Column #33

For 30 years natural/organic food sales have soared. Today, it’s Big Business as food giants acquire organic and natural brands and grocery chains compete with small retailers in the $120 billion natural/organic market.

Obviously consumers are aggressive buyers of natural/organic products. Yet since the early 1950s incidences of chronic disease have risen while more consumers than ever have heeded the siren song of natural and organic. The song is played by the media to advertise food, the 60-year-old USDA dietary guidelines, the medical community that prospers treating chronic disease, and scaremongers who sell their products through fear not science.

Long ago “health food” marketers learned that successful “health food” products must be similar to the products people already eat. So they gave their “new” products sophisticated monikers slathered in marketing buzz to extol the virtues of a nutritional trait, making their “revolutionary” food sound like a powerhouse. This formula assures immediate success because consumers are not required to change their taste preferences and habits. They believe their diet has improved but they fail to notice that chronic diseases keep increasing.

Here’s a few popular health food offerings that illustrate my point.

“Sprouted, organic manna bread” is made with brown rice flour, sorghum flour, corn starch, sunflower oil, sprouted sunflower seeds, millet, sprouted amaranth, evaporated cane juice crystals.

“Organic cereal” may be made with whole grain corn meal, evaporated cane juice, brown rice flour, corn meal, yellow corn flour.

“Gluten-free, vegan gelato” is simply a fancy name for low fat ice cream.

“Healthy pastries” are made from wheat flour, cane sugar, invert cane syrup, palm oil, cherries, apples, whole wheat flour, corn starch, vital wheat gluten.

“Panini” is grilled sandwiches made with baguette, ciabatta, and michetta, not simply sliced bread.

All these offerings are high glycemic, heavy Omega-6, nutrient-lite, health time bombs.

More meaningless promotion is this typical ranking of the “world’s healthiest food groups.”

1.    Fruit and Berries
2.    Eggs
3.    Meats (lean)
4.    Nuts, Seeds, and Peanuts
5.    Vegetables
6.    Fish and Seafood
7.    Grains
8.    Breads
9.    Legumes
10.    Dairy
11.    Fats and Oils
12.    Tubers

That list is exactly what everyone has been eating since the 1950s. And, drum roll, what is the result? More chronic disease and soaring healthcare costs that now consume 18% of the nation’s GNP. The food chemistry of these “classy” and classic offerings is what causes chronic diseases. Until people change their food choices (food chemistry), they can’t expect different results in their long-term health and well-being.

A healthy change is a diet that is nutrient dense and diverse, low glycemic, with a 1:1 balance of Omega-6 to Omega-3 fatty acids. Foods in that group are green leafy vegetables, grass-fed and omega-3 meats, plus wild-caught seafood. Most other foods are nutrient lite (fruit, grain, nuts, seeds, tubers, grain-fed meat and eggs), very high in Omega-6 versus Omega-3 fatty acids (nuts, grain, seeds, grain-fed meat and eggs, some fruit), and high glycemic (sugar, grain, some fruit, many tubers).

To your health.

Ted Slanker

Ted Slanker has been reporting on the fundamentals of nutritional research in publications, television and radio appearances, and at conferences since 1999. He condenses complex studies into the basics required for health and well-being. His eBook, The Real Diet of Man, is available online.

For additional reading:

Top 50 Healthiest Foods on The Planet

Legacy Health Food Companies are Acquisition Targets

Comparing Nutrients in Fruit to Vegetables

Essential Fatty Acids in Health and Chronic Disease

Food Analysis Tables