Essay 3
Writing to Inform
I chose to write about how our food sources have changed from the past, to the present and how those changes have impacted our health.
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A Historical Look at our Affair with Food: Past and Present
Its Evolution Has Changed Everything
By Karen L. Husk
According to current statistics from the Health Library of John Hopkins Medicine, our life expectancy is greater than ever and fewer people are dying from cancer, with more people either living with or being cured of this deadly disease. On the other hand, there is an increase in the number of people being diagnosed with cancer and Type 2 juvenile diabetes has increased 10 times from that of children from 20 years ago and has a direct link to the rise in childhood obesity. Other chronic conditions are on the rise affecting the cardiorespiratory system and digestive system, along with the rate of prescribed drugs for the treatment of these various conditions. Increasing awareness is growing in American consumers about the effect diet has on health and are trying to make healthier choices in an attempt to do right for their families. With the continual release of new data concerning foods that may or may not cause cancer, fad diets too numerous to count and the flood of misleading marketing techniques and colorful packaging of food has left the grocery shopper in a complete state of uncertainty about what they should or shouldn't buy. Making healthy food choices has become more challenging than ever. By taking an historical look at our affair with food, past and present, we will find the changes that have shifted the relationship that we have with food and discover the impacts that our diet has on not only our health, but on the local economy, the environment, and even the cost of health care.
By standing on the premise that all living things are created for survival of its species and that nature, since the beginning of time provides all that is necessary to meet these requirements and when consumed in the right balance enables us to not only survive but to also thrive. A thriving living thing creates its own ability to heal itself and to ward off disease and pestilence.
The human body requires a balance of fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, and hydration from the foods we choose to eat. For many thousands of years, the diet of our ancestors was widely varied and largely dictated by their climate and geographical location. In the farthest reaches into history were the hunters and gatherers, foraging for nuts, berries, roots, fruits and vegetation that was provided by their immediate environment. On a fortunate day, the hunters would provide meat. Every day most of their time, energy, and effort, was spent on the acquisition of food and even more was used on the cleaning and preparation of it. It was through trial and error that humans learned what was edible and safe for consumption and food was eaten raw thereby putting a limit on their choices. Many of the foods eaten today were inedible and even toxic when uncooked. The only methods of food preservation relied on nature by drying it in the air or in the sun and using cold climates accordingly. With the controlled use of fire, man was able to preserve food through cooking, adding more choices to their diets and marking the first major evolutionary stamp on our DNA.
The discovery of farming turned the wanderers into settlers, taking root in one place to work the land. They grew gardens and crops of corn and wheat and they domesticated livestock to provide milk, eggs, butter, and cheese. Wild game was still the preferred source of meat because farm animals also provided various ecological benefits as well as other beneficial resources, therefore, it wasn't until the animal had lived out its natural life before it became dinner. Families were their own sustainable unit. Plants, animals, and humans were in synergistic harmony with the lifecycle of nature through energy exchange, exaltation, and exhaustion; all being an intricate part of an efficient cycle of life. More knowledge was being learned about the transference of vitamins, minerals, and other elements including microorganisms (which only now have scientists become aware of them and their vital role in natures regenerative cycle) giving a better understanding of the importance of crop rotation because what one crop takes from the soil, a different crop puts back. When acreage permitted, the farmers learned to divide and rotate across 3 fields–one for vegetation, one for grains, and one for grazing cattle which was the natural way to fertilize a field that had been stripped of its vital life-giving elements. It was also discovered that certain wildflowers and wild oats acted as a natural deterrent from pests and weeds. Weather and its force in nature led to the mastery of irrigation leading to more bountiful harvests, requiring new methods of food preservation. Vegetables were canned to be rationed out across the winter months and meat was hung in smokehouses, rubbed with salt, or soaked in brine until the invention of refrigerators. Because grains require milling, they were much more labor intensive, so the flour made from it had to be used right away because it would spoil; therefore it was dedicated primarily to bread while cakes, cookies, and the like were saved for holidays and special celebrations. By removing the germ and bran from the grain during the milling process it extended the shelf life of flour indefinitely but would later be discovered that dense nutrients were lost launching the first food to be ‘enriched’, by adding some nutrients back during the process of baking, but some of the healthiest parts of the grain were still lost.
At this point in time and since the dawn of man, there is one thing that has not changed about what is eaten–the major amount of time, energy, and effort that was exalted on this one thing….the provision of food. Plans were made, hard work was invested, and blood, sweat and tears were shed. It was cherished for its life-giving properties and it was rarely wasted nor taken for granted. It was celebrated and prayed over, with thanks being given to God for the food that lay before them.
The arrival of the industrialization era marked the beginning of the end of our intimate relationship with land and food. The growth of urban development brought about the shift in farming for personal needs to farming for business, as more of the population relocated to urban areas for employment. Farmers that once produced enough food for a family of five now had to double their production to meet the rising demands due to urbanization. Ultimately, this opened up even more employment opportunities in the trucking industry to transport food and in the development of highways in an attempt to deliver food quicker and more efficiently.
