Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Sorry, you are all just wrong!



Recently food author Marc Bittman has started his opinion column in the New York Times titled A Food Manifesto for the Future. I read it last week and thought that it was pretty good. Admitedly it was somewhat unrealistic and even Bittman admitted via twitter that there were giant holes in some of the things he was saying. However, the American political food set up is SO complicated, a real description of the exact steps the American government should take to fix the food system would fill several sets of encyclopedias (if you are interested in this topic, a good place to start is Nestle's Food Politics).


Anyway, as expected one of the major industry representatives took issue with what Bittman said about what needs to happen in regards to the way that meat is produced in this country (basically that it needs to be made more sustainable, humane, and safe). In this case, it was The National Pork Producers Council who wrote a letter to the editor saying that "Modern livestock housing is temperature-controlled, well lighted and well ventilated. It keeps animals safe and comfortable and protects them from predators and disease. That's why the incidence of key food-borne illnesses in this country is going down, not up." Whatever. Everything that I have read tells me that this is a big fat lie. However, this was not what really got my blood boiling. I fully expect the huge industries in this country to try to defend themselves when they are attacked by people who can influence consumer's decisions in the supermarket. What really got my attention was a comment on the article about the letter.....

the comment read:

The pork producers shouldn't get so peeved at Bittman, they're taking him much too seriously.
Obviously Bittman's just blowing smoke up all of our skirts. That, or he's a stunning hypocrite...just have a look at how his 'healthy' recipes stack up:
http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm/h/4377-test
No wonder the Times moved him to the opinion section.

When you click the link, it is the center for consumer freedom (who I have read ridiculous articles from in the past) trying to claim that because STOUFFER'S meals have less calories than some of Bittman's recipes, they are BETTER for you than his home cooked meals. This was the craziest quote from the article: "On almost every count, the microwavable meals are healthier than Bittman's homemade fare. And they often contain substantially fewer calories and fat grams."

This article represents pretty much everything that is wrong with America's perception of food and how we value foods. Here is why in my humble opinion....

1) If you look at Bittman's recipes, they are not all nutritionally perfect. However, you can easily make them better by replacing things as you wish, and they are HOME COOKED with real ingredients. The Stoufer's microwaveable meals have a crazy amount of processed ingredients 

Here is the list from the Fried Chicken entree.
Another funny thing is this image right next to the list of ingredients:
What a consolation!
 2) The calories listed of the packages are for 1 serving. Often the family sized microwaveable meals will advise you to eat a small amount, making the calorie count looks small. But honestly how many people do you think go by the serving size? This is a way that food marketers make their foods look healthier than they are. 

3) The meat used in these products is probably the cheapest and worst of the worst if you care about the environment, humane issues, and antibiotics/hormones in your food. It is also often injected with water and other weirdo science stuff to make it more tender and palatable.

4) This article also illustrates the common misguided idea that low in fat & calories = good for you. Although calories do count, there is so much more to good nutrition than calories in vs calories out. I do not recommend eating the types of fats listed on the fried chicken label (HYDROGENATED SOY AND/OR COTTONSEED OILS). However, It is ridiculous that people seem to think that if they lower their fat intake they will be automatically healthy. Often options that are higher in fat are healthier if they are from quality good fats that will keep you full and happy.

I could go on and on but I will leave it there! I know that a lot of this post is preaching to the choir, but it is just so crazy what people say sometimes! 

Happy eating!


2 comments:

  1. People don't understand why it would be prudent to eat a meal that may contain slighty more fat, but isn't made up of processed food items. Today I was listening to an NPR interview with one of the co-owners of 'Salt' in the city. He was talking about all the misconceptions surrounding salt in foods and helped highlight the problems with processed foods by pointing out that the worst kind of salt for you is actually kosher salt because it is so heavily processed and is such a chemical derivitive that it is worlds away from sea salt and other natural ones.

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  2. I heard that today too! I also went into the salt/oil store in Chelsea Market and need to go back to get stuff. It was really cool.

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