Fascinating NYT Mag piece on junk food

[Steak Snabler]

Lots of legwork involved, and it shows.

The nut:

What I found, over four years of research and reporting, was a conscious effort — taking place in labs and marketing meetings and grocery-store aisles — to get people hooked on foods that are convenient and inexpensive. I talked to more than 300 people in or formerly employed by the processed-food industry, from scientists to marketers to C.E.O.’s. Some were willing whistle-blowers, while others spoke reluctantly when presented with some of the thousands of pages of secret memos that I obtained from inside the food industry’s operations. What follows is a series of small case studies of a handful of characters whose work then, and perspective now, sheds light on how the foods are created and sold to people who, while not powerless, are extremely vulnerable to the intensity of these companies’ industrial formulations and selling campaigns.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Sounds a lot like the tobacco industry.

 

[Steak Snabler]

Yes, the author makes that comparison very early in the piece.

 

[YGBFKM]

You know what gets people hooked on foods that are convenient and inexpensive? Life.

Convenient and inexpensive are two of the fundamental values for the majority of Americans.

 

[Dick Whitman]

You know what gets people hooked on foods that are convenient and inexpensive? Life.

Convenient and inexpensive are two of the fundamental values for the majority of Americans.

Yep. I spent like two months eating a Rice Krispie Treat for breakfast every morning because I could stop at 7-11 every morning on the walk to the office. Finally, I took the 10 extra minutes and went into Target and walked out with a $15 toaster and a bag of bagels.

In conjunction with this piece, there was a story yesterday on sugar, and how it causes diabetes even independently of obesity. I think that a lot of people thought that there was merely a correlation with sugar and diabetes because there is a correlation between sugar and obesity. But apparently sugar is actually the cause of diabetes, and they've got that pretty rock solid.

 

[Azrael]

Trouble is, these foods are neither convenient nor inexpensive when you factor in the social costs and the health crisis they've created.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Trouble is, these foods are neither convenient nor inexpensive when you factor in the social costs and the health crisis they've created.

Of course not.

But we discount the future when we make decisions, particularly little decisions.

 

[The Big Ragu]

You know what gets people hooked on foods that are convenient and inexpensive? Life.

Convenient and inexpensive are two of the fundamental values for the majority of Americans.

It's more than that. A lot of research shows that the same receptors in your brain that get you hooked on opiates, for example, get you hooked on certain foodlike-substances that they load foods up with -- basically stripping out the nutritional content and leaving behind quick glucose fixes. The "food science" industry is dedicated nowadays to getting you hooked on the processed foods. ... that are sold as convenient and inexpensive. What is sickening is how many of them actually put health claims on their labels, much of it government sanctioned.

I reference Marion Nestle and Michael Pollan in a lot of posts on here. They are nutrionists / writers who have written a number of popular books that covers all of this extensively. 60 minutes did a piece last year, too, about food labs in which they work on "flavors" that they add to foods.

If you read any of Nestle or Pollan's books, you realize quickly that this isn't rocket science. Humans have done very well for a gazillion years, without much thought, on what to eat. If you stay away from anything prepackaged or processed or prepared in a fast food place (what Pollan will call "food-like substances") and stick to the stuff your great grandparents would have recognized as food, those evil scientists can't get you. In "In Defense of Food," Pollan basically tells people how to eat in 7 words. "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Shop around the perimeter of the supermarket -- real food spoils, so they keep it closest to the loading areas and in the refrigerated sections. Stay away from the prepackaged or processed crap in the middle of the supermarket. That is where they are trying to hook you on **** that is really bad for you -- despite any claims on the label. Look at labels. If you recognize all the ingredients, can pronounce them all, and none of them are chemicals, you are ahead of the game. Better yet, though, stay away from labeled stuff and buy fresh ingredients and you don't have to worry about the mess they have made of supermarkets.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Two or three years ago, I think I battled 21 and Ragu on this point. There was a study in which some teacher lost 80 pounds or some such nonsense by eating Twinkies and cookies. I questioned - it was more devil's advocacy than anything - whether it was the calories that mattered more than the substance.

I take it back.