The fast, busy lifestyle of modern times has created a toxic demand for quick, cheap and easy alternatives for mealtime. Food manufacturers are meeting this demand and exploiting it by promoting gluten-free fat-free, sugar-free products and labeling or naming products with the terms ‘all natural' in order to capitalize on the health-conscious consumer. What the manufacturers neglect to mention is the synthetic, made-by-man in a lab, chemical compounds that replace the tasteless void that is left behind after the removal of fat, sugar, gluten, etc. One well-known sugar replacement, Aspartame, found in diet beverages, is an ingredient used in rat poisoning. The blend of caffeine and aspartame together creates a toxicity that kills off brain cells and causes a build-up of formaldehyde in the brain affecting vision. With 75,000 new synthetic chemicals created since 1940 hiding behind 50 different names, food scientists have gotten really good at recreating flavor replacements for fat and sugar and have learned how to design them so cleverly as to ignite the addiction portion of the brain. It keeps the consumer coming back for more while being fooled into believing that it’s healthy because it’s sugar-free. Bread and many other packaged baked goods have been given a longer shelf life than previously mentioned with the use of emulsifiers to improve the volume, softness, and longevity of bread, and they include ingredients such as azodicarbonamide or ADA, which is a chemical used in the making of yoga mats and shoe soles. It has been banned in Europe, UK, and Australia. Other emulsifiers, such as polysorbate 80 and carboxymethylcellulose, have been linked to IBD and metabolic syndrome.
Current methods of farming encourage larger and more rapid growth of vegetation which prevents the plant from adequately absorbing necessary nutrients from the soil, therefore, the enlarged growth is mostly water, according to a report on NBC news. It inhibits the plant from producing self-protective oils that aids in its ability to protect and heal itself. Keeping the soil rejuvenated through traditional methods of crop rotation and field swapping is no longer employed. Commercial farmers are now growing the same crop year after year, across hundreds of acres of the same land depleting the soil of its richness and vitality. This practice has led to the current usage of chemical fertilization leading to weakened and under-nourished growth in crops. Stripping the plant of its natural ability to thrive, leaving it more vulnerable to pests and disease, requiring the use of even more pesticides and herbicides.
This created a major problem in production and led to the development of genetically modified organisms or GMO's. Monsanto, the first company to create and patent seeds, engineered corn and soybeans genetically containing pest and weed killer in its DNA, strengthening the plants' immunity to withstand the various chemicals used in farming today. Moreover, the mass use of these chemicals causes a run-off, with high nitrate levels, affecting human and aquatic health, as it contaminates the groundwater, rivers, ultimately causing dead zones in the sea incapable of supporting marine life. Corn and soy, and their derivatives such as high fructose corn syrup just to name one, are in hundreds of thousands of packaged food items in today's supermarkets. As a matter of fact, you would be hard-pressed to find a food item that doesn't contain either corn or soy in some form or another. These genetically modified grains are now the primary source of feed for the majority of animals that are being mass produced.
Modern livestock industries have changed the entire process of how cows, chickens, and pigs are raised and cared for. Traditionally, these animals roamed free, grazing on grass or foraging for seeds, insects, worms, and microorganisms. Now they are packed into cages and stalls that are so small the animal is unable to turn around, lie down, or even clean itself. Over the past 100 years, a cow went from producing an average of 4,000 pounds of milk annually to now averaging 18,000 pounds in a year. It used to take up to a year for a hog to produce what one does now in six months. Today these animals are fed grain, primarily corn, with fat fillers such as high fructose corn syrup to fatten them up more quickly. Living in dark, cramped, and unsanitary living conditions, diseases flourish creating the need for antibiotics as a normal daily part of the feed routine and accounting for 80% of all antibiotics in the U.S. According to PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals organization, research has shown that factory farms’ widespread use of antibiotics can lead to antibiotic-resistant bacteria that threaten human health. They’ve learned how to increase the breast size of chickens with growth accelerators that cause deformities and makes them so top heavy they can’t hold their bodies up to walk. The pigs are in the same sad state of affairs. Furthermore, pools of waste with floating remains of dead diseased animals emit concentrated amounts of methane gas into the air, with the waste run-off polluting the groundwater further impacting marine life.
I spent a lot of time on research in order to build a case against modern agriculture and food manufacturers in an effort to place blame for the current health condition of the American people. But the truth is, the blame doesn’t land squarely on one culprit. When you consider the fact that the largest meat purchaser, with 80% of the total national sales, is McDonald's, I realized that the food industries and commercial farmers of crops and livestock are only partly to blame, because they have only done what profitable businesses do in the free enterprise system, adjusted their methods of production to meet the ever-rising wants and demands of the consumer.
Todays' diet consists of meat high in saturated fats, antibiotics, growth hormones, GMO's, and the presence of the stress hormone, cortisol, has also been detected. Chemically laden fruits and vegetables have shown a decline in certain nutrients from a century ago leaving the human body more vulnerable to diseases, allergies, skeletal/joint pain, high cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes, digestive issues, skin conditions, brain fog, and more.
