant
women. Six of the victims of contaminated soft cheeses were pregnant, with one
miscarriage attributed to listeriosis. Identification of a specific food item responsi-
ble for the food poisoning is made more difficult with long delays between eating
the food and evidence of symptoms. For example, it was up to 3 days after consum-
ing the nut butters that the victims became sick, and it was two or more weeks after
eating the contaminated cucumbers. There were concerns about cross-contamination
as the surfaces of counters or refrigerators may not have been properly sanitized. In
addition, insufficient cooking times may have contributed to instances of food poi-
soning from pork as many guests reported becoming sick after eating at pig roasts.
Likewise, concerns were raised about eating the thawed, raw, contaminated tuna in
ceviche, sashimi, or sushi.
Note that these outbreaks did not account for anything close to the estimated mil-
lions of Americans who have become ill from the food consumed or the thousands
who have died as a result. A possible explanation for this apparent contradiction is
that there many victims of these outbreaks did not report their illnesses or were
misdiagnosed. Once an outbreak is publicized it is more likely that cases will be
correctly identified. Also, there may have been similar outbreaks that did not gather
enough attention to merit in-depth study by the CDC. There appear to be numerous
cases, particularly in homes, that either do not get reported or properly diagnosed.
Conversely, some critics suggest that the number of illnesses and deaths due to food
7 New Challenges and Opportunities for Food Safety May Reside Inside Our Bodies 137

poisoning are greatly exaggerated to deliberately scare the public. Most of these
2015 outbreaks were associated with fresh or raw foods (frozen uncooked chicken
entrées, raw cucumbers, raw sprouted nut butters, raw pork, and frozen raw tuna).
It has been suggested, but not confirmed, that the rotisserie chicken salad may have
been due to contaminated celery. The unknown item(s) responsible for the
Cyclospora outbreak might have been contaminated fresh fruits and vegetables,
possibly imported.
CDC is also responsible for developing strategies for reducing outbreaks. It sees
five major challenges to improving food safety in the USA:
• changes in farm and distribution practices, including more imported foods,
• changes in the global climate leading to more food contamination,
• an increasing number of outbreaks that cross state lines,
• previously unknown bacteria, toxins, and antibiotic resistance, and
• exotic contaminated foods and ingredients, such as organic sprouted chia powder
and prepackaged caramel apples, causing illnesses.
Attention to food safety does not stop once a food arrives in the home.
Recommended procedures for handling foods at home include CLEAN, SEPARATE,
COOK, and CHILL (see Fig. 8.1). Such practices will not protect the home cook
from uncommon, contaminated ingredients such as artisan cheeses, chia seeds,
sprouted nut butters, and tahini paste. Unlike incidents involving restaurants and
food companies, food poisoning from home cooking is not likely to get as much if
any publicity.
To have a safer food supply everyone in the food chain must remain vigilant. From
the worker in the field to the cook in the kitchen, all handlers and managers must
exercise responsibility for reducing contamination and practicing proper sanitation.
In between the field and the table are all handlers and managers during transportation
and distribution and workers and supervisors in manufacturing plants and restaurants
that receive raw foods and ingredients. The most effective way to kill dangerous
microbes is by thorough cooking. When considering microbes with respect to safety
and health, we must not forget those organisms we carry in and on us.

7 New Challenges and Opportunities for Food Safety May

Reside Inside Our Bodies

An area of intrigue about food, microbes, and our bodies is the microbiome. News
stories proclaim that up to 90 % of the cells in our bodies are the microbes we carry
around with us. As much of 3 % of what we weigh may actually be microbes and
body waste. Miracle weight-loss diets promise immediate results by purging our
intestines, but such results are illusory and ephemeral. The science exploring the
inner space within our guts is a dynamic area of study. Like any rapidly growing
area of scientific investigation, early findings are being used to provide oversimpli-
fied explanations of complex problems and miracle cures of common maladies.
 138

Fig. 8.1 USDA recommendations for handling foods. Reprinted from http://www.fightbac.org/food-safety-basics/the-core-four-practices/
8 How Safe Is the American Food Supply?
7 New Challenges and Opportunities for Food Safety May Reside Inside Our Bodies 139

Proper gut heath has been associated with easing the symptoms or even the
prevention of autism, breast and stomach cancer, celiac disease, Crohn’s disease,
diabetes, food allergies, inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, and ulcerative colitis.
I tend to be highly suspicious of anything that can supposedly cause or cure multiple
diseases. The true benefits to gut health involve the ability of beneficial microbes to
survive when exposed to stomach acid and their ability to grow within the friendly
confines of intestines.
One interesting outcome of intestinal research has been the proliferation of prod-
ucts containing probiotics or prebiotics. Probiotics are microbes that enhance gut
health while prebiotics are substances in food that promote the growth of probiotics.
Fermented foods are good sources of probiotics. Both food scientists and food pun-
dits embrace the benefits of fermentation. Food scientists consider fermented foods
to be some of the earliest processed foods in history while food pundits consider
fermented foods to be prime examples of healthy, whole foods. Fermentation
involves either the deliberate or accidental addition of microbes to a food or bever-
age to transform it into a markedly different product. Fermented products such as
alcoholic beverages, breads, cheeses, fish, meats, yogurt, and pickled fruits or veg-
etables can be produced in large amounts by Big Food or in much smaller batches
in the home.
Big Food is into probiotics in a big way. Large food companies maintain careful
control over their microbial cultures to achieve consistent quality, and some of these
cultures are genetically modified. Home practitioners, on the other hand, may be
less rigorous in the control of their cultures than processors and can be either pleas-
antly or unpleasantly surprised by the eventual outcome. The natural cultures in the
air may be sufficient to produce desired results for some, but the dust in the air can
present hazards from potential pathogens. Other home fermenters will carefully
pass their precious microbial cultures down from generation to generation.
Incorporation of prebiotics into the diet should help foster a healthy gut.
Examples of prebiotics that feed desirable probiotics include a number of indigest-
ible carbohydrate molecules. Dietary fiber in fruits, vegetables, and their products
are good sources of prebiotics. Prebiotics and probiotics are generally not found
together in nature. Formulated food products are being marketed that contain synbi-
otics—a combination of prebiotics and probiotics to provide a better chance of colo-
nization of beneficial microbes in the gut. Small changes in a diet, however, are
unlikely to make major changes in one’s microbiome. Consumption of antibiotics
destroys much of the microbial population in the gut.
Food microbiologists and food pundits share a concern about the overuse of anti-
biotics. These miracle drugs, discovered in early to mid-1900s, prolong the lives of
many humans, but their expansion into production agriculture raises concerns. The
sustained, low-level use of antibiotics to prevent disease and promote growth of
farm animals has reduced the potency of antibiotics for treating humans. As a result,
numerous antibiotic-resistant strains of dangerous microbes become much more
difficult to combat. The pork and chicken outbreaks mentioned in the previous sec-
tion contained antibiotic-resistant strains of Salmonella. In addition, hospital infec-
tions such as Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) and similar
140 8 How Safe Is the American Food Supply?

resistant organisms are difficult to treat. Overuse of antibiotics by an individual can

change the microbial makeup of the gut and may even increase our chances of
becoming obese.
Recently, fecal transplants have captured the imagination of the American pub-
lic. A fecal transplant is one in which the intestinal contents of a person with good
gut health are transferred to someone with problems of the gut. These procedures
elicit one of two responses—gross or hope. The gross reaction, tinged with fear, is
that the contents from someone else’s body waste could introduce dangerous patho-
gens. The hope comes for promises of a cure for recurring constipation or diarrhea,
irritable bowel disease, or even obesity. The main benefit for a fecal transplant is to
replace Clostridium difficile, a very nasty organism that causes inflammation of the
gut and lethal bouts of diarrhea, with beneficial microbes. It is estimated that 14,000
Americans die each year from a C. difficile infection, or almost five times the num-
ber of people who die each year from food poisoning. This organism can be picked
up in hospitals, from pets, from eating contaminated raw vegetables or ingesting
swimming-pool water. Since these infections are very resistant to antibiotics, fecal
transplants are one of the few effective tools to fight this specific microbe.
The benefits of fecal transplants for other maladies of the gut have not been
clearly demonstrated and are probably not worth the risks associated with the poten-
tial transfer of dangerous pathogens from one person to another. An alternative solu-
tion to fecal transplants includes banking one’s own feces, much like blood, before
major surgery involving the gut. Another possibility is transferring multiple species
of “good” bacteria free of pathogens in a specially prepared cocktail. Like any new
procedure, it pays to be skeptical of promises and multiple benefits that have not yet
been confirmed. In the meantime, food scientists are looking at ways to design
foods that promote good gut health while remaining safe from contamination by
harmful microbes.

The Safety of the American Food Supply

The discussion on food safety appears to be either the fear of chemicals or the fear
of dangerous microbes. The line is clear—food pundits caution against food chemi-
cals and food scientists are much more concerned about pathogenic microbes. CDC
documents numerous cases each year due to contamination by microbial pathogens.
The number of illnesses and deaths blamed on chemicals in foods not produced by
microbial contamination is minimal and primarily due to seafood toxins. The evi-
dence for the dangers of chemicals in our food is weak, mostly theoretical, and
unlike the real and ever-present danger of contamination by microbes.
Multistate outbreaks that make the news and result in massive outbreaks are now
primarily from raw or fresh foods. Food processing, primarily those operations that
involve heat, kills microbes that can make us sick, extends shelf life, and prevents
food waste. Big Food is more likely than Small Food to spend money to carefully
test the microbial safety of products for dangerous microbes before shipment out of
The Safety of the American Food Supply 141

the processing plant. Big Food has greater resources in money and trained person-
nel, but the primary drive is to prevent the economic consequences of a major out-
break and accompanying recall. One way to decrease the possibility of contaminated
product is to purchase only processed or pre-prepared ingredients that have been
thoroughly tested for safety before going into a formulated product. Unfortunately,
smaller food companies work much closer to the margins and may sacrifice the
expense of safety testing in the quest for larger profits.
Americans have embarked on a new journey vowing to eat cleaner and live dirt-
ier. Will this philosophy ensure better health? Eating cleaner is advocated by pun-
dits who believe that chemical ingredients are the major source of health concerns
associated with food. Living dirtier is advocated by scientists who believe that
Americans are over-cautious of microbes in our personal environment. These advo-
cates suggest that such caution leads to more susceptibility to disease. The idea is
that wide exposure to a number of dangerous microbes in sub-lethal amounts early
in life provides us immunity to these and other organisms as we age. Arguing against
such theories is the dramatic decrease in death rates due to diarrhea and related
intestinal diseases between 1900 (3rd leading cause of American deaths) and 1998
(not even close to the top 15 leading causes). It is estimated that consuming as few
as 100 individual cells of E. coli O157:H7 can induce a serious toxicoinfection lead-
ing to death. Of concern is that many people such as the young, elderly, and infirmed
are more susceptible than others to living dirty. Call me over-cautious when it comes
to microbes, but I am not willing to take the risk.
Chapter 9
How Can We Eat More Sustainably
to Save the Earth for Our Children
and Grandchildren?

In the imaginary land of Utrophia – a place of Good-Eating – farmers would sell all of their
potatoes regardless of shape or size. The chef would buy surplus ripe tomatoes from the
wholesaler to make into that day’s meals. Supermarkets would redistribute surplus food to
people in need. All unavoidable organic waste would go to feed either animals or the soil.
And the general public would learn to respect the food which sits in their fridges – to buy
what they eat and to eat what they buy.—Tristram Stuart
I happened to attend a closed-door meeting of the heads of sustainability for more than two
dozen global companies. Each made a report of what they were doing in their supply chains
to combat global warming – a surprisingly encouraging list. But all were agreed that there
was a common obstacle to pushing much further: Customers do not care.—Daniel Goleman

Predicting the future is always tricky, but it appears that we are running through
our natural resources faster than we should. I have carefully studied four very differ-
ent views on what is ahead for readers who will still be alive in 2050. The pessimis-
tic view warns us that if we do not make dramatic changes to our lifestyles, we will
face world-wide famine and the collapse of the world economy. A more optimistic
perspective points to further reliance on technology to allow rich nations to maintain
their profligate ways while upgrading the lives of humans who currently live in
abject poverty. Two middle paths have been advanced that suggest nations will con-
tinue to do just enough to prevent economic collapse while suffering consequences
associated with an inability act quickly enough. From my vantage point each view
appears to be plausible. Each vision suggests that governmental action will be
needed beyond individual efforts if we expect a healthy earth half-way through the
twenty-first century. I will revisit these predictions at the end of the chapter.
My graduate studies sent me north from a laidback, southern, football-worshipping
school to perhaps one of the most radical campuses in the Eastern coastal states.
During my first few months on that radical campus, I attended a 3-day festival on
ways to protect the environment. I went to hear a lecture by a former Secretary of the
Interior and visited exhibits featuring low-flush toilets, organic gardening displays,
and geodesic domes on a quest for alternatives to the typical American lifestyle. The
problems with obesity had not yet surfaced. In my second year, I moved away from

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 143

R.L. Shewfelt, In Defense of Processed Food,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45394-1_9
144 9 How Can We Eat More Sustainably to Save the Earth for Our Children…

the main campus to a remote experiment station overlooking an inlet of the Atlantic
Ocean. After graduation I returned to the South to take a fulltime faculty position.
Typical of many of my generation I was in favor of protecting the environment,
skeptical of the radicals who wished to save the earth, and immersed in family and
work-related activities.
During my last two summers before retiring as a university professor, I taught a
special topics course titled Food Issues and Challenges. Each week we took on a
different topic chosen by a member of the class. That person would lead the discus-
sion based on at least five recent review articles written from different scientific
perspectives. We also viewed a relevant video on the topic. By the end of the week
we attempted to develop a class consensus on the issue. What struck me was how
many of the topics we chose related to the environment and the idea of sustainabil-
ity. My students were pushing me out of my comfort zone. I reflected back to that
3-day festival to realize that the radicals I had encountered during my student days
on campus had been ahead of their time. Their solutions were not necessarily the
most beneficial ones, but their vision of our future challenges was much more accu-
rate than mine had been.
In the 34 years since I graduated, the earth has gained almost three billion people
while obesity has replaced hunger as the major health concern around the world. In
the next 34 years, despite a slowing of population growth, we will probably add
another two billion people who will stretch our ability to provide enough food. The
challenges that we face defy simple solutions. Much has been written about the
earth’s ability to survive the onslaught. The key concept is working towards a sus-
tainable system of growing crops and raising livestock, moving foods from farm to
market, and minimizing waste. Sustainability relates to preserving the environment
for future generations. Achieving sustainability is even trickier than it seems as
increases in population make it a moving target. Still there must be something that
we can do as individuals to make a difference. The most obvious solution is to buy
organic products when we can.

1 Eat Organic Food

Organic gardening and farming comes down to the old-fashioned principle of

“waste not, want not.” My parents were children during the Great Depression, and
that experience forever altered their outlook. Mother moved from a small farming
community to the big city when she was young. Dad grew up on the farm before
going to college. My sister and I had difficulty understanding their frugality with
food, money, school supplies, and other things that we took for granted in an age of
growing affluence. Organic principles involve stewardship of the earth and its
resources. Although I never heard him talk about organic gardening, dad tended to
use organic fertilizers when gardening in the rich, black soil of Manitoba with lim-
ited use of pesticides and herbicides. He hired my sister and me to pick potato bugs
and leaves with egg cases off the plants before a major infestation could take place.
1 Eat Organic Food 145

His lack of success in the less forgiving red clay and humid climate of upstate South
Carolina led him to abandon many of his organic practices. Even the humus pile in
the backyard consisting of dead leaves and vegetable waste was insufficient to
redeem his gardening skills.
At present organic foods represent the best way to single out practices that con-
sider the importance of sustainability. Organic foods are produced without the ben-
efit of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, or sewage sludge. Genetically modified
organisms or ingredients, irradiation, and synthetic ingredients are also prohibited.
Prophets of the organic movement like J.I. Rodale and Wendell Berry described the
vision of a world that was using resources faster than they could be replenished.
These visionaries introduced agricultural practices to help stop the destruction of
our environment. Some farmers adopted these practices, but most did not. In the
meantime the population grew, demand for food increased, farming became more
mechanized and “chemicalized,” and the environment became threatened. Small
organic farms grew into larger operations moving from Small Organic to Big
Organic. As the movement grew in practice, sales, and significance the USDA
developed a certification program to let consumers know the difference between
genuine and pretend organic foods. The standards were very strict. Many dedicated
growers were squeezed out of the market due to the high expenses needed to meet
the requirements.
Critics have suggested that the organic movement has become too dogmatic to
the point of almost a religious orthodoxy. These critics advocate an approach which
combines the true goals of the movement with advanced technological solutions to
tweak the practices so long as the end result is more sustainable. For example, adop-
tion of principles and practices that work well on a small farm close to a major
metropolitan area in the USA may actually decrease the amount of food available to
consumers in poorer regions of Africa. Many organic crops have lower yields thus
requiring more land than nonorganic options, but these disadvantages may be offset
by decreases in use of energy, fertilizers, and pesticides. The field-to-market pro-
gram of the Keystone Center proposes that instead of strict adherence to organic
principles, farmers focus on ways to minimize their environmental footprint while
maximizing the amount of food produced. The Center collects information on all
aspects of a farm operation, its impact on the environment, how much food is pro-
duced, and how it compares to farms in its neighborhood and the state.
These approaches, however, raise concerns about the size of organic operations.
Big Organic may be more efficient and in the long term more sustainable on paper
than Small Organic, but are factory, organic farms that distribute their items nation-
ally and not locally desirable? Purists argue against the whole idea of Big Organic.
Pragmatists insist that if we are really interested in sustainability and protecting the
environment we need to embrace both Big and Small Organic. Food pundits who
recommend that we buy organic when we can generally do not make the distinction
between the two types. Major retail outlet chains like Whole Foods also prefer sell-
ing organic items when possible.
Some very innovative practices have been developed to integrate all operations
across the farm to improve sustainability. Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm has been
146 9 How Can We Eat More Sustainably to Save the Earth for Our Children…

featured in books and movies. For example, he uses mobile cages of chickens to fol-
low his cows in the pasture, letting his birds loose in the pasture to eat bugs from
cattle droppings for food to produce pasture-raised eggs. A class at Columbia
University sketched out conceptualized vertical farms—high-rise buildings in urban
centers to grow crops and maintain livestock. Waste materials from one operation
become the starting material for another operation to complete a virtuous cycle. Such
ideas emphasize self-sufficiency and efficient use of resources. Problems can occur
in such systems if management is not sufficiently knowledgeable and flexible when
the weakest link in the cycle threatens to bring the system to a halt. Truly successful
operations can also become so large and become confused with factory farms.
Potential benefits of organic food to the environment are much clearer than their
benefits to health, even though health benefits are major reasons for sales of organic
products. Many organic products are processed items suggesting that any benefits
from organic farming are lost when an item is processed. Closely associated with
the organic movement is the push to buy and eat more fresh and local food. Some
critics of processed foods go as far as to argue that we should be less concerned
about organic certification and turn our attention to food produced locally.

2 Eat Fresh and Local Food

Truly fresh foods picked and prepared at peak quality are more flavorful and more
nutritious for a short period of time than any refrigerated or processed item. Local
foods can be fresh, but it takes time and effort to get crops from the farm to the
consumer. The problem with fresh fruits and vegetables is that peak eating quality
is frequently the point of greatest vulnerability to bruising and rotting. When com-
pleting my senior project on fruit flavor I learned that the chemical combinations
responsible for peak flavor are also responsible for overripe flavor. Those com-
pounds are produced from a series of chemical reactions such that when one com-
pound is formed by the enzymes in the fruit, it is converted to other chemicals until
the end of the line is reached. As compounds accumulate at line’s end, we judge the
aroma to be enticing and the flavor delicious. Too much of these seductive chemi-
cals, however, turns our reactions negative and we consider the fruit to be overripe.
When conducting consumer tests on bananas I noticed that the time it takes for
one to turn ripe is fleeting. My research was designed to learn at which stages of
ripeness consumers prefer to buy and eat a banana based on peel color. We pre-
sented samples of the fruit at various stages of ripeness from (1) green to (2) more-
green-than-yellow to (3) more-yellow-than-green to (4) green tips to (5) yellow to
(6) yellow-with-brown-spots to (7) more-brown-than-yellow. Next we presented the
panelists with a small cup of diced bananas without identifying the stage. Based on
peel color, most participants buying the more-green-than-yellow fruit but waited
until the green-tip or yellow stages before eating the bananas. When presented with
the diced fruit, most consumers in the test preferred those samples from the yellow-
with-brown-spots stage as these bananas are much sweeter than those from earlier
2 Eat Fresh and Local Food 147

stages. Other participants, however, liked the sweet taste in ripe bananas but were
turned off by them for being too mushy. The time between green tips to the appear-
ance of brown spots can be less than 12 hours at room temperature. Refrigerated
bananas brown rapidly when brought back to room temperature.
The appeal of eating really fresh local food before it rots is the main reason that
we seek it out. Fresh, local fish cooked shortly after catching can be the centerpiece
of a truly exquisite meal. Unfortunately, freshly caught fish start to smell bad
quickly. A fish starts to develop objectionable odors when multiple series of chemi-
cal reactions lead to a wider range the accumulation of molecules such as trimeth-
ylamine and oxidized fats that produce that strong, fishy smell.
Local food involves small scale transport that may not be as efficient as larger-
scale operations. Most fruits and vegetables go to a packing facility after picking.
The energy required to move the item from the field to the packinghouse depends on
the distance between the two, how much is moved at a given time, and the fuel effi-
ciency of the vehicle. Unless the item like tomatoes, bananas, or other tropical fruits
is sensitive to chilling temperatures, it is usually chilled at the packinghouse and kept
refrigerated until sent to market. Small operations may use fuel-inefficient vehicles
to transport freshly harvested vegetables to a collection point or packinghouse. Time
of day when a crop is harvested is an important consideration on how much it must
be cooled when packed. Some operations pick at night when the plants are cool, but
most fruits and vegetables are harvested during the day. Many berries must not be
picked until after the dew has lifted as moisture present will speed up the activity of
surface microbes which in turn speeds up rotting. Cooling is done to remove the heat
from the field and slow down the heat generated by the plant part itself.
One way to see how much impact a product has on the environment is called Life
Cycle Assessment (LCA). These assessments measure environmental impact in as
many as twelve different ways including air pollution, climate change, environmen-
tal toxicity, land use, nutrient runoff, and water depletion. An LCA provides a more
objective understanding of the impact of a product from the birth of all its ingredi-
ents and components until the ultimate destination of any waste. Such assessments
are not perfect as the validity depends on the accuracy of assumptions made during
the design of the study and the ability to make critical measurements. The results of
these studies are, however, much better than bold statements used to advance a per-
sonal agenda whether by a food pundit or Big Food.
Food miles are not an accurate reflection of the impact of a food on its environ-
ment. We need to be careful not to be overly influenced by what we see and ignore
what we can’t see. Advertising is very effective at using visual images to obscure
reality. Likewise, the food-mile concept is an oversimplification of the impact of a
food item on the environment. For example, an assessment of a gallon of milk found
that 20 % of the greenhouse gases come from feeding the cows, 52 % from running
the farm, 6 % in processing the milk, 4 % to making the packages, 8 % from
transporting it to market, 6 % at the store, and 4 % by the consumer. Many things
contribute to farm efficiency including farm practices, growing location, transporta-
tion method, and storage requirements. A major problem with processed food is the
amount of packaging that is involved.
148 9 How Can We Eat More Sustainably to Save the Earth for Our Children…

3 Buy Products in Bulk to Reduce Packaging Waste

It is almost impossible to avoid food packaging. Too many foods appear to be over-
packaged, and packaging waste is an eyesore. There are many reasons that pro-
cessed food is packaged. First and foremost, the product must be contained or as
one of my students wrote on a test “so it doesn’t fall out all over the floor.” Second
and almost as important, packages protect the food from microbes that can either
spoil the food or make it unsafe. Many packages also provide convenience, keep a
product from drying out, aid in food preparation, and convey useful information as
to the ingredients present and its Nutrition Facts. All packages serve as marketing
devices, even the plain black-and-white generic labels that hail a product as mini-
mal and inexpensive. How much of these properties do we really need? Is it worth
the negative impact on the environment?
Documentary movies have introduced us to the North Pacific Gyre, that giant-
circle dead-zone that is polluted with the world’s garbage. Major problems occur in
areas where the wind and water circulation is minimal. Plastic materials are of great-
est concern as packaging remnants affect marine life by entanglement in trash, inges-
tion of small particles, and release of toxic molecules. Most of the plastic polluting
the oceans comes from waste pellets generated by plastic manufacturers and ships
dumping their trash in the water. I remember being disturbed as a US naval officer
observing the nightly trash dump off the fantail when we were operating at sea. Other
sources of plastic pollution come from fishing and tourist activities. Oceans are not
the only marine environment polluted by plastics as similar problems exist in the
Great Lakes. Although food packaging contributes to this problem, the solution goes
far beyond the “paper or plastic” question posed at check-out lines.
We are encouraged to recycle packaging whenever possible. Glass and paper are
recyclable as are many plastics, but too many recyclable packages never make it
through the process. There are two major ways to recycle: (1) hand presorting of
materials by the consumer, and (2) mechanical sorting by the company or agency
that collects the trash. Presorting tends to be very good for separating out paper and
glass but less effective for plastics. Fewer consumers are willing to take the extra
effort to sort out their recyclables from trash. Mechanical sorting is more consumer-
friendly and captures more plastic containers than hand sorting. Non-recyclable
materials are more likely to be mixed in, however, and separation of recyclables
from usable materials can prove problematic. Very little of recovered materials are
reused directly, i.e., a recycled glass beer bottle washed and refilled with new beer.
Even reconstruction for a similar purpose such as reusing plastic material from a
food container into a similar one is rare. Most recycled food packages are downcy-
cled, i.e., used for non-food-grade purposes.
Recycling programs only work if there is a market for recycled materials.
Maintaining an infrastructure for recycling is expensive for municipalities, but it is
such a popular practice that few politicians are willing to come out against. Cities
throughout the country have active recycling programs, but I understand that some
small communities that actually collect recyclables for direct transport to the landfill.
4 Reduce the Amount of Food We Waste 149

To maintain a market for recycled items, it is necessary for us to buy items made
from recycled or downcycled materials. Downcycling does not really eliminate
waste, though, as it merely allows for one or more times of reuse before the end of
life, also known as the grave, for that material.
We feel good when we recycle, but we seem to be less responsive to the other
two Rs—reduce and reuse. Food engineers reduce packaging by using less material,
called “source reduction.” It used to be that it took a “real man” to crush a beer can.
By making cans lighter and thinner, a beer can accidentally dropped on the floor
might produce a spewing mess. We can reduce our packaging footprint by buying
bigger packages, filling food stored in bulk containers into our own reusable con-
tainers, and refusing to buy obviously over-packaged products. Plastic water bottles
can be decreased by filling more permanent containers with tap water. SodaStream
introduced a way to eliminate soft-drink containers by carbonating diluted soda
syrup at home. Bringing reusable bags to the market as an alternative to “paper or
plastic” is another way to reduce packaging waste. Thoroughly washing and repur-
posing empty glass or plastic containers for storage of leftovers, serving of food or
beverages, or containing other items such as tools or hardware also decrease waste.
Even plastic bags can be reused at food pantries to prevent cross-contamination of
processed food from fresh or frozen meats.
As mentioned previously, however, there are tradeoffs in everything we do. Bigger
packages are fine as long as we consume most or all of the food in it and do not con-
sume larger portions. Otherwise we might waste food or gain weight. Most supermar-
ket and restaurant chains prohibit or discourage us from bringing our own containers
to fill from bulk storage for fear of cross-contamination and potential lawsuits. Canvas
bags that are reused several times without washing can accumulate dirt from unwashed
vegetables and dangerous microbes from uncooked meats due to cross-contamina-
tion. Eliminating soda cans and plastic bottles has huge potential for reducing packag-
ing waste, but it has been alleged that the gains are at the expense of unacceptable
treatment of the company’s workers. Reusing appropriate food packages for other
purposes has its limits when more containers accumulate than are needed.
LCA has been used to learn how food packaging affects the environment. One
example shows that waste prevention activities such as bottle refilling and reuse of
plastic materials enhance the benefits of recycling. The carbon footprint of kiwifruit
grown in New Zealand is affected primarily by the means of transport to market, the
types of packaging, and the amount of repacking that is necessary when it arrives at
the market. We cannot stop just at packaging waste, we must also look at food waste.

4 Reduce the Amount of Food We Waste

Although packaging waste is more visible, Tristram Stuart presents the case that
food waste makes a bigger impact on our environment. As noted in the previous
section, food packaging enters the waste stream either as trash we see on our high-
ways, streets, storm drains, or landfills. Very few of these packages are
150 9 How Can We Eat More Sustainably to Save the Earth for Our Children…

biodegradable. Materials that do biodegrade have problems such as the obnoxiously

loud Sun Chip bags that have been discontinued by Frito-Lay. Even then those bags
did not biodegrade in any reasonable time. Another attempt was a multipurpose,
biodegradable pizza box highlighted in a YouTube video. Food waste, however, is
biodegradable, disappears more rapidly, and is less likely to be seen than packaging
waste. Unfortunately, it is detrimental to the environment.
Food waste not only affects the environment by what we see but even more by
what we do not see. For example, let’s take the case of a one-pound bag of fresh
carrots that disappears in the back of the refrigerator only to re-emerge months later
partially liquid and covered with mold whiskers and slime. The package ends up in
the trash and ultimately in the landfill, as well as all the resources that went into the
manufacture of that plastic bag. In the field the carrots benefitted from energy, fertil-
izer (organic or not), pesticide (organic or not), water (rain or irrigation), and labor
(human or mechanical) that went into producing the seed, planting, growing, pro-
tecting plants from weather and pests, and harvest. Then energy, water, and labor
were needed to transport the carrots from the field to the packing facility where the
vegetables were cooled, washed, and packaged. This bag of carrots was then shipped
across country with thousands of similar bags to a warehouse and held at cool tem-
peratures before being broken down into a much smaller load going to a supermar-
ket. We buy the bag, take it home just to condemn it to death in the back of the
refrigerator. All the resources used and greenhouse gases emitted also end up in the
trashcan with the rotten carrots.
Now in the grand scheme of things, wasting a pound of carrots is unlikely to
make much of a difference. The losses become consequential, however, when mul-
tiplying that loss by all the “fresh” vegetables that end up in the trash instead of
someone’s stomach. This exercise ignores wasted carrot tops that are probably not
composted or the labor of the person who finally gets around to cleaning out the
refrigerator. It also does not consider all the carrots that were rejected at the packing
facility or discarded at various points between harvest and the plate.
Most of the food wasted in richer countries like the USA and in Europe occurs
after it arrives at the marketplace. In wealthy countries we waste food because we
buy food that we don’t get around to preparing and eating. We waste food by not
eating everything we put on our plates. We waste food by being picky about it not
being visually appealing, fresh enough, or tasty enough. Supermarkets waste food
by ordering too much food to meet demand. Farmers markets waste food by bring-
ing more food than what people will buy. Restaurants waste food by preparing more
food than what their patrons will order and consume. Although losses occur between
harvest and market in wealthy nations, it is the after-market losses that are most
consequential. Some of those losses are due to visual defects that have little or no
effect on the nutrition or eating quality of fresh produce. We do not live anywhere
close to Tristram Stuart’s Utrophia in Western society.
Poorer countries tend to lose more food before the food even gets to market than
richer countries. Many areas around the world lack modern agricultural technology
on farms, the ability to transport items from growing areas to markets due to inef-
ficient transportation, poor roads, and ways to slow rotting after harvest. The good
4 Reduce the Amount of Food We Waste 151

news is that the energy required; emissions produced; other resources necessary to
grow and transport fresh, whole food to market; and the amount of packaging used
is much lower in poorer than richer nations. The bad news is that much more food
is wasted before it ever reaches a point of sale. Thus, more land is required to pro-
duce enough food to feed a given population with prices higher than necessary and
way too much food rots. Like the student who wanted to learn how to can vegeta-
bles for the Bangladeshis, small businesses in many countries use primary pro-
cesses to help prevent food waste.
At the beginning of my career, I heard an interesting story from an experienced
colleague. Apparently he was visiting a coastal community in a poor country upon
invitation to help reduce food waste. He started one afternoon by observing a fish
market which had the distinctive odor of rotting fish. The solution was a simple one.
The fishmongers were not using ice. After making arrangements for the merchants
to put their fish on ice to slow spoilage, he felt good. The next afternoon, he came
back and smelled much less fishy odor than the previous day, but the merchants
were beside themselves as the fish was not selling! He told the dealers to go back to
what they had been doing the previous day, and he would just observe. He was there
very early the next morning to see the fresh catch come in from the docks. About
6:00 AM the maids from the aristocracy came and purchased the freshest fish at a
premium price. Every few hours as the un-iced fish would continue to rot, the price
was lowered and a different set of customers would come in to buy their fish. By the
end of the day, the fish was in rough shape and bought for a pittance by those cus-
tomers who could not afford higher quality. Apparently, economics were just as
important as technology.
Fresh, whole foods are more likely to rot before they are eaten than processed
foods. The obsession of food scientists with shelf life is not only to help prevent food
poisoning but also to decrease food waste. Food processing can’t do anything to
prevent us from buying more than we serve or filling our plates with more than we
will eat. Food processing extends shelf life so the product will be available to accom-
modate the schedule of the food preparer rather than the rotting schedule of the fresh
food. In many cases, primary processing (canning, freezing, drying, etc.) results in
tradeoffs such as greater environmental impact during processing, lower nutritional
value, and less flavor than fresh food. Processed ingredients such as brown rice
syrup, buckwheat flour, sea salt, and wasabi paste can be put back in the kitchen cabi-
net after use rather than being discarded at the end of the day or week for more per-
ishable ones. Packaging helps prevent contamination thus decreasing food waste.
A major controversy swarms around expiration dates. Big Food takes advantage
of concerns that an expiration date represents the point at which a food goes bad and
becomes unsafe. Food companies place an expiration date on most products to help
ensure that the food will not rot before that date if held under expected conditions.
For example, a quart of pasteurized milk will spoil long before its expiration date if
left out at room temperatures for a long time. In Chap. 3 we learned that ultra-
pasteurized milk will last long past its expiration date, even if held at room tempera-
ture. As noted in the previous chapter, a spoiled food is not necessarily an unsafe
one, and an unsafe food is not necessarily a spoiled one. Discarding a food because
152 9 How Can We Eat More Sustainably to Save the Earth for Our Children…

it is past its expiration date when it is still safe and nutritious contributes to food
waste and a waste of all the resources it took to produce the ingredients and manu-
facture the product. I personally pay attention to expiration dates of products that
are highly perishable and are high in protein like lunch meats and prepared casse-
roles than other products.
LCA has observed that packaging can help prevent food waste. Packages that are
too big, too difficult to empty, and past their expiration date before being consumed
all contribute to more food waste than food in smaller packages. LCA of packaging
waste is not always straight-forward. A study found that the type of package for rice
and yogurt which contributed least to global warming depended on whether or not
food waste was taken into consideration. Without detailed knowledge available to
us, it is still to evaluate the sustainability of products we see on the shelf.

5 Buy Only Products that Have Sustainability Labels

Daniel Goleman suggests that we need “radical transparency” for every product we
buy, such that we could compare sustainability of one product with another as easily
as we can compare calories per serving. A trip to a website or a quick scan of the
label could tell us how responsibly the product was made with respect to the envi-
ronment, animal welfare, worker conditions, and other aspects of interest. We could
program the response narrowly, i.e., contribution to global warming, or broadly, i.e.,
a series of 5–600 scores on specific areas of interest. We might even develop a single
score that encompasses our own personal algorithm much like the star system for a
video in Netflix. Such a system could then provide a recommendation as to competi-
tor’s product that scores better based on our personal preferences. We are nowhere
near that ideal at present, although there are sites such as GoodGuide which rates
thousands of food products from 0 to 10 on Health, Environment, and Society.
Overall company ratings are available from the Sustainability Consortium. Various
organizations provide certifications of food products. The concept is great, but can
we trust those groups who set the standards?
Unfortunately too many companies “greenwash” their products by pointing out
one particular benefit to the environment while obscuring its detriments. Big Food
is very good at greenwashing through brands with environmentally friendly names
or statements that highlight a specific selling point such as
• natural, organic,
• all manufacturing emissions offset by planting trees,
• bird-friendly, cage-free, fair trade,
• fresh, local, pure, simple,
• GMO-free, no added chemicals,
• green, eco-friendly, low-energy,
• naturally cured without nitrates,
• no artificial additives, or no trans fats.
5 Buy Only Products that Have Sustainability Labels 153

Without additional information we don’t know how accurate these descriptions

are, what standards are used, and if the manufacturer is touting one attribute to
obscure others that have a negative impact on the environment. Remember the cat-
egories for assessing environmental impact in LCAs mentioned earlier in the chap-
ter. There are additional ratings available for social impact such as animal and
worker welfare.
In the matter of trust we tend to give more credibility to the claims of Small Food
than the claims of Big Food. To stay in business any company must be economically
sustainable. Big companies look for big profits, but the profit margin for most pack-
aged food tends to be lower than most other types of consumer products. Due to
economies of scale, larger companies generally have more money to devote to sus-
tainability than smaller companies unless the small company can charge a higher
price for a unique attribute. Thus, Big Food has more incentive than Small Food to
look more sustainable to gain market share.
Due to higher sales Big Food has a larger environmental footprint than Small
Food. A small, positive change or rejection of a negative change by a company like
McDonald’s or Walmart might be much better for the environment than the pres-
ence of a small environmentally conscious company. As a small company attracts
more customers it may grow to expand its beneficial impact on the environment, but
its larger size may then compromise its ability to maintain its high environmental
standards. Large mega-food companies may actually have more specific data on
global climate change and its effect on sustainability than most governments, as Big
Food buys and ships whole, processed, and formulated foods around the world.
Businesses looking out for their bottom line in the future have incentives to promote
sustainable growth and distribution of food materials, particularly if their products
can be promoted as green or environmentally friendly.
Although it would help to know which products are more environmentally friendly
than others, I did not find the basis of the GoodGuide scores to be sufficiently trans-
parent. The Health scores are based on certifications by various organizations and the
RRR (Ratio of Recommended to Restricted Nutrients) rating. The more certifications
a product gets, such as USDA Organic, the higher the Health score, even though the
health benefits of organic foods are not always clear. The Environment and Social
scores are based on an assessment of the company and not on the specific product
being evaluated. Kellogg’s Environment and Social scores are both 5.9 out of 10, but
the company has learned how to game the Health score in the GoodGuide system. A
reduction from 11 grams of sugar in regular Frosted Flakes to 8 grams per serving in
Reduced Sugar Frosted Flakes raises their Health score from 5.9 to 8.0 on a 10-point
scale. The serving size for a 17-ounce package is ¾ of a cup, but how many Frosted
Flake eaters carefully measure out each serving? Someone eating a 1-cup serving of
the Reduced Sugar Frosted Flakes will eat the same amount of sugar as someone who
eats a ¾ cup serving of regular Frosted Flakes.
LCA can be used to help identify areas for improvement of product sustainability.
It may also help increase product transparency, but translating that to useful labels
will be tricky. A study looking at the energy requirements to make meat substitutes
showed that those made from soy or insects had the lowest energy demand. Products
154 9 How Can We Eat More Sustainably to Save the Earth for Our Children…

from dairy and wheat products were similar to chicken on local feed. Lab-grown
substitutes had the highest energy demands. A study from Brazil indicates that irriga-
tion-water requirements for growing melons are much higher in certain months of
the year than other months. Researchers in the United Kingdom found that imported
apples, beef, and potatoes contributed to more global warming than those produced
in country. However, tomatoes and strawberries grown in Spain, poultry from Brazil,
and lamb from New Zealand contributed less to global warming than local products
even when emissions during transportation were considered. Organic milk in Sweden
requires twice the amount of land as nonorganic milk, but the impact on biodiversity
is less because of the use of soy to feed the nonorganic cows. Like most LCAs, how-
ever, this information is based on a single study.
If we are to be players in nudging companies to be better corporate citizens, we
need more information than we have access to now. Every buying decision we make
is a vote for the manufacturer and its policies. The ability to assess the environmen-
tal impact of a specific product while deciding to choose the best brand in the super-
market has appeal, but the idea is not as simple as it sounds. A single score is too
simplistic. A multitude of scores or full LCA report is too much information. In the
end it comes down to whom we can trust and how much of that information makes
a meaningful difference. Another avenue to more sustainability is a change in diet.

6 Eat Less Meat Products and Maintain a Healthy Weight

The food in the American diet that has the greatest impact on the environment is
meat. It takes more resources to produce a pound of meat than most other whole
foods. In calculating personal grain footprints, vegans tend to eat more grains than
meat eaters, but the amount of grain needed to feed animals creates a bigger grain
footprint for omnivores. Not all cropland is suitable, however, for fruits, vegetables,
nuts, or grains. Grass-fed beef is more sustainable than its grain-fed alternative, but
clear-cutting of forests to increase pasture land is not an environmentally friendly
practice. Cows also contribute to global warming by expelling methane, the most
potent of greenhouse gases. Raising cattle on pasture land is considered to be more
humane than in feedlots, even though those animals kept in pastures are more vul-
nerable to bad weather. Modern animal breeding has made great strides in leaner
meat and the amount of meat produced per pound of feed. Thus fewer cattle and less
feed are needed to produce the same amount meat than in the idyllic, rural past of
the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Despite potential benefits to the environment, such
breeding efforts have been blamed for loss of flavor in meat, particularly chicken.
Likewise, cage-free eggs are being demanded by customers in American restau-
rants. Major chains that prepare breakfasts are responding. It should be noted that
cows that provide us with organic milk and cage-free chickens may not be as well
off as we envision. Large organic dairy and cage-free poultry operations needed to
supply Big Food are still factory farms. Whether the current transition will be
enough to supply consumer demand, significantly decrease environmental impact,
and satisfy activists is yet to be determined.
7 It Will Take More Than Individual Efforts to Provide a Sustainable Future 155

There are many nutritional benefits we can obtain by cutting back on meat. First
and foremost, decreasing meat in the diet decreases the amount of fat we eat, particu-
larly the saturated fat found in red meats. The fat of chicken and turkey meat is gener-
ally found just under the skin. By removing the skin, we can decrease our fat
consumption but at a cost of food waste. A deep-fat fried piece of chicken with its skin
on contributes more fat per ounce than a grilled hamburger patty. Both cured and
grilled meats, organic or not, also contain carcinogens. Less meat in the diet is even
better if we increase our level of fruits and vegetables. The health downside of cutting
the amount of meat in our diets is the loss of high-quality protein and readily available
vitamins and minerals. Most Americans who eat some animal products consume more
protein than required. A proper mix of grains and beans can also provide balanced
protein. Fruits and vegetables provide a wide range of vitamins and minerals as long
as the diet includes a diversity of items. MyPlate recommends a healthy mixture of
fruits and vegetables of different colors to obtain needed nutrients.
Several suggestions have been advanced to decrease meat eating. Dietitians and
nutritionists suggest limiting the portion of meat at a meal to the size of a deck of
cards, the equivalent of a quarter pound. Meatless Mondays and consumption of
meat only on weekends are two other options that have been suggested. A concerted
effort by grocery shoppers and restaurant customers in richer countries could have
a major impact, but such changes are not yet evident. Even if there is a mass decrease
in meat eating in richer countries, as poorer countries gain wealth, their people tend
to eat more meat. To halt the damage meat eating can do, either meat production
will need to become more sustainable or the price of meat will need to become
much more expensive to cover the hidden ecological costs that are not currently
being reflected in its price.
By cutting back on the total amount of food we eat, the less food we will waste.
As discussed in the first chapter, America is getting fatter. If the whole country went
on a diet, the demand for food would be reduced. Less land, energy, and other
resources would be needed to grow food, manufacture products, and distribute whole
and processed food to American consumers. Trends show that the percentage of
Americans and other residents of rich countries who are becoming overweight and
obese is levelling off, but the numbers of extremely obese continue to increase. If
current trends continue, the rate of growth of food consumed will slow and demands
on the environment will decrease. Although we can contribute to global sustainabil-
ity by our own personal choices, we probably can’t make a major impact alone.

7 It Will Take More Than Individual Efforts to Provide

a Sustainable Future

We need to take responsibility for how our food choices affect the earth’s environ-
ment, but too many of our neighbors do not seem to be doing their fair share. There
seem to be at least three groups of people when it comes to the environment, those
who really care, those who consider global warming and other environmental causes
156 9 How Can We Eat More Sustainably to Save the Earth for Our Children…

a hoax, and those who are not paying that much attention. Most people given a
chance to help the planet will try if their actions are relatively painless, but only
those who really care are willing to make meaningful sacrifices. As Goleman sug-
gests in the opening quote, food companies get little credit for being truly respon-
sible. Rather, greenwashing is currently Big Food’s most profitable alternative.
Lifestyle changes by a dedicated few, like those at the 3-day festival I attended in
grad school, may not be enough. We may be reaching a major tipping point in per-
sonal behavior with respect to saving the earth, but I don’t see it. Such a change
seemed to be much closer a decade ago with the release of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient
Truth than it is now. If lifestyle changes by a minority of the population will not be
enough, we must hold our government and food companies, both Big and Small,
accountable for their actions. Dedicated, activist minorities in the past have led to
tipping points in the abolition of slavery, civil rights, and ending wars.
In looking to the future I separate the views of optimists and pessimists. Since I
became interested in the relationship between food and the environment as an
undergraduate, it seems that the optimists have been closer to being right than the
pessimists. The thing about pessimists is that they only need to be right once and it’s
GAME OVER. Are the optimists right in proclaiming that our ingenuity will win
the day or are we just buying time with small fixes that will make the end result even
more cataclysmic? In the introduction to this chapter I mentioned four possible
futures—one pessimistic, one optimistic, and two paths between the extremes. Most
current predictions focus on the year 2050. Unless we change our ways, the pessi-
mist suggests that we will either not be around or on a globe with much reduced
capacity by then. One thing all four views agree on, however, is that individual
changes in lifestyle will not be enough to save the planet.
The pessimist has been pessimistic about the consequences of our behavior on
the health of the earth for a very long time. He has been warning us about expanding
deserts, dwindling water supplies, increasing world hunger, global climate change,
and loss of forest land for over 30 years. Despite our unwillingness to heed his
warnings from the past, he still thinks we have a chance to recover. Our current Plan
A is not working. His Plan B described in World on the Edge (published in 2011)
consists of four goals:
• reducing carbon emissions between then and 2020 by 80 %,
• lowering world population growth to level off in 2040 at 8 billion,
• eliminating poverty in the world, and
• restoring aquifers, fisheries, forests, and soils that have been spoiled by current
practices.
The consequences of failing to meet these goals, he contends, will result in
higher prices for food leading to food insecurity and eventually major famines
around the world. Accompanying such a calamity will be an increase in failed states
leading to a rising tide of environmental refugees. Since the publication of the book,
we appear to be making little progress towards meeting the goals of Plan B, but we
are experiencing an increase in failed states and a growing refugee crisis.
7 It Will Take More Than Individual Efforts to Provide a Sustainable Future 157

In Global Food Futures, an optimistic view is presented which has us continually

relying on advances in technology to prevent the global economic collapse pre-
dicted by the pessimist. In this perspective, technology has enabled world popula-
tion to grow so fast that it is too late to go back to farming practices of the early
twentieth century. To meet the challenges of the future we will need to
• expand food production between now and 2050 by 70 %,
• find ways to bring marginal lands into agricultural production while continuing
to increase crop yields on existing land,
• increase funding for agricultural research to improve plant and animal breeding,
and
• increase world food trade to slow the inevitable increases in the price of food.
The optimistic perspective depends on increased food production, primarily
through increased yields but also from bringing more land into cultivation. Increased
yields will require more energy-intensive agriculture at a cost of less biodiversity
and more greenhouse gases. Compounding the problem is that greatest population
growth is projected to occur in areas of the world where the land is marginal, tech-
nology is limited, and global warming is likely to have its greatest impact. To meet
demands in these countries while keeping prices low will require more free trade
and continued food aid from wealthier nations. This optimistic view predicts that
increasing incomes among the poorest of the poor will help provide greater access
to food for all people around the world. One way to improve the economic status of
the impoverished is through microfinance, which opens up capitalism to the poorest
of the poor through small loans to develop small businesses.
A middle road described in 2052 predicts a future with increasingly threatening
disasters remedied by short-term fixes instituted well after the time when adopting
such policies would have been most effective. This author also has a history of
looking at the future of food and the environment. A failure to act more quickly
points to the potential startling collapses of
• capitalism as our society becomes more polarized and privilege is no longer
tolerated,
• democracy if it fails to respond rapidly enough as the urgency of sustainability of
our actions becomes imperative,
• economic growth as we face an era of constrained consumption,
• generational harmony as the goals of different generations are no longer compat-
ible, and
• a stable climate as much wilder changes occur than what we see today.
In a sense, such a middle of the road approach sounds bleaker than the pessimis-
tic view. The earth may be as well off, but the people on the earth may be worse off.
If we wish to save the cherished ideals of capitalism, democracy, economic growth,
generational harmony, and a stable climate, governments will need to make changes
sooner rather than later. At the end of the book, the author who, like me, will probably
not be alive in 2052, urges us to help him make his prediction not become true.
By working together, he urges, we can all make a better world.
158 9 How Can We Eat More Sustainably to Save the Earth for Our Children…

Fortunately for those readers who plan to be alive by 2050 and don’t want to
change too quickly there is also another middle view offered in Global Food Futures.
Scientific advances will be needed to increase land productivity in countries with
the greatest food insecurity, decrease the chances for crop failures, and reduce food
waste between harvest and market. With more land under production, less loss of
food to pests and inadequate distribution of fresh foods to market, the poor will be
less susceptible to price hikes of imported food. GMOs will need to be part of the
solution for crops in these marginalized countries in the context of this vision.
Organic farming in these countries is synonymous with subsistence farming and is
inadequate to feed the current population, much less the expanding growth by 2050.
Combining sustainable practices from the organic movement with judicious use of
synthetic fertilizers and pesticides will be needed. More primary processing of
local, whole foods will also be needed to prevent food waste.
The views presented in this section emphasize the importance of embracing sus-
tainability. The main idea of sustainability is through LCA we can reduce the impact
of products on the environment by understanding where the damage by a cradle-to-
grave analysis. It is not clear to me which future is in store for the planet in the next
34 years. Each of these perspectives point to the need to change and change rather
dramatically. It does seem to be imperative, however, that we point the way to a less
wasteful, more sustainable future.

Eating More Sustainably

Eating sustainably must reach beyond buying organic foods and checking food
miles. Many of the techniques used by organic growers contribute to sustainability,
but other practices hold back subsistence farmers from producing enough food.
A blend of best organic practices and appropriate technology to raise yields will be
needed to meet the nutritional demands of nine billion people by the middle of the
century. Sustainability should be monitored from the farm to the plate to the garbage
can. Reducing food waste in any food chain will be even more significant than
reducing packaging waste.
Of the futures mentioned in the previous section, I suspect that the two middle-
of-the-road predictions are more likely to prevail than the extreme views.
Governments and corporations will need to respond, either as
• the unseen hand that will do the right thing to preserve the future or
• more rapid responses to a major environmental crises to head off cataclysmic events.
For us to have an impact, there will need to be a much clearer understanding of
the real problems, a greater willingness to sacrifice current lifestyles in richer coun-
tries, and less adherence to the ideology of either Big Food or the food pundits. Such
efforts must involve the active collaboration of scientists across many fields along-
side concerned citizens and government officials. American society appears to be
too polarized across ideological lines at present to achieve such progress.
Eating More Sustainably 159

We must look beyond our personal beliefs and gut feelings to promote practices
that really help save the earth rather than to promote rigid ideologies. The idea that
products can be designed to eliminate waste such that components of a discarded
item are upcycled into new products should become our long-term goal. Going back
to a less technological era does not seem to me to be realistic. Reliance on technol-
ogy in the last century pushed world population further than can be accommodated
by lower-tech approaches. Technology has contributed to this global crisis and
smarter technology will be needed to help us get out of it.
Big Food has much to lose if global conditions worsen and much to gain if cur-
rent conditions are improved. Unfortunately, food companies too often are more
concerned about quarterly profits than the long-term health of the planet.
Corporations talk about their triple bottom line—Economy, Ecology, and Equity
(human issues). While each aspect is supposed to be equal, Big Food will always
emphasize profits as the ability to make money is linked directly to company sur-
vival. Corporations looking to assure their future in the marketplace will need to
work more towards sustainability and worker/consumer welfare to maintain a
competitive advantage.
During the second summer that I taught Food Issues and Challenges, my class
came up with three perspectives (paradigms) with respect to agriculture, food han-
dling or processing, and product distribution (see Table 9.1). It is clear that the
industrialized food system is not sustainable in many ways, particularly environ-
mentally. The organic/alternative system will probably claim a growing market
share in future years, but it will reach limits in its ability to feed the masses. A battle

Table 9.1 Three possible versions of the American food distribution and handling system
Industrialized food
system Alternative food coalition Emergent food perspective
Profit driven Not profit driven Economically viable
Safe end products Healthy foods/less processed Nutritionally based products that
are safe
Efficient production Environmentally friendly Sustainability-environmentally
sound
Agribusiness Small farms and companies Feeding the world
Focuses on consumer Closer to nature—organic Consumer based
demand
Mass marketing and Community based/locally Traceability/origin labeling
distribution distributed
Creates jobs Better work environment Living wage for workers/fair trade
Wide array of choices Whole foods/Heirloom Variety available at reasonable price
varieties
Chemical ingredients No chemicals Clean labels
Factory farms Humane treatment of animals Animal welfare-feed
Politically connected Ethical Fairer distribution of subsidies
Competitive Cooperation not competition Competitive and cooperative
Technology based Low technology Appropriate technology
160 9 How Can We Eat More Sustainably to Save the Earth for Our Children…

will continue from between purists and pragmatists, but Big Food will continue to
dominate the market as long as it is able to respond rapidly to changing circum-
stances. Hopefully, some form of emerging system will capture the strengths of
industrialized and organic food while eliminating many of the weaknesses. Failure
to develop a new model will likely condemn us to a less-desirable future.
One of the major themes in this book is that there are tradeoffs associated with
every food decision we make each day. The most earth-friendly decision might not
be the safest, the most nutritious, the most real, the one with the fewest chemicals,
the least addictive, the freshest, or the one with the fewest calories. Many pundits
suggest that a whole foods, natural diet that has the best “real” flavor will also be the
least fattening, freshest, non-addictive, have no added chemicals, healthiest, safest,
and most earth-friendly. The history of the world suggests that humans do not usu-
ally have the best interests of the earth in mind. World history also suggests that
Nature does not always favor the best interests of humans.
Chapter 10
Can Processed Food Be Part of a Responsible
Diet?

There are two ways to slide easily through life: Namely, to believe everything, or to doubt
everything. Both ways save us from thinking.—Alfred Korzybski
There is almost no more urban a view of nature than this pastoral, idyllic one: Humankind bad,
Nature good. As in, drinking and fighting bad, elves and flowers good. But it’s a false dichot-
omy. After all, following this logic, Sistine chapel bad, Ebola virus good?—David Rakoff

Americans live in a polarized society, and fewer things are more polarized than
thoughts and ideas about food. Dietitians, food scientists, nutritionists, and toxi-
cologists tend to view whole and processed foods as complex combinations of edi-
ble chemicals. Food pundits, media personalities, medical doctors, and researchers
of food addiction tend to see processed foods as more dangerous than whole foods
primarily due to added food chemicals. The former are the foxes who talk in relative
terms suggesting that any individual food has positive and negative aspects that
must be balanced when making a decision to eat or not to eat. The latter are the
hedgehogs who speak in absolute terms of good and bad food (see Figs. 10.1 and
10.2). Consumers caught in the middle of conflicting information tend to stick with
certainty over uncertainty. The irony is that both the food pundits and Big Food are
most successful when acting as hedgehogs. Big Food uses its two most powerful
weapons, advertising and convenience, to convince us that the latest processed
product is good for us and will save precious time. Food pundits call out Big Food
not always based on merit but because the products are “processed.”
Throughout this book I have highlighted some ways food pundits scare us about
chemical ingredients and processed food. Their bag of tricks includes
• Bait and switch—pointing out an obvious problem with a particular food and
then expanding the idea to other foods for which the problem either does not
exist or is much less of a concern,
• At least one study has shown—single studies rarely establish credibility among
the scientific community as conflicting conclusions in a specific area may be
common and require verification before a scientific consensus develops,

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 161

R.L. Shewfelt, In Defense of Processed Food,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45394-1_10
162 10 Can Processed Food Be Part of a Responsible Diet?

Fig. 10.1 Dietitians, food scientists, nutritionists, and toxicologists tend to view whole and pro-
cessed foods as complex combinations of edible chemicals. Sketch by Emily McCallion

Fig. 10.2 Food pundits,

media personalities,
medical doctors, and
researchers of food
addiction tend to see
processed foods as more
dangerous than whole
foods primarily due to
added food chemicals.
Sketch by Emily
McCallion

• Pointing out the flaws without pointing out the benefits—few foods or ingredients
are incorrigibly bad as most foods and ingredients have positive as well as nega-
tive aspects,
• Pointing out the benefits without pointing out the flaws—few foods or ingredi-
ents are impeccably good as most foods or ingredients have negative as well as
positive aspects,
• All or nothing—many discussions about food components follow either zero toler-
ance or if-a-little-is-good-then-more-must-be-better policy rather than recognizing
1 We Have a Social Obligation to Eat More Sustainably 163

that at very low levels most harmful substances do not pose a danger and that at
very high levels even beneficial substances can be hazardous,
• Selective use of terms like chemicals and molecules—such that “chemical” is
used to disparage a molecular compound and “molecule” is used to commend a
chemical compound, and
• What the (fill in the blank) won’t tell you—implying a conspiratorial nature of a
company, organization, or other entity about a rather simple, straightforward
food, ingredient, process, or scientific principle.
Scientists attempt to understand true risks about a behavior such as eating by
relying on a statistical analysis of documented injuries, illnesses, and deaths. Too
many of us react to stories in the media aimed at personal vulnerabilities. Other fear
factors include greater risks to children, inability to choose, lack of personal control,
man-made, unnatural, uncertainty, unfairness, and untrustworthiness. There have
been a few attempts by authors to separate real risks in the food supply from hype.
Unfortunately, such efforts receive much less attention than statements made by
food pundits who are hailed by the popular media.
As a scientist and the son of a union between a food scientist and a home economist
(homemaker/dietician of the 1950s and 1960s), I reject the certainty expressed by both
the pundits and Big Food. I firmly believe every food has pluses and minuses and that
every time we choose to either eat or not eat a specific food we are dealing with trad-
eoffs. Processed food is neither the answer to nor the cause of all of its health problems.
It is the most appropriate food at times and a menace at others. It is time for us to use our
minds to combine the bounty of nature and the benefits of technology to develop diets
that promote health, particularly for those of us who have specific dietary restrictions.
Such restrictions may or may not have been caused by inappropriate personal dietary
choices in the past. As Alfred Korzybski suggests, however, we should be critical think-
ers and not too quick to either believe or doubt the latest pronouncement on food.
Responsible eating involves consideration of the sustainability, safety, healthful-
ness, authenticity, toxicity, amount, and freshness of the food we choose to eat. Every
day we make up to 200 food decisions, most of these choices without conscious
thought. Each of these decisions has tradeoffs as the most sustainable choice is not usu-
ally the safest, healthiest, most authentic, least toxic, least tempting, and freshest alter-
native. I am not advocating that we consider every alternative before making each
choice, but I do think that we need to be aware of some of the tradeoffs that are involved.
By understanding such tradeoffs we should be able to develop strategies to make more
mindful choices. This chapter will start with responsible eating from a sustainability
perspective and work back to responsible eating at the fresh and local level. It will then
finish with how our daily choices affect how fat America is becoming as a nation.

1 We Have a Social Obligation to Eat More Sustainably

It is not as easy to eat sustainably as it first appears. For example, a Life Cycle
Assessment indicated that disposable coffee cups have about the same environmental
impact as reusable mugs unless energy efficient dishwashers are used to clean the
164 10 Can Processed Food Be Part of a Responsible Diet?

mugs. The obvious advantages of a particular action such as preventing packaging

waste are countered by disadvantages that we might not think about. For example, we
don’t usually think about the energy efficiency and water use of using the dishwasher
or even the implications of washing our hands. Of course, reusing the same mug over
and over again without at least rinsing it could compromise personal safety over a
long time. It would be nice to have radical transparency as described in the previous
chapter for products we buy, but such information is not currently accessible. We can
check some of our current brands on selected websites to see if the company is envi-
ronmentally and socially responsible, but how do we know that the scores are valid?
Such scores may be based on a hidden agenda that is more ideological than accurate.
Also, a company may be environmentally and socially responsible in general, but a
specific product it manufactures may not meet company sustainability standards.
The most sustainable choice is not always the safest choice. Plastic water bottles,
particularly the ubiquitous, single-serving containers, are overused and contribute
to a growing mass of plastic in our landfills, lakes, rivers, streams, and oceans. As
mentioned above, however, these bottles are the primary way to deliver safe water
when ordinary supplies are not safe. Cooking up many servings of main dishes and
saving the leftovers in the refrigerator reduces energy use and can lead to less waste.
Placing a large amount of food in the refrigerator in the pot or pan used for cooking,
however, is not recommended for safety reasons. Food in a large, hot container
cools down slowly allowing dangerous microbes to grow in the warm center of the
food and could lead to a food-poisoning episode. Also, fresh meat that is not prop-
erly packaged in the store can leak onto unpackaged fresh fruits and vegetables in
canvas bags cross contaminating produce on the trip home or on the next trip to the
store and back. Most restaurants and supermarkets will not let customers bring their
own reusable containers fearing cross contamination.
Health and sustainability can sometimes be in conflict. One way to reduce packag-
ing trash is to narrow food choices to a very few items. This recommendation may be
beneficial environmentally, but it will probably be so restrictive leading to a diet that
either is too low in some important vitamins and minerals or too high in salt, sugar, and
fat. The gains being made with respect to fewer soda cans and bottles as Americans are
cutting back on soft drinks resulting from an increased consumption of bottled water.
One consistent message about healthier diets is to consume more fruits, vegetables, and
nuts. Environmental concerns, however, about fruits and vegetables include
• less than 5 % of fruits and 10 % of vegetables acres planted in the USA are organic,
• many vegetables are grown on large farms that either do not recover the inedible
parts of the plants or discard visually unappealing items, and
• some of the most popular items like iceberg lettuce provide minimal nutrition for
large environmental footprints.
Too many Americans eat too few fruits, vegetables, and nuts. It seems to me that
it would be very difficult to encourage the public to double their consumption of
fresh produce, increase organic production to 50 %, and find enough farmers to
grow healthier and more sustainable crops like kale on small farms. Some compro-
mises will be necessary.
Calling a food real for any reason does not make it good for the environment.
Likewise, calling a product, a foodlike substance does not make it bad for the
2 Food Processing Generally Improves the Safety of Foods 165

environment. The authenticity of a food apparently depends on the beholder. Meat

and milk, proclaimed as real foods by some pundits, have a stronger impact on the
environment than formulated versions derived from soy. Home cooking may or may
not be as energy efficient or less wasteful as restaurant cooking or food manufactur-
ing. The equipment used and the ability to recover waste and utilize it for other
purposes determine the environmental impact. All food chemicals are not threats to
the environment. Toxicologists believe that the amount of a chemical present is
important such that every molecule is safe at some level and hazardous at a higher
level. Environmental chemists are more likely to believe that synthetic molecules
that have found their way into the natural environment are unsafe in any amount. It
seems to me that we need to focus on the safety of chemicals in our food that pose
a danger in the amounts consumed rather than developing zero tolerance for harm-
less molecules just because their names are difficult to pronounce.
An obsession with freshness of food is one of our most unsustainable practices. An
often ignored reason for cooking, packaging and processing fresh foods, and ingredi-
ents is to prevent rotting. As more foods are refrigerated or processed in nations with
a less modern infrastructure, the less food is wasted before it gets to market. In coun-
tries with a more modern infrastructure, waste comes when fresh food does not sell
soon enough at the farmers market or supermarket or freshly cooked food is left on the
plate or in the kitchen. Unless that food is sent to a soup kitchen, food pantry, pig farm,
or refrigerator for a later meal, all of the resources used to get that food to market are
completely wasted. The height of an obsession for freshness is air freight of freshly
caught seafood across oceans or trucking of live freshwater fish in tanks across a
continent to ensure freshness at the point of slaughter and preparation.
I am working at eating more sustainably, but I am finding it very difficult. By
using GoodGuide.com to evaluate companies that manufacture products I consume
frequently, I have tried switching some current brands. To this point neither the selec-
tion nor the quality of the higher-rated brands on GoodGuide have been as acceptable
tome as my current ones. How the site comes up with the Environmental and Societal
scores is still unclear to me. As far as food waste, I rarely leave any food on my plate.
When eating out, I either leave nothing behind, share a large serving with my dining
companion or ask for a doggie bag. A major problem with a doggie bag is that it usu-
ally comes in a Styrofoam container. Restaurant leftovers also should be refrigerated
soon after leaving the restaurant to keep the food from becoming food-poisoning
agents. I am working on reducing the volume of packaging I use, but I still buy sin-
gle-serving packages of some foods to keep from overeating. Some processed foods
are more sustainable than others, but I have few concerns about their safety.

2 Food Processing Generally Improves the Safety of Foods

Courses in food microbiology usually permanently change the way a student thinks
about food. Although students learn about spoilage and fermentation, what sticks in
their brains is the danger lurking in any food that can sicken or kill an unsuspecting
consumer. I am not a food microbiologist, but I was scared witless in the one general
166 10 Can Processed Food Be Part of a Responsible Diet?

microbiology and three food microbiology courses taken in college. Food scientists
worry about contaminated raw foods, cross contamination of foods that will not be
cooked, and the microbes in food that cause illness either through infections or
intoxications. Students in food microbiology courses learn that cooking and pro-
cessing as well as proper handling and storage help prevent food poisoning.
The safest food is not always the most nutritious or most flavorful food. Cooking
and processing kill microbes, but heat also destroys some of the nutrients present and
can lower the appeal of a product. Food scientists are willing to trade off some nutri-
tion and flavor to ensure safety. More sophisticated food processing techniques that
are less reliant on heat are being used to ensure food safety while maintaining nutri-
tion and flavor. When describing processed food as being less nutritious than whole
food, food pundits are mainly talking about foods that have been processed with
heat. When suggesting that processed food is less safe than whole or raw food, the
pundits are mainly referring to formulated food with added chemical ingredients.
Food scientists generally believe that chemical ingredients make products more
safe not less safe. Elimination of antimicrobial preservatives could increase the risk
of a food outbreak rather than prevent harm. Clean labels are a response to the grow-
ing fear of chemicals in food products. Big Food uses salt and sugar liberally pri-
marily as an attractant to sell more food, but it also serves as protection from
premature spoilage, food outbreaks, and lawsuits. When describing the addictive
properties of processed food, food pundits are mainly talking about formulated
foods that have too much salt, sugar, and fat. What I personally worry about are
products that have less salt and sugar with no chemical ingredients to keep the killer
microbes from invading my body and making me sick. Big and Small Food are now
using embalming spices, such as cinnamon and cumin, to act as antimicrobials in
their products. Unfortunately, spices are not usually as effective as less complex
ingredients with the unpronounceable, chemical names. Spices and other clean
ingredients frequently contribute unusual flavors in certain products. Of more
concern, however, is that the active chemical in many spices may also be toxic to
humans in amounts close to what is needed to protect the food.
Fresh food tends to be less safe than processed food. One concept emphasized in
courses in food microbiology is that microbes that make us sick are natural and
occur in raw food. This idea contrasts with the general belief that raw foods are pure
and that the danger increases with handling and processing. While some practices
from the farm to the processing plant to the table can increase the dangers of these
microbes, cooking and processing are more likely to make a raw food safer and not
less safe. Fresh potatoes serve as a prime example. The dirt the tubers are grown in
is teeming with microbes, many of which can make us sick. Much of the dirt can be
washed off in a packinghouse in water that contains a chemical sanitizer. Dirt and
the accompanying microbes can rub off the potatoes and contaminate salad veggies
if kept in the same container on the way home. Cut melons in a plastic tray at the
supermarket may have been processed in large facility from fresh melons under
sanitary conditions. Melon pieces cut up in the back of the supermarket are usually
from fruits that show visible signs of rotting prepared in a space not designed to
provide adequate sanitation.
3 Technology Produces Products that Can Either Improve or Threaten Our Health 167

For me, safety is the most important characteristic of any food. I follow some
personal guidelines to keep from becoming a victim of food poisoning. I have more
faith in processed food than fresh food, particularly supermarket salads containing
meats or eggs. I like my food either hot or cold, not somewhere in between, particu-
larly if it looks like the food could have been sitting around at room temperature
growing undesirable microbes for a long time. I prefer chain restaurants to mom &
pops because chains tend to have better sanitation, but sanitation is generally only
as good as the training and diligence of the manager on duty. I prefer entrées brought
to the table over those in a food bar that may or may not have been carefully attended.
I do not eat raw fish or meat, but I do like my steaks medium to medium rare. With
the exception of steak, I tend to overcook meat dishes a little to ensure safety. I am
wary of home-canned food, unsure if it was heated long enough to prevent botulis.
Despite all of the concerns raised by food pundits, I feel comfortable with the safety
and healthiness of most processed foods.

3 Technology Produces Products that Can Either Improve

or Threaten Our Health

The healthiness of a food is related to both its safety and its nutritional quality. A food
may be nutritious, but if it is contaminated by a harmful microbe that makes people
sick it is not healthy. The ways food companies protect food from these microbes
are by reducing contamination at the original source, maintaining sanitation in the
processing plant, processing and adding preservatives to minimize or eliminate haz-
ards. When visiting food manufacturing plants I have observed that larger plants
tend to have more rigorous sanitation plans and more thorough processing than
smaller ones. Big Food is not immune to such problems, however. One way a com-
pany becomes big is by buying small companies. Corporate control over small
plants may not be as stringent as it is in its large plants. Also, since large manufac-
turing plants produce so much food, a safety error in a large plant means that more
products on the line are contaminated, more of packages are distributed across
the country, and more people become sick. It also means that the offending food is
usually more easily identified and more quickly recalled.
The healthiest choice is not always a whole food. Fruits, vegetables, and whole
grains provide essential vitamins and minerals and can replace foods in the diet that
are too high in salt, sugar, and fat. Meats are excellent sources of protein, minerals,
and vitamins. Milk and eggs have an even better portfolio of essential nutrients than
meats. A diet that is plant based supplemented with some meat, milk, and eggs pro-
vides all the nutrients a body needs. Vegans face the need to balance proteins from
different sources, which becomes difficult if grains are also eliminated from the
diet. Meat eaters who avoid food that grows on plants generally eat too much
protein, fat, and probably too much salt. Careful selection of processed foods can
provide the balance of essential nutrients without overindulgence. An unbalanced
168 10 Can Processed Food Be Part of a Responsible Diet?

diet is unlikely to provide the proper mix of probiotics and prebiotics necessary for
proper gut health. Processed foods such as yogurt and other fermented foods can
come through for us in our small and large intestines. Fermented milks that have
been formulated to add prebiotics are called synbiotics to improve gut health.
Foods with the cleanest labels are not always the most nutritious. At the heart of
this discussion is whether added chemicals or microbes represent the greatest dan-
ger in the American food supply. Food pundits clearly come down on the side of
dangers of added chemicals, particularly artificial, chemical-sounding ingredients
such as high-fructose corn syrup, monosodium glutamate, potassium sorbate, or
thiamin hydrochloride. Other food pundits are more concerned about different
chemicals that compel us to overeat such as sodium chloride, sucrose and triglycer-
ides. Food scientists are much more concerned about the dangers of microbes such
as Clostridium botulinum, Campylobacter jejuni, E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella
typhimurium, and Staphylococcus aureus. Big Food is mainly interested in selling
as much food as possible without triggering a major recall or outbreak that could
damage their brand. There is little scientific evidence to suggest that natural vita-
mins and minerals are superior to synthetic ones.
Tempting food is not always unhealthy. While there are many processed products
that are high in sugar, fat, and salt, there are also many items in the supermarket that
are nutritious and enjoyable. Artificial colors and sweeteners as well as fat substi-
tutes are controversial. Products with these ingredients can be excuses to indulge in
other eating vices or an attempt to lose weight, neither of which is likely to achieve
its goal. As part of a pre-emptive strike, however, when wishing to maintain a
healthy weight these products can help us avoid excess calories in an otherwise bal-
anced diet. Diabetics can also benefit from decreasing excess sugar and fat calories
in their diets and the complications that result.
Fresh and local does not always guarantee superior nutritional quality. Both time
and temperature affect the loss of nutrients and rotting of fresh foods. Foods that
grow on plants tend to lose vitamins faster than they rot. Raw animal products gen-
erally rot faster than they lose nutrients. Refrigeration slows metabolism of fresh
foods from plants or animals. Local food that is not refrigerated may spoil more
rapidly than distant food that has been refrigerated soon after harvest and trans-
ported at cool temperatures. Processing of foods in a manufacturing plant extends
shelf life by greatly slowing nutrient loss and rotting and thus provide more vita-
mins and minerals than raw foods that were not handled properly.
I am working at eating a healthier diet. Most meals that I prepare include a small-
to-medium portion of a protein food, one or more vegetables, and a cooked grain
(preferably a whole grain). Meatless Mondays do not work for me. Instead, most of
my breakfasts and all of my snacks do not include meat. I work at getting at least
two of my lunches and dinners each week to be meatless. Desserts are rare for me,
but snacks are not. I try to eat two fruit snacks a day; sometimes fresh and whole,
other times processed. Processed foods are a major feature of my breakfasts includ-
ing a whole grain (at least 8 g of fiber per serving) breakfast cereal, artificially
sweetened syrup, and 1 % milk or cottage cheese with canned vegetables. Other
options include an energy bar and Greek yogurt or a freshly baked bread item either
4 Simplistic Slogans and Rules Are Not the Way to Develop a Healthy Diet 169

from my freezer or the grocery-store bakery. Processed ingredients such as chicken

broth, canola cooking oil, Monterrey Jack cheese, cream-of-mushroom soup, dried
pasta, and MSG appear frequently in my standard recipes. When eating out, I try to
eat small portions or bring home half of a big portion either in a cooler or a short
enough time to make sure it will be safe.
Some members of the Big Food community have been called out for not eating
products that are made by their companies. I do not shy away from processed food
when going to the store or when cooking at home. Cute sayings and catchy phrases
by the food pundits are almost as alluring as slick advertisements by Big Food, but
neither is a useful foundation for the 200 or so decisions made about food each day.

4 Simplistic Slogans and Rules Are Not the Way to Develop

a Healthy Diet

It is not all that easy to distinguish real food from foodlike substances. The more
restrictive the definition becomes as to what is a real food and what is not, the less
the chance to evaluate tradeoffs. By eliminating all formulated food from the diet,
we not only say good-bye to Twinkies and Pop Tarts but also to yogurt and tomato
sauce. In eliminating all processed food, we must also be prepared to part with
canned beans, frozen fish, ground coffee, and dark chocolate. Most baking ingredi-
ents such as stone-ground flour and sea salt are also subjected to primary process-
ing. By sticking to ingredients “as taken from the natural environment,” fresh fruit
and vegetables are in but maple syrup and vanilla extract are out. Making things
even more difficult, we can limit our diet to organic food grown on plants. Finally
throwing out grains greatly limits what we have left. Even with all these changes we
cannot avoid chemicals because everything we eat including raw organic produce is
made up of chemicals.
Real food is filled with chemicals, and cooking alters the chemistry of real food.
From the hundreds of compounds found in dark chocolate to the 57 or so chemicals in
the aroma of ripe mangoes to the numerous minerals found in natural spring water, we
consume a myriad of different chemical substances each day. Contrary to popular belief,
processed foods lower the molecular profile of our diets rather than raising it. Food
processing does decrease many important chemicals in our diets, but it also lessens our
chances of becoming sick from natural toxins or pathogenic microbes. As David Rakoff
indicates in the chapter’s opening quote, we should be careful not to equate nature with
purity or technology with danger. Every time foods are cooked, whether in a processing
plant, a restaurant or at home, some chemicals evaporate, while other molecules react
with neighboring molecules to form new chemical compounds. The temperature and
time of cooking leads to the chemistry of the finished food which is directly responsible
for its color, flavor, nutritional value, safety, and texture.
Real food can be just as tempting as foodlike substances. As indicated in the
Preface, processed foods can be flavorless such as those foods undergoing primary
processing like canning, drying, or freezing. Other processed foods are considered
170 10 Can Processed Food Be Part of a Responsible Diet?

highly addictive when formulated with massive amounts of fat, salt, and/or sugar.
The difficulty seems to be how to separate out highly desirable food from addictive
food. If we can’t get enough sautéed escargot at our favorite restaurant or our moth-
er’s homemade meatloaf, can we consider these delicious foods to be less addictive
than Coffee Caramel Crunch in the frozen food aisles at our local supermarket?
Real food is not always fresh or local. Freshness is fleeting. Some whole foods
lose their freshness soon after harvest or slaughter. To prevent waste, uncooked
fruits and vegetables can live out their supermarket lives past the point of desirabil-
ity and then be sent to the local food pantry or soup kitchen. Thus, consumers,
unable to pay for truly fresh produce, may have the opportunity to still obtain and
eat healthy foods. Local is also a squishy term that can stretch from within a mile,
to across the county to the other side of the state or further. Local can be fresh today,
held for a few days without refrigeration, or kept cool for a week or longer. The
longer a raw, uncooked item is held, the greater the chances that it is losing its nutri-
tional value and eating quality. Refrigeration can slow these natural, chemical reac-
tions, but it cannot stop them.
I refuse to let Big Food or food pundits tell me what I should or should not be eat-
ing. Not only do I eat for sustenance, I consider the environment, my personal safety,
my health, my time constraints, and my personal preferences. I understand that my
preferences are not everyone’s preferences, and I support anyone’s right to choose
what to eat and what to avoid. I ignore Big Food when it tries to sell me something
that I don’t want or doesn’t live up to the hype. Such appeals may be the cost of living
in society based on a free-market system, but such excesses are preferable to one
strictly controlled by government. I am highly skeptical of the rules proposed by many
of the critics of the American food supply based on opinions rather than on clear sci-
entific evidence. I also think that the pundits go too far when suggesting that anyone
who disagrees is either a pawn of Big Food or intellectually dishonest. Since I can’t
avoid eating chemicals, I try to increase my exposure to beneficial chemicals and
decrease my exposure to harmful chemicals and microbes.

5 Everything We Put Into Our Mouths Is Chemical

We are all chemically dependent. We all need to breathe the elemental chemical,
oxygen, to live. H2O is the second most important chemical we depend on. Then
there are the relatively simple minerals and vitamins we must get for proper nour-
ishment. More complex molecules such as carbohydrates, fats, and proteins supply
us with energy in the form of calories, provide glucose to the brain for it to function
properly, and constitute the building blocks of all the cells in the body.
The chemistry of addiction is not straightforward when it comes to eating. The
two most habit-forming molecules in solid and liquid foods are ethanol (alcohol)
and trimethylpurine dione (caffeine). The only other compounds in food that have
been suggested as addictive chemicals are the simple sugars such as fructose and
sucrose. It is not clear, however, as how specific molecules can be addictive when
6 An Eating Addiction Is More Likely Than a Food Addiction 171

added to foods such as peanut butter cups, soda, and Twinkies but not addictive
when found in fresh fruit, honey, or maple syrup. Psychologists and neurobiologists are
developing an understanding of how tempting foods affect the brain and likening the
response to drug addiction. Single chemicals like methamphetamine, benzoylmethy-
lecgonine (cocaine), diacetylmorphine (heroin), nicotine, and tetrahydrocannabinol
(THC) cause a direct response in the brain. Unless a few highly addictive molecules in
hyperpalatable foods can be isolated and identified, the idea that food is chemically
similar to substance abuse is highly improbable.
Although processed foods are criticized for too many chemicals, foods with
clean labels actually have more chemicals. The most consequential chemicals found
in whole food and not in some processed food may be the microbiota-accessible
carbohydrates, a special component of dietary fiber that feed the “good” bacteria in
our guts. The greatest loss of dietary fiber due to processing is milling of grains.
Americans are notorious for not eating enough dietary fiber, particularly that found
in fruits and vegetables. Although flavor is affected by whether a produce item is
fresh and/or local, the dietary fiber content is similar for unfresh and distant fruits
and vegetables. Most potential benefits associated with good intestinal health are
tied to the microbes in each person’s gut. That profile appears to be affected by the
content of the diet with food from plants supposedly better for gut health than food
from animals. Again, the whole scientific field looking at the microbiome is very
new, and these results are tentative. As scientists explore the mysteries of our intes-
tinal tracts, expect some of the bright promises in the media to fade while exciting
discoveries in the future come to the forefront.
I think it is time to stop the scare tactics about chemicals in our food. All inani-
mate objects such as a lump of coal, a grain of salt, or a drop of water are composed
of chemicals. All living or previously living organisms such as an oak leaf, a dead
goldfish, or single cells of bacteria are complex combinations of chemicals. All
foods such as bananas, peanut butter cups, and scrambled eggs owe their structure,
color, flavor, and nutritional value to chemical interactions. Chemical should not be
a pejorative term. Rather it is important that each of us learn enough chemistry to
understand which chemicals are beneficial and which are detrimental at the levels
we ingest. I do not fear the added chemicals in my food. I do fear potential danger-
ous microbes that have invaded my food. This knowledge is also critical in knowing
whether the latest pronouncement by Big Food or a food pundit is merely hype or
actionable information. Although it sounds reasonable to suggest that specific
chemicals in foods are addictive, it is just not that simple.

6 An Eating Addiction Is More Likely Than a Food

Addiction

Food addiction is a relatively new concept as the current emphasis is on the addic-
tive nature of hyperpalatable foods rather than on overeating. Since no single
chemical or family of chemicals can be identified as the cause of food addiction,
172 10 Can Processed Food Be Part of a Responsible Diet?

it is unlikely to achieve the status of addiction to crack, meth, or opioids. Although

Big Food is certainly responsible for designing, manufacturing, wrapping in allur-
ing packages, distributing, and marketing junk foods to the American consumer,
other actors may deserve culpability. Are chefs at restaurants who prepare dishes “to
kill for” also guilty? What about home cooks who prepare and serve meals, desserts,
and other hyperpalatable treats that are also high in sugar, salt, and/or fat?
Fresh and local food might also be addictive if it tempts us beyond what we can
resist. Could Crusty Vienna bread baked fresh daily at my local grocery store or a
fresh, ripe mango grown within 10 miles of my home be as addictive as those pesky
Reese’s peanut butter cups that call out to me in the checkout line? By the defini-
tions set forth by food-addiction researchers, bread, a ripe mango, and those peanut
butter cups would all be considered addictive foods for me. Tracing a food addiction
to a specific chemical or even small family of compounds in hyperpalatable foods
seems to be a stretch. A more plausible explanation is that some susceptible people
have an eating addiction such that the addict can’t stop eating, particularly pleasur-
able foods. The DSM-5 states that
Addiction is characterized by inability to consistently abstain, impairment in behavioral con-
trol, craving, diminished recognition of significant problems with one’s behaviors and inter-
personal relationships, and a dysfunctional emotional response. Like other chronic diseases,
addiction often involves cycles of relapse and remission. Without treatment or engagement
in recovery activities, addiction is progressive and can result in disability or premature death.

The description of food addiction by researchers in the field favors the idea of a
behavioral disorder rather than substance abuse. The distinction is important as it
changes a basic understanding of the cause of food abuse and the approach to
treatment.
If the government banned all of the foods Americans crave, I am not sure that we
would be able to make a significant impact on America’s obesity pandemic in my
lifetime. Many sources suggest that too many calories is the main cause of obesity.
Professionals who try to help obese people to lose weight indicate that losing weight
is much more complicated than eliminating processed food and consuming only
whole food. Many of these professionals have given up on adults and are focusing
on children. Diets to lose weight are different from those plans to prevent weight
gain. Even fresh and local may not always be so good for us.

7 Fresh and Local Food Is Not Always the Best Option

Fresh and local food is great when available and really fresh, but there are times
where processed food is a better option. In the preceding sections, I have tried to
make the case that an emphasis on fresh and local foods may lead to excess waste
and thus less sustainability. Poorly handled raw food can be a safety hazard, and
fresh produce rapidly loses key vitamins when held at field or room temperatures
for extended periods of time even before it begins to rot. Whole foods, just like
processed foods, are composed of chemicals, many of which are hazardous to health
when consumed by themselves at higher amounts. Some pundits actually encourage
7 Fresh and Local Food Is Not Always the Best Option 173

us to avoid very sweet fruits such as mangoes and bananas because of too much
sugar. Natural sweeteners like honey and maple syrup as well as savory additives
like sea salt and artisan cheeses full of saturated fats are just as likely to addict, fat-
ten, and cause health problems as processed foods. Like all epithets, “processed
food” is applied in vague terms to a wide range of products without any attempt to
understand the strengths and weaknesses of each product. Each food decision
involves a set of tradeoffs, many of which are not obvious (see Fig. 10.3).
There are times when choosing a processed food is clearly better than choosing
fresh, whole food. Soldiers in the field are not able to eat a freshly prepared meal
and must rely on MREs or high-energy bars. Astronauts must carry supplies of pro-
cessed food designed to support good nutrition during long journeys in space.
Boaters, hikers, campers, and survivalists don’t always have access to healthy, fresh,
whole food with many relying on high-quality dehydrated food, and a ready access
to safe water. Natural disasters destroy the normal supply lines and cold-storage
facilities. Without dried foods, many hikers, campers and survivalists would be
greatly limited in their ability to spend extended time away from civilization.
Packaged food and bottled water are important in keeping victims of earthquakes,
hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, and other natural disturbances that wipe out the
normal infrastructure for distributing whole food or preparing meals. Bottled water
and high-energy biscuits can be airlifted to victims and aid workers to provide
sustenance before order can be restored.

Fig. 10.3 All of these

products were processed to
some extent. Can they be
classified into “good” and
“bad” foods or between
“real foods” and “foodlike
substances?” Are there any
tradeoffs for any of these
foods with respect to
sustainability, safety,
healthiness, authenticity,
chemical components,
addiction, and freshness
for these products? Where
can we go to get
information to help us
learn about potential
tradeoffs?
174 10 Can Processed Food Be Part of a Responsible Diet?

Another situation that calls for processed food over whole food includes food
distribution to those who do not have enough to eat. Inexpensive foods made from
local ingredients have been designed, manufactured, and distributed to families to
improve their nutritional status of children and pregnant women in parts of sub-
Saharan Africa. Closer to home, food pantries across America open their doors to
provide food for those families who cannot make ends meet. Most visitors to food
pantries are permitted to receive food only once a month. I volunteer every Monday
evening at a local food pantry. Many times the fresh fruits and vegetables we distrib-
ute are already showing initial signs of rotting. Clients receive previously fresh
meats and deli items which have been frozen to prevent spoilage and a number of
nonperishable items like bottled juices, breakfast cereals, canned soup, dried grains,
and peanut butter.
Most junk foods are processed, but not all processed foods are junk. Napoleon
started modern food processing by offering a prize for food that would not perish so
that he could feed his troops on military campaigns. The best way to feed an army
to that point was by pillaging the countryside. Nicholas Appert responded to
Napoleon by designing a food process now known as canning but done in sealed
jars. Peter Durand provided the can, but decent canned food did not become avail-
able until much later. Food processing has evolved since the early 1800s to provide
the myriad of products currently available on supermarket shelves. Americans will-
ingly buy these products to fill real or perceived needs. The military in the field still
depends on processed rations as whole food is too heavy and inconvenient to feed
an army, and pillaging has gained a negative connotation.
Organic fruits and vegetables grown locally and sold within a few hours after
harvest at a local farmers market are fine for suburban consumers who can afford the
higher prices. In other parts of the world organic farming and subsistence farming
are synonymous where too much of what is harvested rots before it even reaches the
market. In these places, appropriate technology that violates organic orthodoxy to
increase yields and simple handling techniques to slow rotting can decrease hunger
and improve nutritional quality of their diets. The choice between processed and
fresh is a false choice as is the one between local and distant. Each choice should
involve an appreciation of how a food affects the environment, safety, and health
without the false hope engendered by slick advertisements or false fears promoted
by food pundits. With such an understanding what role can processed food play in
the American diet?

Processed Food in the American Diet

A responsible diet can include both whole and processed food. When distributing
food to people in need, during military operations and on modern-day wilderness
excursions, processed food is frequently more appropriate than perishable food. On
days when life requires time and focused attention, careful selection of processed
products can simplify meal planning and preparation. Technology does not solve
Making America Thin Again 175

every problem, but it is not inherently evil either. Foods are not unidimensional.
Every food has its pluses and minuses when considering its impact on the environ-
ment, health, and safety.
The main message of this book is that by understanding the benefits and limita-
tions of processed food we can incorporate many such products into our daily diets.
Yes Americans eat too much processed food, but I contend that overeating is to blame
and not processed food. The most dangerous processed-food products are convenient
snacks that tempt us at parties, meetings, and when home alone. Liquid calories also
contribute to our condition, and it is not just the sodas. Alcohol has calories too. The
food wars are accelerating and America is getting fatter. It is time for the food pundits
and Big Food to sit down at the peace table with chefs, nutritionists, and food scien-
tists to help develop a healthier selection of choices.

Making America Thin Again

We are now back to the initial question of “Why is America so Fat?” Many food-
pundit hedgehogs blame processed food for the obesity pandemic, but is it really
that simple? I contend that junk foods high in sugar, fat, and salt play a role in the
obesity problem, but condemning all processed food is neither fair nor useful. I
doubt seriously that regulating serving sizes, eliminating food advertising, signifi-
cantly increasing taxes, or even outright banning of hyperpalatable foods and ingre-
dients would make a major impact on obesity in the country.
Blaming the food has been an effective tool used by food pundits for the fatten-
ing of America. It would appear that all that fat persons need to do to become unfat
are to (1) stop eating processed food, (2) start cooking their own meals, and (3) eat
only whole foods. More exercise might help, but many pundits do not emphasize
physical activity for a fat person to become thin. Most of the diet plans advanced by
the food pundits appear to be designed to help a thin person keep from getting fat.
These plans do not take into account the need for a completely different strategy to
turn a fat person into a thin one. A consensus among health professionals suggests
that eating too many calories and burning too few is a major factor in weight gain.
Blaming the consumer has been an effective tool used by Big Food to avoid tak-
ing responsibility for the rising tide of obesity. Large profits are gained by saturation
advertising of products meant to satisfy our senses with little or no nutritional benefit
other than calories. Big Food emphasizes freedom of choice for the consumer. If a
consumer eats too much and becomes fat, that is written off as a personal decision.
Obesity is much more complex than blaming either the food or the consumer.
Eating or drinking too much and exercising too little contribute to obesity, but these
habits are not the whole story. Some additional causes discussed in the book are the
• microbes in the gut,
• difficulty of losing weight once it is put on,
• differences in personal set points,
176 10 Can Processed Food Be Part of a Responsible Diet?

• diets chosen by parents or caretakers from a fetus to a young adult,

• the weight status of parents, and
• living either in an upscale neighborhood or a food desert.
If we are to defeat obesity and make America thin again, we will need a firm
commitment to that goal and a multifaceted plan that integrates current understand-
ing of the causes of obesity and ways to combat it. It may be that it is too late to do
much for adults, but hopefully we can still save our children and youth.
As consumers we tend to be caught in the middle between the food pundits and
Big Food. Food pundits have strong opinions on what is right and what is wrong
about processed food and the Western Diet. Unfortunately, their prescriptions for
healthy eating vary widely from one pundit to another. Pundits readily use one or
a few scientific studies to support their points of view while tending to ignore rec-
ommendations that come from nutrition professionals. Dietary guidelines from the
government have changed some over time based on careful consideration of
numerous scientific studies. Most of the contradictions in news reports, however,
emphasize dramatic, unusual findings without placing a story in context of accepted
nutritional knowledge. Big Food is basically in it to make money and avoid safety
issues. Outbreaks and recalls are costly to correct in the short-term, but, more
importantly, the publicity damages the brand and can devastate long-term sales. In
a quest for more money, Big Food jumps on consumer trends like clean labels and
fashionable ingredients with dubious health benefits to gain short-term profits and
market share.
Food scientists, who are also consumers, are caught in the middle between these
two forces as well. Marketing rules supreme at Big Food companies where most
food scientists work. Marketing departments want higher sales and bigger profits.
Many products found in the middle aisles have low profit margins and must be big
sellers on the mass market to stay alive. Profit margins are highest for the highly
valued items that are advertised the most. Generic versions of popular products also
generate strong profits, providing lower-priced alternatives that sit next to well-
known brands on supermarket shelves without a need to advertise. Food scientists
have the skills to produce healthier versions of many products, but Big Food fre-
quently sides with trends pushed by food pundits and alternative food companies.
Food scientists are then forced to choose between keeping their job and developing
the latest “chemical-free” food or one with a “greenwashed” label.
As stated earlier in the book, I do not doubt the sincerity of those authors I have
labeled as food pundits. Most of the books I have read by pundits have caused me to
seriously consider their ideas. Some of those books forced me to delve deeper into
my reading and even alter my perspective. There are also many books by those
skeptical of the pundits, offering alternative points of view. Some of these alterna-
tive voices have reinforced my opinions and others seem to me to be off the deep
end in certain areas. My point is that current knowledge of food and nutrition is
much less certain than the writings of authors would have us believe on what we
should and should not eat. Anyone who wishes to make a major change in their diet
and perhaps those of others should study at least three different plans and at least
Making America Thin Again 177

one skeptical view before embarking on a life-changing journey. The foods we eat
have an impact on our health and wellbeing, but so do many other aspects of our
daily living. Nobody, including me, has all the answers. My hope is that this book
has challenged assumptions and led to a better appreciation of the benefits of pro-
cessed food.
Acknowledgements

A book does not write itself. An author is at the mercy of the resources available.
Inspiration comes in many forms, some positive and some negative.
This book was inspired by my frustration at seeing and hearing so many condem-
nations of processed food without clear definitions. The tipping point probably
came the day that a student in my FDST4010/6010 class, Food Processing, brought
me a small blue paper tent that was on display in the dining commons. The tent
urged students to avoid processed foods and embrace whole foods. Particularly gall-
ing was the presence of whole milk on the accompanying list of processed foods and
1 % milk on the list of whole foods. In my classes, I developed an interactive dia-
logue with students on the benefits and limitations of processed food as I knew
many of them would face challenges as they became employed by food companies,
both big and small. Food scientists in the industry are generally caught between
Management who seeks to turn the latest fad into a profitable product and the sci-
ence of food safety and nutrition. Many of my former students are employed as
product designers or quality managers and in other critical positions in the food
industry. I am truly grateful to many of them who were willing to review a chapter
and commented on the accuracy of my statements.
One of the things I have missed the most in my retirement is spending time in the
University libraries to hunt down obscure references. I am truly indebted to having
access to the electronic resources of the University of Georgia Libraries. Without
this service, I would not have been able to write this book. I am also appreciative of
the Sanibel Public Library and the Lee County Library System for their excellent
collections of popular books on food. The Sanibel Library was particularly helpful
in obtaining some books through interlibrary loan.
Finding a publisher is usually a difficult task. Susan Safren of Springer was the
only representative of a publisher I talked to about In Defense of Processed Food
who was willing to make the connections that led to a contract. I appreciate her
belief in me and her attempts at helping me with my Tone.

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 179

R.L. Shewfelt, In Defense of Processed Food,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45394-1
180 Acknowledgements

With respect to the illustrations in the book, I appreciate the talents and support
of Emily McCallion, Anuj Purohit, Eve Mayes and Extension Food Science at the
University of Georgia. There are too many people to mention who encouraged me
when I needed it. My wife Betty not only helped me through the rough times, but
she also provided computer support and let me use her laptop during the two months
my laptop decided to quit working. Her brother John helped me recover those files
that had not been backed up. I should also mention my faithful dog, Sweetie, who
was my constant companion throughout the work, sometimes snuggling in next to
me on the sofa as I wrote and looked up with concern every time I said bad words
to the screen.
Notes

I take particular care in citing sources to support statements declared in the book.
Quotes and perspectives, primarily from popular sources, provide a perspective on
thoughts, pro and con, on food and society. When citing popular points of view, I try
to reflect the genuine sentiment of the author rather than catching them in a “gotcha”
moment. Support of scientific perspectives is usually from review articles or other
scholarly works that provide a consensus position. In cases when I cite a single study,
it should be understood that the results have not yet been verified.
Preface: A Note on Science and a Note on Food
vii Today's denial of inconvenient science as quoted from “America’s Science
Problem,” by Otto, 2012 in Scientific American. Shawn Lawrence Otto is a sup-
porter of applying science to help solve practical problems, a screenwriter for the
movie the House of Sand and Fog and author of the novel Sins of Our Fathers
vii What separates science as quoted from Why People Believe Weird Things.
Michael Shermer was a competitive bicyclist who embraced nutritional solu-
tions to give him a competitive edge. Eventually he became disillusioned with
popular attitudes to become a self-proclaimed skeptic of simplistic answers that
clash with a basic scientific understanding of the world
vii the idea that processed foods are a hazard The American Way of Eating; The
End of Overeating; The Food Babe Way; Food Rules; Grain Brain; In Defense
of Food; The Raw Food Detox Diet; Salt Sugar Fat; Swallow This; What the
Fork are You Eating; What to Eat; Wheat Belly; Farmageddon; Food, Inc.
viii Bad Science Any time I hear a non-scientist who has never gone through the
process to collect data, compile it in a manuscript for review by a professional
journal, and publish a scientific research article dismiss research results as Bad
Science, I cringe. Frequently there is no detailed explanation as to the flaws in
experimental design or interpretation of results. All too often it can mean that
the conclusions do not fit the ideological viewpoint of the dismisser. I will not
name names, but some critics of processed foods use this terminology. Look
carefully to see their rationale and qualifications for dismissing results

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 181

R.L. Shewfelt, In Defense of Processed Food,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45394-1
182 Notes

viii Science is more about data Becoming a Food Scientist; Why People Believe
Weird Things
viii science is not about certainty Becoming a Food Scientist; The Gluten Lie; The
Signal and the Noise
viii conservative corporations Most books critical of processed foods such as
those volumes mentioned above blame food corporations, but none is so viru-
lent as Stuffed and Starved. Such anti-corporate perspectives prompted John
Mackey, co-founder and co-CEO of Whole Foods, and Raj Sisodia to write
Conscious Capitalism to defend good corporate citizens
viii advance their social-engineering agenda. Obesity 101; http://www.health.
gov/dietaryguidelines/2015-scientific-report/02-executive-summary.asp
viii yes-or-no answers The Art of Scientific Investigation
viii one of Lord Grantham’s daughters See Episode Five in Season Three of
Downton Abbey
viii labeled hedgehogs are frequently incorrect but continue to pontificate.
Originally derived from Issiah Berlin’s The Hedgehog and the Fox as explained
in The Signal and the Noise
ix Science works in the form of paradigms. Becoming a Food Scientist; The
Structure of Scientific Revolutions
ix 200 food decisions a day. Mindless Eating
ix highly qualified and sprinkled with cautionary statements In his book Tasty,
John McQuaid states that “Alan Kim Johnson, a behavioral psychologist at the
University of Iowa, has concluded that most of the world is literally addicted to
salt.” To support this statement he cites the article by Morris & others, 2008.
Contrast McQuaid’s statement above with a statement from the Conclusion of
the article by Morris: “These findings suggest that changes in sodium status can
alter the chemistry and anatomy of putative reward pathways in the brain, the
same pathways impacted by drugs of abuse and potentially involved in main-
taining addiction.”
x 2015 Dietary Guidelines Every five years, a scientific committee drawn from
a wide range of experts meets to review previous dietary guidelines and make
new recommendations based primarily on recent advances in science. For the
executive summary of the scientific report, visit http://www.health.gov/
dietaryguidelines/2015-scientific-report/02-executive-summary.asp
x OK for us to eat eggs now While there is not a direct recommendation to
consume more eggs in the 2015 report, it is notable that eggs were added to the
total meat category, and it is associated with the recommendation to reduce red
meats and processed meats in the diet. The re-evaluation of dietary cholesterol
from eggs resulted from the Harvard egg study published by Hu & others,
1999. Several reviews of that study and others prompted by it have confirmed
that “In conclusion, our data suggest that consumption of up to 1 egg per day is
unlikely to have substantial overall impact on the risk of cardiovascular disease
among healthy men and women. The apparent increased risk of CHD associated
with higher egg consumption among diabetics warrants further research.”
x pills, powders and potions Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy
Notes 183

x Clark Griswold Vegas Vacation

x food scientists are being blamed directly The End of Overeating; In Defense
of Food; Salt Sugar Fat; Tasty
x Classifying foods as “good” or “bad” The Food Babe Way; Grain Brain; Real
Food; What the Fork are You Eating. For alternative views, see Health Food
Junkies; Get a Real Food Life
x Popular diets may or may not be effective. US News & World Report ranked
34 popular diets in 2014 (see http://health.usnews.com/best-diet/best-overall-
diets). The general conclusion in a 336-page book, Obesity that analyzes schol-
arly articles on weight-loss diets over a 10-year period is that these diets are
rarely successful. More recent systematic reviews draw similar conclusions
such as Hartman-Boyce & others, 2015; Moroshko & others, 2011
xi “talent on loan from God” Rush Limbaugh
xi definitive answer for everyone’s dietary needs Cavewomen Don’t Get Fat;
The Diet Myth; The Food Babe Way; Food Rules; Grain Brain; The Good Gut;
NO More Heart Disease; The Plant Plus Diet Solution; Real Food; SuperFoods
Rx; Swallow This; What the Fork are You Eating; What to Eat; Wheat Belly;
Whole
xi Whole foods are always better In Defense of Food; Tasty; Salt Sugar Fat;
Whole
xi Natural is good; artificial is bad Addiction-Free Naturally; Animal, Vegetable,
Miracle; Cavewomen Don’t Get Fat; The Diet Myth; The Food Babe Way; Food
Rules; Grain Brain; Real Food; What the Fork are You Eating; What to Eat
xi Science and technology should not intrude Michael Pollan is very critical of
nutrition science in In Defense of Food although he cites scientific studies when
it supports his point of view. David Kessler attributes overeating by Americans
to the manipulation of food flavor by food scientists in The End of Overeating.
Raj Patel argues that corporations in the agricultural and food industries have
misused science to create problems for both wealthy and poor countries in
Stuffed and Starved.
Chapter 1: Why is America So Fat?
1 It’s time we had a real and public dialogue as quoted from Obsessed:
America’s Food Addiction—and My Own. Mika Brzezinski is a co-host of the
Morning Joe program seen weekday mornings on MSNBC.
1 Nothing is simple in obesity as a disease entity: as quoted in Chapter 16 of
The Genetics of Obesity. Claude Bouchard is the John W. Barton, Sr., Endowed
Chair in Genetics and Nutrition at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center,
Louisiana State University and a noted scientist in obesity research.
1 It is estimated that 34–36 % of Americans are obese http://www.cdc.gov/
nchs/data/databriefs/db82.pdf
1 one of the many calculators on the internet. The one I used can be found at
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/bmi/adult_bmi/english_bmi_
calculator/bmi_calculator.html
184 Notes

2 show a short video loop of nothing but huge people walking around
SuperSize Me; but Tom Naughton reports in FatHead that it was very difficult to
find enough fat people to provide similar footage.
2 extremely obese (a BMI of 40 or higher; which represent less than 7 % of the
population) also known as morbidly obese http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/
obesity_adult_09_10/obesity_adult_09_10.htm
2 calories from sodas, hamburgers and French fries. Newby, 2007
2 Increased consumption of sodas, fats and oils Boumtje & others, 2005; Soda
Politics
2 and thus become isolated in food deserts. http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/
242654/ap036_reportsummary_1_.pdf
2 impoverished minority groups are more likely to be overweight or obese
Kimbro & Denney, 2013
3 neighborhoods with fast-food restaurants are more likely to be poor and
heavier Stein and Chakraborty, 2010
3 countries like China have seen dramatic increases in obesity recently. von
Deneen & others, 2011
3 obesity was the rare exception among the customers. Back on campus I
recruited four University of Georgia students to systematically study the matter.
They surreptitiously observed and recorded the body shapes using the diagram at
http://ygraph.com/chart/1584 of customers entering three different McDonald’s,
three nearby casual dining restaurants, and the three closest supermarkets. Their
results from classifying 900 people (100 from each location type at three different
locations) showed that there were no significant differences in body shapes
between customers at the three types of locations. The lack of any real difference
between McDonald’s walk-in customers, casual diners, and supermarket shoppers
should cause us to pause the next time we blame obesity on fast food.
3 15–18 % of our calories coming from fast-food restaurants Drewnowski &
Rehm, 2013
4 The top five sources of those carb calories Newby, 2007
4 Many of us don’t pay that much attention to what we eat Mindless Eating
4 but not as great as we might expect. Tarver, 2014; http://www.pewresearch.org/
fact-tank/2013/11/13/obesity-and-poverty-dont-always-go-together/
4 Americans consumed an extra 160 calories per day per person Newby, 2007
5 eating five-to-seven mini-meals a day instead of the standard three large ones
Get a Real Food Life.
5 have not shown conclusively that professional programs to change people’s
diets Osilla & others, 2012
5 The culprit is quickly labeled as the Western Diet Manzel & others, 2014; von
Deneen & others, 2011
5 we process liquid calories differently from solid calories Wolf & others, 2008;
Soda Politics
5 feeling of fullness is related to stomach expansion Janssen & others, 2011
5 and blood-sugar level Chaput & Tremblay, 2009
Notes 185

5 obese people appear to have a weaker feeling of fullness Dostalova &

Haluzik, 2009
5 Sugared beverages have seen an increase in consumption Newby, 2007; Soda
Politics
6 it is convenient to blame the inclusion of high-fructose corn syrup in sodas
Bray, 2010
6 it is probably the increase in sugar consumption in all forms Feinman & Fine,
2013; Soda Politics
6 calorie contents vary from the smallest sizes of cappuccino http://www.
starbucks.com/menu/catalog/nutrition?drink=all#view_control=nutrition
6 Smoothies also contribute more calories than expected http://www.smoothiek-
ing.com/menu/nutrition-info
6 the average American consumes 6 % of total calories from alcohol Suter,
2005; Nutrition and Alcohol
6 mixed drinks ranging from 135 to over 300 calories a glass. http://www.myfit-
nesspal.com/food/calorie-chart-nutrition-facts
6 We can overcome the sugared beverages by substituting water Get a Real
Food Life; Soda Politics
6 or diet drinks Most scientific sources are concerned about the sugar in soft drinks,
but evidence suggests that consumption of diet drinks is also associated with obe-
sity. One explanation is that overweight and obese people consume diet soft drinks
to lower calorie consumption and that it can be effective in weight loss or at least
weight maintenance if a part of a calorie-reduction plan (Pereira, 2013). A counter
to this evidence indicates that a dramatic decrease in sugar consumption in general
and sodas specifically in Australia did not slow the rise in obesity (Barclay &
Brand-Miller, 2011)
7 Our weight is governed by our energy balance. Understanding Nutrition For a
discussion that opposes this idea, see Soda Politics
7 an extra 3500 calories This guideline has become generally accepted by authors
of many of the books on healthy eating including What to Eat and Mindless Eating,
but obesity researchers indicate that it is too optimistic in Thomas & others, 2013.
7 some obesity experts blame consumption of more calories today Allen & oth-
ers, 2012; Ledoux & others, 2011; Sloboda & others, 2014; Wolf & others, 2008
7 place the blame on reduced physical activity. Hillier, 2008; Newby, 2007
7 a combination of increased calories consumed and decreased exercise Boumtje
& others, 2005; Levitsky & others, 2004; Ravussin & Bouchard, 2000
7 increased time sitting associated with an increased risk of being overweight.
Prentice-Dunn & Prentice-Dunn, 2012; Leech & others, 2014
7 reduced exercise in children include fewer active recesses Rahman & others,
2011
7 Gym memberships peak each January http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/
2013/01/03/its-gym-season-from-now-until-march
7 Some workplaces provide exercise facilities Osilla & others, 2012; Maes &
others, 2011
7 may not be as effective as more prolonged activity Durand & others, 2011
186 Notes

7 exercise plans don’t deliver the calorie burning that we expect. Thomas & oth-
ers, 2012
7 These metabolic processes generally require about 1200–2000 calories per
day Calculate a basal metabolic rate (BMR) at online sites such as http://www.
bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/.
8 the body is likely to slow down our metabolism to conserve energy. Levine,
2004
8 Obesity appears to be at least partly genetic. Bouchard, 2009; Rethinking Thin
8 No single “fat gene” has yet been identified Bouchard, 2009
8 relationship between nature and nurture Obesity 101
8 Many authors discount genetic factors claiming that the rapid increase in obesity
Vickers & others, 2007; Flatt, 2012; Soda Politics
8 One explanation by obesity researchers is termed “assortative mating.” Di
Castelnuovo & others, 2009; Understanding Nutrition
8 Furthermore, there is growing evidence that fat couples are more likely Kirby
& others, 2012; Wong & others, 2014. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/obe-
sity_adult_09_10/obesity_adult_09_10.htm).
8 Low birth-weight babies are more likely to become obese Vickers & Sloboda,
2010; Bouchard, 2009
9 Diets during and after birth appear to change the expression of genes in
infants Adamo & others, 2012; Thompson & Bentley, 2013; Wisniewski &
Chernausek, 2009. Breastfeeding appears to protect against obesity as indicated by
Marseglia & others, 2015.
9 microbes the body accumulates during the birth process and in the first
two years The Good Gut
9 of becoming obese is parental guidance and control. Marsh & others, 2014;
Melbye & others, 2013
9 that blame the industrialized food system (aka Big Food) Allen & others, 2012
9 In a survey of 800 Americans Lusk & Ellison, 2013
10 resent the stigma associated with their body structure. Greener & others, 2010;
Rethinking Thin
10 more likely to be teased and bullied Bucchianeri & others, 2013
10 stigmatized obese persons tend to consume excess calories and not exercise as
much. Puhl & Heuer, 2009
10 females tend to have more body fat than males, Lee & others, 2010
10 The two genders vary markedly in hormonal effects before, during and after
puberty. Wisniewski & Chernausek, 2009
10 Overweight girls tend to be judged more harshly than overweight boys.
Bucchianeri & others
10 may establish a set point in their energy balance, Keijr & others, 2014
11 subtypes in the population with respect to energy balance. Adamo & others,
2012; Dulloo & others, 2010; Rethinking Thin; Understanding Nutrition
11 The American Medical Association has recently classified obesity as a dis-
ease http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/business/ama-recognizes-obesity-
as-a-disease.html?_r=0
Notes 187

11 obese individuals will have less incentive to lose weight and avoid high-
calorie foods Stoner & Cornwall, 2014
11 As each of us makes those 200 or so decisions daily Mindless Eating
11 we don’t seem to be very successful in losing weight and keeping it off. The
Diet Myth; Obesity; Obesity 101; Rethinking Thin
12 the time between feeling full and feeling hungry again Gibson & others,
2006
12 Diets high in water and fiber are filling and low in calories, The Volumetrics
Weight-Control Plan
12 and can become monotonous fairly quickly. from personal experience on a
Volumetrics diet.
12 if it means forever abstaining from what gives us pleasure. Get a Real Food
Life; Mindless Eating
12 Less drastic diets that involve a decrease in calorie consumption Obesity
101; Mindless Eating
12 Critics indicate that individuals just consume more packages Do Vale &
others, 2008
12 large packages are a major reason many people overeat. Mindless Eating
12 can doom future attempts to develop a successful plan. Obesity 101
12 Greater success occurs if the dieter is part of a group effort. Brown & oth-
ers, 2009; Rethinking Thin
12 Wellness programs have been established at many companies Osilla & oth-
ers, 2012
12 essentially given up on helping fat adults Obesity; Obesity 101; Rethinking
Thin
13 There are many other possibilities including advertising, Obesity 101
13 obesity is much more complex than how it is portrayed in the media The
Genetics of Obesity
13 starting in the late 1970s, and proceeded through the 1980s and 1990s
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/obesity_adult_09_10/obesity_
adult_09_10.htm
13 there was a report showing a decline in childhood obesity http://www.cdc.
gov/vitalsigns/pdf/2013-08-vitalsigns.pdf
13 We must be wary of any single report For the dangers of misuse and misin-
terpretation of statistical data, see The Skeptical Environmentalist and The
Signal and the Noise.
13 to carefully select the first and last numbers reported The Skeptical
Environmentalist; How Risky is it, Really. Two examples of this practice can be
found at http://dailycaller.com/2016/04/27/study-shows-michelle-os-anti--
obesity-campaign-is-failing-to-make-kids-any-less-obese/ and http://www.cnn.
com/2015/04/06/politics/michelle-obamas-lets-move-turns-5-is-it-working/
index.html
13 mathematical models predict we are going to continue to get fatter. Thomas
& others, 2014
188 Notes

14 Fat, salt and sugar in processed foods are blamed for the rise in obesity
Keats & Wiggins, 2014; Salt Sugar Fat; Soda Politics
14 Many of these items are appropriately called junk foods What to Eat
15 are considered dangerous for those with kidney disease or diabetes.
Eisenstein & others, 2002
15 Unidimensional solutions rarely work in solving complex problems. The
Diet Myth; Obesity 101; Rethinking Thin
15 The “Let’s Move” program advocated by Michelle Obama http://www.lets-
move.gov/sites/letsmove.gov/files/TaskForce_on_Childhood_Obesity_
May2010_FullReport.pdf
15 Mika Brzezinski suggests that we reason with children, Obsessed
15 Barb Stuckey cautions us to slow down when we are eating, Taste
Chapter 2: Why Does Processed Food Have Such a Bad Reputation?
17 When Rob went to the grocery store as quoted from The Social Animal.
David Brooks is a columnist for the New York Times and a regular guest on NPR
and PBS.
17 It doesn’t matter. Try it as quoted from Unaccustomed Earth. Jhumpa Lahiri
is a Pulitzer Prize winning author who features Indian Americans in her short
stories and novels.
18 how bad processed food is for us. None put it more bluntly or succinctly as
Paula Johanson “Much of the food eaten in North America is fast food, or fried
or processed to the point it is no longer healthy, natural food.” in Fake Food.
18 “highly processed, herbicided, genetically modified, ready-to-eat as quoted
from Wheat Belly
18 “In the context of center aisles, “processed” is a code word What to Eat
18 “products of capital-intensive agriculture, processed into homogeneous, as
quoted in White Bread
18 one that will not rot gleaned from selected statements of foods we should not
eat in Food Rules and supported in What the Fork are You Eating
18 “canned or packaged foods that are high in sodium a much narrower defini-
tion alluded to in Get a Real Food Life which is not as anti-processed foods as
the other books cited above
18 “drying, milling, cutting, sorting, baking” represents a diversion from the
other definitions from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.
18 “a product that has been modified to improve its safety processed food as
understood by food scientists from Introducing Food Science
18 highly processed Calvo & Uribarri, 2013; Hawkes, 2008; Neal & others, 2013
18 ultra-processed Monteiro & others, 2013
18 industrially processed Real Food
18 hyperpalatable Gearhardt & others, 2011
18 to separate them into primary and secondary processes Food Processing
18 separation can be made between processed items and formulated foods
Introducing Food Science
Notes 189

19 Food technology is becoming more sophisticated Nonthermal Processing

Technologies for Food; Alternatives to Conventional Food Processing
19 fear factors How Risky is it, Really
19 we don’t have to worry about them going bad so quickly. Tracie McMillan
describes them this way in The American Way of Eating which is why food
scientists are obsessed with shelf life as I describe in Introducing Food Science.
19 are not necessarily as fresh as we think they are. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle;
What to Eat
20 primary processing before shipment to markets across the country.
Improving the Health-Promoting Properties of Fruit and Vegetable Products
20 Fresh foods can lose flavor and nutrients, particularly when exposed to
heat. Food Processing Technology
20 Fresh fruits, vegetables rapidly lose nutrients at room temperatures
Postharvest Handling
20 Vitamin C content can be used by food scientists as a freshness index
Bouzari & others, 2014
20 Meat must be refrigerated, cooked or processed Handbook of Processed
Meats and Poultry Analysis
20 Many of the flavors we enjoy in meats Resconi & others, 2013; Jayasena &
others, 2013
21 the idea of eating local has become popular. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
21 100 miles has been set as a standard The 100-Mile Diet
21 rot quickly and lose their vitamins rapidly at room temperature. Rickman
& others, 2007
21 Food miles can be a misleading indicator Environmental Assessment and
Management in the Food Industry
21 any processed food with sugar, salt or fat is addictive Addiction-Free
Naturally; Obsessed; The Plant Plus Diet Solution; Salt Sugar Fat; Tasty;
Wheat Belly
21 Big Food claims that these foods are highly desirable but not addictive.
Alderman & Daynard, 2007; Brownell & Gold, 2012
21 emerging field in psychology and neurobiology Allen & others, 2012; Pursey
& others, 2014a
21 “bliss point” when working with tomato sauces for pasta. http://www.ted.
com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghetti_sauce
21 The “bliss point” has been cited by critics of Big Food as the smoking gun
See Salt Sugar Fat
22 test desirability of their products by consumers. Sensory and Consumer
Research in Food Product Design and Development
22 the Army’s Quartermaster Corps developed the widely used Hedonic scale
Discussed in Sensory Evaluation of Food which also provides an in-depth treat-
ment of the theory behind sensory evaluation of food products.
22 Large consumer panels help identify what consumers like or don’t like.
Introducing Food Science; Sensory Evaluation Techniques
190 Notes

22 A more recent tool has been adapted from the medical field, the fMRI,
Wiesmann & others, 2004
22 This device is being used by psychology researchers Tang & others, 2012
22 focused attention on fat, salt and sugar as key addictive agents in foods.
Salt Sugar Fat
22 Two common chemicals in the food supply Buzz
22 naturally occurring, non-caloric sweeteners such as stevia should be
avoided. The Plant Plus Diet Solution; What the Fork are You Eating
22 to be addictive is chocolate Research on chocolate addiction described by
Asmaro & Liotti, 2014.
22 Few critics of processed foods directly challenge chocolate Addiction-Free
Naturally
22 classifying the cacao bean as a vegetable. http://www.wilk4.com/humor/
humorm246.htm
22 To produce Baker’s chocolate (100 % natural chocolate) Chocolate Science
and Technology; The Science of Chocolate
24 added to foods to prevent spoilage, improve appearance, http://medical-
dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/food+additive
24 end up in the product either incidentally or as processing aids. According
to the FDA “A food additive is defined in Section 201(s) of the FD&C Act as
any substance the intended use of which results or may reasonably be expected
to result, directly or indirectly, in its becoming a component or otherwise affect-
ing the characteristic of any food (including any substance intended for use in
producing, manufacturing, packing, processing, preparing, treating, packaging,
transporting, or holding food; and including any source of radiation intended
for any such use); if such substance is not GRAS or sanctioned prior to 1958 or
otherwise excluded from the definition of food additives.” http://www.fda.gov/
Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/Definitions/default.htm
24 Scary additives on the GRAS list include http://www.fda.gov/Food/
IngredientsPackagingLabeling/GRAS/SCOGS/default.htm
24 All spices in processed foods are also food additives. http://www.fda.gov/
Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/GRAS/SCOGS/default.htm
24 only common ingredients and no chemical-sounding names. Katz and
Williams, 2011
24 Big Food must come up with a clean ingredient that contains the chemical
Albers-Nelson, 2010, available at http://osufacts.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/
Get/Document-7328/FAPC-173web.pdf
25 The steps in making kimchi include trimming of fresh Chinese cabbage
http://www.easykoreanfood.com/kimchi.html
25 most whole foods also contain additives see the FDA definition of food addi-
tives above and at http://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/
Definitions/default.htm
25 all foods are chemical in nature. Introducing Food Science
25 contains over 600 chemical compounds Huang & Barringer, 2011
25 Processed foods have been called edible food-like substances. Food Rules
Notes 191

25 Many pundits don’t consider processed products to be real or natural,

Addiction-Free Naturally; Food Rules; The Plant Plus Diet Solution ; Real
Food
25 combined together with added salt, spices or other minor ingredients?
These ingredients qualify as food additives under the FDA rule, presumably if
added by a food company. Are they not food additives if added by an individual
for personal use or to be served at a community gathering?
25 large corporation or a small, family business Real Food
26 All of these products have been processed to some extent. They all meet the
qualifications for definition #7 and most qualify under definitions #4 and 6.
26 the simplicity of the label, where it is made or something else? Clean labels
and small-scale processing as described earlier in the chapter are also ways
manufacturers try to get us to ignore the bigger picture. See also Swallow This
26 The most likely characteristic of a natural food is that it rots. This statement
is based on definition #4 with the concept derived from Food Rules.
26 “Fresh” foods rot faster than processed foods. Food Rules; Fresh; Swallow
This; What to Eat
26 Food scientists are obsessed with extending shelf life Introducing Food
Science
26 most notorious ingredients on any anti-processed food campaign The Food
Babe Way; Grain Brain; Salt Sugar Fat; Swallow This; What the Fork are You
Eating; What to Eat
26 Acid and enzymes are added to cornstarch to form corn syrup Starch:
Chemistry and Technology; http://www.eufic.org/page/en/page/FAQ/faqid/
glucose-fructose-syrup/
26 compatible with the sweetening a soft drink, Chocolate, Cocoa, and
Confectionery
26 use “real” and “natural” as code words for healthy The power of these and simi-
lar words appeals to emotion over reason as described in How Risky is it, Really
26 Big Food has used “natural” to cover up those foods Pepsi Natural Soda and
Kraft Natural Cheese for example
26 Lawsuits are now underway across the country to halt the use of “natural”
http://www.naturalnews.com/045617_all_natural_Whole_Foods_lawsuit.html
http://www.naturalproductsinsider.com/Articles/2015/02/Supplement-
Manufacturers-Need-Game-Plan-to-Defend.aspx
26 but there are no clear guidelines as to which foods and ingredients are
natural The FDA website states that “From a food science perspective, it is
difficult to define a food product that is 'natural' because the food has probably
been processed and is no longer the product of the earth. That said, FDA has not
developed a definition for use of the term natural or its derivatives. However,
the agency has not objected to the use of the term if the food does not contain
added color, artificial flavors, or synthetic substances.” http://www.fda.gov/
AboutFDA/Transparency/Basics/ucm214868.htm
27 Another criticism of food processing is that it destroys nutrients. The Food
Babe Way; Grain Brain
192 Notes

27 From the time that a fresh food is harvested until the time it is consumed
Postharvest Handling
27 physiology of death termed postmortem physiology Applied Muscle Biology
and Meat Science
27 The greatest losses of vitamins come during heating Food Processing
Technology
27 almost all enzymes lose their strength once mixed with the acid in our
stomachs. Edakkanambeth & others, 2014
27 safer and less destructive on vitamins than those canned at home. Food
Processing Technology
28 For example, 4 ounces of raw spinach would contain Calculations made from
database at http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods?fgcd=&manu=&lfacet=&count=&
max=35&sort=&qlookup=spinach&offset=&format=Abridged&new=&measur
eby Recommended daily values for essential nutrients found at http://www.fda.
gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation/
LabelingNutrition/ucm064928.htm
28 Milling of grains is also destructive to vitamins and minerals. Eat, Drink,
and Be Healthy
28 at least 2 grams of fiber and a breakfast cereal at least 8 grams per serving.
The Sonoma Diet
28 As a country we do not consume enough fiber http://www.health.gov/
dietaryguidelines/2015-scientific-report/02-executive-summary.asp
28 avoiding gluten can lead to diets low in essential vitamins, minerals and
fiber. Caruso & others, 2013
28 Food pundits tend to deal in absolutes The Food Babe Way; Grain Brain;
Real Food; Salt Sugar Fat; Swallow This; What the Fork are You Eating
29 are much less unified in recommending which foods and diets See Chap. 7
and the notes for that chapter to see how widely popular books differ in their
nutritional advice.
29 Most food poisoning is due to the presence of natural microbes Fundamental
Food Microbiology
29 One of the main purposes heating steps in primary processing Food
Processing Technology
29 Fenugreek sprouts contaminated with E. coli Outbreak is described at http://
www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6250a3.htm?s_cid=mm6250a3_e
29 Salmonella caused the cucumber outbreak For more information see http://
www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6406a3.htm?s_cid=mm6406a3_e
30 The cheese was made from unpasteurized milk in France Description found at
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6313a5.htm?s_cid=
mm6313a5_e
30 Cheeses made from unpasteurized milk are called artisan cheeses Paxson,
2008
30 With the sushi, it was raw tuna http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/paratyphi-
b-05-15/index.html
Notes 193

30 The frozen chicken and rice dinners were contaminated http://www.cdc.

gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6248a2.htm?s_cid=mm6248a2_e
30 Salmonella was responsible for the peanut-butter outbreak http://www.cdc.
gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6206a4.htm?s_cid=mm6206a4_w
30 food poisoning concern in products like peanut butter, chocolate and honey
Mondal & others, 2014.
30 The manufacturing steps in the production of peanut butter http://www.
madehow.com/Volume-1/Peanut-Butter.html
31 Big Food is proclaimed as the biggest barrier to a sustainable planet.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle; Stuffed and Starved
31 from just 7 billion people in 2011 to over 9 billion by the year 2050 2052;
Food Politics; Global Food Futures
31 One solution advanced is to buy organic food. Organic, Inc.; SuperFoods Rx;
What the Fork are You Eating; What to Eat
31 crop yields are reduced meaning it takes more land Reddy, 2010; Food
Politics; Just Food
31 crops don’t grow without the chemical compounds H2O and CO2 I could
not find one gardening book that suggested that plants need to be shielded from
water or air.
31 are not nearly as clear as advocates would have us believe. www.food.gov.
uk/foodindustry/farmingfood/organicfood/ concludes that “Consumers may
choose to buy organic fruit, vegetables and meat because they believe them to
be more nutritious than other food. However, the balance of scientific evidence
does not support this view.”
31 Processing of milk starts on the farm http://www.milkfacts.info/Milk%20
Processing/Fluid%20Milk%20Production.htm
31 are pasteurized to kill Campylobacter, E. coli and Salmonella Claeys & oth-
ers, 2013
31 the expiration date is longer for organic products. http://www.scientificam-
erican.com/article/experts-organic-milk-lasts-longer/
32 2,384 illnesses, 284 hospitalizations, and 2 deaths attributed to raw milk
http://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/rawmilk/raw-milk-questions-and-answers.
html#risks http://www.realrawmilkfacts.com/
32 “meets the needs of the present without compromising http://un-documents.
net/ocf-02.htm
32 but these chemicals such as copper sulfate, zinc phosphide and pyrethrin
Just Food
32 Keystone Policy Center in Colorado is developing strategies https://www.
fieldtomarket.org/
32 The problem is being able to communicate Introducing Food Science
32 Packaging waste is visible Garbology
32 food waste, not nearly as visible, Waste
33 Natural and organic items may or may not be local. Frito Lay markets Miss
Vickie’s all-natural snacks (http://www.fritolay.com/search-results?index
Catalogue=main-search&searchQuery=natural&wordsMode=0) and Coca
194 Notes

Cola launched a natural soda (http://inhabitat.com/coca-cola-launches-natural-

healthy-coca-cola-life/). For information on Big Organic which distributes
organic products nationally and internationally, see Omnivore’s Dilemma and
Organic, Inc.
33 oversimplified rules like numbers of ingredients in a product, Food Rules;
What the Fork Are You Eating; What to Eat
Chapter 3: Why Can’t We Find More Locally Produced and Fresher Food in
Our Supermarkets and Restaurants?
35 More than a month ago, I bought a chocolate chip muffin as quoted from
“The big fresh con: alarming truth about the chocolate muffin that won’t decay”
found at http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/the-
big-fresh-food-con-alarming-truth-behind-the-chocolate-muffin-that-wont-
decay-10089292.html Joanna Blythman is a British investigative journalist
specializing on the food supply who has written How to Avoid GM Food and
Swallow This
35 Given these buying patterns about the organic Twinkie as quoted from
Organic, Inc. Samuel Fromartz is an American food journalist whose most
recent book is In Search of the Perfect Loaf.
35 Americans are pushing for fresher more local food Animal, Vegetable,
Miracle; Fresh; Omnivore’s Dilemma
35 urged by nutritionists and pundits to choose fresh produce Eat, Drink, and
Be Healthy; SuperFoods Rx; Salt Sugar Fat; Understanding Nutrition
35 supermarkets are criticized for calling their produce fresh Swallow This;
What to Eat
36 fingers me as the person who coined the term “fresh-like” also mentioned in
Swallow This
36 When I used the term back in 1987, Shewfelt, 1987
36 (later referred to as “lightly processed”). Brecht & others, 2004
36 it may be slowed down by refrigeration Dodd & Bouwer, 2014; Postharvest
36 now generally regarded as fresh, originally these foods were not consid-
ered fresh food. Fresh
36 shelf life may still be extended at a cost of off-flavors and loss of vitamins.
Brecht & others, 2004
36 two main categories of fruits: climacteric and non-climacteric. Postharvest;
Postharvest Biology
36 In scientific articles published in the 1990s Shewfelt, 1990 & 1999
37 from the farm to market are more complicated Postharvest Handling
37 helped trace the quality of green beans, peaches and tomatoes Shewfelt &
others 1986, 1987a & 1987c
37 “Well, you see, first one of our trucks my best recollection of a conversation
30 years after the event
38 transportation systems are becoming much more sophisticated. Postharvest
Handling
38 community gardening and visiting farmers markets, The American Way of
Eating
Notes 195

38 most fresh produce is still bought at the supermarket. Supermarket sales of

perishable items in 2011 reached over $240 billion in sales. http://www.fmi.
org/docs/facts-figures/grocerydept.pdf?sfvrsn=2
38 Many supermarkets have gone away from having on-site butchers. http://
www.foodproductdesign.com/Articles/2009/03/Meat-Moves-Beyond-the-
Butcher.aspx?topic=acidulants
39 surveying the quality of peaches available in local supermarkets Shewfelt
& others 1987b
39 the Atlanta State Farmers Market http://terminalmarkets.com/atlantastate.
htm these recollections are based on my numerous visits to the market in the
1980s and early 1990s.
39 Peaches that are not fully ripe should be ripened at room temperature,
based on personal experiences and interaction with consumer focus groups
reported by Malundo, 1996.
39 All that is local is not necessarily handled well. Personal observation and
knowledge of postharvest physiology as described in Postharvest Biology
40 the textbook used across the country to teach thermal processing
Fundamentals of Food Process Engineering
40 The biggest challenge facing food sustainability Waste
40 food waste is encountered in the marketplace and the home Gustavsson &
others, 2011
40 Concerns about expiration dates causing food waste Waste
40 At least one bartender bemoaned the situation https://answers.yahoo.com/
question/index;_ylt=A0LEV1hEXKZV1eIALtFXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTExZz
Q0YmY1BGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDVUlDMV8xBHNlYw
NzYw--?qid=20090115214554AA3WDNm
40 Budweiser has abandoned the concept because of wasted beer. http://drinka-
merican.us/anheuser-busch-drops-qborn-onq-date/
41 an article in a trade magazine that indicated one British chain I remember
reading the article, but I was unable to track it down on the internet
41 the middlemen between the farmer and the supermarket Organic, Inc.
41 Most of these workers are paid low wages for critical functions The
American Way of Eating; Fresh; White Bread
41 Fresh foods have a short shelf life. Fresh
41 Food Stamped a young, successful couple http://www.foodstamped.com/
42 “a big industry in this country that has a (sic) entrenched interest in the
status quo.” Statement of Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) in a clip near
the end of Food Stamped
42 apparently received only an additional 8 to 28 cents Mendez & others, 2010
43 some independent coffee shop/roasting plants are able to contract personal
discussions with coffee roasters in Athens GA
43 Organic products tend to be more expensive Organic, Inc.
43 one can consider whether to support Big Organic or Small Organic.
Omnivore’s Dilemma; Organic, Inc.
43 both Big and Small Organic will need to be parts of the mix. See Organic,
Inc. for an in-depth discussion on the battle between the two.
196 Notes

44 thoroughly quiz the wait staff to determine the freshness of the food The
Food Babe Way
44 “they don’t produce enough volume at cheap enough prices Organic, Inc.
44 freshness is linked to how often the crop is picked, Fresh; Postharvest
Biology; Postharvest Handling
44 The availability of fresh-like bagged salads, http://www.pridepak.com/
Toronto%20Star%202008.pdf
44 Labor is the biggest expense at most restaurants, http://www.rrgconsulting.
com/restaurant_labor_cost_controls.htm
44 small coffee shops can buy fresh-like baked muffins http://www.packaging-
digest.com/modified-atmosphere-packaging/map-pack-givesfranz-
bread-40-day-shelflife-141103
44 large mandatory increases in minimum wage of cities and states http://
www.thenation.com/article/if-congress-wont-raise-minimum-wage-these-cities-
will/ http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2016-04-01/california-
new-york-poised-to-raise-minimum-wage-to-15
44 federal changes in overtime rules https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/
get-there/wp/2016/05/17/millions-more-workers-would-be-eligible-for-overtime-
pay-under-new-federal-rule/
44 Much of the emphasis has been on fast-food workers, http://www.academia.
edu/4955289/Fast_Food_Poverty_Wages_The_Public_Cost_of_Low-
Wage_Jobs_in_the_Fast-Food_Industry
44 wages in the restaurant industry tend to be low across the board. http://
www.payscale.com/research/US/Industry=Restaurant/Hourly_Rate
44 minimize wait staff through automation of ordering and payment. http://
www.wsj.com/articles/why-restaurant-automation-is-on-the-menu-1458857730
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2837810/automation- arrives-at-
restaurants-but-dont-blame-rising-minimum-wages.html
44 shift fresh purchases to fresh-like Swallow This
44 assemble meals from components heated in plastic bags in a microwave
oven. The American Way of Eating
45 Most customers judge quality on the basis of appearance Shewfelt, 1999
45 fresh foods can be sent to the nearest food bank, soup kitchen or dumpster.
Waste
45 Management must contain “shrink” in any fresh-food operation. http://
www.produceretailer.com/10-Tips-to-Control-Shrink-124871529.html
45 Fresh foods must be handled with care from farm to market and beyond.
Postharvest Handling
46 Inventory management and timely ordering are also keys to higher profits.
http://www.produceretailer.com/10-Tips-to-Control-Shrink-124871529.html
46 The berries can look like they are ripe when they are not from personal
experience. Blueberries can be blue and still not ripe. When working in the field
on a blueberry project I also learned that the ripe ones easily detach from the
stem and the not-quite-ripe ones do not. Getting a ripe blueberry is important as
they do not become sweeter or less tart after picking unlike a banana or mango.
Notes 197

47 fresh-made cakes and pies available at our favorite restaurant for about
$5.00 a slice from my former students who have worked at one of these plants.
47 The pattern of delivery of fresh foods changed dramatically during the
Great Depression. Trucking Country
47 freshness-in-the-supermarket problem Swallow This
47 the use of time-temperature indicators. Smart Packaging Technologies for
Fast Moving Consumer Goods
48 Americans crave convenience. The American Way of Eating; The End of
Overeating; Fresh; Mindless Eating; Obsessed; Salt Sugar Fat; What to Eat
48 Frozen foods were among the first convenience foods, Trucking Country
48 a housewife was expected to prepare three meals for an appreciative family
as depicted in the 50s television shows Leave It to Beaver and Father Knows
Best—see Feller, 2016.
49 avoiding processed food suggests that we need to take up cooking Addiction-
Free Naturally; The American Way of Eating; Animal, Vegetable, Miracle; The
Food Babe Way; Food Rules; Get a Real Food Life; Grain Brain; In Defense of
Food; Obsessed; The Plant Plus Diet Solution; Real Food; SuperFoods Rx
49 cooking allows us to be creative and to prepare healthier meals. Most of
those references in the previous note and Cooked
49 prepare healthy foods ahead of time The Food Babe Way; Get a Real Food
Life
49 Even the most dedicated health-food advocate can succumb The American
Way of Eating
49 Acri Gola morphed into the Slow Food Movement Slow Food Revolution;
Slow Food Story
49 A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) Moore & Thompson, 2015
50 buy “fresh” fruits and vegetables Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy; Salt Sugar Fat;
SuperFoods Rx
50 supermarkets are blamed for not indicating how fresh What to Eat; Swallow
This
50 “upset stomach, diarrhea and more serious illnesses” The Food Babe Way
51 “out of its natural environment, thus altering its natural form” What the
Fork are You Eating
51 The objectives of the food industry are to Food Processing Technology
51 Processed food has the advantage over fresh food Food Processing
Technology; Postharvest Handling
51 lose quality and rot before it is eaten; Food Rules; What to Eat; Swallow This
51 less than 20 % of the population is getting their recommended Five-A-Day.
Moore & Thompson, 2015
51 to increase sustainability of the food supply is to prevent food waste. Waste
51 to provide consumers with fresh foods for sale with enough life Shewfelt,
1987 & 1999
198 Notes

