26 September 2016
Dear Hollifer Sysol, I was recently reading a book called “Pandora’s Lunchbox”, and it reminded me of you. Weird, I know. This book talked about how there are an abundance of processed food in our lives that we were not aware of; there are many additives and ingredients added that it redefines the word “food”. Therefore, there is a lot of information in this book that supports the idea of home cooking and eating whole foods. It gets in-depth about a person’s refrigerator and the types of food that we are consuming. Processed food can be defined as anything that is made, that cannot be replicated in the kitchen. This means words such as ‘High Fructose Corn Syrup’, ‘Sorbic Acid’, or even ‘Soy Lecithin’; these are only to name a few from the list of five thousand additives. Additives, as the author notes, that are not properly regulated. Within the food a person eats, there are unknown (and possibly dangerous) ingredients that are taken in. There could be consequences, especially when taken in high amounts. This reminds me of something that we read in class. An article that mentioned something called a “bliss point; it is a formula that companies use when making their products. It is where there is not too much flavor, but not too less; it leaves you wanting more. A person eats without thinking, wanting to fulfill that desire of taste. Eventually, it makes someone take in large amount of food, without knowing the full extent to what the product truly contains. This could relate to how a simple product, could be, unknowingly, just as complex. A good example would be cheese. The author of this book, Melanie Warner, had done an experiment with cheese (i.e. Kraft Singles) where she left it in her fridge for years. The result was that of a piece of “cheese” that had turned into a replica of plastic; it did not spoil or get moldy or even smell but it did crack around the edges. As Warner investigated this phenomenon, she found that cheese is not even cheese; the packaging of Kraft was even changed to say “Cheese Product” instead of “Cheese Food”. The last remaining amount of cheese that was in it (which was minimal) was traded for milk concentrate because it was cheaper. The rest of the cheese is finished with a fulfillment of additives. They did this because it was cheaper, which is a lot of food companies priorities; they will find anyway to effectively make a product that is both cheap and tasty. One of the effective ways to change the ingredients in food and still taste good and cheap is to add soy. Soybean oil quickly became the country’s number one source of fat, as it is found in a large array of products. This ranges from salad dressings, to chips, to peanut butter, and to imitation pizza “cheese”. Soy is a very popular item within the food industry, especially in meat, because it can imitate fat. It makes it juicier and fuller because soy can be used without changing flavor to the food. This is because it is a heavily processed ingredient; to the point that it loses its nutritional value. Warner notes that this is common within processing; losing nutritional value. It even happens to our vitamins (by the way, eating healthy is much better than taking vitamin supplements). Processing of food typically voids the food of its proper nutrients and vitamins. Food products go through the processor, washed with acids, and smashed to the point that the chemical compounds are stripped of their original design. (The food may start as being healthy, but is changed so much in the process that there are barely any natural nutrients).Yes, supplement vitamins are good for you, but they may not do you justice if they were taken independently. They may need to work in a compound with other vitamins to work properly. Companies, occasional, will spray on “vitamins” to their products so that they are able to say that their product is healthy and nutritious. However, like I said before, nutrients and vitamins do not work well independently compared to just natural food. This is a prime example of not knowing what you are really eating. You may think that you are getting your daily dose of healthy eating, but instead, you are getting another heavily processed ingredient added to your body. The book definitely reminded me of you towards the end. Warner had an account of a family that used to eat fast food daily and have sweets as snacks. There were medical problems within the family because of this; a daughter had problems with constipation and a son had stomach and temperamental problems. When the family went on a whole food, homemade cooking diet, their medical problems went away in less than a week. This is an example of why it would be better to attempt to eat whole foods; you actually have an idea of what you are putting into your mouth (Warner also noted that it was cheaper for a family to cook their own meals than it was to buy fast food). There are no heavily processed vitamins, hidden additives, or even fake products. It is an all-natural ingredient that has all of the proper nutrients working together to benefit you and your body. I thought this would be interesting for you to know, especially since it involves the average American meal. I hope this will help you to become more conscious about the food label and that you will take the time to occasionally pass on that fast food trip. By the way, this reminds me of something I watched in class. It was called Food Inc., and it discussed the suspicion about the dollar menu. Farmers are filling their animals with inexpensive feed, which affects the quality of the meat; feed that increases the chance of the animals contracting a disease. I hope you also will consider where the meat that you get at the grocery store comes from, because some companies are better than others in how they produce it. Therefore, this ties in with the overall message about how it is best to know where your food comes from and what could possibly be lurking within it. Because you are awesome and I care, Maddi
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