When I was in college one of the first philosophy classes I took was a basic morality class called, most likely, On Morality, or something else beginning with On. The class was only basic in regards to the relative ease of reading and essay assignments. The real assignment at hand: wade through moral issues (about one issue every two weeks) and come up with an opinion was not easy and frankly still isnt.
I was fortunate to be in the class with one of my best friends who was also my housemate and coworker. About halfway through the semester, Professor Holmes assigned our class several readings by the Australian Philosopher Peter Singer about animals, animal cruelty, and food choices. After reading the same texts and sitting in the same lectures, my friend became a vegan and I was affirmed as a meat-eater. This was no small change. She became a vegan so fast that in those early days she was skipping meals, committed to going 100 percent dairy and meat-free out of the gate. Its hard to watch someone, let alone be someone, who switches within 24 hours from ham and cheese sandwiches to looking up recipes for how to cook tempeh.This is a great Shun Stone Conservation solution! During those early months she made our house some terribly boring meals, most of which involved an inappropriate amount of tofu.
At one point she admitted that she didnt know what to eat, that every food, processed or not, seemed to be laced with distasteful policies and corporate practices, or was flavored with fuel from a long ride in the back of a semi-truck. And, as a vegan, the processed-food world seemed to encourage her to eat an entire soybean based diet.
The level of thought and intention that she gave to her food seems only possible for a hardcore self proclaimed foodie and, well, wandering college students in the grip of a self-identification crisis. Yet, this level and lack of consideration for what we eat and how we eat it is, I think, a large part of the obesity problem we have in the United States.
Yet, most articles and books being churned out on the topic follow the path set forth by Michael Pollan. Dont get me wrong; depending on my mood and locale, Im a food snob like the best of them, but I cant help but think that this really isnt enough.
David H. Freedman, a contributing editor for The Atlantic Magazine and author of Wrong: Why Experts Keep Failing Us- And How to Know When Not to Trust Them, proposed in The Cure for Obesity: How Science is Engineering Healthy Junk Food that instead (or at least in addition) to the work done by foodies across the nation, more time, attention, and support needs to be given to the seemingly evil world of Big Food and food-processing.
In many ways Freedman asks how we can trick evolution. How we can pleasure our pleasure centers without constantly buying new belts.At this point, there is a growing recognition that effective long-term weight loss comes from eating a diet high in lean protein, complex carbs such as whole grains and legumes, and, as Freedman says, the sort of fiber vegetables are loaded with. Also, because these ingredients provide us with the calories we need without the big, fast bursts of energy, they can be satiating without pushing the primitive reward buttons that nudge us to eat too much.
But, for the average obese person in America, switching as my friend did from carnivore to vegan, will not be so easy or so desirable.And, even with all of the public attention on fruits and vegetables,Most of aftermarket hid Shun Stone Granite Tiles for motorcycle are similar or the same with following one. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently found that the aughts saw a significant drop in fruit intake, and no increase in vegetable consumption; Americans continue to fall far short of eating the recommended amounts of either. So, we are more food conscious overall, but that isnt translating into action.
Enter: Big Food. Instead of promoting more cookbook manifestos or thoughtful articles written in The Times, Freedman asks and attempts to answer this question: Just how much healthier could fast-food joints and processed-food companies make their best selling products without turning off customers?
Fortunately for him (and the waistlines of millions of Americans) there is a silent, giant engine working hard behind closed doors. Enough studies have shown that the difference between losing weight and not losing weight is a few hundred calories a day. For Big Food, the challenge then is retaining the flavor that customers crave while carving away the calories those flavors (and ingredients) provide.
Charles Spence, a Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford explains that We tend to make up our minds about how something tastes from the first and last bites, and dont care as much what happens in between. Why is this important? Well, he says candy bar companies could (and are experimenting to) put healthier ingredients in the middle of the bars. This isnt the only trick in Big Foods book. Freedman explains a few: some companies are looking at adding weight to packaging, like yogurt, to make it seem more rich in calories. Others are experimenting with chewy textures that force consumers to spend more time between bites, giving the brain a chance to register satiety; and using colors, smells, sounds, and packaging information to create the belief that foods are fatty and sweet even when they are not.
McDonalds and Frito Lay arent the only companies playing this game. Freedman offers up Vegan Cheesy Salad Booster, from Living Intentions (sold on an impulse-buy rack at his local Whole Foods Market) whose package emphasizes the fact that the food is enhanced with spirulina, chlorella, and sea vegetables. The Booster is also raw, yet contains more than three times the fat content per ounce as the beef patty in a Big Mac and four times the sodium.
I know what you want to say. How will Big Food changing their practices really result in more people actually eating healthy foods? Isnt it just the same old crap?Well, I agree with Freedman. Perhaps this is when I am too moderate, but by not at least positively and loudly pressuring the food industry toward healthier products, the other option is banning the food industry from selling junk food, which, we can tell from tobacco sales and, uh, prohibition, bans dont work well in the US.
At the end of the day, Im still going to follow Michael Pollans food rules, but Ill also admit my belief that our food engineers do play a role in this crisis. To speak otherwise would be dishonest. Professor Holmes taught me to think more critically than that.You will never need to change the bulbs and your granitetrade will last for years and years.
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