What am I eating?
If a meal out or a packaged food tastes good, I ask myself if it
contains too much salt, sugar, or fat. It's unfortunate that this stuff
tastes good because, except in reasonable amounts, it is unhealthy.
For many in the food business it's a dilemma. Added salt, sugar, or fat
makes the food tastier. If it tastes better it sells. If the
competition is doing it, and it is within the maximums allowed by law,
then it may seem a necessary evil required to keep market share.
Preservatives present a similar dilemma as longer storage and shelf
life help the bottom line.
Singularly
this is bad enough but collectively, if this happens to a wide range of
products, and consumers eat a crossection of these on an ongoing basis,
isn’t there a risk of serious health problems and shortened lives?
Eric Schlosser's book Fast
Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal argues
that the fast food industry has fueled an epidemic of obesity. He
discusses food production and preparation, the ingredients and
taste-enhancers in the food, the chains' efforts to reel in young,
susceptible consumers, and other unsettling facts.
We should always examine the ingredients of packaged food to know what
we are eating. To learn more about food and health I read the
informative and critical Nutrition Action Healthletter, a publication
of The Center for Science in the
Public Interest.
The last pie that I bought at a supermarket had the following label:
Contains mince etc . . . . natural
and artificial flavors, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, potassium
sorbate (preservative), carame (color), cellulose gum, mono and
diglycerides, sodium citrate, palmitate, sulfur dioxide (preservative),
mononitrate, propionate (preservative).
I don’t think this was from the in-store bakery.
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return Greed
Profit Consumerism
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