Food is not food anymore

Food is not food anymore, it’s a chemical package that goes into human bodies, so naturally some get affected by it immediately, others take a decade or so to undo what at times can’t be undone. Yes, food, the very source of our lives has been transformed to unimaginable levels and it’s hard for a commoner to distinguish between what is healthy and otherwise when he goes to the supermarket for his daily supplies or eats at a restaurant.

Who would have thought food could be the number one problem of the modern world? Since the dawn of civilization, food has been the source of energy, right?  We ate what was available to humans and processed it to convert it into energy and life went on.

With the advent of technology and progress in agriculture, we humans got a variety of things to binge on and now with a fast-paced lifestyle and nonstop hunger to achieve more in life and career, we started using food to just fuel our systems, just to keep the processor on. We don’t have time and energy to understand how food is prepared, we just want to eat when and where we want to. Whether we are removing a nicely wrapped fossil (I would call it fossil, who knows when was it packed) from the refrigerator and heat it to release its carbon-smoked juices or eating highly processed food from over-the-counter street cafes, ordering favorite cuisines (quick 30 minutes delivery from any corner of the city), food has already expired before it reaches its destination – our stomachs.

Sounds terrifying?

Well then there’s more trouble round the corner.

According to WHO, an estimated 600 million – almost 1 in 10 people in the world – fall ill after eating contaminated food and 420 000 die every year, resulting in the loss of 33 million healthy life years (DALYs). US$ 110 billion is lost each year in productivity and medical expenses resulting from unsafe food in low- and middle-income countries.

And these stats are just from eating contaminated food. There are other known implied diseases – diabetes, cardiovascular issues and a host of cancers germinating from eating just food. That’s right.

But why has food become the culprit here?  Shouldn’t we dig more?

Food in itself was never the problem. It’s the degree to which the food has been processed or should I say, ultra processed. Ultra processed food is easy to store, has a long shelf life and can satiate hunger in seconds and so it was the easy business model of any food manufacturer that wanted to be in the food game for long.  For those who are not aware, ultra processed food contains high levels of energy, saturated fats, added sugar and sodium and is low in nutrients. Quick favorites are burgers, pizzas, fries, and frozen meats (and you can add more here as per your liking).

Chris van Tulleken in his book Ultra Processed People mentions about processes and ingredients used to manufacture ultra processed foods that are designed to create highly profitable (low-cost ingredients, long shelf life, emphatic branding), convenient (ready-to-consume), hyperpalatable products liable to displace freshly prepared dishes and meals made from all other NOVA food groups. NOVA food classification system assigns foods to one of the 4 groups as listed below based on the extent and purpose of industrial processing.

Group 1 -> unprocessed or minimally processed foods

Group 2 -> processed culinary ingredients.

Group 3 -> processed foods and

Group 4 -> ultra-processed foods

Eating from Group 1 means consuming food in its purest form that contains essential nutrients. Group 2 consists of natural oils, fats, salt & sugar which becomes an accompaniment to Group 1 and when taken in moderation doesn’t cause any serious health problems. However, eating anything in larger proportion from Group 3 and 4 will only lead to our trips to hospitals and shoot up our medical bills. In fact, there is absolutely no food in Group 4. Soft drinks, sugar-filled cereals, and packaged snacks all fall in this category. Group 4 food is heavily saturated with strong flavors, has super attractive packaging, and totally dependent on insane budget-heavy advertising.

There is another aspect of how food is packaged before it lands up on our dinner tables. Chemical components in plastic packaging, especially plasticizers such as phthalates and bisphenol can leach into our food, more so if we heat it in microwave. An article in Earth.com quotes, “Scientists have uncovered 9,936 different chemicals within a single product used to package food, these chemicals actively disrupt crucial biological functions which have long term health effects”.

