The Food Industry and Decoding Products
History Lesson
It is our birthright to be fit and healthy. Our world seems to constantly be looking for the new, next best thing when it comes to handling health issues. The health books with the most drastic titles are typically the best selling. We’re always searching for the best medicines, screenings, and surgical procedures… but we don’t actually need that. We don’t need more sick care, we need more health care. It’s much more simple- it’s getting back to a natural way of living. Now, there was a time that I was SO into this that I wanted to live in a tent in the woods near a beach (I still kind of do), but I’ve shifted into making my way of living as natural as possible while still being modern. I also have been intentional about appreciating the perks of modern life. But when it comes to health, the more natural we begin to eat and live, the healthier we feel.
History is not my favorite subject, but it really can be extremely helpful. Humans have been on this earth for a longggg time. Our genetics are the same as they were to humans from over 100,000 years ago in the days of hunting and gathering. Hunter-gatherers were tall, muscular, and healthy without all of the modern medical care that we have now. No crossfit, no dentists, no modern medical care. Yet, they had no cavities, bone issues, or chronic issues from acne to cancer. They spent their time on survival- food, clothes, shelter, but had lots of time to play, socialize, and rest. We’re the same species. But in the last 5,000-10,000 years, we’ve shifted to agriculture and eventually, industry. This modern era is a really small percentage of how humans have been living and unfortunately, there is a huge difference in our health. It seems that we are alive for more years, but have you noticed that it seems that we are living shorter and dying longer? We want to feel alive and healthy for our life. That’s where living naturally in this modern time comes into play.
The Industrial Revolution started in the late 1700s which is really recent. So we have so many big companies making mass amounts of goods and trying to make the biggest profit possible. This is where the cheap and harmful ingredients, the marketing, and the corruption take place. Not only did the industrial revolution create the opportunity for a lot of chemical foods to get into our diets, but it also serves the 1% and leaves the majority of the people without a piece of the pie, but that’s a different story for a different day. Yes, there are benefits to what the industrial revolution brought. I’m happy I can buy things from the store, but it can be done in better ways. The fact that many of the foods on our shelves are illegal in other countries is not cool with me and shouldn’t be cool with anyone.
The Food Industry Today
Today, we live in what I call the modern world, which has so many great aspects to it, (many of which were much better without a pandemic in the mix) but it also has some aspects that can leave people feeling bad. Today, I’m just focusing on food. When we go to the grocery store, when we drive down the street, and when we go to enjoy any type of entertainment, we’re bombarded by unhealthy options. Yes- you are right. Eating healthy IS hard, but not for the reasons you may think. When the bad options aren’t around you, they’re not hard to forget about. However, we have to be intentional about avoiding the unhealthy stuff and having healthy stuff around us. It takes effort because it's not what’s easily and readily available most of the time. If anything, I want to validate that to the people who feel like they do their best and struggle. I really want to put my focus on making this a more fun and easy part of life, but first I really want everyone to understand these concepts!
There is a cycle that happens in our modern world. People eat unhealthy food. People feel fine for a while. Unhealthy food catches up, but people don’t see the connection. People have chronic health issues from unhealthy food and get on pharmaceutical drugs. People are now life-long customers to both big food and big pharma. When I explain this, I feel the need to say that I have a deep appreciation for modern medicine- both for emergencies and for chronic issues. But I want people to have their eyes wide open here and to know that there are very rich people that benefit from these things. It’s amazing that we have medicine to give us relief, but we should work on healing so we don’t need the medicines! Put frankly, not everyone would benefit from people healing and some powerful people would lose their money if everyone did learn how to heal naturally.
That brings me to corruption. Our current food industry and the research being done in the health world is a result of politics, lobbying, and media. I love science because it shows us the truth with hard evidence. However, in this world, we always have to pay attention to who is funding certain scientific studies. We also have to consider which studies are being conducted and which are not. Studies are conducted to prove a point. If nobody with money to fund studies wants evidence that certain fake ingredients can be unhealthy, then we’re not going to find a study on that. There may not be a study to prove that every unnatural food can cause harm, however, there are MANY studies showing us MANY synthetic ingredients and chemicals lead to health issues. Critical thinking leads us to know that real food is beneficial and synthetic “food” is harmful. For example, glyphosate, an herbicide which has now been proven to have a strong link to cancer was used in weed killer and thought to be harmless. We now know that it’s toxic and harmful to us as living beings. (Read about glyphosate here and here. Along with this and many other studies, I assume that the rest of the synthetic, chemical based herbicides and pesticides are not beneficial and most likely are harmful. This is common sense to me, as us as humans were literally given these natural food sources to thrive on (fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, meat, fish, etc.) but instead, we’re currently tending to eat chemical based foods on a consistent basis due to the cheapness, convenience, and the fact that its constantly marketed to us.
Okay, so facing this kind of stuff is hard. If you’ve never looked into the corruption it can cause some serious discomfort and anger. I personally direct pretty much all of my anger at big food and big pharma (lol). I just want people to know this, but I really don’t want to focus on it much. I want to focus on what we can do to live our best lives despite this and to make a change just by living healthy lives ourselves. There are SO many conscious businesses out there. With time, there are just more and more options at the health foods stores and online stores. There are local farms and more organic and biodynamic farming. Food places are creating healthier options. There is more of a demand for healthy options and it's happening! The easiest way you can make a massive difference in your own life, and the food industry is to vote with your dollar. Stop giving your money to brands you don’t feel support you and start purchasing from conscious, smaller food brands. Vote for healthy with your purchases!
