Food Politics

I finally finished reading "Food Politics" by Marion Nestle last month. I'm not gonna lie, it's kind of a tough read, but definitely worth it.

Basically, the whole point of the book is to bring attention to the fact that the FDA basically has no power and every time it tries to assert itself, it loses even more ground. Nestle discusses this from several different angles and also gives a rough time line of what the FDA has done (or been stopped from doing) over the last 40 or so years.

What was especially disparaging was the way food companies began being able to put "health claims" on their packaging and in their advertising, mostly thanks to the supplement industry. The supplement industry helped build a grassroots effort to allow consumers the "right to choose" what is best for them. After the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), the supplement industry was allowed to put health claims on their products, even if those claims had little or no scientific evidence to back them up. Following this was the creation of functional foods, the sole purpose of which is to act as a "healthier" alternative to traditional food. Companies marketing functional foods made the claim that these foods had added supplements and under DSHEA, they had the right to advertise the things that made them so "healthy."And so they did. And now everything in the supermarket seems to have one health claim or another on it.

Furthermore, the FDA seems to be blocked from every possible side. Nestle talked about her time working on the Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health, and how she was explicitly told she would not be allowed to make any recommendations that would suggest that a person eat less of any particular food because the food industry would pull its financial support from the elected officials responsible for its release. As such, Nestle had to resort to attacking specific nutrients rather than types of food. Instead of telling people to eat less red meat, she had to say "Choose a diet low in saturated fat." These types of statements are confusing to consumers and allow other equally unhealthy foods to take advantage of advertising their low-fat status (even though they are full of sugar or high fructose corn syrup). Even more interestingly, the FDA has no control over what gets put in advertising that is not on the package, because that has to go through the FCC.

What's worse is that the FDA has 120 days from when a food company petitions to put a health claim on its product to determine if the claim is accurate and must prove it is inaccurate within that time frame in order to prohibit its use. If the 120 days expires, the claim is automatically approved. And should the FDA later determine the product is unsafe, the FDA can't actually do anything about it. They can only "request" that a food company recall the product. As you can imagine, the FDA is totally underfunded for such a task and so most of these petitions go through without so much as an eyelash batted at them.

Nestle's book is very technical, so it's a slow read. But the information is invaluable and really makes me think carefully about the health claims I hear, where I hear them, and who is paying for them. As Michael Pollan said, if a food makes a health claim, it probably isn't real food. Words to live by right there.

In other book news, I'm currently working on "The Story of Sushi" by Trevor Corson, which is mostly a bookumentary on a group of aspiring sushi chefs. Most of it is sort of funny stories about their time at sushi school, but there are a lot of interesting bits about how sushi is made traditionally and how sushi has changed over time and since its arrival in the United States. I don't have much time for it now that school is started, but I'm slowly working my way through it. I also bought a fun book called "Insanewiches" by Adrian Fiorino, which is basically a picture/cook book of crazy sandwiches. Not all of them are healthy (Most notably the Quadruple Down, featuring four fried chicken breasts, bacon, cheese, mayo, etc. I'm having a heart attack just looking at the picture), but there are many that are at least reasonably good for you. And they're cute. So I will probably make some and post them on here at some point.

Food Rules

I finally got around to reading Michael Pollan's Food Rules today and managed to devour the entire book in about an hour. It essentially breaks down the last part of In Defense of Food, into 64 simple rules of thumb about food and eating. Below are some of my favorites and some comments on them:

• Rule #3: Avoid food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry. I've been doing a better job of checking ingredient lists lately and making sure I recognize everything on there. I've still bought a few things that broke this rule (Yoplait yogurt was on sale and it's got a few questionable ingredients, but I don't think I can get the hubby to eat real yogurt and it's a nice work snack).

•  Rule #7: Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce. I finally got my husband on this one, because it was originally stated that if you couldn't pronounce it, it wasn't okay. My husband is about half a semester away from earning his PharmD, so he can pronounce most of that stuff and even knows what a lot of it is too. He seems to think that this knowledge makes it okay for consumption—but it's not. And now, with the new rule, he can't argue it anymore.

• Rule #13: Eat only foods that will eventually rot. I thought this was a good rule because it's the stuff that's really good for you in food that goes bad with time. That means that if it doesn't go bad, there's no good stuff in it. Interesting note: Pollan mentions that honey does, in fact, go bad. But it takes centuries. So now I know I never need to throw away honey again (Hint: If it crystallized, just throw it in the microwave until it's smooth again!). 