As if this was not enough, we have yet another industry that works day in and out to make the food look good. Yes, appetizing to senses but harmful to bodies. The food additive industry. Additives are substances added to processed foods which are produced at large scale. The purpose of additives is to increase the shelf life, make food look attractive as if it has been printed on a glossy and shiny paper. Food additives vary from anti-caking agents, artificial sweeteners, emulsifiers to food acids and artificial colors. Amongst the additives, titanium oxide is the most widely used whitening pigment in the world found in sugary items like cakes, ice creams, candies, and breads. Titanium oxide has a devastating effect on the entire human body leading to cancer and other DNA level mutations.

There are innumerous counts of such additives being passed into food, especially infant and kid food. The infamous Red Dye No. 3, a synthetic dye made from petroleum, gives a cherry red color and has been used in popsicles, gumdrops, peppermints, and vegetarian bacon as well. Shockingly it has been banned in cosmetics because lab research proved that it caused cancer in rats, however, it was still allowed in food is something strange to digest. Now that it has been banned in California, United States, which took 30 plus years to ban, it’s anybody’s guess why similar additives are still allowed anywhere in the world in the name of food.

One might argue that the list of additives is to some extent printed on the product label by law. However, what percentage of consumers read the labels to make quick decisions for everyday groceries and dailies? It’s technically not practical to do it on a regular basis and secondly, we trust the brands to serve us good quality products and not bring upon us a host of diseases.

In some Asian countries, in a bid to be the fastest multi-millionaire, artificial and hazardous substitutes are used to create lookalikes of culinary spices like turmeric, red chili & coriander powder and several dairy products. These items are often used to prepare meals at homes and in food outlets which look colorful, delicious albeit extremely harmful to the body.

Talking of food and how can we forget dopamine effect. Yes, food in itself lures us to indulge in it at times, however with the constant pressure of social media influencers, micro influencers, the challenge seems a little concerning. And even though some influencers are mostly benign and promote healthy options, a BBC 2021 study found out that young people are exposed to food marketing around 30-189 times per week on social media, with high sugar and fast food being most commonly shown, which is alarming. Other findings of the same study indicated that young people (mostly Gen Z) who were exposed to vloggers promoting sugary and fatty snacks went on to eat 26% more calories than those who didn’t. The issue with social media in general irrespective of the platform (Instagram, Tik Tok or YouTube) is that it can glorify indulgent, ultra processed, and unhealthy foods. This leads to a culture of hyper and uncontrolled consumption eventually ending with lifestyle induced illness.

In this entire food story, there are three players – One, us the consumers, second, the ones who are producing the food and packaging it under different names to satiate our tempting senses and third and the most important are the governments or regulatory bodies who unfortunately don’t wield too much power over player number two. Let’s call them player 1, player 2 and player 3.

Food has become a problem because player 1 has no interest and more importantly no time to think about what it is consuming, it just needs to be fed. Also, now that consumers, people like you and me have been habituated to a certain level of food luxury, yes food luxury where we like to eat what looks good, soothes our eyes and easy to gobble without thinking much. We don’t really want to put that effort to make a simple, non -insta friendly dish at home because our social media memory recollects all the attractive colors and seduces us to grab the easiest thing to eat which matches with the closest insta memory picture. Food stays in our mind as a dormant evil only to pounce upon us when we are at leisure or super hungry. In the second condition, we really don’t care where the food is coming from as long as it satiates our hunger pangs. The short-term memory drives us to unhealthy and tongue pleasing food.

 Player 2 on the other hand has improved its game and, being the profit seeker that it is, has found clever ways to become a quick billionaire at the cost of player 1. Player 2 also has strong lobbies in regulatory places across the world to ensure not even a single change like FoP (Front-of-pack) labelling system gets implemented. WHO recommends the implementation of front-of-pack labelling (FoPL) on less healthy foods and beverages as a strategy to prevent and control NCDs ( Non communicable diseases like obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular problems). Countries like Israel and Argentina have successfully implemented it, with the latter significantly reducing purchase of sugar-sweetened beverages since the implementation of regulations however in countries like India, it’s still not implemented and is a serious challenge. World Obesity Federation reports that India could have over 27 million children with obesity by 2030 and this is clearly due to children being attracted to packaged foods. In India for example, the thresholds of sugar and salt have been way higher than the thresholds, almost six times the saturated fat limits in ultra processed foods.

