How have we become so blind? The food industry is such a sham sometimes...
When you choose to eat Real Food, your immediate benefit is that it tastes good. Your long-term benefit is that it is almost always healthier. In many cases it is also more sustainable, healthier for the environment, and supports people whose work, methods, and entire communities make the world a better place. -Larry Olmsted
Wow... so I just finished reading Larry Olmsted's book Real Food, Fake Food. The review are pretty spot on... I feel both pissed off at the food industry and hungry. Yeah sure there are quite a lot of grammatical errors, but if you can look passed all that, the info in the book is pretty freaken on point with our whole idea of natural medicine and eating whole real food to keep healthy...
It's not about health but it can help our choices of available real foods if you're not hunting and gathering.
For example, if you wanted to eat cured ham but only wanted happy meat (meaning animals that are consciously raised and only eat what their biology was meant for), than you could buy Prosciutto Di Parma. The direct translation is Ham of Parma, and the real thing comes from Parma only... everything about it is the way it is because of its geography, the way the pigs eat naturally and the way it is made.
So the real Prosciutto Di Parma is in fact happy meat. Sure it's more expensive than some other cured ham but it tastes so much better and is packed full of natural nutrition.
Same goes for Parmesan cheese... if you don't want to eat a fake that is made of wood pulp and whatever else, than look for the real Parmigiano Reggiano. Again, the real thing is made from raw milk from local cows that only eat their natural diet with absolutely no hormones, on pastures that cannot ever be treated with chemicals..! To the point where a cow that has been administered antibiotics, as a last resort, is taken out of the production line untill there is no traces of antibiotics left.
There are so many things to know about labeling in the USA, that essentially we cannot trust any of the information written on food packages. There are just so little regulations as far as protecting a certain type of food. Retailers and restaurateurs can claim just about anything, there are almost no laws against serving a cheap or imitation food in lue of the real thing. The book goes into details about the different laws implemented throughout the world and the lack there of in the United States.
Red snapper is one of those foods that is most often faked. The thing is, again if you're in that world of wanting to eat only wild caught fish, red snapper is never farmed. That's great to know but be aware that the next time you order a piece of red snapper smothered in some delicious sauce, it probably isn't the wild caught fish you though it should be.
When Larry Olmsted said it properly, the more expensive a food is, the more you'll find contraband.
Olive oil, shrimp, kobe beef and so much of our food has been sold to us as something that it is not... It's not really surprising, as the business models these days are all about profit, why should anyone care about whether or not people get sick, as long as the price is right, that's all they care about.
There's so much more to tell about the fake food industry but I can't rewrite the book here in a post, so if you want to find out more, read the book or start looking into this scandalous food story.
Be warned... once you dive into this world of nutrition and healthy food, it will become difficult to find real food at the market.
As someone who has a boatload of food allergies, yeah - this is totally true!
There was a study a while back where a lab tested various olive oils, and only three turned up as actually 100% olive oil like the bottle said - California Olive Ranch, Trader Joe's California Reserve, and Kirkland (Costco brand). Basically the rule was if it came from California, it was probably real, but if it came from Italy, it was almost certainly mixed with cheaper oils so they could make more profit. Which is hazardous to me because I am allergic to so many things other oils are made of - I can only really use olive and coconut.
Then recently I started seeing all the California Olive Ranch bottles touting themselves as "destination series" - oils from multiple places in the same bottle. I couldn't find one that wasn't like that. So now I don't trust it anymore, because I can't be sure. Sigh.
It's insane the sh*t I have to look out for and can never be sure of.
Lately I've been reacting to dairy products that are not grass fed. I'm not allergic to dairy at all - I rely on it as a food staple now. But I'm allergic to corn and soy - what grain-fed cows are usually fed. So now all my dairy products cost twice as much as conventional, because naturally. LOL
Holly crap, that is horrible. I'm sorry to hear this. And yeah there's a massive chapter on olive oil, so many lies come with it. I haven't seen the multiple destination bottles yet, tha ks for the heads up.
If you ha e crazy alergies like that and are now worried about milk because of it's cows... you could look into the western price foundation, depending on where you live they might have a local chapter and can help find whole foods, including safe raw milk.
I can get grass fed in the groceries near me, which is good, because I can't drive to get to farms and raw milk pick up points. In my state, the "rule" about raw milk is that you can't buy it, but if you own the cow they can't stop you from drinking it raw. So the workaround to get raw milk is that you have to put a deposit down that is your "share" in a cow, so that way you "own" it, and ergo can get milk from your co-owned cow. But you have to find a farmer you can meet up with someplace to pick up your milk at a certain time, like you're doing drug deals in the back of the farmer's van, but it's milk. It's madness.