 

[YGBFKM]

Aside from the occasional pizza -- which you're gonna have to pry from my cold, dead hands -- I don't eat junk food. But I also don't have the time or money to eat like I would prefer. My guess is that makes me quite common.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

As Ragu has doubtless said before, it is in fact cheaper to cook and eat relatively healthy foods than to purchase processed foods. Why do you think the food industry loves selling the latter?
My particular junk food addiction (we all have one) is salty snacks. But I've pretty much got it down to pretzels now. They are allegedly the least worst such snack, nutritionally speaking.

 

[YGBFKM]

What does relatively healthy mean?

 

[Here me roar]

From practical experience, I can vouch for the addictive quality of these foods. The more crap I eat, the more I want. When I am eating healthy, think lean meats, fruits and vegetables plus some whole grains, it's not that I'm not eating the crap but that I don't WANT to eat the crap. It's getting from crap to not-crap and fighting the cravings that is hard. That's why it's so easy to fall off the healthy meal bandwagon. A few days of crap and your body, at least mine, just craves it.

 

[Pete]

Yep. I spent like two months eating a Rice Krispie Treat for breakfast every morning because I could stop at 7-11 every morning on the walk to the office. Finally, I took the 10 extra minutes and went into Target and walked out with a $15 toaster and a bag of bagels.

I don't mean this to be a scold, but you're mistaken if you think a bagel for breakfast every day is a healthy option. If it's a whole wheat bagel, as in one truly made from 100% whole wheat flour and not just one that they've slapped "wheat bagel" on the bag, then you're mostly OK. It's still just carbs and you're better off w/ a breakfast high in lean protein, some fiber and some fruits in addition to the whole grain, but you're not doing much damage.

But it's almost certainly a bagel made from processed white flour, deceivingly labeled "enriched flour" on the label. They need to "enrich" it because they've stripped the whole grain and most of the goodness within, so they try to put some good stuff back. Alas it doesn't work that way. The best evidence is that our bodies digest foods made with white flour very quickly into sugar, which causes insulin to spike, which causes all sorts of bad things. A whole grain product is digested more slowly, in part because of the natural fiber, and thus avoids the spike in blood sugar. In much the same way, you're a million times better off eating an orange (digested slowly, thanks in part to the natural fiber) than drinking even freshly squeezed orange juice, which is digested much more like straight sugar.

My point is that for much of us, even when we try to do the right thing -- and a bagel is definitely better than a Rice Krispie treat as far as that goes -- we don't get things especially right because of a lack of information. That "healthy" option may not be nearly as healthy as you think.

In general I'd agree with Ragu; you're best off eating lean proteins and whole grains and fruits/vegetables and avoiding anything processed, which basically means avoiding things made with white flour.

That said, one of the highlights of my week is the poppy-seed bagel I enjoy every Sunday, toasted with butter. I basically eat "healthy" on Monday through Friday afternoon, then eat whatever I want over the weekends. It's worked for me for a decade now.

Maybe this post is better suited to another thread, but I couldn't avoid leaving unchallenged the "bagels are a healthy food option" position.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Pete, What you are talking about is epidemic. Our diets have changed from whole foods to refined foods. What is wild is that the preference for white flour and white rice over the whole brown equivalents started as a prestige thing. Only the wealthy could afford refined grains, which made white bread into a glamorous thing. That made people who weren't wealthy want it.

The benefit of refined grains is that they extend the shelf life. When you remove all the nutrients, it keeps the pests away -- the things that spoil food. It also removes the fiber that slows down the release of the sugars, which basically makes them easy-to-digest quick-acting glucose delivery systems.

Over time, they have intensified these kinds of processing to turn food into ways to deliver glucose to the brain quickly. From the standpoint of the people selling food, it is perfect. They make food more durable, so it doesn't spoil and they don't lose money that way. And by doing that, they concentrate the energy in the food, which creates addicts who overeat and eat too much of the stuff.

In that regard, refined flour was the first fast food. I still marvel that so much white rice is eaten by people. It is nutritionally pretty empty. At least when you eat the whole grain varieties of things, you get fiber and some nutrients. Otherwise, you might as well just inject glucose into your blood stream and create an addiction for yourself.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Yep. I spent like two months eating a Rice Krispie Treat for breakfast every morning because I could stop at 7-11 every morning on the walk to the office. Finally, I took the 10 extra minutes and went into Target and walked out with a $15 toaster and a bag of bagels.

