As part of their study last week, I referred my students to Bill’s new book How to Eat Right and Save The Planet. We lost control over our nutrition as a society when we let industry produce our food. Food produced in factories instead of kitchens puts the power of healthy eating in control of those motivated by profit rather than health.
Our food habits have changed over time. Since the agricultural revolution of 10,000 years ago, our relationship to food production and processing has changed. We have carved out forests, claimed grassland, and left our mark on the world. Changes in agriculture have also led to changes in how we feel about food and the nutritional content of our foods.
Many of the foods we eat today would have been foreign to our grandparents. This is due to many factors. There has been a huge transformation in the way we grow food, how we process it, transport it, market it and sell it. Another thing is also known. We are dying from the food we eat in fast-food restaurants and supermarkets, as well as the sweet treats and snacks we see on television. Yes, I mean it.
The food industry will claim these changes as improving the quality and shelf-life of food and bringing new abundance to our diets. It is even said to be the most healthy diet ever recorded. We will see that all these statements are false and distract from the cost we pay for public health, environmental damage, and social justice. There are many reasons why we continue to eat this corrupt and bloated industry’s products and feed them to our kids.
Let’s start in the kitchen to see past the smoke and mirrors. You may recall that this is where food was stored, prepared and consumed for many centuries. Here I will be focusing on a specific period in the recent past, the years immediately before and after World War 2. This was when we saw the most significant changes in food and our relationship with food. What we eat is about the food industry and personal habits, medical shortsightedness, political cowardice, and imagined traditions.
Home cooking
Cooking was a common activity in the home before the 1940s. We knew exactly where our food came from and who prepared it. We had control over what we ate. It was usually a member of the family who cooked the family meal, most likely a grandmother or mother. You might have had some of the food come from your family garden or local vendor.
Women began to work outside of the home after the Second World War, and there was less time for food preparation. Advertising and processed foods were replacing the folk traditions that ruled the kitchen. Also, the marketplace was changing. The supermarket was established in the middle of the 1950s.
Women had to get out of the ruts of life. The food industry was dedicated to solving that problem. Homemakers were shown how to make condensed soups, use packaged sauces and add variety to their meals with new cookbooks. Frozen foods are quick to cook and make seasonal vegetables accessible all year. You could make a delicious meal in just 25 minutes.
The Cold Truth
Generations that grew up in the Great Depression and survived the Second World War longed for a simpler life. This quest for a better life was centered on food. Why waste time cooking food when it can be bought ready-made? You don’t have to wait for your dinner to be ready when you can get it hot and ready in just minutes. Two-income households were rising, and the growing middle class desired more convenience, modernity, and efficiency.
The Birdseye Company developed the flash-freezing process in the 1920s. This allowed producers to ship seafood and vegetables without compromising their taste. Many homes didn’t have refrigerators with freezer compartments, so small shops could not freeze food. Appliance manufacturers made new refrigerators with larger freezer compartments. These fridges became a symbol of class in modern homes. The popularity of home refrigerators grew in the 1930s. They became more common after the Second World War. Supermarkets could sell all the food needed in one place and quickly increase their refrigeration. The concept of “One-stop” food shopping was created.
The problem of food suppliers and consumers being far apart was largely solved by refrigeration. It wasn’t easy to buy fish and dairy products, particularly butter if you lived far away from the coasts. It was possible to slaughter meat at great distances and speed, store it for several months, and ship it long distances without spoilage. This allowed producers to keep food in stock for long periods before releasing it to the market. This weakened the “freshness factor” and its intrinsic effect on nutrition.
Local and regional agriculture began to disappear with the advent of refrigeration slowly. The end of seasonal eating was reached. Local and regional farming was forced to the sidelines and couldn’t compete with cheaply grown crops from distant locations and shipped out of season. The first major steps towards modern food were made by supermarkets and the proliferation of fast-food outlets. Both had been exported to Europe by the end of the 1950s and were now a symbol of American food culture. They were also symbols of social privilege and affluence. This “modern”, quick, simple, and affordable food hit the general public. Many people didn’t realize that hidden costs were involved in these foods products, which would need to be paid later. These costs could be physical or environmental. The less obvious cost was how we perceive the value of food in daily life.
Do you know what you eat?
In our collective innocence, we assumed that food companies would be good for our health. Our food was not cooked anymore; it was made. We often didn’t have any way to judge food quality, except for the label. The food was either bottled or canned. Words such as “natural”, “nutritious,” and “healthy” no longer have any meaning beyond advertising. There was a chasm between food and us.
The food industry knew that making food look better and taste better by using chemical additives and mechanical processes. A brighter green could be given to peas that have become grey from processing. Unsellable tomatoes can be used to make ketchup or sauces. They can also be re-colored and re-flavored, and artificially thickened. The creation of manufactured food was a chemistry experiment. It was successful as long as it had a long shelf-life, tasted good, and had acceptable quality. Predictability was also a plus. The consumer loves predictability, as McDonald’s proved.
New supermarkets can store stock for longer periods. It was impossible to guarantee “freshness”. We were served a diet that contained more chemical additives and preservatives but very little flavor. It was a feast full of chemicals and calories, but it had a lower nutritional value.
Pre-packaged food can harm the nutritional content of the foods. Children are particularly affected by this. This is a common nutritional problem that children experience every day. As more meals are prepared and available for immediate consumption, more fast food options are brought into the home. A study found that half of the energy children consumed from fast food was consumed at home. Bill presented a loaf of bread to the children at a workshop last summer and asked them where their food came from. The slides with soil, growing wheat, etc., were then shown to the children. One of them said that his food does not grow in dirt. He gets it from the supermarket.
The kitchen has been given away, and we don’t know what is in the food. It was cleverly disguised. Food is manufactured in large quantities and frozen after being frozen. These frozen foods are kept in large freezers that can be accessed from the restaurant. It is re-heated rather than being made from scratch. To ensure that the food tastes the same, the factory adds natural and artificial flavors. These flavors are made in separate factories.
I am a wanderer in supermarkets, and I see all the colorful boxes selling ‘dead food’. I tell my clients and students that eating the cardboard box would provide more nutrition.
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