Supermarkets in the Western civilization seem to have it all, right? Endless options of tasty, colorful and ready-to-eat “ultra-processed” foods that can be found in those aisles. For many people, these products make up the majority of their diets. But are you actually aware of what you’re consuming and how these “foods” are impacting your life?
The Destructive “Ultra-Processed” Food Industry
Approximately 73 percent of the U.S. food supply is currently “ultra-processed”. This term basically refers to yummy concoctions of packaged foods that food companies create mainly from manufactured ingredients, instead of actual foods. These products usually contain combinations of artificial flavors, colors, additives, preservatives, bleaching agents, ridiculous amounts of salt and sugar as well as other chemicals. Food corporations manage to make these products edible but they offer little to no nutritional value to consumers. Besides the ultra-processed foods, a food classification system called NOVA categorizes the rest of the food supply into three categories: unprocessed, minimally processed and processed foods. Unprocessed foods are foods in their natural state. Here you can think of animal meat, fruits, vegetables, raw nuts and seeds. Minimally processed foods consist of natural foods that go through at least one method of cooking and/or preservation (e.g., roasting, boiling, drying and freezing). Lastly, processed foods are products that are created by adding salt, sugar, vegetable oils, vinegar and other substances to a natural food. In addition, these products are subject to one or multiple cooking and/or preservation methods to increase their durability. Canned vegetables, salted or sugared nuts and smoked meats are perfect examples of processed foods. With ultra-processed foods, the food manufacturers take it one step further by adding a variety of overly processed substances to the foods to either enhance the existing flavor or disguise an undesirable smell or taste. The end result looks like common “food products” such as breakfast cereal, flavored yogurts, energy drinks, packaged soups, salad dressings and a wide array of other products.
Now why would food corporations go through all this trouble to heavily process foods? Isn’t it more complex, costly and time-consuming? It’s simple: they want to keep us addicted so we keep coming back for more. Humans crave sugar, salt and fat. Food companies include extremely high doses of these ingredients in their products to create very appealing taste sensations making it nearly impossible to stop eating them. In the process, they also make sure to sprinkle some of their toxic chemicals in there to make the food look and smell good. Just like that, they got us hooked!
A Threat to Society
Unfortunately, the ultra-processed foods industry is thriving. Aside from their addictive qualities, the high demand for these foods is caused by their convenience aspect, affordability and long shelf life. For the food manufacturers, it’s all about making big bucks but for us, our physical and mental wellbeing is on the line. I won’t bore you with statistics regarding heart disease, obesity and all the other diseases that are predominantly caused by poor nutrition and lifestyle. However, I simply don’t think that anyone should have to spend their lives being sick and/or dependent on pharmaceutical drugs if there is a way to prevent or decrease the risk of this.
Additionally, the rise in consumption of ultra-processed foods has contributed to a decline in people’s willingness and ability to cook. Many people choose not to cook because they believe it is time-consuming and they therefore opt for processed foods out of convenience. Others never learned how to cook because of all the options out there. However, home cooking allows us to have more control over the ingredients that go into our meals. It might be unrealistic for most of us to completely remove processed foods from our diets, but consuming these foods should be the exception rather than the norm. Lastly, cooking was considered to be an important survival skill by our ancestors and nowadays we should still consider it to be a valuable skill due to it great benefits.
The Power Lies in Our Hands
The ultra-processed food industry continues to grow while our health is deteriorating simultaneously. The only reason why this industry is becoming more successful is because people continue to buy their products and fall for their tricks. Aside from the addictive qualities of the food products, food companies often trick consumers with fraudulent health claims on food packagings and their marketing techniques (especially with food targeted to children). Obviously this industry could care less about our health so it is up to us to decide what priority we assign to our wellbeing.
Properly nourishing our bodies is a form of self-respect and we should become more aware of that. Good nutrition obviously does not guarantee a disease-free life since there are many other factors that come into play. However, you stand a much better chance by providing your body with the nutrients it needs and avoiding the harmful ingredients. Proper nutrition will make you feel and look your best, while contributing to a happier and healthier life overall. I hope this post inspired you to be more mindful of what items you put into your cart the next time you’re at the supermarket.