The Great Oxymoron: "Healthy" Processed Foods

If you watch TV (or internet ads, for that matter), you know that there are a ton of products being advertised that claim to be healthy. They are all "naturally flavored" and "contain real fruit" and "are now made with antioxidants" and "are a good source of fiber"... but do those claims make the products healthy?

The answer, of course, is NO. In the words of a recent article from the Journal of the World Public Health Nutrition Association, "There is no such thing as healthy ultra-processed foods. By their very nature they are unhealthy... [and] may well accelerate the deterioration of public goods and public health." Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food and The Omnivore's Dilemma, suggested in this New York Times Magazine article to "avoid even those food products that come bearing health claims... [and] especially avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable, c) more than five in number-- or that contain high-fructose corn syrup."

Let's look at some of these "healthy" products now.

Kellogg's Smorz cereal claims to be a "good source of Vitamin D." Unless you're eating this product in the sun, I don't know how they can possibly advertise this. Here's the ingredient list:

CORN FLOUR, MARSHMALLOW BITS (SUGAR, CORN SYRUP, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, DEXTROSE, GELATIN, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, SODIUM HEXAMETAPHOSPHATE, RED #40, YELLOW,#5, YELLOW #6, BLUE #1), SUGAR, CHOCOLATEY COATING (SUGAR, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN OIL, NONFAT MILK, COCOA PROCESSED WITH ALKALI, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, SOY LECITHIN, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR), WHOLE OAT FLOUR, FRUCTOSE, WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR, WHEAT FLOUR, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, PALM OIL, SALT, CARAMEL COLOR, COLOR ADDED, ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C), NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, NIACINAMIDE, REDUCED IRON, ZINC OXIDE, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), BHT (PRESERVATIVE), RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B1), VITAMIN A PALMITATE, FOLIC ACID, VITAMIN D, VITAMIN B12.

How that is healthy is beyond me (more than five ingredients, contains HFCS, has ingredients I've never heard of and can't pronounce)... yet I'm sure parents will buy it for their kids because of the huge claim on the top of the box.

Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Cereal Bars (Cherry) claims that it's "a good source of fiber," has "more of the whole grains your body needs," and is "made with real fruit." Huh. First of all, your body doesn't need whole grains; if it did, I would've been dead a year and a half ago. In the words of Mark Sisson, author of The Primal Blueprint, "there is absolutely no reason to eat grains." (Click here for the article.) Second of all, I didn't know "real fruit" is made with a million ingredients. Check it out:

WHOLE GRAIN OATS, ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR, SOYBEAN OIL (WITH TBHQ AND CITRIC ACID FOR FRESHNESS), HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, SOLUBLE CORN FIBER, SUGAR, CALCIUM CARBONATE, WHEY, WHEAT BRAN, SALT, CELLULOSE, POTASSIUM BICARBONATE, PROPYLENE GLYCOL, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, SOY LECITHIN, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, WHEAT GLUTEN, CORNSTARCH, NIACINAMIDE, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, CARRAGEENAN, ZINC OXIDE, REDUCED IRON, GUAR GUM, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B1), RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), FOLIC ACID. FILLING: HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CORN SYRUP, CHERRY PUREE CONCENTRATE, GLYCERIN, SUGAR, WATER, SODIUM ALGINATE, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, MALIC ACID, CITRIC ACID, METHYLCELLULOSE, DICALCIUM PHOSPHATE, CARAMEL COLOR, RED #40.

Oh yes, this product is soooooo healthy. I didn't know "real fruit" had high-fructose corn syrup. I guess I learn something new every day! (Kellogg's FiberPlus Antioxidant Bars have similar ingredient lists-- but OMG, they have antioxidants! Must be healthy!)

Speaking of cherry-flavored things and antioxidants, the most ridiculous "healthy" product is Diet Cherry 7Up Antioxidant which is "a delicious way to cherry pick your antioxidant" "without the calories of the original." There are so many things wrong with this-- just because something is diet, 0 carb, 0 calorie, and has "antioxidants" does not make it okay to drink. Ever.

Filtered carbonated water and contains 2% or less of each of the following: citric acid, natural flavors, potassium benzoate (protects flavor), aspartame, potassium citrate, acesulfame potassium, vitamin E acetate, Red 40.

In fact, studies have shown that aspartame (Nutrasweet) and acesulfame-K (Sunnette), the artificial sweeteners used in diet soda, contain many toxins and cause many health problems including cancer, seizures, tumors, and neuropsychotic disorders (source). According to Primal Body, Primal Mind, they "can increase insulin and leptin levels in people who consume them and thus contribute to obesity." In fact, another popular artificial sweetener used in "diet" products, sucralose (Splenda), "originally started out in an attempt to create an insecticide." Why put that in your body!? No matter what supposed antioxidants a product has, read the ingredients and run far, far away if it has any of these artificial sweeteners... or if it's a soda in general. Check out this awesome infographic on the harmful effects of soda: Harmful Soft Drinks.

