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Health-Free Foods

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Food Confusion! by Dr Melissa Carr

Packing lunch for your kids or yourself to bring to work or school? Here's some food for thought...

Here's a quote from a fitness magazine that I've quickly eliminated from my clinic waiting room: "Pizza Hut 12" Fit N' Delicious Pizza with Diced Chicken, Red Onion, and Green Pepper. A dietician's dream [emphasis mine]..." Um....dream?!...I don't think that Pizza Hut currently makes anything that is truly a dietician's dream. At least not a good dietician. At least Krispy Creme, with 3 g of saturated fat, 4 g of trans fat, 200 calories, and 10 g of sugar in one single donut never tried to pretend to be healthy - really how could it?! - unlike the new "0 g Trans Fat per 24g serving" Oreo cookies which still contain a fifth of a day's worth of saturated fat in just 2 cookies.

Fiction: "Natural", "Sugar-free", "Fat-free", "Cholesterol-free", "Trans-fat free", "Made with Whole Grains" is always healthier

With the push from consumers looking for healthier, yet still convenient, foods, many fastfood and junkfood companies have jumped on the bandwagon. Sounds great, but are they actually healthy?

"Natural"

When used on food labels "natural" should mean that it does not contain any substance that has an artificial source. It does not, however, mean that it did not undergo a great deal of processing. In addition, sometimes the word "natural" is also misused. One big problem is that the Food and Drug Administration does not have a strict definition for "natural" for foods other than meats and poultry.

For example, the manufacturer Cadbury Schwepps is now advertising 7-Up as "100 percent natural" with commericials showing cans of 7-Up being picked like fruit from trees (even though it does not contain any fruit!). While some artificial ingredients were removed from the beverage, it still contains at least on artificial ingredient: high fructose corn syrup. The contention is whether or not high fructose corn syrup can be called natural. Cadbury Schwepps maintains that high fructose corn syrup is made in a way similar to other ingredients which are also called natural.

The Center for Science in Public Interest has threatened to sue Cadbury Schwepps stating that the only way you can make high fructose corn syrup is through the unnatural processing of "centrifuges, hydroclones, ion-exchange columns, and buckets of enzymes".

In addition to this, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has also found that fructose consumption produces insulin resistance, high insulin levels, impaired glucose tolerance, hypertension, and high triglyceride levels. In other words, even if you call it "natural", high fructose corn syrup certainly is not healthy, even though the marketing gurus of these companies would like you to believe it is!

"Sugar-Free"

How about eating sugar-free foods? Which is better for you? Eating sugar, or choosing artificial flavours like aspartame, acesulfame potassium, or sucralose? As one health professional, Dr. Mercola, puts it, "In some ways this is analogous to asking which would you rather get hit with, a hammer or a baseball bat?" We have evolved over thousands of years, while artificial sweeteners, flavours, and colourants are relatively new to our bodies. Simply put, we were not designed to be able to digest, process, and properly eliminate these chemicals.

How's this for a story of deception and intrigue? In 2005, McNeil Nutraceuticals (a subsidary of Johnson & Johnson) the makers of Splenda (an artificial sweetener that uses sucralose) filed a lawsuit against the Sugar Association in response to their attempts to raise awareness that Splenda's claim that it is "made from sugar so it tastes like sugar" is false and deceptive. As part of the Sugar Association's push, they have established the website www.truthaboutsplenda.com. The lawsuit was dismissed, but McNeil Nutraceuticals has filed another suit to continue to try to silence the sugar group and have the website shut down. In addition, residents who live near a manufacturing plant for sucralose in Alabama have filed suit that the plant has lowered their quality of life. They are reportedly experiencing a variety of medical concerns, including watering eyes and respiratory problems that may be associated with exposure to phosgene gas, a poisonous gas that is thought to be used in the production of sucralose and that was used as a choking agent during World War I.

Of course the sugar industry stands to gain if Splenda is removed from the market, but the fact of the matter is that while Splenda claims it is safe, its claims are not clear. Of all the 83 publically-available studies that were supposed to document its safety, only 16 had anything to do with safety and only 6 of these were human studies. All of the animal studies were funded by the company and only 3 human studies were done independently. One of these studies was actually a case report showing it caused migraines! The other 2 studies were related to diabetes. So, there were no independent studies demonstrating the safety of sucralose! As an example of how a study done by the manufacturer can taint the results, when Dr. Ralph G. Walton did an analysis of 166 published medical journals on the safety of aspartame, all of the 74 studies funded by the manufacturer found aspartame to be safe. Converserly, of the 92 independently funded articles, all 92 studies documented adverse health effects!

So, what's a person to do? Choose more natural options like honey, molasses, maple syrup, and unprocessed cane sugar in small amounts to sweeten your foods. Or, choose the natural, calorie-free sweetener option of stevia!

"Fat-Free"

While not as popular as it once was, "fat-free" can still be found on many food packages. Fat-free diets were supposed to help us to lower our cholesterol levels, reduce the number of cardiovascular diseases and related deaths, and help us to lose excess weight. So why is it that fat-free diets and foods have fallen out of favour? Perhaps because it was not the answer to our questions. Fat lines every cell in our bodies. When all the water is taken out of our brain, the remainder is 60 percent fat. The problem isn't with fat in general. Fat is a major piece of a healthy diet; that's why it's called a "macronutrient". The problem, we are discovering, is with eating the right kind of fats, focusing on unsaturated fats (like olive oil instead of lard) and essential fatty acids (like those from fish and flax seeds instead of deep fried onion rings).

"Cholesterol-Free"

What about if you are told that you have high cholesterol? Are you saved if you eat "cholesterol-free" chips, eggs, cookies, and so on? A basic nutrition course will tell you that the main source of diet-induced high cholesterol is not consuming too much cholesterol, but eating too many saturated fats. What really gets me is when foods that never contained any cholesterol are labelled "cholesterol-free" just to make it appear as if they are healthy!

"Trans Fat-Free"

That brings us to the next topic of "trans fat-free" foods. Just 5 grams of trans fat a day has been found to raise the risk of heart disease by a shocking 25 percent! Trans fats are produced when oils are put through a process known as hydrogenation. We have known for awhile that unsaturated fats (such as olive oil which is liquid at room temperature) tend to be healthier for us than saturated fats (like lard which is solid at room temperature), but unsaturated fats are not as stable. Hydrogenation gives unsaturated fats the stability that we desire, but the problem is that it also produces fiendish trans fats, such as those in potato chips, margarine, and french fries.

So, now the latest key phrase in the food industry is "trans fat-free" and it has even reached the fastfood industry. Starting this month, Wendy's is slated to start using trans fat-free oil to cook its french fries and breaded chicken items. Sounds great, especially when you consider that some fastfood chains' fries contain more than 30 percent trans fat. But is it really as healthy as you think? You know that if I ask the question, the answer is probably "no". When you heat oil to a high temperature in the presence of light and oxygen you create all kinds of damaged and toxic molecules. A 10 degree Celcius increase in cooking temperature can double, triple, or even quadruple the rate of chemical reactions, so it is best to cook at a lower temperature. One toxic substance created by frying potatoes or other carbohydrate is called acrylamide and it is a possible carcinogen (cancer-causing agent), so I hope you are better than the average American that eats 4 orders of fries every week!

Another problem with fat-free foods is that in order to keep the flavour, they are often laden with other processed flavours or more sugar! What a catch 22!

"Made With Whole Grains"

So, how can I find fault in this? How about with the wording. It's like selling Fruit Loops as "part of a nutritious breakfast". Yes, if you have it with fruit, whole grain toast or oatmeal, and perhaps an egg. The Fruit Loops is part of the nutritious breakfast; it just happens to be the unhealthy part. The question to ask when you see "made with whole grains" is, how much whole grains? It might be just a sprinkling! Even if the label reads a "good" or "excellent" source of whole grains, which means that it has to contain 8g (good) or 16g (excellent) of whole grains per serving, that serving may be 30 to 55 g, leaving up to 85 percent of it as refined (i.e. unhealthy) grains. And remember, that 8 g of whole wheat still has only 1 g of fibre.

Another misleading marketing tactic is to call something "harvest wheat". This does not define whether the wheat is whole or refined, and the word "harvest" has absolutely no meaning other than to make it sound wholesome. The same thing goes for "multi-grain" which also does not define whole or refined. You need to read the labels to get the truth. You'll know that you're getting refined grains if you read any of the following: enriched or unbleached wheat flour, semolina flour, or durum flour.

NOW WHAT?!

Truth: How frustrating it all seems. There's a lot of money at stake in the food industry, so keep that in mind when you are told what's healthy for you. Use common sense and know that you can't go wrong with eating a variety of fresh (or frozen, not canned), whole (not processed), and preferrably locally grown and/or organic real foods in a balanced and moderate manner.

Copyright 2007 Dr. Melissa Carr, B.Sc., Dr.TCM, Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Active TCM -- Helping You Help Yourself, www.activetcm.com