Some years ago, the science writer Rob Dunn published in Scientific American an article called The Hidden Truth About Calories. The article explained why two people could gain different amounts of weight even while eating the same diet. Visible differences do not begin to scratch the surface. There is a lot more going on underneath. For example, I recently read that the intestines of individuals of Russian descent appear to be five feet longer, on average, than those whose ancestors hail from Italy. That’s interesting… Continue reading
Category Archives: Ultraprocessing
Chocolate Mousse
What follows is a true story. It really happened, and you can draw your own conclusions.
Many years ago, my daughter and I ventured out on a snowy evening in January and returned home with the sweetest, gentlest, eight-week-old Labrador Retriever puppy. We named our new chocolate lab Mousse. Mousse played ball; Mousse cuddled with the children; Mousse helped me weed the garden; Mousse stole food from the kitchen table when she thought no one was looking; Mousse hung out with the chickens and enjoyed visiting with our friends and neighbors, both human and canine. Mousse became family, and all was well. Continue reading
Big Cereal Gives Frooty Words the Business
I have written in the past about the high margin-to-cost of the breakfast cereal business. I also think a lot about the words Big Cereal uses to sell its product, specifically the pervasive use of fruity words in naming breakfast cereals. Continue reading
A Quantity of Commodities
Some time ago, Michael Ruhlman lent me a book by Chef Dan Barber called The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food. It took me a long time to get through the book, primarily because it made me think so hard that I could read barely one chapter at a time. In 2009, the same year I started writing Your Health is on Your Plate, TIME Magazine named Dan Barber as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Third Plate got me thinking about the fact that mainstream America survives not on nutritious food but, instead, on a commodity-based diet. When goods and services are traded on the grand scale for other goods and services, they become commodities. The primary characteristic of a commodity is that its price is determined not by quality but, rather, quantity. A commodity meets explicit contractual requirements unrelated to the product’s nutritive value or taste, so that the source and nutritional quality of the product become, essentially, irrelevant. Commodities from different producers are of more-or-less uniform quality and, therefore, considered equivalent. Food-based commodities include white flour, sugar, soybean oil, degerminated corn meal, corn syrup, and corn starch. Other kinds of commodities include coal, gold, silver, iron ore, and aluminum. Continue reading
Big Food: The Industrialization of What You Eat
What does it mean to be nourished? The word nutrition, related to “nourish,” comes from nutrire (Latin), meaning to feed, support, nurture, and also nurse. “Food,” from foda (Old English), is related to “fodder” and “feed,” and means nourishment or fuel. The purpose of food is to nourish. There is a fair bit of controversy about what constitutes good nutrition, but most successful strategies recommend increasing high-fiber foods like produce, legumes, and whole grains, while simultaneously decreasing ultraprocessed items like chips, commercially baked items, and “fast” food. Continue reading
The Trouble With Angel Food Cake
Have you ever worked with someone whose actions made you hear your mom’s voice inside your head saying things like “Everyone gets a turn,” or even “Let’s be nice”? When my friend Dee’s kids complained about the seemingly unjust behavior of certain teachers or neighbors, she would suggest they consider them “negative role models.” Just as it’s important to have good examples in your life, it’s also valuable to have examples of behaviors you would rather avoid.
Year in and year out, I post recipes that have a lot going for them. I am always on the lookout for good examples of nourishing recipes made from whole foodstuffs, with plenty of produce, legumes, nourishing fats, and high-quality protein. Today I am trying a different approach: I am dissecting a recipe that has nothing going for it. This angel food cake mix is a negative role model. Its best use is as an example of what not to eat. Continue reading
Real Food is Love
It’s a new year, and I’d like to talk about why I write this blog. I want to make sure you understand how very great is the difference between real food and manufactured calories. Real food nourishes. At best, manufactured calories entertain. Manufactured calories also cause a great many serious medical problems. Like breast and colon cancer; diabetes, obesity, arthritis, strokes, and heart attacks. For starters. Continue reading
Color Your New Year
It’s a new year, and I’d like to talk about why I write this blog. I want to make sure you understand how very big is the difference between real food and manufactured calories. Real food nourishes. At best, manufactured calories entertain. Manufactured calories also cause a great many serious medical problems. Like breast and colon cancer; diabetes, obesity, and arthritis; strokes and heart attacks. For starters. Continue reading
Michael Pollan Knows What He’s Talking About
From time to time, when my journey into the mysteries of disease prevention was just beginning, I would discover someone whose work really spoke to me, who helped to clarify the things I was beginning to see, and who became a sort of personal mentor to me as I continued on the path. One of these people was Michael Pollan, who was catapulted to fame with his insightful and riveting books, especially The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food. He shared that Carlos Monteiro, a professor of nutrition at the University of São Paulo, was the first to label and define ultra-processed items. He said that whereas processed food could be made at home, ultra-processed items contained ingredients no normal person has at home, and required equipment you would find only in a factory. Touché. Continue reading
Candy for Breakfast
Today’s post, like many I share, is a story about how a nourishing grain-based food transitioned into a class of stripped-carb-based products that, despite that they did not nourish, still came to dominate the market over the course of just a couple of decades. Continue reading