51 Concerns have been raised about the high prices for fresh foods The
American Way of Eating; Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies; Organic, Inc.; What to
Eat
51 low wages of workers in the fresh-food industry. The American Way of
Eating; Food Chains; Fresh; Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies; Trucking Country
51 Government can play a role Trucking Country
51 Pressuring Big Food tends to lead to greater reliance on technology Floros
& others, 2010; Trucking Country
51 increasing industrialization of agriculture. Food Chains; Fresh; Trucking
Country;
51 Smaller businesses, however, tend to be squeezed the hardest O’Malley &
others, 2013; Organic, Inc.
Chapter 4: How Widespread is Food Addiction in Our Culture?
53 For obvious reasons the word addiction is a particularly touchy subject as
quoted from Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us. Michael Moss is
an investigative reporter for the New York Times who has written extensively on
the lack of body armor available to US soldiers in Iraq and winning a Pulitzer
Prize for his work on the safety of hamburger and other foods.
53 You can tell people not to eat the French fry as quoted from The Social
Animal.
53 the book and associated tour brought national attention to the topic. Salt
Sugar Fat
53 the linkage of food addiction to drug addiction is either coincidental or
unfortunate Get a Real Food Life
53 others indicate that the two forms of addiction are of equal consequence.
Addiction-Free Naturally; The Food Babe Way; Obsessed; Wheat Belly
53 Clinical addictions can be classified as substance abuse or behavioral.
Jazaeri & Bin-Habel, 2012; Garcia-Garcia & others, 2014
53 inhalation or ingestion of the chemical leads to direct interaction with
receptors Wang & others, 2011
53 behavioral addictions alter brain chemistry Fattore & others, 2010
53 the brain loses control over the ability to self-regulate. Jazaeri & Bin-Habel,
2012; Garcia-Garcia & others, 2014
54 Not everyone who consumes ethanol, for example, becomes an alcoholic,
The Thirteenth Step
54 the amount of trimethylpurine dione (caffeine) needed to stay alert varies
widely Buzz
54 Behavioral addictions have been attributed to danger, Addicted to Danger
54 foreign oil, Freedom from Oil
54 gambling, All Bets are Off
54 “getting something for nothing” A Nation of Moochers
54 internet surfing, Internet Addiction
54 pornography, Your Brain on Porn
Notes 199

54 sex, Desire
54 shopping, Addicted to Shopping and Other Issues Women Have with Money
54 smart phones, Too Much of a Good Thing
54 and video gaming. Game Over
54 responding to the bliss point Salt Sugar Fat
54 Oreos are as addictive as cocaine. http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwal-
ton/2013/10/16/why-your-brain-treats-oreos-like-a-drug/
54 An earlier, less publicized study Levy & others, 2012
55 becoming more sophisticated with their techniques Flavor Perception
55 now hiring people with a culinary background Introducing Food Science
55 Drug abuse is a serious issue in America. http://www.dea.gov/resource-
center/dir-ndta-unclass.pdf
55 In 1971 President Nixon declared a war on drugs http://www.theatlantic.
c o m / h e a l t h / a r c h i v e / 2 0 1 2 / 0 3 / t h e - w a r- o n - d r u g s - h o w - p r e s i d e n t -
nixon-tied-addiction-to-crime/254319/
56 Big Food rejects the idea that foods are like addictive drugs Type in addic-
tion in Website Search at https://www.consumerfreedom.com/
56 Brain scans have been used by sensory scientists Flavor Perception
56 scans have found more useful application by psychologists and neurobiolo-
gists Val-Laillett & others, 2015
56 Craving in a sensory lab means an intense desire Hill, 2012; Introducing
Food Science
56 in an addiction facility it means a compulsion that must be satisfied. Garcia-
Garcia & others, 2014
56 multimedia advertising campaigns. Allen & others, 2012
56 Quick flashing of drug paraphernalia Chang & Haning, 2006
56 quick flashing of popular junk-food packages Pursey & others, 2014a
56 The appeal of a food relates to its presentation, Introducing Food Science;
Sensory Evaluation Techniques; Taste
57 Flavor-impact compounds like benzaldehyde Introducing Food Science
57 a pursuit of melon flavor Wyllie & others, 1995
57 projects on flavor of mangoes, Malundo & others, 2001
57 tomatoes, Tandon & others, 2003
57 aromatic rice Limpawattana & others, 2008
57 off-flavors in wine Wedral & others, 2010
57 Food scientists use the tools Introducing Food Science; Sensory Evaluation
Techniques
57 identified in the aroma of fresh-squeezed orange juice, Perez-Cacho &
Rouseff, 2008
57 500 in cocoa. Lima & others, 2011
57 1000 in fresh-brewed coffee Sunarharum & others, 2014
57 one of my students found that the natural level of methanol in fresh toma-
toes Tandon & others, 2003
200 Notes

58 draw the line between acceptable behavior and addiction? Garcia-Garcia &
others, 2014, Hebebrand & others, 2014 and The Thirteenth Step
58 With a few notable exceptions, anorexics, people who fast and patients on
intravenous fluids
58 Frequently we are rushed and food Mindless Eating
58 Food habits are directly linked to an individual’s culture Cultural Foods;
Introducing Food Science; You Eat What You Are
58 Major changes hit America after the Great Depression and World War II.
Cooked; Diabesity; Fresh; A Revolution Down on the Farm; Trucking Country
59 processed foods provided convenience and reduced preparation The
American Way of Eating; White Bread
59 We overeat when we are happy Bongers & others, 2013
59 we overeat for comfort Epel & others, 2012, Chapter 40
59 we overeat when we are depressed Pursey & others, 2014b
59 we eat without thinking. Mindless Eating
59 the French fry dilemma David Brooks describes The Social Animal
59 such cravings are not necessarily compulsions leading to addiction. Hill,
2012
59 little or no access to healthy food Pitts & others, 2013; Ortega & others, 2015
59 Not only do these locations have no supermarket within a mile http://www.
ers.usda.gov/media/242654/ap036_reportsummary_1_.pdf
59 these deserts are populated with fast-food outlets, liquor stores, and corner
stores Cannuscio & others, 2010
60 areas lack recreational facilities and the streets are not safe Rahman & oth-
ers, 2011
60 Solutions to health problems associated with food deserts http://www.fns.
usda.gov/snap/retail-store-eligibility-usda-supplemental-nutrition-
assistance-program
60 Efforts are being made to bring farmers markets Larchet, 2014; White
Bread
60 and urban vegetable gardens to inner cities. Taylor & Ard, 2015
60 excess lead in the soil of inner-city locations Scheckel & others, 2013
60 A somewhat oversimplified explanation of drug addiction Since I have no
experience with addiction research I rely heavily in this section on explanations
in The Thirteenth Step and many chapters in Food and Addiction
60 Impoverished neighborhoods appear to have more drug activity Cannuscio
& others, 2010
60 The pain of depression or Babicz-Zielinska & others, 2013
60 excess stress can lead to food binges Sinha, 2012
60 Cues for food addiction Tang & others, 2012
60 drug addicts tend to be impulsive people The Thirteenth Step
61 Advocates of declaring foods addictive blame hyperpalatable foods
Gearhardt & others, 2011
61 Having overconsumed, people search for a reason why Hill, 2012
61 as in alcoholism and drug addiction, The Thirteenth Step
Notes 201

61 disordered reward system Dupont, 2012

61 eating disorders may also be related to food addiction. Avena, 2010
61 less publicized eating disorders include Babicz-Zielinska & others, 2013
61 orthorexics whose interest in healthy eating Health-Food Junkies
61 can lead to weight loss and development of intestinal disorders The College
Students Guide Eating Well on Campus
62 795 million people in the world are unable to get enough food
to maintain health http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20
hunger%20facts%202002.htm
62 disorders which do not get enough public attention. The College Students
Guide to Eating Well on Campus
62 “Binge eating is defined as Grilo, 2012
62 One such chemical is MSG, Dietrich & Horvath, 2012
62 a star ingredient on the food-pundit hit list. The Food Babe Way; What the
Fork are You Eating
62 This work, long ago discredited, Freeman, 2006
62 Human brain scans clearly show that areas of the brain Tang & others,
2012; Food and Addiction
62 The fact that a brain area lights up The Thirteenth Step
63 Animal studies have shown that there are similarities Avena, 2010; Food
and Addiction
63 relate food addiction to the endocannabinoid pathway Fattore & others,
2010
63 signals in the stomach and intestines Dostalova & Haluzik, 2009
63 described by a majority of studies involves dopamine Wang & others, 2011;
Food and Addiction
63 the one that cocaine, meth and caffeine The Thirteenth Step
63 compounds that are found in hyperpalatable foods responsible for addic-
tion Gearhardt & others, 2011
63 All addictive substances identified to this point The Thirteenth Step
63 If there is a specific addictive chemical in food Avena, 2010
63 in corn syrup as HFCS, has been identified The Food Babe Way; What the
Fork are You Eating
63 HFCS and honey contain about 55 % fructose The Ultimate Guide to Sugars
& Sweeteners
63 Agave nectar is 90 % fructose. Hooshmand & others, 2014
63 Fructose has the advantage of not increasing blood sugar Chiu & others,
2014
63 it has been suggested that fructose accumulates in the liver Bray, 2010
63 The experiments studying glucose and fructose Chiu & others, 2014
63 Hyperpalatable foods are described foods that combine Gearhardt & others,
2011; Levy & others, 2012; Pursey & others, 2014b; Food and Addiction
63 Examples include French fries, frozen pizza, ice cream cones, Gearhardt &
others, 2011
202 Notes

64 Refined diets loaded with cooking oils, Ifland & others, 2012
64 Such impulsiveness is also associated with food addiction. Davis & Carter,
2009; Kalra, 2012,
64 not substance abuse, but it really is a behavioral addiction to eating
Hebebrand & others, 2014; Werthman & others, 2015
64 I read extensively—both books and journal articles. The two books I read
most thoroughly were Food and Addiction and The Thirteenth Step. I must have
read at least twice as many articles as I have cited in this chapter to gain a
broader understanding of the topic and help me draw my conclusions.
64 it is more likely to be an eating addiction than a food addiction. Hebebrand
& others, 2014; Werthman & others, 2015
64 a combination of ingredients to enhance appearance, aroma, taste and tex-
ture Swallow This; Taste
64 it is not recognized as a disorder Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders (DSM-5).
64 For example, anorexia, binge-eating and bulimia are recognized by DSM-
5. http://www.dsm5.org/Documents/Eating%20Disorders%20Fact%20Sheet.
pdf
65 “as a condition warranting more clinical research and experience http://
www.dsm5.org/Documents/Internet%20Gaming%20Disorder%20Fact%20
Sheet.pdf
65 Both alcohol and caffeine are recognized as intoxicants Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5)
65 12–13 % of social drinkers can become alcoholics. Wagner & Anthony, 2002.
These percentages and the ones below are merely estimates, but they seemed to
be the most accurate ones I could find. The actual percentages are not as impor-
tant as the indication that not everyone who drinks alcohol, samples heroin or
tries cocaine becomes an addict, but many people do become addicted. Also,
there are many people whose lives are adversely affected by these molecules
without becoming clinical alcoholics or addicts as described in Almost
Alcoholic.
65 23 % of those persons who experiment with heroin http://www.drugabuse.
gov/publications/drugfacts/heroin
65 15–16 % of those individuals who try cocaine at least once become addicts.
Wagner & Anthony, 2002
65 17 5 % of the American population is addicted to hyperpalatable food
Hebebrand & others, 2014
65 many individuals not in control of their eating habits become obese Avena,
2010; Werdell, 2012
65 unless they combine the addiction with bulimia. Avena & Hoebel, 2012
65 Treating symptoms does not seem to be as effective Lagrotte & Foster, 2012;
Liu & Zhang; The Thirteenth Step
65 Addiction is a chronic, relapsing disorder Liu & Zhang, 2012; The Thirteenth
Step
Notes 203

65 Many types of treatments emphasize 12-step programs Blumenthal & oth-

ers, 2012
65 Overeaters Anonymous www.oa.org
65 Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous www.foodaddicts.org
65 Long-term management of the disease with appropriate medication
Lagrotte & Foster, 2012; The Thirteenth Step
65 Before treating a food addict for obesity, Werdell, 2012
66 fights against tobacco, Warner, 2012
66 drugs Dupont, 2012
66 alcohol. Gilmore & Chandaria, 2012
66 Lawsuits and taxes on unhealthy foods are the preferred vehicles Alderman &
Daynard, 2007; Thow & others, 2014; Finkelstein & others, 2014 http://www.
politico.com/story/2014/02/food-industry-obesity-health-care-costs-103390.html
66 Lawsuits were the undoing of Big Tobacco Teret & Rutgow, 2012
66 (France taxes sweets, chocolate, margarine & vegetable fat at 20 %),
Cawley, 2012
67 consumers already know that junk foods make them fat, Lagrotte & Foster,
2012
67 Working through school lunch programs Schwartz & Novak, 2012
67 Mass media campaigns may work Warner, 2012
67 to limit advertising and marketing events, Pomeranz, 2012
67 Vending machines have been removed from over 80 % of elementary
schools, Schwartz & Novak, 2012
67 A complete ban on vending machines Pomeranz, 2012
67 Expect Big Food to fight marketing restrictions Alderman & Daynard, 2007
67 paying more attention to what we eat Mindless Eating
67 it no longer has the power to shock and induce fear. How Risky is it, Really
67 “Beverages containing alcohol and caffeine are so embedded Buzz
67 Michael Moss probably did more to bring the idea of food addiction Salt
Sugar Fat
67 Along the way society has become less concerned about the danger http://
civicscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Insight-Report-Consumer-
Sentiment-on-%E2%80%98Harmful%E2%80%99-Food-Ingredients-and-
Additives-May-2015.pdf
67 “In time, the public concern about the potential toxicity of chemical addi-
tives Salt Sugar Fat
Chapter 5: Why Are There so Many Chemicals in Our Food?
69 TBHQ is one scary chemical as quoted from The Food Babe Way. From the
book jacket we learn that “Vani Hari is a food activist and the creator of food-
babe.com. In her work, Hari has influenced how food giants like Kraft, Subway,
Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, and Starbucks create their products, steering them
toward more healthful policies. She lives in North Carolina and travels around
the world to speak about health and food awareness. She is currently planning
her next campaign.”
204 Notes

69 Shouldn’t we able to admit that we already know as quoted from Twinkie,

Deconstructed. Steve Ettlinger is a journalist and author who travelled to loca-
tions around the country and beyond in his search to find out where the ingre-
dients of a Twinkie come from after he was unable to answer the question his
little girl posed “Where does pol-y-sor-bate six-tee come from, Daddy?” He is
also a co-author of Ingredients: A Visual Exploration of 75 Additives & 25 Food
Products.
69 “Better Living through Chemistry.” A variant on the DuPont advertising slo-
gan and later adopted as a derisive phrase for all the ills that chemical living has
brought to our society.
70 in a broader sense we all are chemically dependent as evident from any stan-
dard textbook on nutrition such as Understanding Nutrition or the American
Dietetic Association Complete Food & Nutrition Guide
70 Everything we put into our mouths is chemical. See Chap. 11 in Introducing
Food Science
71 Food pundits use ‘chemical’ as a warning numerous books including The
Food Babe Way; What the Fork are You Eating
71 Advertisers of supplements use ‘molecule’ NO More Heart Disease http://
amiraclemolecule.com/getbetterhealth-proargi
http://www.best-natural-health-supplements.com/balanced-reactive-
molecules.html
71 pure vanilla extract can contain the chemicals coumarin, Lavine & others,
2012
72 The molecule vanillin can be synthesized, and it conveys a flavor
Konstantinovic & others, 2009
72 Each ingredient in a processed food must perform a specific function.
Introducing Food Science; Swallow This
72 The PGPR on the label stands for polyglycerol polyricinoleate. http://www.
palsgaard.com/products/confectionery/pgpr/
72 I hope that the quality of my Reese’s peanut butter cups as the manuscript
is headed to the publisher, PGPR is still on the label and the product is still great
73 When cleaning up a food label, food scientists identify the offending
ingredient(s) Katz and Williams, 2011; Swallow This
73 the molecule calcium propionate is an excellent inhibitor of bread mold.
Magan & others, 2003
73 An example of a replacement ingredient is raisin juice concentrate. http://
osufacts.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-7328/FAPC-173web.
pdf
73 adding raisin juice concentrate also adds more sugar, Sabanis & others,
2009
73 actually reduces the number of chemicals in a product. The Dorito Effect
73 Fruits, vegetables, nuts and insects harvested in the wild How to Live and
Survive in Zambezian Open Forest (Miombo Ecoregion); Wild Tastes
73 “out of its natural environment.” as stated in What the Fork are You Eating
about the natural sweetener stevia but not about natural extracts like vanilla
Notes 205

73 many ways to obtain pure vanilla extract Sinha & others, 2008
73 a slightly different chemical composition. Lavine & others, 2012
73 most popular extraction method in the USA Sinha & others, 2008
73 This chemical extraction can be done at home with vanilla beans and
vodka. Cooking for Geeks
74 Soylent, a powder that supposedly contains all the chemicals necessary for
health. Manjoo, 2014
74 a powder from one or a combination of several vegetables. http://www.bar-
ryfarm.com/veggies.htm
74 any powder must be processed by washing, juicing, concentrating, and
drying Food Processing Technology
74 Two of the most widely consumed chemicals (alcohol and caffeine) Buzz
74 bornyl acetate, dichloromethoxybenzaldehyde, methyl cinnamate, octenol,
and pinene. Wood & Lefevre, 2007
74 extracted from the bastard balm herb Maggi & others, 2012
74 dichloromethoxybenzaldehyde has been found as a trace contaminant
h t t p : / / w w w. a r c h i v e . o r g / s t r e a m / p r e l i m i n e f f l u e 0 0 c h e r /
PRELIMINARYINVES_00_CHER_04202_djvu.txt
74 Methyl cinnamate is a toxin that could be harmful http://encyclopedia.the-
freedictionary.com/decanol
74 Octenol is found in mosquito traps http://www.mosquitomagnet.com/user/
boct-2?startimg=1
74 Pinene is found in pine trees and is a key chemical in turpentine. http://
www.britannica.com/science/pinene
74 Thiamine hydrochloride is a molecule http://medical-dictionary.thefreedic-
tionary.com/Thiamine+hydrochloride
74 Thiamine mononitrate is formed by further molecular reactions http://dic-
tionary.reference.com/browse/thiamine%20mononitrate
74 Thiamine is an essential vitamin http://www.drugs.com/mtm/thiamine.html
75 can induce allergies in susceptible people http://www.drugs.com/mtm/thia-
mine.html
75 Sandy Miller, when he was the Director of the Center for Food Safety
http://www.fdaaa.org/activities/2011/103011.php
75 “The easiest thing for the FDA to do is to say ‘No,’ a made up quote based on
my recollection of his statements in a talk I heard at least 20 years ago
75 idea expressed by food pundits that FDA has never met a chemical they
didn’t like. The Food Babe Way; What the Fork are You Eating
75 turn to a watchdog group, Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI),
http://www.cspinet.org/
75 “Most food additives are safe even if they have long chemical names A
report on the CSPI website was accessed as late as December, 2015 no longer
can be accessed https://www.cspinet.org/reports/FoodAdditives_Infographic.
pdf
75 “And don't forget to cut back on sugar and salt, http://www.cspinet.org/
reports/chemcuisine.htm
206 Notes

75 proclaim some foods superfoods Get a Real Food Life; The Plant Plus Diet
Solution; The Sonoma Diet; SuperFoods Rx
75 and other foods toxic. The Food Babe Way; Grain Brain; Obsessed; What the
Fork are You Eating For the alternative perspective see Coffee is Bad Good for
You
75 condemn any ingredient that is unpronounceable unsafe. The Food Babe
Way; Food Rules; What the Fork are You Eating
76 but it apparently does not apply to homemade foods. Cooked; The Food
Babe Way; Food Rules; Get a Real Food Life; Grain Brain; Obsessed; The
Plant Plus Diet; Real Food; What the Fork are You Eating
76 The risks and benefits associated with specific foods and ingredients Coffee
is Bad Good for You; How Risky is it Really
76 soy is frequently listed as a superfood. Get a Real Food Life; SuperFoods Rx
76 Skeptical pundits note that soy can come from genetically modified organ-
isms The Food Babe Way; What the Fork are You Eating
76 may be linked to breast cancer. The Food Babe Way; SuperFoods Rx
76 and is extracted by hexane (“a main constituent of smog”) The Food Babe
Way;
76 dangers of food additives and the lax authority of FDA is thalidomide. Is it
Safe?
76 This molecule caused severe birth defects by pregnant women http://www.
thalidomide.ca/history-of-thalidomide/
76 not approved for use in the USA until 1998. http://blogs.fda.gov/fdavoice/
index.php/tag/thalidomide/
76 Of more concern is the use of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils Coffee
is Bad Good for You; Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy; The Food Babe Way;
SuperFoods Rx; What the Fork are You Eating; What to Eat; Wheat Belly
76 The FDA is phasing out partially hydrogenated oils http://blogs.fda.gov/
fdavoice/index.php/2015/06/protecting-consumers-from-trans-fat/
76 Our food decisions are frequently made on the basis of emotion and not
logic. Mindless Eating
76 most of us eat on the basis of the image of a food Vukmirovic, 2015
76 This, I said to myself, is where all the mumbo jumbo leads. Quote from
Breakfast with Buddha a road-trip novel by Roland Merullo
76 Ideology fuels much of what we believe and do. White Bread
77 The long reach of the internet gave them the parents of autistic children
The Panic Virus
77 There is now a push to associate autism with molecules in our food. Curtis
and Patel, 2008
77 “has been linked to respiratory problems The Food Babe Way
77 Another compound under attack is acrylamide Swallow This http://www.
cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/othercarcinogens/athome/acrylamide
77 Neither molecule is declared in restaurant food which has different rules
Swallow This
Notes 207

77 FDA does not find fault with azodicarbonamide, http://www.fda.gov/Food/

IngredientsPackagingLabeling/FoodAdditivesIngredients/ucm387497.htm
77 CSPI has called for the FDA to ban the molecule from foods. http://www.
cspinet.org/new/201402041.html
77 Acrylamide is of concern to FDA and CSPI, http://www.cspinet.org/food-
safety/acrylamide.html http://www.fda.gov/food/foodborneillnesscontami-
nants/chemicalcontaminants/ucm053569.htm
77 amyl acetate is part of the aroma of apples Fraternale & others, 2011
77 can also be found in lacquer and paint. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/
amyl+acetate
77 it is also found in metal polish. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/citric+acid
77 is used to make resins. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/limonene
77 is used to manufacture lubricants and plasticizers http://encyclopedia.the-
freedictionary.com/decanol
78 In 2012, Chef Jamie Oliver made a video about pink slime the video has
disappeared from some websites, but I was able to track it down at http://
videos.sapo.pt/W3vQkc4yVkPamANDk66m
78 ammonium hydroxide and not household ammonia http://www.foodinsight.
org/Questions_and_Answers_about_Ammonium_Hydroxide_Use_in_Food_
Production#sthash.i6Iskkmm.dpbs
78 rapidly scrambled to stop putting LFTB in their hamburger products.
Adams, 2014
78 beef consumption in the USA has gone down http://www.ers.usda.gov/
topics/animal-products/cattle-beef/statistics-information.aspx
78 Packaging materials are also a source of molecular additions to a food
Introducing Food Science
78 BPA is a molecule that moves Swallow This http://www.fda.gov/Food/
FoodborneIllnessContaminants/ChemicalContaminants/ucm166145.htm
78 Phthalates represent a class of compounds Swallow This http://www.fda.
gov/cosmetics/productsingredients/ingredients/ucm128250.htm
78 BPA and phthalates have shown up in the blood and urine of both adults
and children http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodborneIllnessContaminants/
ChemicalContaminants/ucm166145.htm
78 Birth defects and reproductive issues have been linked Is it Safe?
78 Toxicologists believe that toxicity of any molecule is related to its dose,
Chemical Food Safety
78 Environmental chemists argue that the time of exposure, Is it Safe?
78 are considered Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS). http://www.fda.gov/
food/ingredientspackaginglabeling/foodadditivesingredients/ucm091048.htm
78 thymol http://www.thefreedictionary.com/thymol
78 tocopherol http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/tocopherol
79 The use of preservatives is one of the oldest forms of food processing
Cooking for Geeks
79 Some historians suggest that it was the spice trade as much as anything
Scents of Eden
208 Notes

79 Spices were not only used to enhance the flavor of food, Handbook of Food
Preservation
79 Europeans were able to obtain cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, pepper
Nathaniel’s Nutmeg; Scents of Eden
79 The primary means of preserving meats until the early 1900s Sindelar and
Milkowski, 2012
79 Specific salts such as saltpeter (sodium and potassium nitrite) http://nchfp.
uga.edu/publications/nchfp/lit_rev/cure_smoke_cure.html
79 preservatives are merely ingredients in food that help keep it safe
Introducing Food Science
79 As you stroll down the aisles of the grocery store The Food Babe Way
79 Foods that are alive are ones that contain millions of microbes per ounce.
Fundamental Food Microbiology
79 Spices such as cinnamon and cumin were used as preservatives and
embalming Nathaniel’s Nutmeg
79 Cinnamaldehyde and cuminaldehyde, the active chemicals in these spices,
Patel, 2015
79 Food poisoning is something that is greatly feared and greatly misunder-
stood. Introducing Food Science
79 Dangerous microbes are present in freshly cut meat, Fundamental Food
Microbiology
79 rotten food can be safe and unsafe food may not look, feel, taste or smell
bad. Introducing Food Science
79 Popular fermented foods include alcoholic beverages, kimchi, vinegar and
yogurt. Cooked
80 Some common preservatives that show up on the label include Food
Microbiology
80 one of the chemicals responsible for protection against urinary tract infec-
tions (UTIs). Gonzalez de Llano & others, 2015
80 spices must be effective at doses that will not add undesirable flavors to the
product. Mehra & others, 2013
80 Clean labels are Big Food’s answer Katz and Williams, 2011; Swallow This
80 Conversion of a clean label is a deceptive but effective strategy. Swallow
This
80 Whole Foods has developed a long list of ingredients that are not permitted
https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/about-our-products/quality-standards/
food-ingredient
80 Big Food is unlikely to develop a product strictly for a few upscale chains
Emperors of Chocolate
80 are inherently less safe than similar items in fancier packages Silva and
Gibbs, 2010
81 can search for an ingredient that either has the same chemical Albers-
Nelson, 2010
81 chemically modify an ingredient such that it still qualifies as a clean ingre-
dient Wu and McClements, 2015; Swallow This
Notes 209

81 The most subtle way is to use more sophisticated processing techniques

Loveday & others, 2013
81 Antioxidants are chemicals that protect biological cells from activated oxy-
gen. Shahidi and Ambigaipalan, 2015; Shewfelt and Erickson, 1991; Traber
and Stevens, 2011
81 To keep our line of defense line strong, we should consume antioxidant
vitamins Liu, 2013
81 polyphenolic phytochemicals found in blueberries Giacalone & others, 2011
81 When the line is breached, the repair team comes in Shewfelt and Erickson,
1991
82 but also attack fats in foods. Shahidi and Ambigaipalan, 2015
82 dangerous molecules, some of which can cause cancer, can form in foods.
Martinez-Yusta & others, 2014
82 alpha-tocopherol and beta-carotene are not very effective Shahidi and
Ambigaipalan, 2015
82 Artificial antioxidants such as butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), Shahidi
and Ambigaipalan, 2015
82 we tend to think about pesticides, fertilizers and food additives, The Food
Babe Way; Organic Inc.; What the Fork are You Eating
82 to prevent attack by insects, disease, and weeds. Chemical Food Safety is the
basis for most of this paragraph, but see also A Revolution Down on the Farm
82 the idea that organic pesticides are safer chemicals than non-organic pes-
ticides Just Food
82 restrictions on the use of animal manure are much stricter for certified
organic crops Organic Inc.
82 Ripening involves massive changes in the chemical makeup of a fresh fruit,
Postharvest
82 at least 30 compounds that contribute to banana aroma Mohapatra & oth-
ers, 2010; Vermeir & others, 2009
84 Butyl butanoate (a marine pollutant that irritates skin and eyes) http://
encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/butyl+butanoate
84 eugenol (aroma of cloves which can cause liver damage at high doses)
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/eugenol
84 The enzyme polyphenol oxidase turns the polyphenols in the flesh
Mohapatra & others, 2010
84 The development of a single chicken egg is a chemical masterpiece. Nys &
Guyot, 2011
84 In addition, the egg has an effective chemical shield to protect it Rehault-
Godbert & others, 2011
84 The ingredient statement for the Greek yogurt Chobani® Greek Yogurt
Black Cherry on the Bottom
84 The active cultures are the probiotics that contribute to gut health. Plessas
& others, 2012
84 the five recommended by many pundits. The Food Babe Way; Food Rules;
What the Fork are You Eating; What to Eat and many others
210 Notes

84 about 80 % of it is made up of the chemical water. The product weighs 150

grams, of which 19 are carbohydrates, and 12 are protein leaving 119 grams for
everything else, which is mostly water. Dividing 119 by 150 we get 79.3 %.
84 Pectin Jarvis, 2011
84 and locust bean gum, both sources of fiber, Barak & Mudgil, 2014
85 an essential mineral found in blueberries http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.
php?tname=foodspice&dbid=8
85 and as a neurotoxin when it appears in tap water The Food Babe Way
85 Manganese is indeed an essential mineral https://fnic.nal.usda.gov/sites/fnic.
nal.usda.gov/files/uploads/394-419_150.pdf
85 A general principle for any essential chemical Understanding Nutrition
85 if we mostly buy foods with a few ingredients that are all pronounceable.
Food Rules
85 condemning all processed food and then using the worst cases Food
Stamped; Addiction-Free Naturally
85 cellulose is an additive to cheeses is found in sawdust The Food Babe Way
85 Certain natural antioxidants such as tocopherol are considered to be
healthy What the Fork are You Eating
86 Big Food has been listening. Katz and Williams, 2011; Swallow This
86 “the act of basing your diet on whole, unprocessed, preferably organic
foods.” Eating Clean for Dummies
86 more sophisticated processes like high pressure processing to replace older
methods Innovative Food Processing Technologies
86 modifying the chemical nature of clean ingredients Wu and McClements,
2015 give us a glimpse at a growing trend according to my sources in the food
industry. See also Swallow This
Chapter 6: How Can We Tell Which Foods Are Real?
89 We eaters, alas, don’t reap nearly as much benefit from nutritionism as
quoted from In Defense of Food. Michael Pollan is an author who has become
a powerful voice against processed food, food science and “nutritionism”
through his books such as Cooked, Food Rules and Omnivore’s Dilemma as
well as appearances in movies including Food, Inc. This Pollan quote has a
footnote stating “Geoffrey Canon points out that nutrition labels, which have
become the single most ubiquitous medium of chemical information in our
lives ‘are advertisements for the chemical principles of nutrition.’ ” In Whole
Colin Campbell provides a more detailed critique of modern nutrition that he
calls reductionist nutrition which meshes well with Pollan’s nutritionism.
89 The notion that humans got to a point in evolutionary history as quoted
from Paleofantasy. From the book jacket we learn that Marlene Zuk is a profes-
sor of ecology, evolution, and behavior at the University of Minnesota.
89 “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” In Defense of Food
89 even though the standard recommendations change very little from year-to
year. American Dietetic Association Complete Food & Nutrition Guide;
Understanding Nutrition http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015-scien-
tific-report/02-executive-summary.asp
Notes 211

89 Reverend Sylvester Graham advocated strict vegetarianism Eating History;

Vegetarian America; White Bread
90 Thomas Welch, concerned about the evils of liquor http://www.umcdisciple-
ship.org/resources/changing-wine-into-grape-juice-thomas-and-charles-
welch-and-the-transition-
90 led a movement against “chemicalization” of food and agriculture The
Unsettling of America
90 Detox diets Cavewomen Don’t Get Fat; Everyday Detox; Is Gweneth Paltrow
Wrong about Everything; The Raw Food Detox Diet
90 the Paleo Diet Cavewomen Don’t Get Fat
90 In one such survey, the Paleo Diet was ranked 32nd out of 32 diets evaluated
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/07/health/best-diets-ranked/index.html
90 the Paleo Diet is not even historically accurate. Paleofantasy
90 “be suspicious of anything invented after Taylor Swift was born” Originally
this statement was made in reference to Burger King, but I have heard it stated
elsewhere in relationship to food in general https://www.yahoo.com/health/
eat-this-not-that-restaurant-report-card-2015-121592057248.html
90 (December 13, 1989). http://taylorswift.com/about/
90 Emerging products invented after Taylor Swift was born http://www.food-
navigator-usa.com/Manufacturers/Hartman-Group-on-six-
disruptive-brands-in-health-wellness/
90 One example is bottled water. Marcussen & others, 2013; Bottled & Sold
91 agave syrup, http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/QAA401166/Whats-Wrong-with-
Agave-Nectar.html
91 decaffeinated coffee, Uncommon Grounds
91 Graham crackers, Eating History; Vegetarian America; http://www.biogra-
phy.com/people/sylvester-graham-21194545#synopsis
91 healthy-grain breads White Bread
91 pomegranate products, https://www.schmidtandclark.com/pom-wonderful-
class-action-lawsuit, http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/the-
health-benefits-of-pomegranates/ http://www.pomwonderful.com/
91 and nondairy milks. http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-
eating/almond-milk-vs-soy-milk-which-is-better-for-you.html
91 for the rebirth of the American icon, the Twinkie http://wealthyturtle.com/
the-demise-and-rebirth-of-the-twinkie/ At the height of the drama the follow-
ing conversation was heard on the television show Morning Joe Joe
Scarborough: Buy yourself as many Twinkies as you can -- Mika Brzezinski
(interrupting) – and buy yourself a plastic bag of poison. Eat it and just watch
you grow in the wrong way.
91 The beginning of the “chemicalization” of nutrition was the discovery of
vitamins The Vitamin Hunters
91 Real foods are those our great-grandmother would have recognized as
food. Food Rules Rule #2 “Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t
recognize as food.”
212 Notes

