What is Food?

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Odd that we should be asking ourselves, “What is food?” Would I be too bold to venture a guess that nearly all of the human population would not hesitate to respond with, “Whatever you eat.” Yet, once again, the progress of science has blurred the lines. Black and white is now a gray blur.
What is food? Are we eating food? In an attempt to discover the impact of certain nutrients on the health and well-being of people, we have discovered that macronutrients (fats, carbohydrates and proteins) in varying proportions have varying effects.
I’m not sure where you can say it all began, but I’m certain that it would be accurate to say that refined flour and white sugar has impacted the health of the human population more than any other alteration of our food resources. “By the time the wheat has been milled and processed, it has been stripped of over 23 natural vitamins, minerals and precious fiber. In their place, processors add back five synthetic vitamins, so they may label their products “enriched,” which misleads many of us into thinking we are purchasing something healthy. The refined flour is then put through a “bleaching” process––adding further chemicals to the flour” (¶1). This was at the bottom of the old food pyramid and a staple of the American diet.
Well, we were getting fat and dying from heart disease and the researchers determined that we need to cut back on fats. Replacing them with more carbohydrates made sense. Now we have low fat-high carb diets. Isn’t that how we fatten livestock? Well, America got fat. Diabetes and heart disease was on the rise. “The industrial food supply was promptly reformulated to reflect the official advice, giving us low-fat pork, low-fat Snackwell’s and all the low-fat pasta and high-fructose (yet low-fat!) corn syrup we could consume. Which turned out to be quite a lot. Oddly, America got really fat on its new low-fat diet — indeed, many date the current obesity and diabetes epidemic to the late 1970s, when Americans began binging on carbohydrates, ostensibly as a way to avoid the evils of fat” (¶20) .
Due to the ability of industry to quickly adapt its products to the latest recommendation/craze, we are immediately inundated with products galore touting the latest improved nutritional content. We are left scratching our heads in the aftermath and scrambling to understand why our most recent manipulation went awry.
Consider now the process of irradiation. This is our current means of slowing decay of what remained to be real food. Meat, fruits and vegetables are subjected to different forms of radiation. These are “low dose” beams that kill pathogens and help to extend their shelf life. The FDA has embraced this technology. It remains to be seen whether or not the motivation was social or political. A recent study concludes, “Therefore, consumption of irradiated food for a long time can cause significant accumulation of the toxic 2-ACB in the adipose tissues of consumers... Consumption of an improper diet together with food that contains 2-ACB which acts as a tumor promoter can increase the risk for the development of colon cancer. Under this scenario, individuals who would normally outlive the risk for colon cancer might develop the cancer from the promoting effect of 2-ACB” (7).
My opinion? We need to return to real food; the way it was created. The problem is I’m not sure we can recognize it unless labeling of food items includes the irradiation process and any other alterations we may invent. Then, there’s the issue of educating the people. In the face of the media supporting these new developments, it also may be challenging to motivate people to support locally, organically grown agricultures. It’s so much easier to do all your shopping in one market and we are pressed for time. Speaking of which one may have less of it after eating “food”.
In conclusion:
“To be worthy of the name, Homo Sapiens should rid himself
of speed before it reduces him to a species in danger
of extinction.A firm defense of quiet material pleasure is the only way to
oppose the universal folly of Fast Life. May suitable doses of guaranteed sensual pleasure and
slow, long-lasting enjoyment preserve us from the contagion of the multitude who mistake frenzy for efficiency” (6).

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Works Cited

Bobak, Dr. Susan “Why No White, Refined Flour Products?”. The Messenger. November 2001.

Polan, Michael.“Unhappy Meals” The New York Times. Published: January 28, 2007. ¶20. <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t.html?ei=5088&en=7c85a1c254546157&ex=1327640400&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=all>

What’s in the Beef?. Scientists Question the Safety of Irradiated Ground Beef. Pg 7. By Public Citizen & The Center for Food Safety. Washington, DC. November 2003. <http://www.citizen.org/documents/beeftesting.pdf>

Ed. Renato Sardo. “The Slow Food Companion” 2005. Slow Food
<http://www.slowfoodusa.org/COMPANION_ENG.PDF>