Eat Food, Not Food Products

The title of this article may sound a bit conflicting in itself, but according to Michael Pollan, author of “In Defense of Food”, the idea is pretty straight-forward — by the end of this brief article, you should have a clear, distinguished concept of what food is and what a food product is.

According to Pollan, most of the foods we consume, if we’re not being conscious of our consumptions, are nothing but food imitations.  Pollan states that we shouldn’t eat any foods that our great grandma wouldn’t recognize, i.e. if it would not have been recognized in the early 1900s, before the advent of most modern foods, we should stay away from it.  We should also avoid foods containing certain ingredients, avoid food products that make health claims, shop the peripheries of grocery stores (stay out of the middle), literally get out of grocery stores whenever possible, and eat mostly plants (pg. 148, 150, and 157).

Imitation Foods

Post – 1973, the FDA allowed food makers to alter the identity of traditional foods, without having to call them imitations.  For example, a loaf of bread may look exactly like a loaf of bread, but indeed, be not a loaf of bread (pg. 150 and 151).  Back in the day, the ingredients in a loaf of bread were flour, yeast, water, and a pinch of salt.  Today, there are around 30 ingredients in a loaf (check the labels).  So how do we avoid imitation foods?

• Avoid food products that contains ingredients that are unfamiliar
• Avoid food products with ingredients that are unpronounceable
• Avoid food products that have more than five ingredients
• Avoid food products that include high fructose corn syrup.

Food Products That Make Health Claims

For a food product to make health claims on its package, it must first have a package, so right off that bat, any packaged food making health claims is more likely to be a processed
food than a whole food (pg. 154).  Whole foods do not come in packages.

Grocery Shopping

If you’ve noticed, most supermarkets are laid out in the same manner: processed (packaged) foods dominate the center aisles of stores, while the cases of fresh food — dairy, produce, meat, and fish — line the walls.  Because this is true, by staying on the edges of the store, you will be more likely to find real foods.

Get Out of the Grocery Store When Possible and Eat Mostly Plants

A good way to cut the exposure and temptation of processed foods is to get away from the grocery stores all-together.  As much as possible, shop your local farmer’s market.  You will find no processed, old foods, no high fructose corn syrup, no long lists of unpronounceable ingredients, or dubious health claims there — only fresh whole, foods, picked at the peak of their taste and nutrition quality (pg. 158 and 159).

Conclusion

So, there are two types of foods in which we consume.  One type is just real food, the other is (imitation) food products.  Foods are the stuff that are naturally grown, such as fruit, veggies, nuts, and even animals — if you’re a meat-eater.  A food product is any food that has been processed altered, artificially created or modified in a way to make these food products appear to be real, natural foods.  When grocery shopping, the closer you can stay to the walls, and even outside of the grocery store and your nearest farmer’s market, the more susceptible you will be in purchasing and consuming real foods.

Reference:

Polland, M. (2008).  “In Defense of Food”. pg. 148-159 – Penguin Books, USA