My favorite claim is "naturally flavored." General Mills's Oats & Chocolate Chewy Fiber Bar, for example, has this one (along with the "35% daily value of fiber" one too). I guess only in the modern, ultra-processed foods world does this ingredients list mean "naturally flavored":

Chicory Root Extract, Semisweet Chocolate Chips (sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, natural flavor), Whole Grain Oats, High Maltose Corn Syrup, Rice Flour, Barley Flakes, Sugar, Canola Oil, Glycerin, Maltodextrin, Honey, Tricalcium Phosphate, Palm Kernal Oil, Soy Lecithin, Salt, Nonfat Milk, Fructose, Malt Extract, Cocoa Processed with Alkali, Baking Soda, Caramel Color, Natural Flavor. Mixed Tocopherols Added to Retain Freshness.

Don't you just love chemicals as part of a balanced meal?

I know a lot of us count carbs, but be wary of low-carb bars, shakes, and food products. They may be low in carbs, sure, but that doesn't make them healthy-- the same way slapping any of the aforementioned health claims make those products healthy. Let's take Atkins Advantage bars, for example-- they're only 2 or 3 net carbs and claim to be "great" or "smart" nutrition... but they contain a million and a half ingredients and artificial sweeteners. I used to live on them in my Atkins days, but I feel so much better now that I avoid that fake stuff.

What I'm trying to get across here is eat real food. Have you ever looked at an ingredient list on a head of lettuce, an apple, or a piece of chicken? No? Well, I haven't either, and you know why? Because real foods don't have ingredient lists.... and they certainly don't make health claims either. While I understand the convenience of these ultra-processed "foods," take the extra few minutes and make your own crunch bars or breakfast bars.

Your health will thank you.

Quote of the Day:

"Eat food. Though in our current state of confusion, this is much easier said than done. So try this: Don't eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food." -Michael Pollan

A Look at the US News Diet Ranking and the Paleo Infographic

A few days ago, US News ranked the Paleo Diet as #20 (out of 20) on its "Best Diets Overall" list. This is completely ridiculous and kind of ironic because, as of the time that I'm writing this blog (5:45PM on June 9th), Paleo has the most "yes" votes out of all of the diets for the "Did this diet work for you?" question, with 113 votes. The highest-ranked diet (DASH) only had 3 "yes" votes, and the next-highest "working" diet was Atkins (ranked #19) with 25 votes. So this makes perfect sense-- the lowest-ranked diet seems to work for the most people... or, perhaps, all of the enraged Paleo enthusiasts (myself included) clicked "Yes" to show support.

Regardless... this list is bogus, because when you look at the breakdown/statistics of Paleo, the two major "cons" are "Goodbye to grains and dairy" and "pricey" --which aren't bad at all (and you can make super-cheap Paleo/Primal meals)-- and none of the statistics are conclusive or informative, such as follows:

-Will you lose weight? No way to tell.

-Does it have cardiovascular benefits? Unknown.

-Can it prevent or control diabetes? Unknown.

-Are there health risks? Possibly. By shunning dairy and grains, you're at risk of missing out on a lot of nutrients.

This is absolutely ridiculous, because if the people actually did their research, they'd know that 1) Paleo will help most SAD people lose weight, 2) It will prevent and control diabetes, and 3) You can get the nutrients in dairy and grains by eating vegetables. I'm not a doctor, but I've read the Paleo books and the scientific papers and peer-reviewed studies that show all of the health benefits of the Paleo lifestyle... so I highly encourage you to read Dr. Loren Cordain's response to this for a more detailed explanation that cites many of these studies. Also, Sarah Fragoso (of Everyday Paleo) has this great "Stay Positive. Eat Food. Keep it Simple." post to tell you just that: stay positive, eat food, and keep it simple.... and don't listen to these "experts." Like I said a few posts ago: do your research and learn to keep questioning these articles and Conventional Wisdom.

On a more positive note, it's really interesting to see how SADieters react to eating Paleo/Primal for a few days, because they immediately notice the difference. We recently had some family members stay with us for a few days, and my cousin remarked to me how much better she felt after eating our Paleo/Primal meals than when she ate stuff at home, and my aunt kept talking about how much better she felt and how much energy she had after eating healthier. They even asked me to photocopy the Primal Palate recipe from Paleo Magazine for them to take back home! (Speaking of which, the first issue of the magazine was amazing-- I highly recommend subscribing to it or buying the online version of the issue!)

So if you still haven't tried Paleo, just give it a few days: you'll immediately notice the difference. Once you go Paleo, you'll never be "SAD" again!

Further, take a look at the infographic that just came out today from PaleolithicDiet.com. It provides really fascinating information and statistics and is really easy to read and understand:

Quote of the Day:

"As much as 90% of published medical information that doctors rely on is flawed." -Paleo Infographic

A Look Into Conventional Wisdom (and why you shouldn't listen to it)

The more I become interested in evolutionary nutrition and health, the more Conventional Wisdom angers me. I read a lot of health/nutrition websites, and I'm so sick and tired of people preaching about "healthy" foods that are actually aiding to the issues. If these foods are so "healthy," then why are people getting sicker and sicker? Why is nothing changing? Why are health care costs astronomical and why are more people obese than ever before?