In a little over a century, humans have managed to manipulate, obliterate, and genetically liberate the foods that are consumed today. From diseased meat filled with hormones, antibiotics, and GMO’s, to the scientifically driven food enhancers, emulsifiers, additives, and preservatives found in almost every processed and packaged food item found in supermarkets today. People have grown picky, turning their nose up and rejecting foods they don’t like and simultaneously, but inadvertently, rejecting our life-bearing planet as well. Very little energy is exerted on obtaining what is eaten, with no thought, or regard, about where it comes from, nor is their concern about that which is wasted. Collectively we are managing to sicken ourselves, poison our environment, and deplete the earth of its natural resources.
It will be argued that it is too expensive to eat a healthy diet, and to a degree this is true. It will take the collective power of consumers increasing the demand for clean, nutrient-dense sustenance that will cause food makers to adjust accordingly, creating a more competitive market in the organic industry thereby driving down the cost of healthy food options. Meanwhile, we can begin healing ourselves as well as the environment with small adjustments in weekly grocery routines. Economical ways to join the shift towards healthier living, include swapping out one item, whether it’s produce or a canned good, for the organic alternative. Swap out just one junk food item for a produce item. By swapping out one fast-food dinner for a meatless dinner at home one night a week can lower one's risk for heart disease by 7-10% according to Micheal Pollen in his documentary, In Defense of Food, where he also mentions that from eating one extra serving a day of a fruit or vegetable, reduces the potential for a stroke by 5% and heart attacks by 4%. This resulted in an annual savings of 30,000 lives and $5 billion in health care costs, with an additional bonus of reducing greenhouse emissions and water contamination.
By shopping at local farm markets and butcher shops you not only get clean, fresh, seasonable fruits and vegetables but the local economy gets boosted also. In the supermarket, look for kosher labeled meat for a clean source of protein. Kosher Law, one of the first health codes in the world, prohibits eating an animal that was sick. Kosher meat is fed a native diet and humanely raised, inspected, and slaughtered according to strict Jewish dietary law. By leading a healthier lifestyle with the choices we make at the dinner table, we are taking the vital first steps necessary towards restoring the delicate balance in nature and ensuring the health and sustainability of future generations. By adapting to a healthier diet even in small ways, we can improve our health, the climate, and effectively reduce the cost of healthcare. At every meal, with every bite, we will have 1,095 opportunities this year to cast a vote for the change we’d like to see in our health and in the world. In keeping with the conclusion of the documentary Food, Inc., I ask–how many votes will you be casting in favor of a healthier future?
"Let Food Be Thy Medicine--
--And Medicine Be Thy Food
--Hippocrates
Bibliography
[1] Cardiovascular Disease Statistics https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healthlibrary/conditions/cardiovascular_diseases/cardiovascular_disease_statistics_85,P00243
[2] Farm Animal Welfare: Pigs https://www.mspca.org/animal_protection/farm-animal-welfare-pigs/
[3]Grace Communications Foundation, Food Program, Animal Feed http://www.sustainabletable.org/260/animal-feed
4] Factory Farming: Misery For Animals https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/factory-farming/
[5] Scientists Debate New Study on GMO Fed Pigs by James Andrews http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2013/06/study-says-gmo-feed-may-harm-pigs/#.WuhsUm4vyDL
[6] Nutritional Value of Fruits, Veggies is Dwindling, Chemicals That Speed Growth May Impair Ability to Absorb Nutrients by Sarah Burns, Prevention Magazine http://www.nbcnews.com/id/37396355/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/t/nutritional-value-fruits-veggies-dwindling/#.WrD-yMPwaDI
[7] How the Cult of the Colossal Imperils American Agriculture, By Gracy Olmstead, originally published by American Conservative, April 3, 2018 http://www.resilience.org/stories/2018-04-03/how-the-cult-of-the-colossal-imperils-american-agriculture/
[8] AgMagazine https://www.ewg.org/agmag#.WsV8jS7waDI
[9] “Pickled, Potted and Canned: How the Art and Science of Food Preserving Changed the World”, by Sue Shepard [Simon & Schuster:New York] 2000 (p. 37)
[10] Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics https://www.eatright.org
[11] The Food Time Line Index https://foodtimeline.org [12] Economic Growth and the Early Industrial Revolution http://www.ushistory.org/us/22a.asp
[13] The Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/riseind/
Netflix Documentaries
[1] Food: Delicious Science: Our survival depends on getting the right balance of proteins, fats, carbohydrates and vitamins through foods we choose to eat.
[2] Food Choices: Culprits of declining health and a major cause of climate change.
[3] Sustainable: History leading to sustainable food movement and how it could change what we eat in the future.
[4] In Defense of Food: Industrially driven Western diet, how it has ruined our health.
[5] Hungry For Change: Shocking secrets of food industries, diet, and weight loss companies.
[6] What The Health: Examine link between diet and disease and the billions of dollars at stake in health care, pharmaceuticals, and food industries.
[7] Forks Over Knives: Popularity of processed foods has led to epidemic rates of obesity, diabetes and other diseases.
[8] Cowspiracy: Factory farming is decimating planet’s natural resources.
[9] Food, Inc.: Looks at food industries harmful effects on human health and the environment.