Then there’s another aspect of food: wastage and hunger. As per United Nations, globally, around 13 percent of food produced is lost between harvest and retail, while an estimated 17 percent of total global food production is wasted in households, in the food service and in retail all together. Technological advancement has led to improved production capabilities leading to surplus food that often goes to waste due to inadequate distribution systems. This, combined with modern packaging and preservation techniques to extend the shelf life of food has resulted in storing products longer, however with not enough demand, it leads to eventual wastage at retail level. Food wastage is a growing concern which has a serious environmental impact. As per UN Environment Programme, if food loss was a country, it would be third largest greenhouse gas emitter behind China and the United States. Also, what is even more painful to know is that even while food is wasted across, between 691 to 783 million people faced hunger in 2022. 

Not everything has gone bad though. Some of the things can be reversed and it lies totally with the player 1 to initiate the changes to make life better and disease free. Player 2 needs to be tackled by Player 3 however if player 1 which is Us, the consumer of food is more aware and makes significant changes in how the food is prepared, what to eat and what to discard, there will be drastic drop in food related disorders, diseases, and improvement in general wellbeing.

There are good Samaritans in Player 1 group who have taken up the war against Player 2, forcing and influencing Player 3 to act however the percentage of that audience is very low. Who are these people? These are our everyday normal citizens, some of them could be your neighbors as well! You would better know them as activists who have been raging a battle against these highly powerful industrialists and manufacturers to put a brake on capitalists’ practices. These whistleblowers were often named by the powerful allies and industrialists as ‘food faddists’ and ‘pseudoscientists’ to curb any interest in whatever these people had to say, not really thinking much on how their greed has been endangering the lives of humans with sugar coated poison. Why do we have to depend on a few good men to bring changes of this magnitude when it could have been handled by Player 2, the governments/regulatory bodies? Some things to ponder may be!

As the rightful natives of 21^st century,  we have made supersonic advancement in technology and have become more efficient in doing things than our ancestors however it has led to new forms of diseases, because we rely too much on chemically loaded food, packaged in all green to make  us believe that our development is in the right direction. We have become addicted to convenient, cheap, and fast food whereas the real benefit of technology should have given us more time to cook a healthy meal. It should have helped farmers to produce organic and pesticide-free vegetables and improvise farming. It should have removed hunger from the world and reduced carbon emissions. There’s a long way to go before we can ensure food doesn’t remain a problem for our next generation.

We need the cooperation of all the three players in society to ensure food is enjoyed with utmost pleasure without harming humans and the environment. Stringent laws and regulation to keep a check on powerful industrialist to reduce malpractices such as adulteration, use of excessive processing ingredients and harmful chemicals, shifting to environment friendly packaging options, leveraging technology such as web-based platforms/apps to connect key members of the food system to reduce food wastage, educating consumers to be more aware of healthy food alternatives are just some of the ways we can tackle food related problems.

Governments can provide tax benefits to restaurants and supermarkets by encouraging them to send their surplus food to shelters and charity homes before it’s dumped in landfills. Reducing food wastage can only be possible through collective action and it also highlights the need to educate the public on consumption patterns and cooking methods. As per Earth.org, 63% of people don’t know the difference between the “use by” and “best before” dates. Foods with “use by” dates are perishable and must be eaten before the given date. Foods with “best before” dates can be eaten after the given date, but they won’t be of the best quality. So, you see, knowledge on small things like these goes a long way to not just become a conscious buyer but also help in reducing wastage.

After all, food never wanted to harm humans, it’s humans who are harming fellow humans by making food the antagonist, the evildoer of all diseases and wrapping it up in sugar coated baskets to be picked as much and as quickly as possible.