Green Ideas Today

Image: Esther Seijmonsbergen | HAAP Media Ltd

Food additives have been used for years.  Their early use was for food preservation such as smoked or salted meats and sugared fruits.  Food additives are also used to change or enhance colour, taste and texture.

For example, when I was a kid I remember my Mom putting vitamin C into cut apples to preserve the colour – the citric acid would keep the applies nice and white instead of them turning brown.  I also remember helping my Mom make pickles, adding salt, vinegar, and dill to cucumbers thus preserving them for months to years.  I remember finding it curious that some other kids didn’t know that pickles came from cucumbers!

In the 20th  century food additives has been expanded greatly to make foods taste better, look better and last longer.   The upside of additives is that they preserve food and make food cheaper.  The downside is that they distort our behaviour sometimes without us being aware.  The additives that concern me most are the ones that play on psychology to change consumer tastes or behaviours:

1. Flavour enhancers. The most common flavour enhancer other than salt is MSG.  MSG contains glutamic acid.  There is a whole science behind MSG but  the basic premise is that there are five different flavour senses including: sweet, sour, bitter, salty, savoury (also called unami).  MSG enhances unami in foods.  It is most popular in salty, savoury dishes like soups, prepared meat dishes, cheese nacho tortilla chips etc.  To create unami naturally you have to interlace flavours (like build a soup from vegetable and chicken stocks overlaying different food flavours to create a tasty soup).   MSG is an inexpensive, easy short-cut for prepared foods to taste savoury.  There is much written about MSG and its health impacts, but, the offensive thing in my opinion is that it is put in foods to make you think it tastes better than it does!  Whether it is directly harmful or not the indirect impact is that people eat more than they should, it tastes better than it should, and in comparison natural healthy foods taste bland.  It certainly does not help people make healthy food choices!   Also, concerning to me is how the big food companies hide or obfuscate its use in food.  I’ve seen food labels actually say, “no added MSG” yet when you read the label they include disodium inosinate and guanylate – which, are very high in glutamic acid and amount to the same thing as adding MSG!
2. Thickeners and Hydrogenated Vegetable Fats. Low fat versions of products such as mayonnaise or sour cream are very popular.  People think they are making healthy choices by buying these low fat products.  Cheaper versions of say margarine or dairy products might substitute natural fat like milk fat or expensive fats like olive oil with cheaper fats like hydrogenated palm oils.  Pick up any of the really cheap frozen prepared foods or cheap cookies and you’ll find the cheaper fats.  What’s wrong with this?  Well, many of the cheap fats are very high in saturated fats or transfats which are very bad for your heart health over the long term.  The thickeners in low fat versions of sour cream and mayo can also be high in gluten which many people have problems with to some degree.  My suggestion is to eat natural forms of butter, mayo, sour cream – but eat less!
3. Sweeteners.  There are two types of sweeteners that I will comment on – artificial sweeteners and high fructose corn syrup.  What disturbs me about artificial sweeteners is how they are somehow associated with a healthy choice.  Diet pop is seen as better than regular pop.  The healthy choice is to have plain water.  High fructose corn syrup is a special ingredient.  It is used because its cheap and it also tastes sweeter than sugar but actually has lower carbs.  So it “tricks” the body to think that it is sweeter than it is.  Again, the problem with both of these things – similar to the unami – is that instead of having sweet foods that are lower in sugar and carbohydrates the healthy choice would be to simply have foods that are not sweet!  Have some fresh fruits or vegetables!

If our bodies are so used to sweet, salty, savoury tastes then we are missing a whole world of flavours and corresponding benefits of a variety of food sources that contain naturally appearing vitamins, minerals and necessary amino acids and proteins.

The best way to improve your diet and nutrition is to go on a prepared food moratorium!