Entry #7 - You Are What You Eat

Let's hope we don't all turn into hamburgers!

While it would be amusing, and generally speaking it's easy to laugh at this concept, the idea that we essentially are what we eat suggests some disturbing possibilities.  

Okay, thankfully that is not really a possibility, but it's still something to think about.  Imagine all of the hormones that are in our mass produced and selectively available foods that we find in the mainstream grocery stores.  The amount of antibiotics that are fed to animals that ends up in the meat that we consume has an impact on more than simply our health.  Medically speaking, the use of these 'preventative' antibiotics (because the conditions in which the animals are 'raised' is disgusting and they have to take antibiotics to avoid massive infections) ends up in the meat we consume, which then ends up in us.  This has a direct impact on the usefulness of antibiotics against infections that we develop.  "Superbugs" exist because of the over-use of antibiotics.  That, however, is a topic for a different day and I'm going a bit off tangent.

I watched a portion of the 2009 documentary Fresh and it presented an interesting approach to a topic I've been aware of before.  The film presents a handful of people from a man who took a few acres of industrial wasteland and created a farmland in the middle of a metropolitan center to a family-owned grocery store owner who supports fresh foods and farming by stocking his stores with meats and produce from a local cooperative of farmers.  The feel of the documentary is less judgemental of those farmers that have contracts with "agribusiness" conglomerates, allowing a perspective that offers a sympathetic understanding of the position these farmers have been placed in.  Without the contracts with these conglomerates, the farmers are the ones who are hurt - not the agribusinesses.

One of the farmers that was interviewed mentioned that the subsidies that they were paid were the only reason they stayed afloat, that the sale of the corn itself wasn't enough to cover the costs of production.  It's frankly heartbreaking to realize that these farmers essentially can't provide for their families without being tied to these mega-businesses that seem to have overtaken the control of agriculture.  It's no longer about providing healthy, fresh foods, it's about mass production to make a hefty profit.  Who truly loses out however?  The public.  The corn that is bought from these farmers is used in the production of high fructose corn syrup, something which has become as prevalent in foods as water.  In fact, it might be more prevalent than water.  High fructose corn syrup?  Well, I could write a whole blog about nothing but that topic but the short explanation is that it sweetens food and drinks, has resulted in the veritable addiction of the national collective to the "sweet" aspect of foods and has a direct impact on the public's health.

Now here's an interesting thought: how we eat currently is not the way we should be eating.  I'm not talking about the prevalence of fast-food replacing actual meals prepared at home that utilize fresh ingredients.  I'm talking about the fact that canned corn has high fructose corn syrup added to it.  Corn.  Corn does not need to be sweet to be able to eat it.  It doesn't need to be sweet to be delicious.  Beyond that, one type of corn is "sweet corn" which is naturally sweet without needing to have additives put into it.  And that's just one vegetable.  What's even more concerning is that so many of the natural nutrients that exist in produce is being stripped out of it as it's going through production.  The answer?  We'll chemically add nutrients back in!  ...here's a better idea - don't strip them out of the food in the first place.

I think what frustrates me about this topic more than anything else is that the food that is most affordable is the food that has gone through this kind of production.  That is to say that for those who are of lower economic status are forced to buy the "most affordable" food that will allow them to stock their pantries and fridges.  The food that fits this description?  Food that has been stripped of the nutrients and artificially had them added back in.  Food that is rife with high fructose corn syrup.  Food that takes vegetables and manages to make them unhealthy.  This has gotten so bad that it's not uncommon for a person to try "fresh" foods without all the additives and flavorings added to them and find them bland.  However, if they continue eating these foods and their taste buds readjust to how food is supposed to taste, suddenly the 'taste' of food takes on a whole different meaning.

Let me leave you with some food for thought: how much of what we taste when we eat our food is processed additives and flavorings instead of the actual taste of food?  For that matter, do we really even know what food is truly supposed to taste like anymore?