A couple of weeks ago it suddenly occurred to me that we’ve got it all wrong!  Although the supermarket appears to be filled with all kinds of new and different products, the fact is that most of the variety can be found in the produce department.  The rest of the supermarket (except for the dairy, meat and fish) is composed, for the most part, of soy, wheat, and corn.  Yes, the packaging is different and exciting, but the rest of it’s an illusion.

What kind of variety can be found in the produce department?  It’s endless!  Try the apples, apricots, artichokes, arugula, asparagus, avocado, bananas, basil, fava beans, beets, blackberries, blueberries, bok choy, boysenberries, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage (green, red, Savoy), cantaloupe, carrots, Cassava melon, cauliflower, chard, cherries, Chinese apples, chives, coconut, corn, endive, eggplant, fennel, figs, garlic, grapefruit, grape tomatoes, grapes, green beans, honeydew, hot peppers, jicama, kale, kiwi, leeks, lemons, limes, lettuce (bibb, green leaf, red leaf, Romaine), Meyer lemons, mushrooms, nasturtium blossoms, onions (white, yellow, Vidalia), oranges, oregano, papayas, parsley (curly and Italian), parsnips, peaches, peas (sweet, Snow), pears (Bosc, Anjou, Bartlett), persimmon, pineapple, plantains, plums, pomegranates, pomelo, potatoes (red, white, Yukon Gold, russet), pumpkins, radishes, raspberries, rhubarb, rosemary, shallots, starfruit, strawberries, summer squash, spaghetti squash, squash blossoms, sweet peppers, sweet potatoes, tangerines, taragon, thyme, tomatillos, tomatoes, turnips, watercress, watermelon, yams, yucca, zucchini.

And that’s just the ones I could think of offhand.  See what I mean?  Eat  the widest possible variety of food that you can find, and eat a few more fruits and vegetables than you already do.

Got a favorite you don’t see here?  Send it in and we’ll add it to the list!

Stripped carb comes primarily in four different varieties.  These four categories of carbohydrates have been exploited by the “processed-edible-items” industry more than any others.  They are wheat, sugar, corn, and rice.  

With the removal of its bran and germ, wheat becomes stripped.  Or refined, according to the advertising.  Or enriched, which means that a limited number of nutrients are replaced to prevent rapid-onset nutritional deficiencies caused by the removal of iron and thiamine (vitamin B1), among others.  This issue is of no relevance in whole grains.

Sugar is extracted from cane.  This invention was the first example of carbohydrate stripping, and has been going on for several centuries now.  I’m not advocating that you stop enjoying all sugar from here on in.  But it’s a treat, and treats are for special occasions.  Like Friday nights, or Sunday dinners, or birthdays, or weddings.  Dark chocolate is food by the way, not a treat, so you can eat an ounce every day if you’d like.

From corn we get high-fructose corn syrup, corn syrup solids, corn starch corn chips, and so on.  To say that these items, for they most certainly are not food, are found extensively in the Western diet doesn’t begin to express their pervasiveness.  Bottom line?  We’re drowning in them, and they are making us sick.  This is not an overstatement.

Finally, we get to white rice, which is a polished (the industry’s word, not mine) version of rice that grows with its husk.  The husk is rich in, among other nutrients, thiamine.  That’s what caused the epidemic of deaths due to beri-beri in southeast Asia in the last century, and it’s why rice, too, now comes “enriched.”

Remember your influence, and vote with your wallet.  

It impresses me how effectively the processed-food industry uses words to influence consumer preferences and purchasing behaviors.

Remember that the individual or entity who supplies the vocabulary sets the agenda. So you can set the agenda if you pick the words. The processed-stuff-industry’s agenda is not, however, the same as mine. My agenda has to do with wellness, while the purpose of marketing is to increase sales. Now, as long as you’re asking, I don’t have any objection to increased sales. What I object to is covert influences that increase sales at the expense of our health and well-being.  

Here is an example for you to chew on: If I want you to buy white yogurt, simply yogurt through and through, without any additives of any kind, I’m going to call it PURE yogurt. Would you prefer the PURE yogurt or its opposite, the ADULTERATED version?  I’ll take the PURE, thank you very much.

But if I want you to pick up the flavored yogurt, usually sweetened with the equivalent of 4-5 teaspoons of sugar as high-fructose corn syrup, I’ll call that white yogurt PLAIN. Corn syrup is cheap cheap cheap, a lot cheaper than yogurt itself, so that means you can expect to see a higher profit margin for the sweet version. Do you want the PLAIN yogurt or the FANCY? Ooooooh, I want the FANCY yogurt!  See what I mean?

Here’s another example: If I want to increase sales of flour that no longer has its germ and bran, I’ll call it REFINED, which means that it’s somehow better because the so-called “coarse impurities” (i.e., the germ and bran) have been removed. The alternative to REFINED flour would then be the cumbersome, hyphenated WHOLE-GRAIN product.  But if I actually want you to buy bread made from INTACT grain, which has not been STRIPPED of its germ and bran, well then yes, that grain has an INTACT matrix.  

Let’s see it for what it is, call it what it is, and choose terminology that supports values of our own choosing, namely the health and wellness of our friends, families, and communities. Don’t use words selected by marketers expressly to influence our purchasing patterns. 

One last thing: There’s a special name for the information found on packages of processed food items. It’s called advertising.

Follow Dr Sukol’s posts on Twitter @RoxanneSukolMD and on Facebook at Roxanne Breines Sukol and at Your Health is on Your Plate.