91 safer and healthier back in the days before vitamins and minerals were
discovered. Implicit from In Defense of Food as evident from the opening
quote in the chapter. It was not until the 1920s and 1930s that vitamins and
minerals became popular answers for nutritional inadequacies in the United
States as discussed in The Vitamin Hunters and White Bread.
92 From what I have pieced together from family genealogy, From Kincardine
to Kingsley; Pioneers in the Queen’s Bush; The Substance of Things Hoped For
92 Without refrigeration, their meat was probably highly salted On Food and
Cooking
92 lived through the meat scandals described in The Jungle. Eating History
92 would most likely have bought and consumed unfortified white breads.
White Bread
92 I never knew my father’s father. Two brothers from Ontario, Rob and Ab
Shewfelt, married two sisters from Prince Edward Island, Jo and Vi MacKay,
and moved to Manitoba. Description found in From Kincardine to Kingsley.
92 He was apparently obese and died of a heart attack before I was born. Dad
never talked to me about Rob his father and my namesake (1871-1944), and I
was too young and dumb to ask. When I was young, we went to visit Uncle Ab
(1899-1961), a travelling salesman, on occasion and he was the fattest person I
ever met until I was an adult. Aunt Vi was as slight and as thin as my Grandma
Shewfelt.
93 Cracker Jacks and Hershey bars go back to 1900. Eating History
93 Other popular brands like Twinkies were introduced Better Than Homemade
93 “If your great-grandmother was a terrible cook or eater Food Rules
94 Real foods are more likely to be located on the perimeter of a supermarket
Food Rules Rule#12 “Shop the peripheries of the store and stay out of the
middle”
95 Real foods rot. Food Rules Rule#13 “Eat only foods that will eventually rot”
95 In rich countries we are prone to throw away anything Stuffed and Starved;
Waste
95 its primary purpose is to preserve a food. Food Processing Technology
95 For many years any food that was refrigerated was not considered to be
fresh. Fresh
95 At least one pundit today agrees that once an item is cooled it is no longer
fresh. Swallow This
95 fresh foods are not appropriate, Schlossman & others, 2011
95 questionably palatable, safe, nutritious foods Ghosh, 2010
95 MREs are also highly processed, highly packaged, and highly nutritious
Feagans & others, 2010
95 Some religious https://www.lds.org/topics/food-storage?lang=eng
95 and survivalist groups http://www.mypatriotsupply.com/Emergency_
Survival_Food_s/104.htm?Click=156531
95 Home preservation of food is not as common today Animal, Vegetable,
Miracle
Notes 213

96 Other popular methods of food preservation are fermentation and baking

Cooked; Food Processing Technology
96 Hunter-gathering societies survive on the availability The Other Side of
Eden; A Revolution Down on the Farm
96 they may become nomadic. In The Other Side of Eden Hugh Brody argues,
contrary to popular opinion, that it is the agriculturists rather than the hunter-
gatherers that are the nomads.
96 the Ocmulgee River divided the state. Pioneer Days along the Ocmulgee
96 Between 1900 and 2000, the percentage of Americans living on farms http://
w w w. e r s . u s d a . g o v / a m b e r- w a v e s / 2 0 0 5 - j u n e / d a t a - f e a t u r e . a s p x # .
V1MSBuQXePx
96 abject poverty in rural society The Great Depression and the New Deal
96 and breadlines in the cities. The Great Depression
96 The Dust Bowl started a migration of poor Midwestern farmers perhaps
best described in The Grapes of Wrath
96 racial discrimination drove a migration of the minority population http://
www.history.com/topics/black-history/great-migration
96 Introduction of new agricultural practices The Unsettling of America;
American Agriculture in the Twentieth Century; A Revolution Down on the
Farm
96 In 1950 women made up 28 % of employed workers US Census data accessed
from www.socialexplorer.com
97 Real foods are cooked by humans and not by machines. Food Rules Rule#17
“Eat only foods that have been cooked by humans”
97 fresh ingredients are delivered to the door through an online service? http://
popdust.com/2015/02/17/blue-apron-promises-lot-actually-delivers-2/?utm_
source=taboola&utm_medium=referral_BAdelivers.desktop
97 convection ovens with pre-programming for specific foods, http://home-
cooking.about.com/od/appliancecookery/a/What-Is-Convection-Oven-
Cooking-Tips.htm
97 3-D printing is heralded as the next step in kitchen technology. Fabricated
98 None of the kitchen devices that many of us rely on The Way Kitchens Work;
American Agriculture in the Twentieth Century; The Food Police
98 excess heat can damage delicate flavors and nutrients. Food Processing
Technologies
98 Real foods grow on plants but are not made in plants. Food Rules Rule#19
“If it came from a plant, eat it: if it was made in a plant, don’t”
99 the horrors that some authors associate with food processing The Food
Babe Way; Food Rules; Grain Brain; Swallow This; What the Fork are You
Eating
99 were hands of an undocumented worker earning less than a living wage.
Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies
99 Many ingredients may have been processed in other plants Swallow This
214 Notes

99 Ovens in the food industry are not only much larger Food Processing
Technologies; Blythman’s experience in food processing plants as described in
Swallow This would strongly disagree with me.
100 3-D printing offers the promise to mix and layer ingredients Fabricated
100 Real foods include meat, eggs, cheese and whole milk. Real Food
100 A prominent nutritionist recommends consumption of red meat no more
than Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy
100 recommendation to eat mostly plants in one book Omnivore’s Dilemma
100 ode to the joy of preparing and eating pork barbecue in another. Cooked
100 A former vegetarian has written accounts Real Food
100 A general misconception about meat and other animal products Just Food
100 are also excellent sources of vitamins and minerals. Understanding Nutrition
100 Books advocating the elimination of some or all grains Grain Brain; Wheat
Belly
100 do not allow much margin for error for a vegan. The Plant Plus Diet
Solution
100 successful indigenous, vegetarian diets Vegetarian Nutrition
101 Vegetarianism has a long history in America as an alternative Eating
History; Vegetarian America
101 Two other arguments against meat are equity and sustainability. Global
Food Futures
101 increases in meat eating as incomes rise for people who are currently veg-
etarians 2052; Global Food Futures
101 consumption is associated with increased cancer risk. Van Blarigan &
Meyerhardt, 2015
101 can form nitrosamines which are carcinogens. Catsburg & others, 2014
101 a clean ingredient such as celery salt which is naturally high in nitrates
and nitrites. What the Fork Are you Eating; http://www.provisioneronline.
com/articles/98783-properties-of-natural-and-organic-naturally-cured-meats
101 includes smoked and grilled meats, Chan & others, 2005
101 Dangerous molecules including benzopyrenes and other polyaromatic
hydrocarbons. Jarvis & others, 2014
101 appear to be over-exaggerations. Evaluating risks described in Bouvard &
others, 2015 in the context of How Risky Is It Really
101 Removing red meat completely from the diet makes it difficult
Understanding Nutrition
101 recommends a daily multivitamin tablet. Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy
102 The fertility requirements for the soil Soil Biological Fertility
102 Major changes in cropland will be needed to produce Mulik and O’Hara,
2015
102 not clear if such changes will lead to expected decreases in total calories
consumed. Pignone & others, 2003
102 Real foods that are sweet grow on bushes, stems and vines. Food Rules
Rule#35 “Eat sweet foods as you find them in nature”
102 Humans are hard-wired for a sweet taste Taste
102 These ingredients include maple syrup, honey, and jelly. What the Fork are
You Eating
Notes 215

102 The steps in maple syrup manufacture include tapping the maple tree, see
a demonstration video at https://youtu.be/m5cSqjuTpac
102 The maple sap contains about 2–3 % sugar while the finished syrup is
about 65–70 % sugar http://www.thatcherssugarhouse.com/what.htm
103 Pure cacao is 55 % cocoa butter (99 % or more pure fat) Chocolate Science
and Technology
103 Heat damages minerals, vitamins and enzymes in raw honey, http://www.
beeworks.com/informationcentre/honey_processing.html
103 impact of their loss on health is minimal. For two sides of the argument on
the benefits of honey vs. white sugar, see http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/
honey-vs-sugar.htmlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2808799/Healthy-
No-honey-WORSE-sugar.html
103 its bacteria that can be deadly to children Tanzi and Gabay, 2002
103 The steps in making strawberry jam at home include http://www.pickyou-
rown.org/jam.htm
103 The sugar content of jams and jellies runs from about 65-70 % http://www.
sugar.org/all-about-sugar/sugar-in-jellies-and-preserves/
103 “as you find them in nature” Food Rules Rule#35
103 “out of its natural environment.” What the Fork are You Eating
103 “Buy your snacks at the farmers’ market” Food Rules Rule#16
103 “Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself,” Food Rules
Rule#39
103 One food pundit boldly tells us that we just need to minimize eating any
sweets, Swallow This
104 “Break the rules once in a while.” Food Rules Rule#64
104 controlling portion size and eating only when hungry. Food Rules as shown
in rules #5 “Buy smaller plates and glasses” and#47 “Eat when you are hungry,
not when you are bored.”
104 “Homework is the new family meal.” All Joy and No Fun
Chapter 7: How Does Food Processing Change the Nutritional Value
of Foods?
107 As food science, food technology, and nutrition science progress, as quoted
from an article titled “Are dietary intakes and eating behaviors related to child-
hood obesity? A comprehensive review of the evidence” by P.K. Newby pub-
lished in 2007 in the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 35:35-60. Dr. Newby
is a nutritional epidemiologist and popular speaker who specializes on diet,
obesity and chronic diseases associated with food. She has her degrees from
Harvard and has been a member of the Harvard faculty. https://www.exten-
sion.harvard.edu/faculty-directory/p-k-newby
107 In matters of health, however, the public rarely requires proof. as quoted
from Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach who is noted
for her offbeat style in explaining science to popular audiences. Her latest book
is Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War http://www.maryroach.net/
216 Notes

107 when dealing with fresh, processed or formulated foods, that there are
tradeoffs. Food Processing Technology
108 Flash (or cryogenic) freezing captures the vitamins in vegetables at their
peak quality, Food Processing Technology; Introducing Food Science
108 Food scientists use two tools, enrichment and fortification. The reference
for nutritional information in this chapter is primarily from the American
Dietetic Association Complete Food & Nutrition Guide and Understanding
Nutrition
108 Too much of an essential mineral or vitamin, however, can be toxic.
Understanding Nutrition
108 The argument for whole foods Whole
108 Nutritionists and food scientists counter American Dietetic Association
Complete Food & Nutrition Guide; Introducing Food Science; Understanding
Nutrition
108 Nutrition is a very complex field such that nutritionists don’t know every-
thing What to Eat
109 enough calories and protein to maintain their health. American Dietetic
Association Complete Food & Nutrition Guide
109 An estimated one billion people around the world, Global Food; Stuffed and
Starved
109 a beneficial food chemical to function in our bodies is called bioavailabil-
ity. Saini & others, 2015; Whole
109 Heat can help improve the bioavailability of nutrients in the diet. Saini &
others, 2015
109 chemicals like oxalates and phytates in beans Campos-Vega & others, 2010
109 when it helps with digestion, prevention of intestinal disorders Brownlee,
2014
109 and diversity of our gut microbes The Diet Myth; The Good Gut
110 Too much fiber, particularly from supplements, Campos-Vega & others,
2010; Saini & others, 2015; American Dietetic Association Complete Food &
Nutrition Guide
110 Some authors advocate eating only raw food, The Raw Food Detox Diet
110 but it is difficult to even maintain a healthy weight on a raw-food diet
Koebnick & others, 1999
110 The vitamins and minerals in plant parts are not as available to us Campos-
Vega & others, 2010
110 Animal-based foods are more similar chemically to human needs Lim &
others, 2013; Seuss-Baum & others, 2011; Zijp & others, 2000
110 The functional foods marketed by Big Food Newby, 2007
110 when talking about antioxidants in food Berger & others, 2012
110 The free-radical theory of aging for different perspectives see Buehler, 2012
and Liochev, 2013
110 vitamins A, C and E help protect us from oxidation of fats. JaeHwan &
Min, 2006; Shewfelt & Erickson, 1991
110 Minerals, particularly iron, increase oxidation Jomova & Valko, 2011
Notes 217

110 Oxidation is a part of many important, naturally occurring, metabolic

processes Liochev, 2013
110 Oxidation is also destructive when not properly controlled. Buehler, 2012;
JaeHwan & Min, 2006
110 Taking vitamin supplements does not appear to be enough Whole
110 Most Americans consume too much sodium. American Dietetic Association
Complete Food & Nutrition Guide; Understanding Nutrition
110 Sodium is found in many processed foods primarily in the form of sodium
chloride. Belz & others, 2012
110 how much we add to our food through the salt shaker. The Gluten Lie
111 The surprising number one source of sodium in the American diet is bread
http://www.cdc.gov/salt/sources.htm
111 a preservative is merely an ingredient that keeps a food safe Introducing
Food Science
111 the amount of sodium we take in relative to the amount of potassium
Aaron and Sanders, 2013
111 can lead to heart attacks, high blood pressure, stroke and other unhealthy
conditions. American Dietetic Association Complete Food & Nutrition Guide;
Understanding Nutrition
111 Sodium collects in the bloodstream; potassium is located in the cells.
Understanding Nutrition
111 Too little sodium in the diet can lead to increased blood cholesterol and
triglycerides Graudal & others, 2012
111 Processed food is not the only source of sodium in our diet. http://www.cdc.
gov/salt/sources.htm
111 A large order of fries from McDonald’s contains 12 % of our daily value
for sodium, http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/food/full_menu/full_menu_
explorer.html
111 a homemade burger contains 9 % of the daily value, http://www.fatsecret.
com/calories-nutrition/usda/hamburger-or-hotdog-rolls
111 New federal guidelines may require chains to list the amount of sodium
http://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/LabelingNutrition/
ucm248732.htm
111 Low-salt canned and frozen products are available in the supermarket,
http://www.cdc.gov/salt/pdfs/sources_of_sodium.pdf
111 Nuts have developed a healthy reputation, American Dietetic Association
Complete Food & Nutrition Guide
112 coarse-grain salts contain a little less sodium in a teaspoon than fine-grain
salts http://sodiumbreakup.heart.org/sodium-411/sea-salt-vs-table-salt/
112 to replace sodium chloride with MSG personal communications with sources
in the food industry
112 There are at least 49 ingredients added to foods that are primarily sugar.
What the Fork Are You Eating
112 US Dietary guidelines http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015-
scientific-report/02-executive-summary.asp
218 Notes

112 most smoothies are over 50 grams. http://www.nutrition-charts.com/

smoothie-king-nutrition-facts-calorie-information/
112 dietitians question the difference between added and natural sugars
American Dietetic Association Complete Food & Nutrition Guide
112 For comparison, a medium orange contains 14 g of sugar http://www.fda.
gov/downloads/Food/GuidanceRegulation/UCM153464.pdf
113 Molecules such as aspartame, sucralose and acesulfame K Introducing
Food Science
113 A report on NPR http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/09/17/349270927/
diet-soda-may-alter-our-gut-microbes-and-the-risk-of-diabetes
113 highlighted a study that showed that diabetics consuming artificial sweet-
eners Suez & others, 2014
113 “at least one study has shown that . . .” a favorite phrase in The Food Babe
Way
113 trusts “intuition more than they trust studies.” Gulp
113 recommend diets of less than 10 % of calories should come from saturated
fat. American Dietetic Association Complete Food & Nutrition Guide
113 Some food pundits, however, recommended consumption of saturated fat
In Defense of Food; Real Food; Wheat Belly
113 Food scientists have become skilled at designing foods high in vitamins,
minerals, sugar Food Rules; The End of Overeating; What the Fork are you
Eating; What to Eat
113 the longer-term consequences of such habits include diabetes, Diabesity;
Obesity 101; Soda Politics
114 When foods containing fat enter the mouth, Understanding Nutrition
114 Plant sterols found in vegetable oils, some formulated foods Shaghaghi &
others, 2013
114 and supplements help block our bodies from absorbing cholesterol. Ras &
others, 2013
114 Grains are edible seeds from grass crops. American Dietetic Association
Complete Food & Nutrition Guide
114 Enrichment and fortification of bread products was introduced in the
1940s White Bread
114 Americans not being able to qualify for military service due to obesity
Obsessed
114 military-aged men diagnosed with vitamin deficiencies. White Bread
114 The problem with protein from grains is that plant proteins American
Dietetic Association Complete Food & Nutrition Guide
115 these products have become the target of derision. White Bread
115 “the whiter the bread, the quicker you’re dead.” Coined by P.I. Clark in
1920s as quoted in White Bread and it also appears as Rule#37 In Food Rules
115 are more bioavailable than similar chemicals present naturally Dewettinck
& others, 2008
115 helps slow digestion in the stomach thus keeping us from getting hungry
as quickly. Understanding Nutrition; The Volumetrics Weight-Control Plan
Notes 219

115 Dietary fiber is also considered beneficial for microbial diversity The Diet
Myth; The Good Gut
115 suggesting that artificial vitamins are not as potent as natural ones, In
Defense of Food; Whole
115 most nutritionists do not believe that natural vitamins are superior to arti-
ficial ones. American Dietetic Association Complete Food & Nutrition Guide
115 will eventually result in a nutritional disease. American Dietetic Association
Complete Food & Nutrition Guide and Understanding Nutrition. Note Whole
disagrees stating that “The one nutrient/one disease relationship implied by
reductionism, although widely popular, is simply incorrect.”
115 Fortification of specific foods with essential minerals and vitamins Fletcher
& others, 2004
115 Staple foods around the world usually have a grain component. On Food
and Cooking
115 Whenever wheat is introduced into a culture it is generally adopted as a
staple Cooked
115 Gluten is a combination of two special proteins found in wheat, glutenin
and gliadin. Cooked
115 like rye bread are still primarily made from wheat flour The New York
Times Cook Book
115 Gluten-free breads are produced using flours from grains such as quinoa
or rice. Ohimain, 2015
115 gluten-free flours are frequently deficient in key vitamins and The Gluten
Lie
115 When starches enter the mouth, Understanding Nutrition
116 Foods are heated to kill harmful microbes Food Processing Technology is
the major source in this section for the effects of heating on microbes, flavor
and nutrients
116 Cooking changes the amount and bioavailability of vitamins and minerals
Saini & others, 2015
116 the most important contributor to coffee flavor is roasting Sunarharum &
others, 2014
116 some steak eaters order a full-flavored rare steak Kerth & Miller, 2015
116 frying leads to formation of the molecule acrylamide Matthaus & Haase,
2014; Swallow This
116 A GMO potato that lowers acrylamide in French fries has been approved
for production http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/08/business/genetically-
modified-potato-from-simplot-approved-by-usda.html?_r=0
116 the formation of another potent carcinogen molecule, benzopyrene, Comer
& others, 2013
116 Advanced processing techniques can kill harmful microbes without dam-
age Food Processing Technology
117 amino acids that we need to absorb so our bodies can construct the pro-
teins Understanding Nutrition
220 Notes

117 Food pundits criticize processed food for too much salt, sugar, and fat. Get
a Real Food Life; Grain Brain; Salt Sugar Fat; What the Fork are You Eating
117 cook more meals at home with fewer processed ingredients. Cooked; The
Food Babe Way; Swallow This; What the Fork are You Eating
117 At least one food pundit Cooked
117 and a government source http://www.cdc.gov/salt/pdfs/sources_of_sodium.
pdf
117 Recipes that use processed ingredients such as cheese, miso paste, soy
sauce, etc. key the ingredient of interest into http://nutritiondata.self.com/
117 Many recipes call for sea salt or kosher salt Cooked; The Food Babe Way;
What the Fork are You Eating
117 Both of these salts tend to be coarser, American Dietetic Association
Complete Food & Nutrition Guide
118 food pundits and home cooks have found out ways to disguise how they
add sugar The Food Babe Way; What the Fork are You Eating see also The
Gluten Lie
118 recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for added sugar in the diet. http://
www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015-scientific-report/02-executive-
summary.asp
118 A teaspoon of pure maple syrup also contains about 4 grams of sugar,
http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/nutrition-pure-maple-syrup-vs-honey-1756.
html
118 Such advice tends to obscure the nature of oils which are 100 % fat.
American Dietetic Association Complete Food & Nutrition Guide
118 fats are important in the development of desirable flavors Introducing Food
Science
118 It becomes difficult to stick with a low-fat diet Obesity 101
118 In studying the recipes All recipes were analyzed using the software is called
Genesis R&D from ESHA http://www.esha.com/products/genesis-rd-food-
analysis-labeling/ The software takes into consideration moisture losses during
cooking, calculating serving sizes and nutritional values by the same criteria
used for commercial food products http://www.fda.gov/Food/
GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation/
LabelingNutrition/ucm064904.htm
118 miso-glazed tofu The Plant Plus Diet Solution
118 pork shoulder barbeque Cooked, recall that Pollan’s claims that salt added
during cooking or at the table doesn’t count.
118 banana-nut cake Get a Real Food Life
118 Golicious Granola What the Fork Are You Eating
118 a roasted walnut-oil salad Grain Brain
118 a spicy tomato kale soup The Food Babe Way
118 the same standard used in their books to judge the labels of processed
foods such as Wonder Bread in Cooked; Chick-fil-A products in The Food
Babe Way; high-sugar breakfast cereals in Get a Real Food Life
Notes 221

118 In addition, many familiar ingredients calculated from http://nutritiondata.

self.com/
118 goat cheese, in the walnut-oil salad from Grain Brain
118 olive oil, in the spicy kale tomato soup from The Food Babe Way
118 rolled oats in the granola from What the Fork are You Eating
118 sea salt in the recipes from Cooked and The Food Babe Way
118 brown rice syrup in the granola from What the Fork are You Eating also found
as an ingredient in a recipe in The Plant Plus Diet Solution
118 has been associated with unacceptably high levels of arsenic. Taylor & oth-
ers, 2013
119 Finally, portion size may be a major contributor to how much we eat Food
Rules; Mindless Eating
120 the size of a deck of playing cards as recommended by dietitians. American
Dietetic Association Complete Food & Nutrition Guide
120 hurt the potato growers and manufacturers of potato products, http://
www.chron.com/business/article/Low-carb-diets-costs-making-potato-
growers-fret-1673311.php
120 tend to come in the form of a large order of fries or a loaded baked potato.
http://media.longhornsteakhouse.com/en_us/pdf/longhorn_steakhouse_nutri-
tion.pdf
120 Cooked vegetables may come naked or in a butter sauce generally high in
saturated fat. The sautéed broccoli and cauliflower at Carraba’s contains 31
grams of fat http://www.myfitnesspal.com/en/nutrition-facts-calories/
carrabbas-italian-grill/3
120 Many salads are loaded with salt, sugar, and fat https://americanhealthand-
beauty.com/articles/3525/7-high-calorie-salads-that-are-diet-disasters
120 Most dessert offerings are sugar-and-fat bombs. Dinner desserts at Olive
garden run from 25 to 66 grams of sugar and from 22 to 54 grams of fat http://
media.olivegarden.com/en_us/pdf/olive_garden_nutrition.pdf
120 those pads (4 grams of fat and about 34 calories in each pad) All nutritional
information in this paragraph comes from http://nutritiondata.self.com/
120 with 45 % of my daily value for sodium, 9 grams of sugar, http://www.
mcdonalds.com/us/en/food/food_quality/nutrition_choices.html
121 chains with more than 20 restaurants must post nutritional information
http://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/LabelingNutrition/
ucm248732.htm
121 Congress is considering legislation to repeal this provision http://thehill.
com/regulation/healthcare/259155-house-panel-clears-anti-calorie-counting-
bill
121 participating restaurants are reducing salt, sugar, fat, and calories Bleich
& others, 2015
121 Today’s food pundits are much more concerned about overnutrition than
undernutrition. The Food Babe Way; Get a Real Food Life; NO More Heart
Disease; The Plant Plus Diet Solution; Real Food; Salt Sugar Fat; SuperFoods
Rx; Swallow This; What the Fork are You Eating; Whole
222 Notes

121 In comparing the concept of healthy eating in 21 books Cavewomen Don’t

Get Fat; Cooked; The Diet Myth; Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy; The End of
Overeating; The Food Babe Way; Food Rules; Get a Real Food Life; The Good
Gut; Grain Brain; In Defense of Food; NO More Heart Disease; The Plant
Plus Diet Solution; Real Food; Salt Sugar Fat; Soda Politics; SuperFoods Rx;
Swallow This; What the Fork are You Eating; What to Eat; Whole
121 The only healthy diet consists strictly of plant-based whole foods, Whole
121 OR plant-based diets should be supplemented with some animal products,
The Diet Myth; Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy; The Food Babe Way; Get a Real
Food Life; The Good Gut; In Defense of Food; The Plant Plus Diet Solution
121 OR animal products should be a major part of the diet; Cavewomen Don’t
Get Fat; Grain Brain; Real Food;
122 Wheat and most other grain should be eliminated, Grain Brain
122 OR a plant-based diet that eliminates some, if not all, grains is dangerous,
The Diet Myth; What to Eat
122 Saturated fats should be limited in the diet Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy; Get
a Real Food Life; The Good Gut; NO More Heart Disease; Salt Sugar Fat;
SuperFoods Rx ; What to Eat
122 OR saturated fats are OK if found in natural foods; Cavewomen Don’t Get
Fat; The Diet Myth; The Food Babe Way; Grain Brain; Real Food; What the
Fork are You Eating
122 Fats are more unhealthy than carbs The Good Gut; NO More Heart Disease;
SuperFoods Rx; What to Eat
122 OR carbs are worse than fats; Cavewomen Don’t Get Fat; Grain Brain;
Swallow This
122 We should consume more protein, The End of Overeating; Grain Brain
122 OR consume less protein SuperFoods Rx ; What to Eat
122 OR get protein from plants but not from animals; Eat, Drink, and Be
Healthy; Whole
122 Sugar is not healthy, Cavewomen Don’t Get Fat; The End of Overeating; The
Good Gut; Grain Brain; In Defense of Food; The Plant Plus Diet Solution;
Salt Sugar Fat; Soda Politics; Swallow This; What to Eat
122 OR sugar is OK for some if it comes from natural sources, Get a Real Food
Life; What the Fork are You Eating
122 OR sugar is OK only if we add it ourselves; Food Rules
122 Salt is unhealthy Cavewomen Don’t Get Fat; The End of Overeating; Get a
Real Food Life; Salt Sugar Fat; What to Eat; Whole
122 OR we only need to concern ourselves about sodium if it comes from pro-
cessed food Cooked, The Plant Plus Diet Solution; Real Food; SuperFoods Rx
122 A calorie is a calorie Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy; What to Eat
122 OR some calories are more unhealthy than other calories; Cavewomen
Don’t Get Fat; The Diet Myth; The Food Babe Way; Grain Brain; The Plant
Plus Diet Solution; Whole
122 The greatest danger in our food comes from unpronounceable chemical
additives The Food Babe Way; In Defense of Food; What the Fork are You
Eating
Notes 223

122 OR we should be more concerned about the amount of salt, sugar, and fat
in our diet; The End of Overeating; Get a Real Food Life; Salt Sugar Fat;
Soda Politics; What to Eat
122 Vitamin, mineral, and other types of supplements are a good idea,
Cavewomen Don’t Get Fat; Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy; Get a Real Food Life;
Grain Brain; NO More Heart Disease
122 OR we should get our nutrients from real food The Diet Myth; In Defense
of Food; Real Food; SuperFoods Rx
122 OR supplements are nothing but a rip-off and unnecessary; Whole
122 Buy organic whenever possible The Food Babe Way; The Plant Plus Diet
Solution; What the Fork are You Eating
122 OR buy local when given a choice between organic and local; Eat, Drink,
and Be Healthy; Real Food; What to Eat
122 Fresh is always better than processed Cavewomen Don’t Get Fat; In Defense
of Food; The Plant Plus Diet Solution; Real Food; Swallow This; What the
Fork are You Eating; Whole
122 OR minimal processing and frozen fruits and vegetables are fine Grain
Brain; SuperFoods Rx
122 All processed ingredients should be avoided when cooking at home, Whole
122 OR only use processed ingredients from approved processors Cavewomen
Don’t Get Fat; The Food Babe Way; Real Food; What the Fork are You Eating
122 OR familiar ingredients such as canned tomato products are OK to use;
Get a Real Food Life; Grain Brain; SuperFoods Rx: What to Eat
122 Food can be classified into two groups: good for us and bad for us The Food
Babe Way; Grain Brain; Real Food; What the Fork are You Eating
122 OR such classifications are over-simplistic and generally not helpful Eat,
Drink, and Be Healthy; Get a Real Food Life; What to Eat
122 GMOs and any food or ingredient suspected of being GMO should be
avoided Cavewomen Don’t Get Fat; The Food Babe Way; What the Fork are
You Eating
122 OR GMOs are not mentioned so they do not appear to be of concern. The
Diet Myth; Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy; The End of Overeating; Get a Real
Food Life; The Good Gut; Grain Brain; Real Food; What to Eat; SuperFoods Rx
122 Food pundits blame nutritionists for the confusion of which foods are
healthy Cavewomen Don’t Get Fat; The Diet Myth; Grain Brain; In Defense
of Food; What the Fork are you Eating; Whole
122 the Dietary Guidelines that are adjusted every five years. http://www.health.
gov/dietaryguidelines/2015-scientific-report/02-executive-summary.asp
122 To clarify, recommendations from dietitians and nutritionists American
Dietetic Association Complete Food & Nutrition Guide; Introducing Food
Science
123 while giving homemade meals Cooked
123 and independent restaurants a pass. What to Eat
123 The same prescription holds for any book or website that provides recipes,
as provided in Get a Real Food Life, although it would also be helpful to have
% Daily Value included
224 Notes

Chapter 8: How Safe is the American Food Supply?

