Lucia

de Vernai

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April 1, 2009

Health Food Industry is Still an Industry

Our eating habits have gained Americans a less-than-graceful reputation as gluttonous. Ever-increasing portion sizes and our mysterious problem with extra weight continue to dominate our rarely changing practices. Some of the expert advice from morning TV shows and frantic magazine ads has worked its way into our daily routine. Baby steps, we figure, pouring soy milk over the Special K or handing the kids a bowl of organic popcorn.

Just as we were starting to get used to the taste of the “healthy alternative” Cheerios, secretly proud of doing the right thing for our health and our planet – experts remind us that it’s not quite good enough. It turns out that 89 percent of the world’s soy is genetically modified, as is 80 percent of corn. It’s organic because no sane herbivore or mainstream herbicide are interested, making the use of chemicals unnecessary. Hooray, your kids are not consuming additional chemical compounds. Move one space forward.

Sadly, the transport of the super-special soy is not only driving up the price but polluting the environment en route. And as the genetically modified plants ward off certain undesirables, many more adapt to find them irresistible. The corn gets back in the lab. Move one space back.

Even when it is not “certified organic” (and how many of us know what that really means?), GMOs – genetically modified organisms – have many benefits. The short-term costs of raising a crop healthier and cheaper is undeniably attractive, especially in this market. Humans have always tinkered with nature to produce the most effective agricultural methods; this is merely the next frontier.

The pressure to produce more resistant crops as soon as possible (the market demands it!) means that the extra-shiny corn and super-plump tomatoes may turn out to be good for our wallets, not so good for our health. The magical chemical that changed the genetic makeup of potatoes, for example, may find a new frontier in the human body, altering it as well.

Paranoid? Perhaps. But profit driven companies don’t always have the public’s well-being at heart, and the government’s protection is too little, too late. Or so I’ve heard.

Our helplessness as consumers extends to the food we eat. Expert advice is always sifted through stockholder and advertising filters, and given a sound bite and detached from the context of our pantries.

Consumer education is available, although few of us have the time to familiarize ourselves with every nine-syllable chemical on the label. A good start is to know what the healthy-sounding catchphrases mean – sometimes the only difference between “100 percent organic” and “certified organic“ is not worth the $4 price difference. In a turn toward repentance for our gluttonous ways, many of us force cardboard-tasting oats and grains down our throats and wash it down with white tea, all to lower cholesterol by three points or magically cleanse toxins.

Worthy goals, but it’s important to remember that the health food industry is still an industry, and all of its new, pure benefit-laden products need to be taken with a grain of salt.

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