Do you eat mostly for pleasure, to get your physical Body to “shut up” and let you go with your life, or, do you eat to get your Body in the best possible shape to meet your needs – physical, spiritual or intellectual. Just think about that: every atom of your Body literally originates from what you ate at some point… The apple that eat will be a part of You just in few hours…
What would happen if you fill by mistake a gasoline car with a diesel fuel? Can you do it by mistake because the diesel pump looked more attractive, or smelt better?
How did it happen that food that taste so good often fits in a category well known as a “junk food”? Is there anyway to judge the quality of food without going into deep research and investigations.
I think one of the problem is what I call a “man made food”. In many cases it might be synonymous with a processed food. How much processing is needed to become concerned about the food losing its health benefits and risking of shifting into a category of unhealthy? I wish there were easy answers, but this is my short take on this problem:
Most naturally occurring foods that are customary considered to be Ok to be consumed raw are most of the time of the healthy variety. Food which are not customary consumed raw (like potato, most meats etc.) in many cases are the healthiest when the minimal processing and additives are incorporated. Like sausages and burgers are generally might be of lower health value than a steak. The more mechanical processing – the less health benefits, think about refined grains or grounded meats. The more thermal processing – the further away it gets from natural and the higher chances of it to become more “processed”. The more ingredients are added – the higher chance of food to be slipping into “less healthy” category, we are talking about added sugars, preservatives etc. Added sugars, commonly disguised under different names, appear to be the most harmful for various reasons. Think about the fact that usually only fruits are naturally sweet, and for a reason – they are usually beneficial for us. Adding sugars to any product that is not supposed to be sweet most of the time results in a “disguise”, awarding food with a sweet taste that that particular food is not supposed to have naturally. Many restaurants serve salads with tons of sugars added, plus fat, bread, cheese and other ingredients – and you might easily get a 3000 calories salad with your relatively healthy 500 calories steak, which many restaurants would marinate in sugar as well, plus a sugary sauce, or, even better, just make it breaded. Think about some of the desserts, like cakes – how often do you see in nature sweet fats? Why people do it – pleasure, money, it simply sells better, it is a cheap “upgrade”, an easy way to fool people to like and overeat something more that it supposed to be naturally liked… This topic could be endless – we can discuss advertisements, the food availability and pricing, convenience of consumption, customs to have food as “entertainment” when people gather together, food packaging etc. All of these man made factors profoundly destroy our natural appetite and natural taste as a judge for “what is good and what is not”, and our biological sense of what, when and how much to eat….