125 The public’s conception that cancer is unnatural as quoted from Naturally
Dangerous. James P. Collman is a Professor Emeritus of Chemistry from
Stanford, is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and specialized in
the area of organometallic chemistry. See https://chemistry.stanford.edu/fac-
ulty/james-collman
125 In fact, the meat available in supermarkets today as quoted from A
Revolution Down on the Farm; The Transformation of Agriculture since 1929.
Dr. Paul K. Conkin is a Professor Emeritus of History at Vanderbilt University.
He grew up on a farm in Tennessee during the Great Depression and traces the
advances in farming since then identifying both benefits and adverse conse-
quences of the rapid changes he has seen.
125 A major recall damages their brand Alexandru, 2013
125 Food pundits are genuinely interested in the health and wellbeing
Cavewomen Don’t Get Fat; Cooked; Food Rules; Get a Real Food Life; Grain
Brain; The Plant Plus Diet Solution; Real Food; What the Fork are You Eating;
Whole
125 Even consumer-friendly chains such as Chipotle http://www.cdc.gov/
ecoli/2015/O26-11-15/index.html
125 Trader Joe’s http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/bredeney-09-12/index.html
125 and Whole Foods are not immune http://www.boston.com/health/2014/06/12/
recalled-beef-sold-every-mass-whole-foods/m8TI70oEZHQs4EaKptWfCM/
story.html
125 Although most reported cases of illness and death from food http://www.
cdc.gov/foodsafety/foodborne-germs.html
125 food pundits are more concerned with the safety of chemical ingredients.
Food Rules; Grain Brain; Real Food; The Food Babe Way; What the Fork are
You Eating
125 the presence of chemicals in our foods is much more sinister Food Rules;
What the Fork are You Eating
125 Unlike James Collman in the opening quote, Naturally Dangerous
126 Management and marketing groups within Big Food are embracing con-
sumer concerns Reilly, 2014
126 Hershey is finding out by becoming most of the widely admired companies
h t t p : / / w w w. v e n d i n g m a r k e t w a t c h . c o m / n e w s / 1 2 1 0 9 7 3 0 / h e r s h e y -
ranked-a-top-10-brand-for-millennials-by-voxburner
126 Unlike food pundits and Big Food, most food scientists are much more
concerned Introducing Food Science
126 sickens over 48 million and kills over 3000 Americans each year, based on
the 2011 statistics (last available at the time of writing) http://www.cdc.gov/
foodborneburden/index.html
126 One of the best protections against such outbreaks is through the use of
preservatives. Introducing Food Science
Notes 225

126 the use of more potent molecules such as the benzoates, Chemistry of Food
Additives and Preservatives
126 how it forces companies to skate closer to the edge of safe/unsafe products
Based on personal discussions with former students and friends working in the
food industry. See also http://www.preparedfoods.com/articles/117994-
defining-clean-food-label-trends
126 There are three distinct roles microbes play in food. Introducing Food
Science
126 The microbiome The Diet Myth; The Good Gut; Missing Microbes and http://
www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/09/09/219381741/from-
birth-our-microbes-become-as-personal-as-a-fingerprint
126 Of all the chemicals found in food, the scariest are pesticides. The Food
Babe Way; Stuffed and Starved
126 These molecules are designed to kill and are deadly. What to Eat
126 The reasons given for permitting these deadly chemicals on crops are
https://www.epa.gov/safepestcontrol/food-and-pesticides
127 The theory used by regulatory agencies is that these chemicals pose a dan-
ger http://www.epa.gov/pesticide-science-and-assessing-pesticide-risks/revised-
methods-worker-risk-assessment
127 Critics suggest that pesticides are not always handled properly A Revolution
Down on the Farm
127 and that children who consume ‘conventional’ (nonorganic) produce test
positive Organic, Inc.
127 There are three main types of pesticides: A Revolution Down on the Farm
127 Biblical plagues of locusts are not just ancient history. Locust describes the
devastation and the 5 changes that affected American agriculture
127 natural chocolate may disappear in the next few decades The Emperors of
Chocolate
127 food scientists are working on artificial substitutes! Osborn and Akoh, 2002
127 Some of the controversial GMO crops have a built-in resistance A
Revolution Down on the Farm
127 Most processed food is likely to contain less pesticide than fresh food.
Keikotlhaile & others, 2010
127 Concentration of beverages such as juices removes water Food Processing
Technology
128 baking soda and sodium bicarbonate are different names for the same
chemical, Ingredients
128 All food additives must be approved by the FDA. http://www.fda.gov/food/
ingredientspackaginglabeling/gras/ucm083022.htm http://www.fda.gov/food/
ingredientspackaginglabeling/foodadditivesingredients/ucm094211.htm
128 no substance that has been found to cause cancer is to be added to food.
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Delaney+clause
128 in foods to make them safer, less likely to spoil, more nutritious and more
acceptable Food Processing Technology
226 Notes

128 preservatives are added to slow spoilage and decrease the chances
Chemistry of Food Additives and Preservatives
128 Sweeteners, natural and artificial, are added to improve a product’s
appeal. The Ultimate Guide to Sugars & Sweeteners
128 Commercial preparations go through further separation by additional
extraction Lemus-Mondaca & others, 2012
128 far from the standard of “as you find them in nature.” Food Rules; What
the Fork Are You Eating
128 artificial sweeteners arouse suspicion. http://www.fda.gov/Food/
IngredientsPackagingLabeling/FoodAdditivesIngredients/ucm397716.htm
128 Cyclamates were approved as artificial sweeteners in the 1960s. http://
w w w. c a n a d a . c o m / c i t y g u i d e s / h a m i l t o n / i n f o / s t o r y. h t m l ? i d =
de4d77a6-d926-45c2-8bc3-d61797d89cc0
128 An attempt to ban saccharin as a carcinogen later in the 1970s by FDA
http://enhs.umn.edu/current/saccharin/fda.html
129 A massive cleanup of food ingredients in both packaged http://www.food-
businessnews.net/articles/news_home/Regulatory_News/2014/08/Cleaning_
up_labels.aspx?ID={A53C024B-750E-4B58-9AB0-271D3E442447}
&cck=1
129 and restaurant foods took place in 2015, https://www.qsrmagazine.com/
reports/cleaning http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/04/01/mcdonalds-
cleaning-up-menu-adding-simple-ingredients-like-olive-oil/ http://www.fast-
casual.com/articles/panera-commits-to-clean-ingredients-by-2016/
129 Most foods and ingredients are teeming with living microbes that multiply
rapidly. Fundamental Food Microbiology
129 A frequent misconception is that spoiled food is unsafe food. Introducing
Food Science
129 Enzymes comprise a whole class of chemicals in living organisms Fennema’s
Food Chemistry
130 Microbes are the number one spoilage agents of fresh and processed food.
Food Microbiology; Introducing Food Science
130 oxidation is a complex process resulting from the production of rogue
forms of oxygen. JaeHwan & Min, 2006; Liochev, 2013; Shewfelt & Erickson,
1991
130 One of the main reasons that foods are processed Food Processing
Technology; Introducing Food Science; The Good Gut
130 or treated with preservatives is to keep them from spoiling. Chemistry of
Food Additives and Preservatives
130 Few foods are sterile (absent of any living microbes). Introducing Food
Science
130 submitted a manuscript to the Journal of Food Quality Brackett, 1989
131 Spoiled food looks bad, smells bad, tastes bad, or feels slimy in the mouth.
Introducing Food Science
131 Millions of Americans become poisoned by their food each year http://
www.foodsafety.gov/news/fsma.html
Notes 227

131 Food safety is the most important mission of food science. Food
Microbiology; Fundamental Food Microbiology
131 A recent textbook on food microbiology Fundamental Food Microbiology
131 Fresh foods are not usually the safest foods. Introducing Food Science
131 answering nature’s call. In Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies, the author, who
worked as a fruit picker, indicates that most of the workers in the field were not
allowed to go to the restroom unless on break.
131 The fastest acting microbe is Staphylococcus aureus. http://www.cdc.gov/
foodsafety/diseases/staphylococcal.html
131 Many other organisms do not exhibit symptoms for at least 12 hours Food
Microbiology
131 The illness was traced to a chicken, sausage and rice dish. http://www.cdc.
gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6250a2.htm
131 In contrast, an E. coli outbreak did not develop until 1-2 weeks http://www.
cdc.gov/ecoli/2015/O26-11-15/index.html
132 cross-contamination was associated with an outbreak of Listeria monocy-
togenes http://www.cdc.gov/listeria/outbreaks/cheese-09-12/advice-
consumers.html
132 symptoms of listeriosis include fever, headache, confusion and convulsions
http://www.cdc.gov/listeria/definition.html
132 classic symptoms of botulism include blurred or double vision, slurred
speech, http://www.cdc.gov/botulism/symptoms.html
132 canned, hot-dog chili sauce was responsible for a serious botulism out-
break http://www.cdc.gov/botulism/botulism.htm
132 and a potential death. http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/title/botulism-
death-reported-in-new-mexico-possibly-tied-to-castleberrys-food-company-
recall-earlier-this-summer
132 led to the closing down of the plant that employed 330 people. http://www.
thestar.com/business/2008/03/12/connors_closes_plant_in_georgia.html
132 some species can survive under unfavorable conditions. The Microbiological
Safety of Low Water Activity Foods and Spices
132 Peanut butter and related products were blamed for over 700 illnesses and
9 deaths http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/2009/peanut-butter-2008-2009.html
132 There are two major ways microbes in foods poison us. Introducing Food
Science
133 Food processors decrease the chances of food poisoning Food Processing
Technology; Introducing Food Science
133 include adding preservatives (salt, sugar, sorbates, etc.) Chemistry of Food
Additives and Preservatives
133 or adding microbes that will outcompete harmful or spoilage organisms
Food Microbiology; Fundamental Food Microbiology
133 Whether in popular songs The Real Slim Shady
133 A restaurant kitchen at peak service is a pressure-driven, sometimes
chaotic workplace. The American Way of Eating; Kitchen Nightmares
228 Notes

133 Guidelines for proper sanitation practices are widely understood and
posted. Food Microbiology; Fundamental Food Microbiology
133 became victim of inadequate testing of its ingredients http://www.cdc.gov/
ecoli/2015/O26-11-15/index.html ; http://www.health.state.mn.us/news/press-
rel/2015/salmonella091615.html ; http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/
ct-chipotle-fresh-ingredients-e-coli-20151208-story.html
134 Food scientists watch self-serve food bars with a mixture of amusement
and horror. Personal observations when eating at such establishments
134 Turkey and dressing at a country club buffet was identified as the culprit
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00000825.htm
134 there was a very famous outbreak that was intentional, http://www.cdc.
gov/phlp/docs/forensic_epidemiology/Additional%20Materials/Articles/
Torok%20et%20al.pdf
134 A study compared restaurants that had outbreaks with those operations
http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehs/ehsnet/plain_language/differences-restaurants-
linked-to-outbreaks.htm
134 The most common form of viral food poisoning is associated with the nor-
ovirus. http://www.cdc.gov/norovirus/food-handlers/work-with-food.html
134 the person responsible for one may not be responsible for the other. http://
www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehs/ehsnet/plain_language/differences-restaurants-linked-
to-outbreaks.htm
135 the grade sheets only give a snapshot of the conditions within the restau-
rant. Introducing Food Science
135 inspectors went into private homes to see how they did. http://www.food-
safetymagazine.com/magazine-archive1/aprilmay-2001/audits-
international-2000-home-food-safety-study/
135 The volunteer loved her experience in Nepal as quoted from It Takes a
Village by Hillary Clinton
135 Municipalities in the USA are primarily responsible for the water supply.
http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/public/water_treatment.
html#community
135 Notable exceptions include lead in the water of Flint, Michigan, http://
www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/michigan-fails-hand-out-bottled-
water-lead-poisoned-flint-n493001
135 and parasites in Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s supply. http://www.cdc.gov/
mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00040818.htm
135 Diseases associated with diarrhea are the seventh leading cause of death in
the world, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs310/en/
135 but they do not rank in the top fifteen in the USA. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/
data/nvsr/nvsr64/nvsr64_02.pdf
135 processed food is less likely than fresh, whole foods to cause illness Food
Processing Technology although such statements are called into question in
Swallow This
135 10 were either fresh or raw http://www.health.com/health/gallery/
0,,20310810_15,00.html
Notes 229

135 The soft cheeses listed are the ones most likely to be prepared and sold as
artisan cheeses. http://www.artisanalcheese.com/collections/soft-cheeses
136 The CDC highlighted 10 outbreaks at the end of the calendar year http://
www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/outbreaks/multistate-outbreaks/outbreaks-list.html
136 which implicated chicken entrées, http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/frozen-
chicken-entrees-07-15/index.html ; http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/frozen-
chicken-entrees-part2-07-15/index.html
136 cucumbers, http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/poona-09-15/index.html
136 ice cream, http://www.cdc.gov/listeria/outbreaks/ice-cream-03-15/index.html
136 unidentified ingredients from a Mexican grill, http://www.cdc.gov/
ecoli/2015/o26-11-15/index.html
136 nut butters, http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/paratyphi-b-12-15/index.html
136 pork, http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/pork-08-15/index.html
136 rotisserie chicken salad, http://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2015/o157h7-11-15/
index.html
136 soft cheeses, http://www.cdc.gov/listeria/outbreaks/soft-cheeses-09-15/index.
html
136 tuna http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/paratyphi-b-05-15/index.html
136 and an unknown product. http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/cyclosporiasis/out-
breaks/2015/index.html
136 E. coli outbreaks which were classified as toxicoinfections, Food
Microbiology
136 Listeria monocytogenes generally infects the immunocompromised http://
www.cdc.gov/listeria/risk.html
136 There were concerns about cross-contamination http://www.cdc.gov/sal-
monella/poona-09-15/index.html
136 there may have been many who were victims of these outbreaks but who
did not report Introducing Food Science
136 There appear to be numerous cases, particularly in homes, http://www.cdc.
gov/HealthyHomes/ByTopic/FoodSafety.html
136 the number of illnesses and deaths due to food poisoning may be greatly
exaggerated Swallow This
137 the rotisserie chicken salad may have been due to contaminated celery.
http://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2015/o157h7-11-15/index.html
137 Cyclospora outbreak might have been contaminated fresh fruits and vegeta-
bles. http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/cyclosporiasis/outbreaks/2015/index.html
137 It sees five major challenges to improving food safety in the USA: http://
www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/challenges/index.html
137 Recommended procedures for handling foods at home include http://www.
fightbac.org/food-safety-basics/the-core-four-practices/
137 uncommon, contaminated ingredients such as artisan cheeses, http://
wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/16/1/09-1155_article
137 chia seeds, http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/newport-05-14/index.html
137 sprouted nut butters http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/paratyphi-b-12-15/
index.html
230 Notes

137 and tahini paste. http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/montevideo-tahini-05-13/

137 An area of intrigue about food, microbes and our bodies is the microbi-
ome. The Diet Myth; Good Gut; Gut; Missing Microbes
137 News stories proclaim that up to 90 % of the cells in our bodies are the
microbes http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-but-true-humans-
carry-more-bacterial-cells-than-human-ones/
137 As much of 3 % of what we weigh may be microbes and body waste. http://
w w w. n i h . g o v / n e w s - e v e n t s / n e w s - r e l e a s e s / n i h - h u m a n -
microbiome-project-defines-normal-bacterial-makeup-body
137 Miracle weight-loss diets promise immediate results by purging our intes-
tines,http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/fitness/weight-loss/taking-laxatives-
to-lose-weight-9-possible-consequences.html
137 The science exploring the inner space within our guts is a dynamic area of
study. The Diet Myth; Missing Microbes
139 prevention of autism, breast and stomach cancer, celiac disease, The Diet
Myth; The Good Gut; Missing Microbes
139 The true benefits to gut health involve the ability of beneficial microbes to
survive The Diet Myth; The Good Gut; Fundamental Food Microbiology;
Missing Microbes
139 the proliferation of products containing probiotics or prebiotics. Ceapa &
others, 2013; The Diet Myth; The Good Gut
139 Probiotics are microbes that enhance gut health The Diet Myth; Fundamental
Food Microbiology; Missing Microbes; http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-
and-supplements/nutrition-vitamins-11/probiotics
139 produced in large amounts by Big Food Food Processing Technology
139 or in much smaller batches in the home. Cooked
139 Large food companies maintain careful control over their microbial cul-
tures Food Processing Technology
139 Home practitioners, on the other hand, may be less rigorous in the control
Cooked
139 Examples of prebiotics that feed desirable probiotics include The Good
Gut; Ceapa & others, 2013
139 Dietary fiber in fruits, vegetables and their products are good sources of
prebiotics. The Diet Myth; The Good Gut
139 Formulated food products are being marketed that contain synbiotics
Ceapa & others 2013; The Good Gut; Fundamental Food Microbiology
139 Small changes in a diet, however, are unlikely to make major changes The
Diet Myth; The Good Gut
139 Consumption of antibiotics destroys much of the microbial population in
the gut. The Diet Myth; The Good Gut; Gut; Missing Microbes
139 share a concern about the overuse of antibiotics. The Diet Myth; Missing
Microbes
139 discovered in early-to mid-1900s, prolong the lives of many humans, The
Good Gut; Missing Microbes
Notes 231

139 but their expansion into production agriculture raises concerns. The Diet
Myth; Food Microbiology; The Good Gut; Just Food; Missing Microbes
139 contained antibiotic-resistant strains of Salmonella http://www.cdc.gov/
salmonella/pork-08-15/index.html; http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/frozen-
chicken-entrees-07-15/index.html
139 hospital infections by such MRSA The Good Gut; Missing Microbes
140 the microbial makeup of the gut and may even increase our chances of
becoming obese. Kovatcheva-Datchary & Arora, 2013; The Diet Myth; The
Good Gut
140 fecal transplants have captured the imagination of the American public.
The Good Gut; Gut
140 A fecal transplant is one in which the intestinal contents of a person Vrieze
& others, 2013
140 The gross reaction, tinged with fear, is that the contents from someone
else’s excrement The Good Gut
140 It is estimated that 14,000 Americans die each year from a C. difficile infec-
tion, The Good Gut and http://www.cdc.gov/hai/pdfs/cdiff/CDiff-One-Pager.pdf
140 almost five times the number of people who die each year from food poi-
soning. http://www.foodsafety.gov/news/fsma.html
140 An alternative solution to fecal transplants include banking one’s own
feces, The Good Gut
140 The discussion on food safety appears to be one of the fear of chemicals In
Defense of Food; The Food Babe Way; Swallow This; What the Fork are You
Eating
140 or the fear of dangerous microbes. Food Microbiology; Food Processing
Technology; Fundamental Food Microbiology; Introducing Food Science
140 CDC documents numerous cases each year http://www.cdc.gov/foodborne-
burden/index.html
140 The number of illnesses and deaths blamed on chemicals in foods http://
www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6351a2.htm
140 primarily due to seafood toxins. http://www.cdc.gov/nczved/divisions/
dfbmd/diseases/marine_toxins/
140 The evidence for the dangers of chemicals in our food is weak, American
Agriculture in the Twentieth Century; Food Microbiology; Fundamental Food
Microbiology; How Risky is it Really
140 massive outbreaks are now primarily from raw or fresh foods http://www.
cdc.gov/foodsafety/outbreaks/multistate-outbreaks/outbreaks-list.html
140 Food processing, primarily those operations that involve heat, Food
Microbiology; Food Processing Technology
141 prevent the economic consequences of a major outbreak and accompany-
ing recall. Alexandru, 2013
141 to purchase only processed or pre-prepared ingredients Swallow This
141 Eating cleaner is advocated by pundits who believe that chemical ingredi-
ents Eating Clean for Dummies
232 Notes

141 Living dirtier is advocated by writers who believe that Americans are
over-cautious The Diet Myth; The Good Gut
141 dramatic decrease in death rates due to diarrhea and related intestinal
diseases http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/lead1900_98.pdf
141 as few as 100 individual cells of E. coli O157:H7 can induce a serious toxi-
coinfection Food Microbiology
Chapter 9: How Can We Eat More Sustainably to Save the Earth for Our
Children and Grandchildren?
143 In the imaginary land of Utrophia as quoted from Waste. Tristram Stuart is a
freelance writer who is skeptical of the industrialized food system. He has also
written Bloodless Revolution about the history of vegetarianism.
143 I happened to attend a closed-door meeting of the heads of sustainability
as quoted from What Should We be Worried About? In a chapter called “Our
Blind Spots.” Daniel Goleman is a psychologist and science writer who spe-
cializes in books on leadership. Ecological Intelligence is among the numerous
books he has written.
143 The pessimistic view warns us that if we do not make dramatic changes
World on the Edge
143 A more optimistic perspective points to further reliance on technology
Global Food Futures
143 Two middle paths have been advanced that suggest that nations will con-
tinue 2052; Global Food Futures
144 the earth has gained almost three billion people http://populationpyramid.
net/world/1982/ http://populationpyramid.net/worl/2016/
144 obesity has replaced hunger as the major health concern around the
world. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/
144 despite a slowing of population growth, we will probably add another two
billion people 2052; Global Food Futures
144 The key concept is working towards a sustainable system Introducing Food
Science; Just Food; A Revolution Down on the Farm
144 The most obvious solution is to buy organic products when we can. The
Food Babe Way; The Plant Plus Diet Solution; SuperFoods Rx; What the Fork
are You Eating
144 Organic principles involve stewardship of the earth and its resources. Just
Food; Organic, Inc.; The Unsettling of America
145 Organic foods are produced without the benefit of synthetic fertilizers,
http://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/organic/labeling
145 Prophets of the organic movement like J.I. Rodale and Wendell Berry Just
Food; A Revolution Down on the Farm
145 moving from Small Organic to Big Organic. Omnivore’s Dilemma; Organic,
Inc.
145 the USDA developed a certification program Organic, Inc.; What the Fork
are You Eating
145 Many dedicated growers were squeezed out of the market Organic, Inc.
Notes 233

145 Critics have suggested that the organic movement has become too dog-
matic The Food Police; Organic, Inc.; A Revolution Down on the Farm
145 decrease the amount of food available to consumers in poorer regions of
Africa. Food Politics; Global Food Futures
145 Many organic crops have lower yields thus requiring more land, Global
Food Futures; Organic, Inc.
145 The field-to-market program of the Keystone Center proposes that https://
www.fieldtomarket.org/news/tag/keystone-center/
145 These approaches, however, raise concerns about the size of organic oper-
ations. Organic, Inc.
145 chains like Whole Foods also prefer selling organic items when possible.
Conscious Capitalism
145 Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm has been featured in books and movies. Food
Inc.; Omnivore’s Dilemma
146 A class at Columbia University sketched out conceptual vertical farms The
Vertical Farm
146 Waste materials from one operation become the starting material for
another operation Cradle to Cradle
146 Such ideas emphasize self-sufficiency and efficient use of resources.
Organic, Inc.
146 benefits of organic food to the environment are much clearer than their
benefits to health, Organic, Inc.; What to Eat
146 Many organic products are processed Organic, Inc.
146 should be less concerned about organic certification A Revolution Down on
the Farm; What to Eat
146 Truly fresh foods picked or prepared at peak quality are more flavorful
The Food Police; Fresh; Swallow This
146 and more nutritious for a short period of time Understanding Nutrition
146 it takes time and effort to get them from the farm to the consumer.
Postharvest Handling
146 Those compounds are produced from a series of chemical reactions Fruit
Flavors
147 Unfortunately, freshly caught fish start to smell bad quickly. Fresh
147 molecules such as trimethylamine and oxidized fats Stamatis & Arkoudelos,
2007
147 Local food involves small scale transport that may not be as efficient
Ecological Intelligence
147 like tomatoes, bananas or other tropical fruits is sensitive to chilling tem-
peratures, Postharvest Handling
147 Some operations pick at night when the plants are cool, Postharvest
Technology of Horticultural Crops
147 Cooling is done to remove the heat from the field and slow down the heat
generated Postharvest Technology of Horticultural Crops
147 how much impact a product has on the environment is called Life Cycle
Assessment (LCA) Ecological Intelligence; Introducing Food Science
234 Notes

147 twelve different ways not included in the list are acidification, human toxicity,
ionizing radiation, ozone depletion or formation, and mineral depletion.
147 Food miles are not an accurate reflection of the impact of a food on its
environment. Ecological Intelligence; Introducing Food Science
147 an assessment of a gallon of milk Miller & Wang, 2013
148 There are many reasons that processed food is packaged. Introducing Food
Science
148 Documentary movies have introduced us to the North Pacific Gyre, Are
You Eating Plastic for Dinner; Bag It; see also Garbology
148 Major problems occur in areas where the wind and water circulation is
minimal Howell & others, 2012
148 Plastic materials are of greatest concern Cole & others, 2011; Derraik, 2002
148 Most of the plastic polluting the oceans comes from waste pellets Cole &
others, 2011
148 and ships dumping their trash in the water. Derraik, 2002
148 Other sources of plastic pollution come from fishing and tourist activities.
Cole & others, 2011
148 Oceans are not the only marine environment polluted by plastics Driedger
& others, 2015
148 There are two major ways to recycle: Garbology
148 Very little of recovered materials are reused directly, Cradle to Cradle;
Ecological Intelligence; Garbology
148 Recycling programs only work if there is a market for recycled materials.
Garbology
149 Downcycling does not really eliminate waste, Cradle to Cradle
149 Food engineers reduce packaging by using less material, called “source
reduction.” Introducing Food Science
149 SodaStream introduced a way to eliminate soft-drink containers http://
www.sodastream.com/ Soda Politics
149 Bringing reusable bags to the market as an alternative to “paper or plas-
tic” Garbology
149 Canvas bags that are reused several times without washing http://www.
chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/health/sns-green-bacteria-in-shopping-bags-
story.html
149 the gains are at the expense of unacceptable treatment of the company’s
workers. http://www.globalexchange.org/economicactivism/sodastream/why
http://972mag.com/when-the-media-isnt-looking-how-sodastream-
really-treats-its-workers/94215/
149 waste prevention activities such as bottle refilling and reuse of plastic
materials Cleary, 2014; Bottled & Sold
149 The carbon footprint of kiwifruit grown in New Zealand Robertson & oth-
ers, 2014
149 food waste makes a bigger impact on our environment. Gustavsson & oth-
ers, 2011; Waste
Notes 235

150 such as the obnoxiously loud Sun Chip bags http://www.care2.com/causes/

frito-lay-dumps-their-eco-bag-it-s-just-too-loud.html
150 Even then those bags did not biodegrade in any reasonable time. Garbology
150 biodegradable pizza box as highlighted in a YouTube video. http://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=gQBjJjpkjl0
150 even more by what we do not see. Ecological Intelligence
150 we waste food because we buy food that we don’t get around to preparing
and eating. Gustavsson & others, 2011; Waste
150 Poorer countries tend to lose more food before the food even gets to mar-
ket Gustavsson & others, 2011; Postharvest Handling; Waste
151 I heard an interesting story from an experienced colleague. Malcolm
Bourne of Cornell University https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/han-
dle/1813/35452/980806_Bourne_Honored.pdf?sequence=1
151 Fresh, whole foods are more likely to rot before they are eaten than pro-
cessed foods. Food Processing Technology; Introducing Food Science; Waste
151 Packaging helps prevent contamination thus decreasing food waste. Waste
151 A major controversy swarms around expiration dates. The Diet Myth;
Waste; What the Fork Are You Eating
151 place an expiration date on most products to help ensure that the food will
not rot The Diet Myth; Introducing Food Science; Waste; What the Fork Are
You Eating
151 ultra-pasteurized milk will last long past its expiration date, as explained at
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/experts-organic-milk-lasts-longer/
151 a spoiled food is not necessarily an unsafe one Food Microbiology;
Fundamental Food Microbiology; Introducing Food Science; What the Fork
Are You Eating
152 Packages that were too big, packages that were difficult to empty Williams
& others, 2012
152 depended on whether or not food waste was taken into consideration.
Wikstrom & others, 2014
152 Daniel Goleman suggests we need “radical transparency” for every prod-
uct Ecological Intelligence
152 there are sites such as GoodGuide which rates thousands of food products
http://www.goodguide.com/
152 from the Sustainability Consortium https://www.sustainabilityconsortium.
org/
152 Various organizations provide certifications of food products. http://www.
goodguide.com/
152 “greenwash” their products by pointing out one particular benefit to the
environment Ecological Intelligence; Introducing Food Science
152 statements that highlight a specific selling point Introducing Food Science
153 we tend to give more credibility to the claims of Small Food than the
claims of Big Food, Omnivore’s Dilemma; Organic. Inc.
153 To stay in business any company must be economically sustainable.
Conscious Capitalism; The Food Police
236 Notes

153 may then compromise its ability to maintain its high environmental stan-
dards. Organic. Inc.
153 Large mega-food companies may actually have more specific data
http://wamu.org/programs/morning_edition/15/11/30/as_big_food_feels_
threat_of_climate_change_companies_speak_up
153 Businesses looking out for their bottom line in the future have incentives
Conscious Capitalism
153 The Health scores are based on certifications by various organizations and
the RRR http://www.goodguide.com/
153 A reduction from 11 grams of sugar in regular Frosted Flakes of sugar to
8 grams based on my calculations of the two items as listed at http://www.
goodguide.com/
153 meat substitutes showed that those made from soy or insects Smetana &
others, 2015
154 irrigation-water requirements for growing melons are much higher in cer-
tain months deFigueredo & others, 2014
154 imported apples, beef and potatoes contributed to more global warming
Webb & others, 2013
154 Organic milk in Sweden requires twice the amount of land as nonorganic
milk, Mueller & others, 2014
154 If we are to be players in nudging companies to be better corporate citi-
zens, Ecological Intelligence
154 The food of the American diet that has the greatest impact on the environ-
ment is meat. 2052; Conscious Capitalism; The Food Babe Way; Food
Politics; Global Food Futures; Understanding Nutrition
154 In calculating personal grain footprints World on the Edge
154 Not all cropland is suitable, however, for fruits, vegetables, nuts or grains.
The Food Police; Global Food Futures; Organic, Inc.
154 Grass-fed beef and is more sustainable than its grain-fed alternative.
Conscious Capitalism; In Defense of Food; Just Food; Organic, Inc.; What the
Fork Are You Eating
154 Cows also contribute to global warming by expelling methane, 2052;
Conscious Capitalism; Ecological Intelligence; Just Food
154 Raising cattle on pasture land is considered to be more humane than in
feedlots, Conscious Capitalism; The Dorito Effect; Fresh; The Food Babe
Way; Just Food; Omnivore’s Dilemma; Organic, Inc.; What the Fork Are You
Eating
154 those animals kept in pastures are more vulnerable to bad weather. http://
www.care2.com/causes/100000-cows-freeze-to-death-in-freak-record-
breaking-snowstorm.html
154 Modern animal breeding has made great strides in leaner meat The Dorito
Effect
154 cage-free eggs are being demanded by customers in American restau-
rants. The Food Babe Way
Notes 237

154 Major chains that prepare breakfasts are responding. http://www.huffing-

tonpost.com/entry/restaurants-cage-free- eggs_us_566f0497e4b011b83a6
bfb02
154 cows that provide us with organic milk Omnivore’s Dilemma
154 cage-free chickens may not be as well off as we envision. http://localfoods.
about.com/od/localfoodsglossary/g/Definition-Of-Cage-Free.htm; http://
w w w. h u ff i n g t o n p o s t . c o m / 2 0 1 3 / 0 3 / 1 2 / s t o r y - o f - a n - e g g - f i l m _ n _
2862282.html
155 There are many nutritional benefits we can obtain by cutting back on
meat. Conscious Capitalism; In Defense of Food; The Food Babe Way;
Understanding Nutrition
155 Both cured and grilled meats, organic or not, also contain carcinogens.
The Food Babe Way; Understanding Nutrition; What the Fork Are You Eating
155 Less meat in the diet is even better if we increase our level of fruits and
vegetables. American Dietetic Association Complete Food & Nutrition Guide;
Conscious Capitalism; The Food Babe Way; Understanding Nutrition
155 The health downside of cutting the amount of meat in our diets American
Dietetic Association Complete Food & Nutrition Guide; Understanding
Nutrition
155 Most Americans who eat some animal products consume more protein
than they need. Rethinking Thin; Understanding Nutrition
155 A proper mix of grains and beans can also provide balanced protein.
American Dietetic Association Complete Food & Nutrition Guide;
Understanding Nutrition
155 MyPlate recommends a healthy mixture of fruits and vegetables of differ-
ent colors Good Housekeeping Supermarket Diet; http://www.choosemyplate.
gov/
155 Dieticians and nutritionists suggest limiting a portion of meat at a meal
American Dietetic Association Complete Food & Nutrition Guide;
Understanding Nutrition
155 Meatless Mondays What the Fork Are You Eating
155 consumption of meat only on weekends http://www.ted.com/talks/
graham_hill_weekday_vegetarian
155 A concerted effort by grocery shoppers and restaurant customers in richer
countries Food Politics
155 as poorer countries gain wealth, their people tend to eat more meat. 2052;
Food Politics; Global Food Futures; Just Food; Organic, Inc.; World on the
Edge
155 much more expensive to cover the hidden ecological costs Cradle to Cradle;
Ecological Intelligence
155 residents of rich countries who are becoming overweight and obese is lev-
elling off, Thomas & others, 2014
238 Notes

156 Most people given a chance to help the planet will if their actions are rela-
tively painless, Cradle to Cradle; Ecological Intelligence; Garbology
156 Rather, greenwashing is Big Food’s most profitable alternative. Ecological
Intelligence
156 We may be reaching a major tipping point in personal behavior World on
the Edge
156 hold our government and food companies, Cradle to Cradle; Ecological
Intelligence
156 the pessimist suggests that we will either not be around World on the Edge
156 individual changes in lifestyle will not be enough to save the planet. Cradle
to Cradle; Ecological Intelligence
156 The pessimist has been pessimistic about the consequences of our ways
The Twenty-Ninth Day
156 The consequences of failing to meet these goals 2052; Global Food Futures
157 The optimistic perspective depends on increased food production, sum-
marized in Global Food Futures based on a presentation by Kenneth Wiebe
from the FAO
157 One way to improve the economic status of the impoverished is through
microfinance. A Fistful of Rice
157 This author also has a history of looking at the future of food and the envi-
ronment. Limits to Growth
158 there is also another middle view offered in Global Food Futures. This
entire paragraph summarizes main points advanced in the Conclusion of
Global Food Futures
158 emphasize the importance of embracing sustainability. 2052; Ecological
Intelligence; Food Politics; Global Food Futures; Organic, Inc.; A Revolution
Down on the Farm; World on the Edge
158 through LCA we can reduce the impact of products on the environment
Ecological Intelligence; Introducing Food Science
158 the active collaboration of scientists across many fields alongside con-
cerned citizens Global Food Futures
158 American society appears to be too polarized across ideological lines The
Big Sort; The Food Police
159 Going back to a less technological era The Unsettling of America; World on
Edge
159 does not seem to me to be realistic. 2052; Global Food Futures
159 Reliance on technology in the last century has pushed world population
further 2052
159 Technology has contributed to this global crisis 2052
159 Corporations talk about their triple bottom line Cradle to Cradle
159 will need to look more towards sustainability and worker/consumer wel-
fare Ecological Intelligence
159 humans do not always have the best interests of the earth in mind. Cradle
to Cradle; Ecological Intelligence; Garbology; The Twenty-Ninth Day; Waste;
World on the Edge
Notes 239

159 Nature does not always favor the best interests of humans 2052; Global
Food Futures
Chapter 10: Can Processed Food Be Part of a Responsible Diet?
161 There are two ways to slide easily through life as quoted from Manhood of
Humanity. Alfred Korzybski was considered as a developer of general seman-
tics and lived from 1879-1950. His most well-known work was Science and
Sanity.
161 There is almost no more urban a view of nature as quoted from Fraud.
David Rakoff was an American humorist and frequent contributor on NPR,
particularly on This American Life.
161 Americans live in a polarized society, The Big Sort
161 fewer things are more polarized than our thoughts and ideas about food.
Coffee is Bad Good for You; The Diet Myth; The Food Police; The Gluten Lie;
Health Food Junkies; How Risky is it, Really; Is Gweneth Paltrow Wrong about
Everything; Just Food; Obsessed; Rethinking Thin; Soda Politics
161 Bait and switch as mentioned in Chapter 3 with respect to Food Stamped
where the unemployed, pre-school teacher makes less-than-satisfactory food
choices, but the voice over commentary shows less healthy products to empha-
size the point.
161 At least one study has shown used in The Food-Babe Way, Soda Politics and
others to imply that the results of one study clearly substantiate their point of
view on a particular topic.
162 Pointing out the flaws without pointing out the benefits lists of foods and
ingredients to avoid are common such as the Top-Rated Terminators—what
you don’t want in your body in What the Fork Are You Eating
162 Pointing out the benefits without pointing out the flaws superfoods are
listed and described in Get a Real Food Life, Plant Plus Diet Solution, The
Sonoma Diet and SuperFoods Rx
162 All or nothing appears in many forms particularly in The Food-Babe-Way and
What the Fork Are You Eating
163 Selective use of terms like chemicals and molecules many sources disparage
chemicals such as In Defense of Food and Stuffed and Starved while the prime
example of the commending of molecules is in the term Molecular Gastronomy
163 What the (fill in the blank) won’t tell you Swallow This reveals dark secrets
that the food industry doesn’t want you to know except much information
about the food industry can be found in Food Processing Technology and
Introducing Food Science
163 Other fear factors include How Risky is It Really
163 attempts by authors to help us sort out the real risks in our food supply
Coffee is Bad Good for You; The Food Police; How Risky is It Really; Is
Gweneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything
163 we should be critical thinkers and not too quick to either believe or doubt
Manhood of Humanity
163 Every day we make up to 200 food choices, Mindless Eating
240 Notes

163 disposable coffee cups have about the same environmental impact Woods
and Bakshi, 2014
164 radical transparency as described in the previous chapter for products we
buy Ecological Intelligence
164 Plastic water bottles, particularly the ubiquitous, single-serving contain-
ers are overused Bottled & Sold
164 contribute to a growing mass of plastic in our landfills, Garbology
164 Food in a large, hot container cools down slowly allowing food pathogens
to grow http://www.fightbac.org/food-safety-basics/the-core-four-practices/
164 narrow food choices to a very few items. As advocated in Garbology
164 will probably be so restrictive leading to a diet American Dietetic Association
Complete Food & Nutrition Guide; The Diet Myth; Understanding Nutrition
164 fewer soda cans and bottles as Americans are cutting back on soft drinks
Soda Politics
164 increased consumption of bottled water. http://www.bottledwater.org/
bottled-water-sales-and-consumption-projected-increase-2014-expected-be-
number-one-packaged-drink
164 less than 5 % of fruits and 10 % of vegetables acres planted in the USA
http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/874175/eib98.pdf
164 many vegetables are grown on large farms that do not recover the inedible
parts http://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.cfm?number=C988
164 some of the most popular ones like iceberg lettuce http://www.scientificam-
erican.com/article/lettuce-produces-more-greenhouse-gas-emissions-than-
bacon-does/; http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/12/16/3732852/lettuce-
bacon-meat-vegetables-climate/
164 Too many Americans eat too few fruits, vegetables and nuts. American
Dietetic Association Complete Food & Nutrition Guide; The Diet Myth;
Understanding Nutrition
165 Meat and milk, proclaimed as real foods by some pundits Omnivore’s
Dilemma; Real Food
165 impact on the environment than formulated versions derived from soy.
Smetana & others, 2015
165 Toxicologists believe that the amount of a chemical present is important.
Chemical Food Safety
165 Environmental chemists are more likely to believe that synthetic mole-
cules Is It Safe?
165 An obsession with freshness of food Fresh; Swallow This
165 is one of our most unsustainable practices. Gustavsson & others, 2011;
Waste
165 An often ignored reason for cooking, packaging, and processing Food
Processing Technologies
165 in nations with a less modern infrastructure, the less food is wasted Waste;
Gustavsson & others, 2011
165 waste comes when fresh food does not sell soon enough Global Food Losses
and Food Waste; Waste; Gustavsson & others, 2011
Notes 241