I read an article recently about people wanting to retire Ronald McDonald (*rolls eyes*) which said, "And the government is getting strict on marketing unhealthy food to children." Really!? Really? The government's pushing "low fat" and "heart-healthy whole grains" and all of that other crap. In fact, in the government's newest campaign, the Food Pyramid is becoming..... wait for it..... a PIE chart! Well isn't that ironic? It'll be unveiled on Thursday, but apparently "it consists of four colored sections, for fruits, vegetables, grains, and protein... Beside the plate is a smaller circle for dairy, suggesting a glass of low-fat milk or perhaps a yogurt cup." I think it's great that fruits and veggies will make up half of the circle, but grains? Low-fat milk? This pie/pizza chart will not help Michelle Obama's "crusade against obesity," and will certainly not help people become healthier. "Low-fat" products are almost always pumped with added sugar, and it has been proven that fat does not make you fat. (Mark Sisson has a great article about it here and here's another great MDA article about it too. This article over at Paleo Diet Lifestyle also gives a great breakdown of Paleo-approved fats.) And grains? In the words of Sisson, "There is absolutely no reason to eat grains." Hell, it was because our hunter-gatherer ancestors settled down and figured out agriculture 10,000 years that people aren't as strong, tall, lean, or healthy as they once were. Eat green leafy vegetables for fiber instead-- we know that those don't make people unhealthy!

The most ridiculous thing I've read lately is Diet-Friendly Ballpark Snacks over at Fitbie.com (a site I've blogged about before due to its ridiculous nutrition advice). Instead of snacking on ice cream, they suggest getting a snow cone instead because "It's mostly ice and actually provides a little extra hydration." Seriously? Just buy a water if you're dehydrated and save the 62.92g of carbs! Instead of buying nachos, they recommend buying a pretzel instead, but picking off the salt crystals.... but then goes on to admit that a "plain salted pretzel isn't the healthiest pick, but it's the lesser of two food evils." Same thing goes for choosing cracker jacks over cotton candy because "they're still a vast improvement over the cotton candy." This is exactly why people are so confused-- they're saying it's unhealthy, but telling them that because it's a "lesser of two food evils," it's still okay? It's really no wonder why people don't know how to make the right choices: these so-called helpful diet articles are just a load of BS! How about telling them Eat before you go to the game so you don't have to A) Eat unhealthily and B) Waste your money on outrageously-priced ballpark food instead? Wouldn't that be a lot better than giving out conflicting information?

We are a nation of confused, conflicted, and sickly people who have too much information coming at us from all sides by CW-believing doctors, nutritionists, and governments. The conflicting information-- "Fat is bad! Now meat is bad! Oh, wait, now calories are bad!"-- jams people up so much that they just give up and continue to be sickly. So don't give up and do your research: grains, sugar, low-fat "products," and processed anything are evil. Do not be uninformed and listen blindly to them. Knowledge is power... and who doesn't want to have power over their own bodies? So, besides the Paleo books that I reference all the time, I have three books that I think everyone should read:

1) Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price. This should be required reading for all doctors, dentists, nutritionists, and, actually, everyone in general. Price, a dentist, found back in the 1930s that sugar and the Western diet were destroying healthy societies by examining their teeth. It's a fascinating and incredibly informational work on both the nutritional and anthropological levels.

2) The Jungle Effect by Daphne Miller. Like Price, she examines the diets of hunter-gatherers and shows how the Western Diet (and the SAD) is the cause of our sickly modern societies.

3) Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It by Gary Taubes. This is an absolute must-read. He explains exactly what it says in the title: why we get fat, and what to do about it. He takes a very Paleo-like approach to nutrition and also reminds you that fat does not make you fat. (He also recently wrote an article for the New York Times, "Is Sugar Toxic?", which is also worth reading.)

I know this was a bit of a rant, but the evidence is there: the guidelines put forth by the government and advice by other Conventional Wisdom followers will continue to make people sick and obese. I know I can't change what's going on out there, but if I can just help one person turn to the Paleo/Primal lifestyle, then this blog will have been a success. Actually, two or three people would be even better-- if you've ever seen the movie Pay It Forward, you can do a lot by reaching out to three people. Haley Joel Osment's character has an idea to change the world for a school project and says something along the lines of, "I'm going to help three people. And each of those three people will help three people, so now that's twelve people..." and explains how quickly that could multiply. So if this blog-- or any of the other Paleo/Primal blogs, books, or articles-- helps you achieve your health goals, then tell three people and hope that they'll keep passing it on until we no longer have obesity and health crises on our hands.

Cooking from Everyday Paleo:

Rockin' Moroccan Chicken!

Asparagus-Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Quote of the Day:

"An examination of 320 teeth of ten individuals revealed twenty teeth with caries, or 6.3 percent. It is significant that all of these carious teeth were in the mouth of one individual, the cook. The cook used European foods. The others all boarded themselves and lived on native diets." -Weston A. Price

(This post is featured in Primal Cave #4.)