I don't mean this to be a scold, but you're mistaken if you think a bagel for breakfast every day is a healthy option. If it's a whole wheat bagel, as in one truly made from 100% whole wheat flour and not just one that they've slapped "wheat bagel" on the bag, then you're mostly OK. It's still just carbs and you're better off w/ a breakfast high in lean protein, some fiber and some fruits in addition to the whole grain, but you're not doing much damage.

But it's almost certainly a bagel made from processed white flour, deceivingly labeled "enriched flour" on the label. They need to "enrich" it because they've stripped the whole grain and most of the goodness within, so they try to put some good stuff back. Alas it doesn't work that way. The best evidence is that our bodies digest foods made with white flour very quickly into sugar, which causes insulin to spike, which causes all sorts of bad things. A whole grain product is digested more slowly, in part because of the natural fiber, and thus avoids the spike in blood sugar. In much the same way, you're a million times better off eating an orange (digested slowly, thanks in part to the natural fiber) than drinking even freshly squeezed orange juice, which is digested much more like straight sugar.

My point is that for much of us, even when we try to do the right thing -- and a bagel is definitely better than a Rice Krispie treat as far as that goes -- we don't get things especially right because of a lack of information. That "healthy" option may not be nearly as healthy as you think.

In general I'd agree with Ragu; you're best off eating lean proteins and whole grains and fruits/vegetables and avoiding anything processed, which basically means avoiding things made with white flour.

That said, one of the highlights of my week is the poppy-seed bagel I enjoy every Sunday, toasted with butter. I basically eat "healthy" on Monday through Friday afternoon, then eat whatever I want over the weekends. It's worked for me for a decade now.

Maybe this post is better suited to another thread, but I couldn't avoid leaving unchallenged the "bagels are a healthy food option" position.

I understand that a bagel isn't the same as an apple. But the point was that it's healthier than a processed Rice Krispie Treat. It's a step.

And I also:

* Get up at 4 a.m. each day and run for an hour.
* Rarely eat red meat.
* Rarely eat any fast food at all.

But to be sure, I wasn't extolling the virtues of bagels so much as I was just illustrating how easy it was to buy something sugary and processed instead of something you have to "cook" yourself.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I've cleaned up the way I eat a lot in the last six months... I now basically eat no red meat, no regular soda, and cutting out fast food was a given...

It's interesting... When I was a kid, 30+ years ago, it was more expensive to go to McDonald's than it is today. I can run through the drive thru and get my kids each a double cheeseburger and fries for about $4 and they're as happy as can be...

I don't do it, or at least, I very rarely do it, but I certainly understand why people go that route. We have friends where both parents work and they have four kids and they probably go that route four nights a week.

 

[RickStain]

If you want to make a case that our food is unhealthy, then I think it's a slam dunk.

But the "we should eat the way our ancestors did" always falls pretty flat for me. They weren't exactly known for their longevity.

 

[The Big Ragu]

If you want to make a case that our food is unhealthy, then I think it's a slam dunk.

But the "we should eat the way our ancestors did" always falls pretty flat for me. They weren't exactly known for their longevity.

Do you think that is because of the way people ate, say, 150 years ago. ... or probably more because medical advances, and the overall standard of living we enjoy, keep us alive longer, despite what refined foods have done to the modern diet?

 

[I Should Coco]

That was a great read, thanks for the link, Steak.

The part about Frito-Lay's $40,000 mechanical mouth made me laugh out loud ... until I thought about how many of their snacks I've scarfed down over the years.

I'm overweight myself and this year, instead of trying an ultra-rigid diet that usually doesn't make it through January, I'm focusing on eliminating two things: soda and potatoes. Both of those took a beating in the NYT Magazine article.

Although I've had a few stray french fries, dumping the soda has been pretty easy. And without much of an increase in exercise (that usually gets better as the weather does), I've lost four pounds over the past two months.

It's a start.