165 the resources used to get that food to market are completely wasted Waste;
Gustavsson & others, 2011
165 trucking of live freshwater fish in tanks across a continent to ensure fresh-
ness Fresh
165 GoodGuide.com http://www.goodguide.com/
166 Food scientists worry about contaminated raw foods, cross-contamination
Food Microbiology; Fundamental Food Microbiology; Introducing Food Science
166 Cooking and processing kill microbes, but heat also destroys some of the
nutrients Food Processing Technologies
166 When describing processed food as being less nutritious than whole food
The Food Babe Way; Food Rules; Grain Brain; The Plant Plus Diet Solution;
Real Food; Salt Sugar Fat; Swallow This; What the Fork are You Eating; What
to Eat; Whole For an alternative view see The Gluten Lie
166 When suggesting that processed food is less safe than whole food The Food
Babe Way; Food Rules; Grain Brain; Real Food; Swallow This; What the Fork
are You Eating; Whole For an alternative view see The Gluten Lie
166 Food scientists generally believe that chemical ingredients make a product
more safe Food Microbiology; Food Processing Technologies; Fundamental
Food Microbiology; Introducing Food Science
166 Clean labels are a response to the growing fear of chemicals in food prod-
ucts. http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Suppliers2/The-trend-towards-natural-
antimicrobials-and-antioxidants/?utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_
medium=email&utm_campaign=31-Mar-2016&c=
a6X3XnZsCG93tfLUr2Yc3g%3D%3D&p2=
166 Big Food uses salt and sugar liberally primarily as an attractant The Food
Babe Way; Food Rules; Salt Sugar Fat; Soda Politics; Swallow This; What the
Fork are You Eating
166 but it also serves as protection from premature spoilage, Food Microbiology;
Fundamental Food Microbiology; Introducing Food Science
166 When describing the addictive properties of processed food, The End of
Overeating; The Food Babe Way; Food Rules; Grain Brain; The Plant Plus
Diet Solution; Real Food; Salt Sugar Fat; Swallow This; What the Fork are You
Eating; What to Eat; Whole
166 Big and Small Food are now using embalming spices, Food Microbiology;
Fundamental Food Microbiology
166 the active compound in many spices may also be toxic to humans such as
cinnamon http://www.chemicalland21.com/specialtychem/perchem/
CINNAMALDEHYDE.htm rosemary http://chemicalland21.com/specialty-
chem/nd/ROSMARINIC%20ACID.htm clove http://www.chemicalland21.
com/specialtychem/perchem/eugenol.htm oregano and thyme http://www.
chemicalland21.com/lifescience/phar/THYMOL.htm
166 Fresh food tends to be less safe than processed food. Food Microbiology;
Food Processing Technologies; Fundamental Food Microbiology; Introducing
Food Science
242 Notes

166 general belief that raw foods are pure and that the danger increases The
Food Babe Way; Food Rules; Real Food; Swallow This; What the Fork are You
Eating; What to Eat; Whole
166 While some practices from the farm to the processing plant to the table
Food Microbiology; Food Processing Technologies; Fundamental Food
Microbiology; Introducing Food Science
167 The ways food companies protect food from these microbes Food
Microbiology; Fundamental Food Microbiology; Food Processing Technology;
Introducing Food Science
167 Fruits, vegetables and whole grains provide essential vitamins and miner-
als, American Dietetic Association Complete Food & Nutrition Guide;
Understanding Nutrition
168 Processed foods such as yogurt and other fermented foods Fundamental
Food Microbiology; The Good Gut
168 Food pundits clearly come down on the side of the dangers of added chem-
icals The Food Babe Way; Food Rules; Swallow This; What the Fork are You
Eating
168 Other food pundits are more concerned about different chemicals Get a
Real Food Life; Salt Sugar Fat
168 Food scientists are much more concerned about the dangers of microbes
Food Microbiology; Fundamental Food Microbiology; Food Processing
Technology; Introducing Food Science
168 Big Food is mainly interested in selling as much food as possible Mindless
Eating; Soda Politics
168 There is little scientific evidence to suggest that natural vitamins and min-
erals Understanding Nutrition
168 there are also many items in the supermarket that are nutritious, enjoy-
able Good Housekeeping Supermarket Diet
168 Artificial colors and sweeteners as well as fat substitutes are controversial.
Coffee is Bad Good for You; The Food Babe Way; Food Rules; Swallow This;
Tasty; What the Fork are You Eating
168 As part of a pre-emptive strike, however, when wishing to maintain
American Dietetic Association Complete Food & Nutrition Guide;
Understanding Nutrition
168 Diabetics can also benefit from decreasing excess sugar and fat calories
American Dietetic Association Complete Food & Nutrition Guide; Diabesity;
Understanding Nutrition
168 Both time and temperature affect the loss of nutrients and rotting of fresh
foods. Food Microbiology; Fundamental Food Microbiology; Understanding
Nutrition
168 Refrigeration slows metabolism of fresh foods from plants or animals.
Fresh; Understanding Nutrition
168 Processing of foods in a manufacturing plant extends shelf life Food
Processing Technology; Introducing Food Science
169 Some members of the Big-Food community have been called out Salt Sugar
Fat
Notes 243

169 From the hundreds of compounds found in dark chocolate Chocolate

Science and Technology; The Science of Chocolate http://www.exploratorium.
edu/exploring/exploring_chocolate/choc_8.html
169 to the 57 or so chemicals in the aroma of ripe mangoes Vasugi & others,
2012
169 to the numerous minerals found in natural spring water, http://www.water-
encyclopedia.com/En-Ge/Fresh-Water-Natural-Composition-of.html
169 processed foods lower the molecular profile of our diets rather than rais-
ing it. The Dorito Effect
169 lessens our chances of becoming sick from natural toxins Introducing Food
Science
169 or pathogenic microbes. Food Microbiology; Fundamental Food Microbiology
169 we should be careful not to equate nature with purity or technology with
danger. Fraud
169 some chemicals evaporate, Fruit Flavors
169 other molecules react with neighboring molecules to form new chemical
compounds. Cooking for Geeks
169 the chemistry of the finished food which is directly responsible for its
color, flavor, Introducing Food Science
170 past the point of desirability and shipped to the local food pantry or soup
kitchen. Waste
170 Local is also a squishy term The Food Police
170 The longer a raw, uncooked item is held, the greater the chances Introducing
Food Science
170 Refrigeration can slow these natural, chemical reactions, but it cannot
stop them. Postharvest; Postharvest Biology
170 anyone who disagrees with them is either a pawn of Big Food or intellectu-
ally dishonest. Food and Addiction; Soda Politics; Stuffed and Starved For an
alternative view see The Gluten Lie
170 We are all chemically dependent. as described in Chapter 5, see also
Understanding Nutrition
170 only other compounds in food that have been suggested as addictive chem-
icals Avena, 2010
171 foods with clean labels actually have more chemicals. The Dorito Effect
171 microbiota-accessible carbohydrates, a special component of dietary fiber
The Good Gut
171 dietary fiber content is similar for unfresh and distant fruits and vegeta-
bles. Understanding Nutrition
171 diet with food from plants supposedly better for gut health than food from
animals. Rajilic-Stojanovic, 2013; The Diet Myth; The Good Gut; In Defense
of Food; The Plant Plus Diet Solution
171 scientific field looking at the microbiome is very new and these results are
tentative. The Diet Myth; Fundamental Food Microbiology; The Good Gut;
Gut; Missing Microbes
244 Notes

172 some susceptible people have an eating addiction Hebebrand & others,
2014; Werthman & others, 2015
172 Addiction is characterized by inability to consistently abstain, https://rog-
ershospital.org/blog/dsm-5-now-categorizes-substance-use-
disorders-single-continuum
172 Many sources suggest that too many calories is the main cause of obesity.
Allen & others, 2012; Ledoux & others, 2011; Newby, 2007; Sloboda & oth-
ers, 2014; Wolf & others, 2008; Soda Politics
172 losing weight is much more complicated than eliminating processed food
The Gluten Lie; Mindless Eating; Obesity; Obesity 101; Rethinking Thin
173 avoid very sweet fruits such as mangoes and bananas Grain Brain; The
Plant Plus Diet Solution
173 Soldiers in the field are not able to eat a freshly prepared meal http://nsr-
dec.natick.army.mil/media/fact/food/mre.pdf
173 Astronauts must carry with them supplies of processed food http://space-
flight.nasa.gov/shuttle/reference/factsheets/food.html
173 many relying on high-quality dehydrated food https://www.rei.com/c/food?
r=c&ir=category%3Afood&page=1
173 Natural disasters destroy the normal supply lines Humanitarian Logistics
173 Packaged food and bottled water are important in keeping victims http://
www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/michigan-fails-hand-out-bottled-
water-lead-poisoned-flint-n493001
173 Bottled water and high-energy biscuits can be airlifted to victims and aid
workers Ghosh, 2010
174 Inexpensive foods made from indigenous ingredients have been designed,
Bechman & others, 2014
174 nutritional status of children and pregnant women in parts of sub-Saharan
Africa. http://www.unicef.org/nutrition/index_faces-of-malnutrition.html
174 Napoleon started modern food processing by offering a prize Cuisine and
Culture
174 organic farming and subsistence farming are synonymous, Food Politics
174 too much of what is harvested rots before it can be eaten. Waste
174 appropriate technology that violates organic orthodoxy to increase yields
Global Food Futures; A Revolution Down on the Farm; The Twenty-Ninth Day
174 and simple handling techniques to slow rotting Food Politics; Waste
175 Liquid calories also contribute to our condition, and it is not just the
sodas. Wolf & others, 2008; Soda Politics.
175 Many food-pundit hedgehogs blame processed food for the obesity pan-
demic, Cavewomen Don’t Get Fat; Food and Addiction; The Food Babe Way;
Get a Real Food Life; Grain Brain; The Plant Plus Diet Solution; Real Food;
Salt Sugar Fat; Soda Politics; Swallow This; What the Fork are You Eating;
Whole For an alternative view see The Gluten Lie
175 the need for a completely different strategy to turn a fat person into a thin
one. Obesity; Obesity 101; Rethinking Thin
175 eating too many calories and burning too few of them American Dietetic
Association Complete Food & Nutrition Guide; Understanding Nutrition
Notes 245

175 Blaming the consumer has been an effective tool used by Big Food Soda
Politics
175 microbes in the gut, The Diet Myth; The Good Gut; Missing Microbes
175 difficulty of losing weight once it is put on, Obesity; Obesity 101; Rethinking
Thin
175 differences in personal set points, Keijr & others, 2014; Rethinking Thin
176 diets chosen by parents or caretakers from a fetus to a young adult, Marsh
& others, 2014; Melbye & others, 2013; Wisniewski & Chernausek, 2009;
Thompson & Bentley, 2013
176 the weight status of parents, Di Castelnuovo & others, 2009; Understanding
Nutrition
176 living in an upscale neighborhood or a food desert. www.ers.usda.gov/pub-
lications/ap/ap036
176 their prescriptions for healthy eating vary widely from one pundit to
another. Cavewomen Don’t Get Fat; The Diet Myth; The End of Overeating;
The Food Babe Way; The Food Police; Get a Real Food Life; The Gluten Lie;
The Good Gut; Grain Brain; NO More Heart Disease; The Plant Plus Diet
Solution; Real Food; Salt Sugar Fat; Soda Politics; SuperFoods Rx; Swallow
This; What the Fork are You Eating; What to Eat; Whole
176 Pundits readily use one or a few scientific studies to support their points of
view Cavewomen Don’t Get Fat; Cooked; The Diet Myth; The Food Babe Way;
Grain Brain; The Plant Plus Diet Solution; Real Food; Salt Sugar Fat; Soda
Politics; SuperFoods Rx; Swallow This; What the Fork are You Eating For the
dangers of such an approach see The Gluten Lie, particularly the description of
the annotation of The UNpacked Diet™
176 while tending to ignore the recommendations that come from nutrition
science. American Dietetic Association Complete Food & Nutrition Guide;
Understanding Nutrition http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015-
scientific-report/02-executive-summary.asp
176 Many products found in the middle aisles have low profit margins Yach,
2014; http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/datafile/mar-
gin.html
176 There are also many books by those skeptical of the pundits, Coffee is Bad
Good for You; The Diet Myth; The Food Police; Food Politics; The Gluten Lie;
Health Food Junkies; How Risky is it, Really; Is Gweneth Paltrow Wrong about
Everything; Just Food; Rethinking Thin; The Skeptical Environmentalist
176 current knowledge of food and nutrition is much less certain American
Dietetic Association Complete Food & Nutrition Guide; Understanding
Nutrition; What to Eat
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Videos, Songs, Radio Shows and Television Series

Are You Eating Plastic for Dinner? National Geographic Short Film Showcase, automation by
Andress Tanner.
Bag It: Is Your Life too Plastic? 2010. ReelThing Films, a film by Susan Beraza.
Downton Abbey. 2013. ITV & PBS, season 3, created and directed by Jullian Fellowes.
Farmageddon, 2011, Passion River, produced and directed by Kristin Canty
FatHead, 2009, Gravitas Ventures, directed by Tom Naughton
Father Knows Best, 1954-1960, CBS television series, directed by Peter Tewksbury
266 Bibliography

Food Chains, 2014, Screen Media, directed by Sanjay Rawal

Food, Inc., 2008, Magnolia Home Entertainment, directed by Robert Kenner
Food Stamped, 2010, Summit Pictures, directed by Shira and Yiav Potash
Frontier House, PBS, produced by Beth Hoppe and Simon Shaw
House of Sand and Fog, 2003, Warner Brothers, directed by Vadim Perelman
An Inconvenient Truth, 2006, Paramount Classics, directed by David Guggenheim
Kitchen Nightmares, 2007-2014, Fox Broadcasting, developed by David Kay
Leave It to Beaver, 1957-1963, CBS & ABC television series, created by Joe Connelly & Bob
Mosher
The Real Slim Shady, 2000, Aftermath, performed by Martin Mathers; written by Tommy Coster,
Mike Elizondo, Martin Mathers and Andre Young
Slow Food Story, 2013, Indigo Films, directed by Stephano Sardo
SuperSize Me, 2004, Sony, directed by Morgan Spurlock
This American Life, 1995-present, Public Radio Exchange, created by Ira Glass and Torrey Malatia
Vegas Vacation, 1997, Warner Brothers, directed by Stephen Kessler
Wild Tastes: Australia’s Indigenous Foods, 2013, ABC International, Films for the Humanities &
Sciences New York, N.Y.: Films Media Group.
Index

A Benzaldehyde, 57
Acetobacter, 79, 130 Benzopyrenes, 101, 116
Acri Gola movement, 49 Berries, 147
Acrylamide, 77, 116 Berry, W., 145
Acyloxyacyl hydrolase, 84 Better Living through Chemistry, 69
Added sugar, 112, 118 Beverages, 5–6, 67
Addiction free, 66 BHT. See Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT)
Alcohol, 6, 22, 36, 54, 57, 60–67, 74, 132, 175 Biblical plagues, 127
Alcoholics Anonymous, 65 Big Alcohol, 60, 66
Alcoholism, 60, 61, 64, 65 Big Food, 35, 51, 60, 66, 67, 89–91, 98, 111,
America, obesity crisis in 112, 117, 118, 121, 125, 126, 129,
beverages, 5–6 139, 140, 151, 153, 154, 158, 159,
dieting, 11–15 161, 163, 166, 168–170, 175, 176
eating too much, 4–5 claims, 54–56
exercise, 7–8 logistics of fresh, local food, 37–39
genetics, 8–9 Big Organic, 43, 145
role of fast food, 2–3 Big Tobacco, 66
willpower, 9–11 Binge-eating disorder, 62, 65
American Diet, 174–175 Bioavailability, 109, 116
American food distribution, 159 Bisphenol A (BPA), 78
American Medical Association, 11 Bliss point, 21
American society, food addiction, 65–67 Blythman, J., 35, 47
An Inconvenient Truth, 156 BMI, 1–3, 10, 11, 14
Anorexia, 10, 61, 62, 64, 65 Born-on dates, 40
Artificial vitamins, 114–115 Bouchard, C., 1, 2, 13
Assortative mating, 8 Boutique coffee consumption, 6
Avidin, 84 Brain scans, 56, 62
Azodicarbonamide, 77 Broccoli, 130
Brooks, D., 17, 19, 53, 59
Brzezinski, M., 1, 2, 15, 76
B Bulimia, 10, 61, 62, 64, 65
Bait and switch, 50, 85, 161 Bush, G.W., 13
Baker’s chocolate, 22, 25 Butyl butanoate, 84
Bananas, 146 Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), 24, 82, 84
Behavioral addictions, 53, 54, 64, 65 Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), 82, 84

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 267

R.L. Shewfelt, In Defense of Processed Food,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45394-1
268 Index

C materials, 69
Caffeine, 22, 24, 54, 63, 65, 67, 74, methyl cinnamate, 74
112, 170 methylpentyl acetate, 82–84
Cage-free eggs, 154 microbes, 79
Calories molecule, 71
from soft drinks, 5, 6 natural flavors and extracts, 73
sources, 15 natural foods, 73
Campylobacter, 31, 133 octenol, 74
Campylobacter jejuni, 131, 168 osteoporosis and anemia, 70
Canada, 128 powder, 74
Canned foods, 18, 110–112, 116 powders/liquids, 70
Canvas bags, 149 processed food, 73
Carbohydrates, 114 products, 76
Carrots, 150 protein, 70
Carter, J., 13 risks and benefits, 76
Case-ready meats, 38 semicarbazide, 77
Cathepsin, 84 sodium and potassium benzoates, 80
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition sodium and potassium sorbates, 80
(CFSAN), 75 substance abuse, 70
Center for Science in the Public Interest thalidomide, 76
(CSPI), 75, 77 thiamine hydrochloride, 74
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention trans fatty acid, 76
(CDC), 29, 32, 49, 136, 137 water (H2O), 70
Cheese, 100–102 whole grains, 74
Chemical ingredients, 125–127, 141 Chinese Restaurant Syndrome, 62
calcium propionate, 73 Chocolate manufacturing process, 23
hydroxy methoxy benzaldehyde, 72 Chocolate products, 22
organic product, 72 Chocolate-Chip, 58
raisin juice concentrate, 73 Cholesterol, 111, 114
soy lecithin and PGPR, 72 Cinnamaldehyde, 79
types, 71 Clean labels, 24, 37, 80, 84, 86, 126, 159, 166,
Whole Foods Market, 72 171, 176
Chemical-free, 43 CLEAN, SEPARATE, COOK and CHILL,
Chemicalization, 90, 91 137, 138
Chemically dependent, 170 Cleanliness, 134
Chemicals, food Clinical addictions, 53
acrylamide, 77, 116 Clostridium botulinum, 132, 168
autism research, 77 Clostridium difficile, 140
azodicarbonamide, 77 Cocaine, 54, 55, 60, 63–66
Better Living through Chemistry, 69 Codeine, 54
chemical extraction, 73 Collman, J.P., 125
cinnamaldehyde, 79 Conkin, P.K., 125
compounds, 74 Cookie-Dough Ice Cream, 58
consumer friendly products, 80–82 Cooking, 95–99, 103
dichloromethoxybenzaldehyde, 74 Craving, 56–59, 62–64
enzymes, 26–28, 71, 84, 103, 130, 146 Cross-contamination, 132–136, 149
exotic flavors, 74 Cuminaldehyde, 79
fatty acids, 70 Cyclamates, 128
fermentations, 80 Cyclospora, 136, 137
food processing, 79 Cytokines, 84
food pundits, 75
fruits and vegetables, 70
hydrochloric acid, 70 D
ideology fuels, 76 Debaryomyces, 130
label, 77–78 Detox diets, 90
Index 269

Diabetes, 1, 15 craving or pleasure, 56–58

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental drug problem, 54–56
Disorders (DSM-5), 64, 65, 172 eating disorders, 61–62
Dielectric heating, 108 in American society, 65–67
Diet, 167 temptation and enticing advertisements,
American diet, 174–175 58–59
food pundits, 175 Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous, 65
slogans and rules are not to develop Food additives, 24–25, 128–129
healthy, 169–170 direct, 128
Diet fads, 90 uses, 128
Diet sodas, 94, 113 Food Additives Amendment, 128
Dietary fiber, 109, 114, 115, 121, 171 Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 24,
Dietary guidelines, 100, 102, 112, 113, 118, 75–77, 128–129
122, 176 Food chains, 41, 48, 51
Dieting, 11–15 Food cooked by machines, 97–98
Direct additives, 24 Food deserts, 4, 46, 49, 59–61, 176
Dopamine, 63 Food engineers, 149
Downcycling, 149 Food Fantasyland, 105
Drug addiction, 53–56, 60, 61, 63, 65 Food fortification, 107, 108, 114, 115
Food industry, 51, 107
Food inspectors, 135
E Food Issues and Challenges, 144, 159
E. coli, 31, 125, 131, 133, 136, 141, 168 Food microbes, 125–127, 129–135, 137,
Eat Clean Live Dirty, 73, 141 139–141
Eat Fresh, 146–147 Food microbiology, 166
Eat sustainably, 163–165 Food miles, 147, 158
Eating addiction, 64–66, 171, 172 Food outbreaks, 29–30
Eating disorders, 61–62 Food packaging, 148, 149
Eating sustainably, 158–160 Food pathogens, 131–133
Eggs, 100–102 Food poisoning, 29–30, 131, 134, 136, 140
Enticing advertisements, 58–59 Food policy councils, 15
Environmental chemists, 165 Food processing, 27, 31, 140, 151, 169, 174
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 82 improves safety of foods, 165–167
Environmental triggers, 8 Food processors, 133
Enzymes, 109, 114, 115, 117, 129 Food products, 128–129
Erwinia, 130 Food pundits, 19, 25, 26, 28, 32–34, 89–91,
Ethnic foods, 59 95, 111, 115, 118, 121, 125, 126,
Exercise, 7–8, 10–12, 15 129, 139, 140, 145, 161, 162, 166,
Expiration dates, 31–32, 40, 41, 47, 150–151 168, 170, 171, 175, 176
Food Quality Protection Act, 128
Food rules, 104
F Food safety, 125, 126, 131, 137–141
Farmers markets, 38, 39, 43, 44, 46, 47, 50 Food scientists, 129, 134, 139, 161, 163,
Fast food, 2–4, 13, 119, 123 166, 176
Fat gene, 8 Food Stamped, 41, 42, 50
FDA, 128, 129 Food supply, 135
Fecal transplants, 140 breakfast, 84
Fermentations, 108, 126, 133, 139, 165 butyl butanoate, 84
FIFO (First In, First Out), 46 certain natural antioxidants, 85
Fine dining restaurants, 120–124 chicken egg, 84
Fishmongers, 151 clean eating, 86
Flavor, 56–58, 62, 116–117 clean-label products, 86
Follistatin, 84 dietary fiber, 85
Food addiction, 62–64, 162, 171–172 diets and orthorexia, 85
270 Index

Food supply (cont.) Global Food Futures, 157, 158

enzyme polyphenol oxidase, 84 Global warming, 143, 152, 154,
fertilizer, 82 155, 157
flavor and mouthfeel, 86 Gluten-free, 28, 92, 115
food pundits, 85 GMOs, 76, 116, 122, 127, 152, 158
foxes, 86, 87 Goleman, D., 143, 152, 156
hedgehogs, 86, 87 Good-Eating, 143
manganese, 85 GoodGuide, 152, 153, 165
molecular structures, 83 Grain milling, 28
nonfat milk, 84 GRAS, 128
pectin and locust bean gum, 84 Grass-fed beef, 154
pesticides, 82 Greenwashing, 152, 156, 176
polyphenols, 84
probiotics, 84
proteins, 84 H
ripening, 82 Handling logistics, 37–39
vitamins and flavor, 86 Handling system, 159
Food waste, 32, 40, 46, 51, 86, 140, 149–152, Health Magazine, 135
155, 158, 165 Healthier meals
Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1936, 24 fine dining restaurants, 120–124
Food, Inc., 32 home cooking, 117–120
Foodlike substances, 89 Heart attacks, 1
real foods vs., 104–105 Hedgehogs, 33, 86, 123, 161, 175
Food-mile, 147 Hedonic scale, 22
Foods Heilig, M., 62
heated, 116–117 Herbicides, 127
Foods processing, 168 Heroin, 54, 60, 63–66
Formulated foods, 18, 19, 21, 24, 26, 33, 75, High-calorie foods, 4, 8, 11
107–109, 113, 114, 128, 129, 139, High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), 6, 18, 26,
141, 153, 165, 166, 168, 169 63, 103, 168
Free radicals, 81, 130 Highly toxic molecules, 126–127
Free-radical theory of aging, 110 High-pressure processing, 108
Fresh foods, 19–21, 27, 40–43, 45–46, 130, Hill, A., 61
131, 166, 168, 172 Home cooking, 117–122
and local foods, 50–51 Home food preservation, 95, 96
and modern lifestyle, 48–51 How the Food Giants Hooked Us, 53
logistics of, 37–39 Humectants, 128
vs. processed foods Hunter-gathering societies, 96
expensive, 41–43, 45–46 Hyperpalatable foods, 22, 61, 63–67, 112–114,
rotting, 40–41 171, 172, 175
Fresh fruits and vegetables, lack of, 59–61
Fresh produce, 35, 37–40, 45, 46, 50, 51
Fresh-like, 36, 37, 44, 50, 51 I
Fromartz, S., 35, 43 Incidental additives, 24
Frosted Flakes, 153 Indirect additives, 24
Frozen foods, 48, 110–112 Industrialized food system, 9
Fructose, 63, 69, 170 Insecticides, 127
Fruit ripening, 146 Internet Gaming Disorder, 65
Fruits, 130, 133, 155 Inventory management, 46
Fungicides, 127 Irradiation, 108, 117

G J
Generally Regarded as Safe (GRAS), 24, 78 Journal of Food Quality, 130
Genetic modification, 18 Junk foods, 14, 18, 19, 22, 33, 53, 54, 56,
Genetics, 8–9 58–62, 64, 66, 67, 99, 174
Index 271

K Modern lifestyle, fresh foods and, 48–51

Kelloggs, 90 Monosodium glutamate (MSG), 24, 54, 57,
Keystone Center, 145 62, 109, 110, 112
Keystone Policy Center, 32 Morning Joe, 105
Kimchi, 25 Moskowitz, H., 21
Kitchen utensils, 132 Moss, M., 53, 54, 67
Korzybski, A., 161, 163

N
L Narcotics Anonymous, 65
Lactobacillus bulgaricus, 79 Natural foods, 26
Lahiri, J., 17 Natural toxins, 108
Lean, finely textured beef (LFTB), 78 New York Times, 105
Less drastic diets, 12 Newby, P.K., 107, 108, 110
Let’s Move program, 15 Norovirus, 134
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), 147, 149, Nutrition facts, 84, 112, 117–119, 121,
152–154, 158, 163 123, 148
LIFO (Last In, First Out), 46 Nutritional quality, 121–124
Lightly processed, 36 Nutritional value, 121
Listeria, 30, 133, 136 Nutritionism, 89, 91
Listeria monocytogenes, 132, 136
Local foods, 35, 46–48, 146–147, 172
and fresh foods, 50–51 O
expensive, 45–46 Obama, M., 15
logistics of, 37–39 Obamacare, 121
Local growers, 43–44 Obesity, 2–3, 144, 175
Low-fat diets, 12 America (see America, obesity crisis in)
Low-salt foods, 111 Ohmic heating, 108, 116
Opioids, 55, 63
Oreos, 54, 56, 58, 60, 92
M Organic farmers, 32
Manganese, 85 Organic farming, 43, 146, 158
Mangoes, 173 Organic foods, 31, 144–146
Mass media campaigns, 67 Organic fruits, 174
Mass-manufactured foods, 31–34 Organic gardening, 144
McDonald’s, 3, 49, 78, 111, 120, 153 Orthorexics, 61, 85
Meals-ready-to-eat (MREs), 95, 173 Overnutrition, 108, 110, 121
Meat, 100–102, 154, 155, 164, Ovocalyxin, 84
165, 167 Oxidation, 82, 110, 129, 130
Mechanical sorting, 148 OxyContin, 54
Medium Food, 51
Melon, 166
Methamphetamine (meth), 54, 63, 64 P
Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Packaged foods, 18
(MRSA), 139–140 Packaged products, 51
Microbes, 79, 126, 127, 129–132, 137, 140, Packaging waste, 148–149
141, 166 plastic materials, 148
Microbial, 129 recycle packaging, 148
Microbiome, 126, 137, 139, 171 source reduction, 149
Middle aisles, 94, 95, 97, Paleo Diet, 90
99, 103 Parallel food system, 35
Milk, 154, 165, 167 Pasteurization, 108
Minerals, 108–110, 113–117, 122 Peanut butter, 132
Minimally processed, 36 Peel color, 146
Minimum wage, 44, 51 Penicillium, 130
272 Index

Pesticides, 126–127 safety of, 133, 134, 137

concentration, 127 supermarket and middle aisles, 94
extraction, 127 sweet grow on bushes, stems, and vines,
highly toxic, 126 102–105
types, 127 using great-grandmothers rule, 91–93
Plant sterols, 114 Rebaudioside, 128
Plant-based diet, 122 Recycle packaging, 148
Plastic bags, 149 Recycling, 148, 149
Plastic materials, 148 Refined diets, 64
Plastic water bottles, 149, 164 Refined grains, 107, 114–115
Pollan, M., 89, 91, 94, 98, 100, 103, 104 Refrigerator, 150, 164
Polyaromatic hydrocarbons, 101 Regional food cultures, 59
Polyface Farm, 145 Restaurant sanitation, 134, 135
Potatoes, 143, 166 Restaurants, 133, 134, 150, 165
Prebiotics, 139, 168 Rice Krispy Treats, 67
Preservatives, 166, 167 Roach, M., 107, 113
Presorting, 148 Rodale, J.I., 145
Pringles Potato Chips, 93 Rotary-hearth ovens, 99
Probiotics, 139, 168 Rotting food, 36, 40–41, 45
Processed foods, 13, 18, 40–43, 45–46, 51, 90, RRR (Ratio of Recommended to Restricted
95, 117, 119 Nutrients), 153
addictive, 21–23
additives and chemicals, 24–25
canned and frozen foods, 110–112 S
changes in nutritional quality, 121–124 Saccharomyces cerevisiae, 79
destroys nutrients, 27–29 Salatin, J., 145
food poisoning, 29–30 Salmonella, 29–31, 125, 132–134, 136, 139
vs. fresh foods Salmonella typhimurium, 168
expensive, 41–43, 45–46 Salt, 126, 129
rotting, 40–41 Salt Sugar Fat, 54
fresh foods or processed products, 19–21 Sanitation, 135
hyperpalatable foods, 112–114 Saturated fat, 18, 22
not real, natural, or healthy, 25–26 Scurvy, 108
primary operations, 18 Sensory evaluation, 55–58
raw foods vs., 109–110 Serpins, 84
refined grains, 114–115 Shelf life, 36, 39–41, 45, 51
secondary operations, 18 Shewanella, 130
Produce handling, 41 Shrink, 45, 48
Produce stands, 39 Silent Spring, 69
Proteins, 108, 109, 112, 114, 115, 117, 122 Slow Food Movement, 49
Small Food, 51, 153, 166
Small Organic, 43, 145
R Snacking, 4, 11
Radical transparency, 152, 164 SodaStream, 149
Rakoff, D., 161, 169 Sodium, 18, 24, 110, 111
Raw foods, 109–110, 116 Sodium benzoate, 110
Ready-to-eat, 18 Sodium nitrate, 110
Real foods, 26, 33, 109–110, 116, 166 Source reduction, 149
vs. foodlike substances, 104–105 Staphylococcus aureus, 131, 132, 168
grown on plants, 98–100 Staple foods, 115
by humans and not by machines, 97–98 Sterile, 130
meat, eggs, cheese, and whole milk, Stevia, 22, 50, 128
100–102 Stigma associated with obesity, 10, 11
rot, 95–97, 130 Still Mine, 39
Index 273

Stroke, 1 Umami, 24, 56, 57

Stuart, T., 143, 149, 150 Undernutrition, 108, 110, 121
Stuckey, B., 15 Unwrapped, 99
Substance abuse, 53, 54, 56, 64–66 Urinary tract infections (UTIs), 80
Sugar, 126 USDA, 43, 116, 138, 145, 153
Sugar Pops, 48 Utrophia, 143, 150
Sugar Smacks, 48
Sugar-sweetened beverages, 6
Supermarkets, 38, 41, 43–44, 48, 94, 125, 143, V
150, 165, 167 Vegans, 100, 101
Supersize Me, 3 Vegetables, 130, 133, 150, 155
Sweet grow on bushes, stems, and vines, 102–105 Vegetarianism, 89, 101
Swift, T., 90, 91 Viruses, 134
Synbiotics, 139, 168 Vitamin C content, 20
Vitamins, 107–110, 113, 114, 121, 122
artificial, 114–115
T and flavor, 116–117
Taste panel, 22
Tempting food, 168
Tempting foods, 61–62 W
combinations of salt, sugar, and fat, 64–67 Western Diet, 5, 176
tert-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), 72, 73, 82, 85 Whole foods, 18, 25, 34, 162, 172, 174
Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), 54, 63, 64, 171 Whole Foods Market, 72
The Jungle, 92 Whole milk, 100–102
Tocopherol, 81–82, 85, 87 Willpower, 9–11
Tradeoffs, 163, 169, 173 Wine, 130
Turkey, 134 Wood stove, 93
Twinkies, 35, 78, 91, 93, 169, 171 World on the Edge, 156
World-wide famine, 143

U
Ultrafiltration, 108 Z
Ultrasound, 108 Zuk, M., 89, 90