• Rule #19: If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don't.  I just thought this was a funny (and true) play on words. 

• Rule #23: Treat meat as a flavoring or special occasion food. So guilty of not doing this. I think I would be okay skipping meat more often—but hubby's gotta have his meat at almost every meal. His exceptions: pasta (sometimes), breakfast (sometimes), and PB&J. I'm going to try to make more foods without meat in them, but the trick is finding things he'll eat. Future goal, I think. 

• Rule #24: "Eating what stands on one leg [mushrooms and plant foods] is better than eating what stands on two legs [fowl], which is better than eating what stands on four legs [cows, pigs, and other mammals]." I've heard this one before, although it was simpler: "The less legs, the better." This also accounted for the ultra healthy and leg-less fish. This one is a bit harder to follow for me too, because I like beef and pork so much more than chicken. I think chicken is kind of boring, or you have to add a lot to make it interesting. I do like fish though, but I've got to convince hubby before I can get more in the house. 

• Rule #25: Eat your colors. This is another one I've heard before and I've done a better job as of late. Basically the different colors in your food represent different nutrients, so the more colorful your diet, the more nutrients you obtain.

• Rule #39: Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself. Now I don't feel bad for making two cakes last week... 

• Rule #43: Have a glass of wine with dinner. As Pollan noted, this rule is well-known but few recommend it because of the taboo surrounding alcohol and alcoholism in the United States. I've got a very good friend who is a recovering alcoholic, so I know the damages it can do. However, alcoholism is extremely low in Europe, where there are much lower (or effectively non-existent) drinking ages. This says to me that normalizing appropriate drinking behavior in your household will do good both for your physical and social/mental health. 

• Rule #44: Pay more, eat less. As my previous post will attest, I wholeheartedly agree with this rule. We spend less of our budget on food than any other nation and we're eating junk. If we spent a little extra money on it, we could be eating so much better. 

• Rule #49: Eat slowly. Another great piece of advice that goes unnoticed in the United States. We're all too busy to slow down and actually enjoy our food. My husband is a huge culprit of this: He will chide me when he's finished and I'm still only halfway through my meal. Sometimes it's hard though. I get either a 15-minute or a 30-minute break at my jobs, so if I want to eat, I basically have no choice but to scarf down while there's still time. When I only get a 15-minute break, I try to eat dinner already and just bring a small snack to tide me over. 

• Rule #52: Buy smaller glasses and plates. Sometimes we'll eat off of the salad plates instead of the dinner plates, and it does make a big difference. I feel like I've eaten more than I have because my plate is so full. We have smaller glasses at the house, but I don't use them as often as I used to. I'll have to get back in the habit. 

• Rule #54: "Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper." Excellent adage that I'm terrible about following. When I have to be somewhere in the morning, I usually get up about a half hour before I need to be there, which leaves pretty much no time for breakfast. Then, if I'm working, I won't eat lunch and so I'll be starving by the time dinner comes around and stuff my face. My P.E. teacher in high school once said that you shouldn't eat after 6 PM for the same reasons, so I try not to eat when it's really late, and I'm normally pretty good about it. 

• Rule #59: Try not to eat alone. Again, this one's hard for me because my husband and I are often on different schedules and when I'm at work, I'm usually the only person on break. When I can eat with others though, I strongly prefer to do so. 

• Rule #60: Treat treats as treats. Another funny and true play on words. It goes along with Rule #39 in saying that it's okay to eat things that are bad for you, as long as you don't do it every day.

• Rule #63: Cook. We've been doing a lot better about this and I feel like we've been spending less on food because we haven't been going out to eat as often as we used to.

• Rule #64: Break the rules once in a while. Nobody's perfect, and it's only going to hurt you if you obsess over your food all the time. Weight Watchers gives its clients extra points each week on top of their daily limit as special occasion or splurge points, and it's actually really good for you if you're trying to lose weight. This is because if the body figures out you're trying to starve it, it will start retaining every last morsel you put inside it. As such, you have to trick the body with special treats every now and then so it doesn't catch the scent. So you see, it's good for you to break the rules.

Excellent pocket reference for when I need a quick rule of thumb on food. Next on my list is a book I borrowed from my mom called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I also ordered Michael Pollan's first book and a couple books by Marion Nestle which should arrive later this week.