Is Processed Food Really Food?

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

Just a quick article this morning reminding us once again that because of modern “science,” the food we ate may only taste like food. In the end, most of the processed foods people eat today are laden with chemicals at the very least. The process that many foods go through to get to our tables takes them through a minefield of insecticides, poisons, artificial colors and flavorings.

People need to wake up, wise up, and stop accepting what Big Foods is feeding. If people would simply take seriously the facts that are out there regarding foods, many of the health problems that too many people experience today would dissolve. Unfortunately, most people don’t think, they don’t ask questions, and they don’t believe that Big Foods is really only interested in our money, not our health.

We’ve discussed some of these things before but it bears repeating in the hopes that possibly one more person will be enlightened. There is so much wrong with our processed food supply that it has taken many books, films, and articles on the subject to even begin to make a dent in the entire subject. Are you willing to listen? More importantly, are you willing to investigate and quite possibly, change your lifestyle with respect to what you allow to go into your mouth, stomach, and body?

Just about five years ago, I made a deliberate decision to commit to changing my entire eating lifestyle. I knew if I simply labeled it a “diet,” then once I had lost some weight, I would likely go back to my old ways of eating. It’s what most people do and it has to do with the word “diet” itself. A diet implies a temporary lifestyle change with respect to food or drink. During our diet, we avoid certain foods and beverages. We attempt to eat and drink healthier options so that we will not only lose weight, but feel better in the process.

We remain on a diet until the amount of weight we believe we should lose, is lost. Then we slowly or quickly get right back to the way we used to eat, but we tell ourselves we will do so in moderation. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work and we’ve talked about the fact that certain additives to processed foods make this extremely difficult. For instance, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a sugar substitute normally made from corn stalks in the lab. It is certainly sweet to the taste, but unlike pure cane sugar, does not quench thirst. You could drink a 20 ounce bottle of soda sweetened with HFCS and when you’re done, still feel like you need more to drink because your thirst has not been quenched even though your stomach is full of liquid. When you drink a soda sweetened with pure cane sugar, you can generally stop drinking it at some point even before it’s gone. HFCS can kill. It is a tremendous danger to people who lean toward diabetes and obesity. It kills health.

Think of an alcoholic. Can he/she drink just a small amount every once in a while? No, because as soon as they start drinking again, they will relapse and their drinking will become worse than it was before. An alcoholic knows that they must avoid all forms of alcohol forever or suffer the consequences.

This is exactly how I treat all processed foods. I avoid them like the plague they are and I have no regrets. Sure, I rarely eat out because I can never really know for certain how the food is being prepared (sauces, marinades, use of butter, etc.). The money we save by not going out is spent on “clean” and organic foods at the grocery stores. Even there, problems could exist because we’re learning that even with organic foods, glyphosate (Round-Up) is being found in them because it’s either in the field where organics are grown or the wind blows them onto the crops, even though the grower doesn’t use it.

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective