Neither fear nor apathy are useful in today’s world, nor are they attractive qualities in a newspaper column. That is why I was so disappointed in Connor Guy’s column “Learning to trust what you consume” last week.
Guy seems to offer only two choices for us, to be “paralyzed by fear” about the things in our food or to consume them unthinkingly. I would like to think that we have a little bit more control over lives than to take whatever food comes our way.
For example, he points out that imported seafood, as well as other foreign and domestic products, are often kept from the shelves for numerous reasons. He goes on to note that, due to the ridiculously small number of FDA and USDA inspectors, much of this meat and seafood is never inspected and so much of our food is likely not good to eat. There are several ways to try and make sure that the protein on your plate will not give you mad cow or other diseases.
Increasing the number of inspectors would likely be a good start, something that our government officials could easily do. For example, there is no reason that our country should be one of the only in the world that does not follow World Health Organization guidelines regarding Mad Cow disease safety.
Another solution is to get meat and seafood from sources you trust. Most of the health and safety problems associated with these products go back to the way the meat was produced, caught, slaughtered and/or packaged. Getting to know your farmer, fisherperson, rancher, butcher and distributor are a good start.
At the very least look at the records associated with some of the major companies that you buy from. Tyson Foods has some of the worst regulations and has a history of running their packing line too quickly, endangering both workers and the customer. On the other hand, Thundering Hooves, located in Walla Walla, grows their meat in open pastures, does not use antibiotics that can lead to resistant bacterial infections and do all their butchering in a small scale facility with skilled butchers.
Besides meat and seafood, packaged foods containing artificial ingredients are some of the biggest food safety black holes. Guy points out in his column that diacytel, used in the butter flavoring in microwave popcorn, was damaging the lungs of factory workers in the popcorn packaging plants until very recently. He also talks about the dangers of aspartame, the artificial sweetener in Coke.
Unless you are a chemistry major, these ingredients, and most of the other ones on processed food, mean very little to you. It is hard to feel good, and even harder to feel informed, about food that sounds more like an organic chemistry test than a meal. Shrugging your shoulders and buying the package anyway is probably not the only option.
Once again, more regulation from government, such that we do not end up with potentially dangerous popcorn in the first place, is likely the best bet. The testing for food safety has been moved almost entirely outside the realm of government and into the hands of private corporations, often creating massive conflicts of interest. This needs to end.
If you do not know what an ingredient is, perhaps it is not the best thing to eat. Why have popcorn with butter flavoring anyway, when you could be having butter? Recent studies have shown that most artificial sweeteners actually interact with your body in ways that cause you to gain more weight, rather than lose it. Is the mystery really worth it?
There is no reason to eat poison and no reason to give up on food altogether. You can not know everything about your food, but you can be more well informed and buy from sources that you trust.