That brings me to another point, which is the grocery store. When you walk into a regular grocery store, almost everything in the store is owned by just a handful of big food brands. A lot of big food brands own a bunch of other brands. For example, Kelloggs owns Eggos, Pringles, Cheez-Itz, and more. Mars owns M&Ms, Snickers, Dove, Milky Way, Uncle Ben’s Rice, Starburst, Orbit, and more. When I say big food… I mean BIG. This is the 1% that hoards the money! And they happen to be selling us crap and contributing to issues like climate change in the process!! Check out this graphic and read more about this from this well-written blog post from Wide Open Eats here.
This is why I choose to shop local when possible, and I opt to go to the health foods store rather than the regular grocery store. Although Whole Foods is the store closest and most convenient for me, my favorite stores are MOM’s Organic Market and Weaver’s Way Coop. MOM’s Organic Market is a conscious health foods store which is family owned and operated with small business / local options. Weaver’s Way Coop is a “coop” which means it is a member-owned cooperative grocery store that has local, small business, and sustainably sourced options. These are both smaller businesses, so they may not be available outside of my area, but do a google search for health food stores or coops near you! I feel so much better about supporting these kinds of stores! Whole Foods is good in the sense that I am getting healthy options and small brands, but Whole Foods itself is a corporation. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I agree more with the values of a smaller business.
Ingredients
When you’re searching for healthy foods, you might feel overwhelmed by how to decipher if something is truly healthy, or just falsely appears healthy. My biggest tip is to always read the ingredient list. Look for ingredients that you recognize (sweet potato, coconut oil, almonds, etc.) and avoid lengthy lists that include many ingredients that you can not pronounce. The top things to avoid are corn, soy, refined grains, sugar, unhealthy oils, and chemical ingredients. Some of the ways you will see this are as followed:
Corn: high fructose corn syrup, cornstarch, corn oil, cornmeal, dextrins, dextrose, etc.
Soy: soy lecithin, lecithin, hydrolyzed soy protein (HSP), glycine max, vegetable glycerin, hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP), etc.
Refine Grains: white flour, enriched wheat flour, all-purpose flour, etc.
Sugar: dextrose, fructose, galactose, glucose, lactose, altose, sucrose (notice they end with “ose”)
Unhealthy Oils: canola oil, vegetable oil, cottonseed oil, safflower oil
Chemical Ingredients: artificial dyes (blue #1, red #3, etc.), sodium nitrate, sodium benzoate
Not every food you buy must be PERFECT. It’s all about BALANCE. But if all of your foods have these kinds of ingredients, it's important to make some shifts! There are so many better options and often, you can find something that tastes pretty similar but made without the crap!
The best ingredient lists are shorter in length, have real ingredients, and are transparent about their product. Sometimes, the ingredient names that I can’t pronounce or vague ingredients are just a sign that the company wants to hide what is in their product. Natural flavor could mean anything. If it was vanilla, they’d write vanilla. But sometimes, vanilla is mimicked with the anal secretions of beavers. This is true- look it up. I just wonder who made the discovery that it could be used as a replacement for vanilla! Anyways, companies are loud and proud when they use ingredients that you’d be happy with. Look for the transparent ingredient lists with real ingredients!
Labels
When you look at the label of a product, there are a few things you will see. The name, the claims on the front, the circular certifications, the nutrition information, and the ingredient list. The only things that are really valuable and regulated are the certifications, nutrition information, and ingredient list. The rest is just marketing. And they are GOOD at marketing! When a product claims “heart healthy” or “natural” on the front, it’s just marketing. In addition to the ingredient list, I pay attention to the certifications, which are often a small circular logo in the corner. Certification labels are basically showing a consumer that the company is held accountable by another organization. Companies have to pay for these certifications. If a company is getting these certifications, it basically increases a consumer’s trust that their product is indeed what they are marketing it to be.
The top certifications to look for are:
Organic - means that it meets the USDA’s requirements of having at least 95% of organic ingredients with synthetic growth hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, biotechnology, synthetic ingredients, or irradiation.
Companies can write “made with organic ingredients” if product contains at least 70% organic ingredients
Organic ingredients are preferred as non-organic are most likely sprayed with chemicals such as herbicides and pesticides and may include some of the harmful things listed above!
Non-GMO Project Verified - means that the product was made without genetic engineering
Non-GMO ingredients are preferred as GMO ingredients have been linked to health issues.
Certified Humane - means that animals were raised in a humane manner
Certified Humane is preferred as animals raised in unhealthy settings are 1) mistreated and 2) create an unhealthy animal product.
There are many more labels out there and if you come across one that you do not recognize, you can quickly google what it means!
Wrapping It All Up
Ultimately, the point is that more natural, real-ingredient-based foods are the most beneficial to our health and wellbeing. The best way to get healthy foods is by shopping for conscious brands and organic produce at a health foods store or co-op and looking at the ingredient list as well as certifications.
It’s all about the quality of the food. There are some things that are difficult to measure, such as heavy metals in the food. For this reason, it's really important to find brands that you trust. You will naturally learn about great brands as you shop, but I’d like to help you out! I am thinking of creating a resource where I can share what brands I trust because doing this research can be time consuming for people and I’ve already done a lot myself. I am also going to begin offering Health Food Store tours. I will go to the grocery store with someone and help them find the best options for the foods they are buying while teaching them how to decipher if something is truly supportive or is crap. Let me know if you’re interested and keep your eyes peeled for these things!
Thank you so much for reading! If you’re interested in learning more, sign up for my email list on the “freebies” page and follow me on social media! I’m excited to continue to create blog posts and podcast episodes! If you are interested in working with me, click here to learn about health coaching with me. I am currently offering free initial consultations! Thanks again, I wish you all of the happiness and health in the world!