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“The variety of products available to us means we have too much choice. We don’t need any of this to feed ourselves. This is food designed to fill the wallet, not the stomach.”
Looking for some good advice, I asked my grandmother, who lives in the south of France, how her family went shopping when she was a teenager, between the 50s and 60s. There were none in their town. There was only a small grocery store and a few specialty shops. According to her, the big difference from today is the amount of products available in this grocery store as well as the variety of products. Pasta? Just one or two brands. Cheese ? Some varieties, often local. Some yogurts? Just plain Swiss cookies and cream cheese. Despite the lack of choice compared to the well-stocked shelves of our modern supermarkets, she doesn’t like the latter. According to her, “we are, in a sense, drowning in the crowd. The variety of products available to us means we have a lot to choose from, too much to choose from. We don’t need any of this to feed ourselves. This is food designed to fill the wallet, not the stomach.”
So can the “always more, always better” mentality also be transferred to our diet? It doesn’t seem. While the quantity of products and their variety continue to grow (we still manage to sell ourselves “zombie” flavored chips), the quality of the products is in free fall. Taking advantage of consumers’ ignorance on the subject, their lack of available time and the use of increasingly aggressive visual marketing techniques to evoke nostalgia or the idea of ”homemade quality”, food manufacturers have managed to profit from the existing system. Food is broken down, shaped, heated, over-processed, frozen and mixed to an extreme degree, making it impossible to visually trace the staples in the final product for many products in our supermarkets. Next time you go to the store, do the test yourself, you will find that it is surprising.
Sugar and modern food: a taste of “Come Back”
“The main reason this sugar is often used to make junk food is because it costs next to nothing.”
Christophe Brusset, Junk Food Strikes Back
Food additives: a (too) long list
When sugar was truly seen as a problem, food manufacturers seized the opportunity. Instead of reducing the sugar content of their products or changing the recipes, they discovered the important marketing method “light” or “diet”. This market is particularly important for sugary drinks such as lemonade, but also for other products such as sugar-free chewing gum, syrups or industrial pastries. This is a logical argument for an industrialist that maintains the profits of the sugar market while opening a new sugar-free market. The simulation of sweet taste achieved by synthetic sweeteners, of which the best known are undoubtedly aspartame and acesulfame-K, is therefore a great success.
Nevertheless, these sweeteners are the subject of heated debate. While some studies have shown a possible causal link between their regular consumption and the development of diabetes or cancer, the evidence is still limited and more research is needed. Many studies suggest that their consumption could cause health problems, but often there is no official certainty recognized by the entire scientific community. For example, certain dyes that are mainly used in confectionery, such as tartrazine, “Orange Yellow S” or “Allura Red AC”, are sometimes suspected of causing allergic reactions or even hyperactivity in children. These three dyes are part of the ingredient list of the famous candies Sour Patch Kids. Some countries, due to scientific doubts, preferred to take preventative measures and ban these dyes without waiting for unanimous evidence. In his book Food additives: what the labels hideHélène Barbier du Vimont explains that Allura AC Red is “part of a re-evaluation of additives carried out in Southampton in 2007-2008” and that it is already “banned in Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Austria”. Norway [et] approved in France under certain conditions.
Ultra-processed foods: a ghost on the plate
Although many additives are not actually harmful to health, they hide something much deeper: the presence of highly processed products on our plates for decades.
Actually, it suits everyone well. Let’s take the example of prepared meals: the manufacturer can increase his profit margin because he has provided a “service” by preparing the dish; the retailer can offer products that are very attractive to consumers; and that saves valuable time. Christophe Brusset includes highly processed foods in his junk food approach, which should be avoided at all costs. He explains: “Researchers have found that the more processed a food is, the unhealthier it is.” Successive transformations destroy the food’s protective structure, which we call the “matrix,” and alter its nutritional balance. Fiber and nutrients are eliminated or broken down, sugars and fats are concentrated, salt and additives are added, and certain toxins are created. » Clara Butler, an engineer graduated from the Toulouse School of Chemistry, who has been researching for many years the possible causes of problems related to modern nutrition and occasionally intervenes in schools in France to raise awareness. Children (and their parents). in a broader sense), explained during an interview with The offensive : “When shopping at the supermarket, take the time and ask yourself whether you could have cooked this product at home given the ingredients and processing. If the answer is yes, that’s great, someone cooked for you, have fun! If the answer is “no” or “I don’t know” because the ingredient list is very long and contains things you don’t understand, put the product aside. »
“Looking at the ingredient list on the back of a product’s packaging is a rare reflex among consumers […] However, this list provides information about highly processed products »
Looking at the ingredient list on the back of a product’s packaging is a rare reflex among consumers because they either don’t think of it or simply think it’s unnecessary. However, this list only includes highly processed products. For example, if the list contains an unusual number of ingredients and some you don’t know, ask yourself questions. Believe me, I took the test and you will quickly find some surprising answers. Personally, I’m a big fan of a certain category of French cookies that feature a thin layer of chocolate with orange marmalade on top of a soft cookie. In the ingredients list we would therefore expect to find flour, sugar, oranges, chocolate and perhaps a preservative. However, there are suspect substances such as xanthan gum, glucose fructose syrup, sodium acid pyrophosphate, wheat starch, soy lecithin and even mango seeds! Still strange for a simple orange cookie, right?
Although these additives are all safe in small doses, these long ingredient lists reflect heavy industrial or chemical processing. The food was deconstructed and then completely reconstructed. The precious “Matrix” was completely destroyed. This decomposition of the matrix has a strong impact on the nutritional quality of the final product: the sugar becomes “simple” and is more easily absorbed by the body, with more serious consequences. Clara Butler adds: “Drinking orange juice and eating an orange are not at all equivalent from a nutritional perspective.” When you eat an orange, you are eating the entire matrix of the fruit, i.e. its fibers, which your stomach has to break down to absorb it . On the other hand, if you drink orange juice, which requires squeezing an average of four oranges, it contains just as much sugar as lemonade and is free of fiber and therefore very easy to digest. Juice therefore has a strong impact on your blood sugar. [taux de sucre dans le sang, ndlr]» . This food destruction and the “destructive effects” of this process on taste, appearance and texture must be balanced by additives that are characteristic of highly processed foods and should therefore be avoided. , or do this only very occasionally.
In the same edition
#Greed #Profit #Crime