TED Talk on Processed Food (short)

They put formalin into fruits and fish here in Bangladesh to give it a longer shelf life.
:sad:

"...People need to stop trying to scare others with chemical names. Here's a fun list of chemicals found in an orange:

Hesperidin, Naringenin, Limonene..."


But we know for a fact that the first three, at least, are actually quite good for you and combat disease. But we just don't know the long term effects of some chemicals that are added to processed food. For me, I think I will try to stick (as close as possible) to what nature provides.

Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) is also in that list. That was the point of my post - to show examples that just because something has a scary chemical name doesn't mean it's bad. It's all about how much of what you ingest. A lot of vitamins are necessary for proper bodily function, but have serious negative effects if taken in excess.

Nah---you'd be hard pressed to find any vitamin that "has serious negative effects" if taken in the amounts that nature provides. Even the oil-soluble vitamins would have to be supplemented at an extreme level in order to produce negative health effects (with the possible exception of vitamin A). But even vitamin A would have to be given in very large doses over a period of time to cause problems. The water soluble vitamins, even if wildly overdosed, typically pass harmlessly out in the urine (unless there is some pre-existing medical condition).

You know that is not what is commonly meant by the phrase "processed food". What is meant is something that comes in a package with an ingredient list as long as your arm.

Food processing aids aren't required to be labeled and won't be on the ingredient statement.

Packaging by definition is a food process. And pasteurization (another food process) has saved millions of lives.

Sigh. Posting again, since the stupid orange example came up twice.

When people talk about processed foods in this context, they're talking about the additives used in processed foods, they're not talking about the chemical composition of the foods themselves, butchering the food, heating the food, or packaging the food. They're talking about additives and preservatives used to change the flavor/nature of the food in order to use cheaper ingredients, make them last longer, taste different, look different, feel different, etc.

Most additives in and of themselves aren't harmful (although some are). But they're generally not used to make the food more nutritious. They're used to make something that isn't food taste like food. Or to make a cheaper substitute for the food taste like the food it's trying to mimic. Or to make something that, in it's natural form, might spoil, have a blemish, turn a color, or not look "perfect" into something that lasts longer or looks more appealing on a shelf or in a box. Or to make something that's been mass-produced and has lost it's flavor look and taste more like what it would look and taste like if it were grown/raised by Farmer Joe on his little farm.

bump to watch later