So a few days ago I had a little dessert called a Little Debbie cupcake. I decided to keep the wrapper and see what our dear old friend Mr. Pollan had to say about the ingredients.
Avoid food products containing ingredients that are A) Unfamiliar, B) Unpronounceable, C) More than five in number, or that include D) High-fructose corn syrup.
Here is a list of all the ingredients in one Little Debbie cupcake:
Sugar, water, enriched bleached flour (wheat flour, barley malt, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate [vitamin B1], riboflavin, [vitamin B2], folic acid), soybean oil, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, sorbitol, eggs, cocoa processed with alkali, invert sugar, partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil with TBHQ to preserve flavor.
It continues: Contains 2% or less of each of the following: palm and palm kernel oil, corn starch, maltodextrin, modified corn starch, salt, chocolate, whey (milk), natural and artificial flavors, emulsifiers (sorbitan monostearate, mono- and diglycerides, polysorbate 60, propylene glycol monosterate, sodium lactylate, soy lecithin), leavening (sodium acid pyrophasphate, baking soda, calcium phosphate), colors (caramel color, titanium dioxide, red 40), dextrose, calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate, agar, locust bean gum, sodium hexametaphosphate, lactic acid, calcium lactate, guar gum, xanthan gum, sorbic acid (to retain freshness), citric acid.
Going back to Pollan's criteria, we must conclude that by his standards Little Debbie cupcakes are NOT food.
With that many different unpronounceable and unfamiliar ingredients, I am starting to regret putting it in my mouth in the first place. I hope my tummy can forgive me after it figures out what to do with all of these strange chemicals.
I've noticed that we are surrounded by processed food. I can't even buy a loaf of bread or a bag of popcorn without feeling like I am wreaking havoc on my stomach.
ReplyDeleteI was always aware of all of the chemicals and processed foods we eat, but Pollan opened my eyes to an extent I never could have imagined.
ReplyDeleteI will continue to eat these processed foods, but now that I am aware of how much influence they have on our lives, I will be wary of them and cut back whenever I can.
Omg... those tastes so good though............
ReplyDeleteActually... I've just realized that our bodies are a lot more complex than we give credit for. When you say "I can't figure out what my body would do with all those chemicals", realize that your body is complex itself and is very capable of absorbing and detoxifying ingested chemicals.
ReplyDeletePerhaps what Pollan means when he says to go back to 'simple' foods is actually go back to even more complex foods than those in the market. By this I mean that science has not yet developed foods that can exactly mimic natural stuff and hence replace them.
When science has advanced far enough that it can replicate and replace each of the millions of chemicals that we take in through organic stuff, then the main argument in 'In Defense of Food' will become a non-issue.