Our Food System is Deceiving Us
Health washing and the normalization of questionable ingredients make it almost impossible to know what we’re really eating.
“Healthy” is everywhere. It’s written down the sides of juice boxes, screen-printed on the awnings of convenience stores, and plastered on every granola bar ever made. From the looks of it, Americans have healthy food options bursting off the shelves, but the reality is quite different. The food giants of today heard the cry for healthier food and, deciding to prioritize their margins instead of their customers, have lowered the bar of what is considered to be healthy through legal chicanery, manipulation, and ambiguity.
In a time where we’re overrun by healthy food bloggers, surrounded by gluten-free options, and could fill swimming pools with green juice, you would think we’d be healthier, or at least less confused. Even though Americans are more educated than ever, keeping up with the latest findings is still a part-time job (eggs are good for you! No, they’re bad! No, wait, they’re fine!). Food labels have become a foreign language, leaving us in the dark about what we’re really eating while flashy marketing distracts us with buzzwords. It’s all very complicated and, quite honestly, exhausting.
This leaves us, millions of Americans, funneling into grocery stores, scanning shelves, trying to make good decisions, while, like me, also dealing with two kids under five who pull us towards colorful cereal as our inbox beckons. This leaves us about 0.5 seconds to pick the best brand of crackers off a shelf. Who are we to blame when we grab the package with the word “healthy” smeared across the front, even though the food is filled with things like propylparaben, BHA, and nitrates?
HOW DID THIS HAPPEN
It’s called industrialization, baby. In the early 20th century, food that was once made at home started to be made in factories. And general stores turned into supermarkets.
With a surplus of food came a new problem — how to extend a food’s shelf life. Gone are the days of getting a fresh loaf of bread from your baker every morning. Now folks can buy weeks’ worth of bread at a time, but have no idea where the bread came from, who made it, or what went into it. Industrialization, with all of its advancements, has taken us further and further away from the source of our food.
It is here that we see the tidal wave of convenient food rise and crest into the disarray we know today. Processed food has become so complex that a new category has sprouted: ultra-processed food. These foods are formulated with five or more (typically, a lot more) ingredients and additives that are not commonly used in culinary preparations, and also undergo significant food processing. “Big Food” corporations designed these foods to be convenient, hyper-palatable, and able to turn big profits because of low-cost ingredients used to make them. And that’s not even the worst of it.
LET’S TALK ABOUT HEALTH WASHING
The marketing jargon of yesteryear like “crunchy” and “gooey” has shifted to attract more health-focused consumers. Phrases like “natural,” “100 calories,” “whole-grain,” and “high-protein” bedazzle packaging in every grocery store and gas station because…they work. They catch consumers’ eyes and wallets. They make consumers believe the product to be healthier, even though there might be zero correlation between the marketing and the food’s actual nutritional value. That, my friends, is health washing. And, for the most part, it’s absolutely legal.
In 2017, for example, a class action suit was filed against multiple brands for mislabeling parmesan cheese mixed with cellulose powder — a fiber booster and anti-caking additive that prevents lumps in foods — as “100% Grated Parmesan.” The plaintiff argued that the cellulose powder did not fit into the marketing claim. The lawsuit was dismissed with the argument that consumers would understand that dairy products would need to contain some additives to keep them fresh, prompting no further requirements for this type of marketing. What is so heartbreaking about this, to me, is that it puts so much work on the consumer and it legally allows for such loopholes in marketing.
Another example can be seen in the surge of litigation directed at Lucky Charms, Cocoa Puffs, and other sugary cereals. The claims argue that the manufacturers highlight one small positive aspect of the food, like that it contains whole grains, in order to trick consumers into believing that the product is healthy in its entirety. In reality, these products are closer in nutritional value to a candy bar.
The epitome of health washing is the misuse of the word “natural.” Studies have shown that consumers believe this word means a food should contain no pesticides, no artificial color, or synthetic ingredients. However, to be qualified as “natural,” it just has to originate from an animal or plant, and can be mixed with up to 100 additional ingredients.
The word “natural” has been so co-opted by murky marketing that companies who are trying to do some good no longer use the word, believing it to have lost all of its meaning. The CEO of Good Food Made Simple removed it from their food because they felt the term had been “abused.” At Daily Harvest, the word has always been banned from our lexicon. When companies that genuinely value health don’t use the term “natural” to describe their food, you know things are backwards.
Over time, marketing to health-focused consumers has become a labyrinth of legal walls that, honestly, doesn’t make much sense. The FDA’s definition of “healthy” is not only troublesome, it conflicts with current scientific consensus. In order to use the term “healthy” on food packaging, the product can’t exceed three grams of fat. Meaning, according to the FDA, a Pop-Tart can be labeled as “healthy” but almonds, which have enormous health benefits, but higher amounts of healthy fat, cannot.
SO WHAT ARE WE EATING
The smoke and mirrors of marketing from Big Food companies has not only made it bang-your-head-against-the-wall frustrating to casually scan the aisles, it’s distracted us from understanding what’s really in our food. So much processed food in America contains ingredients that are downright questionable. Let me introduce you to some ingredients commonly found in the food millions of Americans eat every day.
Carrageenan: This is used to thicken, preserve, and emulsify drinks and is often found in dairy-free milks and creamers. It can also cause inflammation, IBS, and can potentially cause colon cancer. Woof.
Tricalcium phosphate: This guy is commonly made from ground animal bones and can be found in tons of household items like baby powder, toothpaste, and antacids. Research suggests that if diets are very high in inorganic phosphates — an additive found mostly in processed foods like meat and cheese — it can stimulate the growth of small cell cancers.
Maltodextrin: This is often used as a thickener or filler to increase the volume of processed food. It also works as a preservative that increases shelf life. Annnnnd it’s also used to thicken lotions and hair care products — not kidding. Maltodextrin is derived from starch and can spike blood sugar due to its very high glycemic index. Folks with diabetes and those who need to keep an eye on their insulin levels should be cautious around it… doesn’t that seem like something more people should know?
Butylated Hydroxyanisole (also known as BHA): This is a preservative that prevents spoilage and food poisoning (good) that potentially causes cancer (bad). It’s been deemed safe by the FDA and can be found in hundreds of foods. It also may interrupt hormone function.
Sodium Nitrates and Sodium Nitrites: These are two preservatives that can be found in processed meat (think: hot dogs and lunch meat). They’re believed to damage blood vessels, cause colon cancer, and lead to metabolic syndrome, which can lead to diabetes.
SO, WHAT NOW?
This whole thing can seem pretty overwhelming and infuriating. The food system that was created to keep us well fed and safe is a messy monster. But, I will tell you, there are a few simple responses. Eat organic, clean food whenever you can. Stick to the outer aisle of your grocery store, get to know your local farmers market. Buy from brands you trust (like Daily Harvest, because we flash freeze right on the farm, so we don’t add a single damn thing to our food — it’s just whole, clean ingredients). When you eat food that comes in a package, read the list of ingredients. If you don’t recognize it, if it has some crazy x’s and y’s, it’s probably not great for you.
We underestimate our power as consumers — our wallets speak pretty damn loudly. When we put our spending power behind food we believe in, food we want to eat and want our children to eat, food we trust, Big Food is either going to have to shape up or step out.
