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by Arnold De Villa
October 1, 2011
So claims Jessica Williams in her book “50 Facts That Should Change the World”. One day, to satiate the curious cat inside me, I strolled through the aisles of a grocery store, and converted their shelves into a library, reading the labels of the food they had on display. For more than ten years, my son has suffered (and still is suffering) from gluten intolerance, unable to eat anything with wheat, rye, barley, any artificial derivatives or any food additives, to the extent that our household adapted a more punctilious attitude towards anything that comes through our esophagus.
While starvation as a consequence of poverty is still a worldwide plague, the American food industry spent around $20 billion more than ten years ago to make food prettier, tastier and longer lasting. The average American consumer, whether a determining factor for the production and manufacturing of food, or a victim of marketing manipulations, has always yearned for a bigger, tastier and cheaper food. Hence – the additives: synthetic, chemical and not appropriate for consumption.
With additives integrated in so many of the food we purchase, it is no wonder that obesity, cardiopulmonary diseases, circulatory illness and renal dysfunction are on the rise. That which is not natural, that which should not be there will all eventually lead to that which should have never been and that which could have been avoided. “If only I ate better, I would have never had this gout”, says Lolo who limps in winter. Mang Tomas will have his dialysis this morning. “If only I minimized all those yummy foods spiced with all those fatty additives, I probably would never be here”.
Prudence dictates that food is not the total culprit of the modern day maladies we have. Perhaps it is the attitude towards it that adversely bounces back as a disadvantage rather than as a benefit. Among Filipinos, although additives are probably not a main issue, the majority of our typical victual is saturated with lipids. Moreover, if you look closely to all those canned ingredients we normally use for a well cherished recipe, especially those shipped from the Philippines or from some distant land, you will notice the presence of elements never heard of before. Don’t worry, they are not poison. Some could probably be carcinogenic, but not yet. They must be additives then. Of course, the long voyage of food through the cheaper route of the sea, deems it necessary to infuse a longer shelf life. And thus, the artificial element pervades.
Twenty Billion Dollars for something consumers do not absolutely need is mind boggling. When I was young, one refrigerator was more than sufficient. There was no need to overflow the pantry with processed food that could probably outlive us all. There was more attention given to what is fresh, local, real and natural. We patiently waited for the seasons to produce the right produce instead of forcing a season to produce crops beyond their allotted lifetime. And then we wanted more. The bigger, the cheaper, the better, and the sicker we became.
One in five of the world’s population survives on less than a dollar a day. Nonetheless, despite all the additives designed to prolong food life, 1.3 billion tons of food (a third of a global food production) is wasted year after year: thrown, discarded and spoiled.
Recently, cantaloupes were found to contain listeria, bacteria that could spread through the central nervous system and cause meningitis. This news is irrelevant to the issue of additives, but it proves that additives are not the sole culprit for a food related mishap. This brings me back to my original premise that food, whether with additives or not, natural or organic, processed or manufactured is not the cause of human demise. Food is actually good. It provides nutrition, sustenance and pleasure. It provides a good backdrop for a social event. It is a form of solace when we are depressed. Yet, it is what we do with it before we eat it that complicates the human health condition.
Back to the Filipino market, a research I read somewhere somewhat mentioned that obesity amongst us is gradually rising. Try going back home and the first thing that most people there say upon seeing you would be, “Ay naku, Manang, ang taba-taba mo! (oh my gosh, you are so fat)”
We don’t have an issue with additives. We do have an issue on added food. Filling the party plate with lechon and adobo and still going home with more doggie bags inundated with more fatty foods is a perfect paradigm of excess. Considering that our digestive tracts are not as big as our Caucasian counterpart, our ability to gain weight is much higher than those who are genetically larger.
“What to do?”, my Indian client would ask me. Well, I think we all need to eat properly, adequately, and most of all, moderately. There was never a rule that we should be full after eating. Common sense will expect us not to be hungry. For the Filipino pantry, read the labels. Then think of your future. Will current culinary pleasure justify the potential risks of possibly unneeded and avoidable diseases? Is it hard to educate ourselves better by simply reading the labels of what we buy? Contrary to what most people believe, organic food is not really that expensive. It is the amount of organic food that we would buy that could make our lifestyle expensive. True, although certified stores like Whole Foods are actually gobblers of a worker’s pay check, there are more and more stores that sell food with less and less additives. More and more businesses have realized that human health has more weight than the shelf life of food.
In many industrialized countries, fourteen to fifteen pounds of additives are consumed each year. Those additives become part of our system, remain in our system, and disrupt our system, until havoc takes place. They are not all the same, but they are not always needed. Less is actually more.