Health food doesn't need a definition, does it? We all know what health food is. It's yogurt and granola, whole-grain cereal and organically grown vegetables and fruit. It's 100% natural, no preservatives or dyes, unadulterated, pure. When you put all that together, you should have healthy food, yet all too often, what's marketed as health food these days barely classifies as food, let alone health food.
Take a look at one of our favorite health food choices - yogurt. It hit supermarket shelves in the early seventies, though it had been available before that in health food stores and restaurants. Real yogurt has two ingredients: milk (whole, skim or low fat) and live yogurt cultures. That's health food - calcium, vitamin D, vitamin A, and protein. Next time you're at the supermarket, take a look at the dairy case. You'll find row after row of hyper-sweetened brightly colored rainbow swirled and candy-sprinkled yogurt packaged in ways that appeal to our littlest consumers - children. Millions of parents buy the enticing packages, secure that because it's yogurt, they're buying food that's healthy for their children.
One look at the label, though, and it's clear that these kiddy yogurts (as well as most of the yogurt that's marketed to adults) are a far cry from heath food. Some of the most popular yogurts for children contain anywhere from 3 to 10 added teaspoons of sugar. Considering how many teaspoons of yogurt are in a single serving, you might as well hand your child the sugar bowl. In addition, most yogurts include "natural" ingredients that have little to do with health food. Ingredients like pectin (to thicken yogurt), carrageenan (a seafood extract that gives some yogurts their body, and annatto (for color) add little nutritionally to yogurt. They're in the mix to serve one main purpose: to help yogurt survive its trip from the factory to your table.
You'll find the same situation with other foods that originally made their debut as health foods in the seventies. Granola has become granola bars with chocolate chips and gooey caramel. Whole-wheat flour is bleached and denuded of its flavorful kernels. Sunflower seeds are roasted in oil and salted. Even brown rice comes in the instant variety.
Healthy food not health food
The secret to feeding your family (and yourself) a healthful diet of healthy food is to read the labels. The United States Food & Drug Administration has laid out strict guidelines for nutritional labeling of all food products. The nutrition label will tell you all you need to know to choose real health foods. Some things to keep in mind when reading nutrition labels for health foods:
* In the ingredient's portion of the nutrition label, ingredients are listed in order by amount. The ingredient that's listed first is the main ingredient, followed by the next largest amount, etc.
* The nutrition facts label must list each of the required nutrients even if the food provides 0% of the recommended daily value.
* The nutrition facts label must list what portion of the food's calories is derived from fat, from sugar, from protein and from carbohydrates. It will also break down the fat into saturated and unsaturated fat.
Reading labels on everything you feed your family is the best way to tell whether a food is really a health food - or just masquerading as one.
Okay, at first they beefed about not having beef or any other red meat. Then they thought I had gone into a vegetative state when I started serving meatless meals. Nevertheless, I persevered.
I learned the closer food is to its natural state, the better it is for us. This required my explaining that natural state didn't mean grown here in California and that cotton isn't used to make cotton candy.
I also learned that cooking vegetables less retained more of their vitamins and minerals. When it comes to rutabagas and turnips, however, I decided to take nutritionists at their word.
Words on the front of packaged foods can make whatever it is sound both delicious and healthy. Reading the words on back can tell a different story.
Ingredients are listed in descending order of amounts. If the first ingredient ends in "ose", I put it back on the shelf. All words ending in "ose" are forms of sugar.
In fact, some nutrition bars contain more sugar than candy bars. Eating one is like expecting the three musketeers to fight off the calories. Saturated fats and trans fats should be avoided too. Fats make us... fat.
Then there are words like ammonium bicarbonate, sodium stearoyl and aluminum phosphate. If I don't know what something is, it can't be good for us.
A long list of ingredients is another bad sign. The longer the list, the less healthy the food is.
On the other hand - the one I used to scratch my head -leaving an ingredient out of a processed food - such as leaving salt out of tomato sauce - somehow makes the food more expensive.
Less is more when it comes to eating healthy. Bread without butter and coffee without cream - less dairy products means less cholesterol - but it doesn't mean to substitute margarine and non-dairy creamer. Foods made in laboratories are only suitable for those who wear space suits. Remember Tang?
On second thought, maybe I shouldn't complain about what scientists put in foods to prolong their shelf life. I'm at the age when preservatives are starting to sound good.
Both Chris Robertson & Knight Pierce Hirst are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.