If they delivered it, I might be able to do that, but as it is, I'd be bussing across town to try and catch them in a one-hour window and if my bus didn't show (which sometimes they don't, because RTD is unreliable), then I'd be milk-less.
Ahh, the hoops you gotta jump through for real food nowadays. I'm glad I can at least find grass fed dairy and free range eggs in the store, even if they are super expensive.
Here in Western Oregon, Bennett Family Farms is delivering milk to our doors. Hopefully this will do well and expand regionally. You might inquire of them to see if such a service may be available to you where you are.
I'm in Denver. There are a couple of companies that might deliver, but it's all generic, grain fed, non-organic, antibiotic-filled stuff. :(
Ouch... yeah that sounds super difficult. Ohio has that same set up with "shares". Well at least yes there is the grocery store eggs and milk like you said.
I can not find a single thing I would eat at rest stops on highways, or gas station markets. Not one single thing. Grocery stores are horrifying to me when I stop to think that those products are what 99.9% of people are eating and using in their homes. Toxic. All of it. Scary.
We have been bamboozled into thinking we need processed food and medical intervention. We have been made dependent on systems that are harming us.
I think I'll be reading that book.
was an excellent read, I borrowed it fron the library. All that toxicity in our food is pretty much why we're getting into wild foods more and more every year.
There quite a lot of great scientific info today on the natural human diet, and apparently very little of what found in supermarkets is actually natural.
But things do exist... maybe not at rest stops but we can prepare for a trip with the goodies we like to eat.
One of the cheapest ways to get a great source of omega 3 is through canned sardines. Look for those that are canned pba free. Sardines are always wild caught, and do not have mercury like salmon and tuna.
Thanks for reading
You are so right! I usually never eat anything at those places you've mentioned. After our trip to Thailand a few weeks ago, we had to eat something because we were starving and had no choice but buy food at the airport in London before we boarded the next plane. We all felt sick afterwards!
16 days of fresh fruit juices and street food in Thailand and we never had any issues. One meal in Europe and we're all sick. That should tell you something!
It tells me that big business is poisoning us, on purpose. Why though?
It's good to know there are places still on the earth eating traditional diets and maintaining health.
In addition to the lack of reasonable regulation regarding food, laws only matter at all if enforced, and this is not a problem the US uniquely suffers. Across the industry, from east to west, bribery more often determines law enforcement than not, IMHO.
There really is no alternative to growing your own, because folks that aren't eating the product can be bribed, while you cannot be bribed to poison your own food. I am very much anticipating the increasing development of aquaponics and other decentralized means of production that allow individuals, families, and communities to have absolute control over their food, and also eliminates funding Big Agra to destroy the natural environment by slash and burning the Amazon or replace the Great Plains with monocrops of glyphosate doused corn.
Thanks!
I have a feeling that if we can eliminate the funding of Big Agra, we will also be eliminating Big Pharma's!!! But yeah of cpurse no ome will be able to bribe me to poison the food I grow for myself. Good point.
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Thank you thank you, @theluvbug!!!
It's soooo important to know not only the ingredients of what we choose to eat, but their provenance. Yes, it's increasingly challenging in a world of marketing speak and deliberate obscuring of the real origins of things. Important post and a reminder to really just get back in the garden and grow more of our own.
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You’ve been visited by @porters on behalf of Natural Medicine. Thanks for sharing that excellent resource for finding "real" foods! It irks me so that there is so much adulteration going on and it is becoming difficult to find "real" foods. I try to locally source things where I get to know the producer and growing a lot of our own food.
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It's so true that we need to consider where our food comes from and how it has been treated. I loved the mention of those pigs. I used to have a pig (as a pet, not for food) and that animal has taught me so much.
She wouldn't touch the carrots I brought home from the shop one day, but she would happily dig up the ones in the garden or eat those I got from the organic farm. That showed me that the store-bought ones weren't good enough for my family if they weren't good enough for her.
The farmers here tend to feed their pigs everything, literally everything. Which could also mean leftover meat, even their own kind! I mean where would we see a pig catch a bird or a cow or pig to eat? Nowhere! It's something humans have been doing and feeding them, but it's not in their nature.
Our landlord's donkey died and he was left at the bottom of the field for collection. While the neighbour's dogs (and mine) were very interested in the poor animal's dead body, our piggie wouldn't even come near it and made a detour to get around him. That showed me that they don't just eat anything. They're gourmets, not gourmands. Only those pigs raised in pens with many others and fed whatever the farmer feels like feeding them will eat crap like that. Not those that have a choice. Having her taught me to look at the animal's nature (and the nature of plants) more deeply. Nature can teach us a lot if we are open to study it.
Thanks for sharing your views on the subject.
It matters what we eat.
Great info! I'm totally going to read the book. Thank you for sharing your perspective on this very important subject.