7 dirty secrets the packaged food industry does not want you to know. Number 5 will shock you !

In every industry, there are things only “insiders” know of, which they don't want you to find out or think about.

Ever had questions like, where did our food come from? What are all these strange ingredients mentioned, in super small font, on the back of food packets?

Is what we eat doing us good or is it harming us? 

I started thinking about these things many years ago. When as a mother of two, I obsessed over providing the right nutrition for my family. I started to read about what goes into our food. What I found, shocked me. This article exposes seven dirty secrets the food industry does not want you to know & why you must know them.

Secret 1: Most large food companies use ingredients that are artificially grown and cheap

Huge factories buy the cheapest possible raw ingredients to maximize profit. These foods are grown using a harmful combination of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Hence, these foods have lower nutrient values & lack natural taste and flavour.

Secret 2: Sugar and spice is not always nice

As the ingredients lack natural taste and flavour, a lot of sugar, spices & artificial flavours are added to make it edible & tasty. These artificial flavours are why a packet of chips is so hard to put down. Remember “no one can eat just one”! This is one of the main reasons we are seeing so many people facing health issues like obesity & diabetes.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO);

“In today's world more people are suffering from obesity & diabetes than from hunger and malnutrition.”

This shocking statistic tells us that we truly need to be more mindful of what we eat.

Secret 3: Our food is on life-support & is being kept artificially alive

Food when taken from the farm needs to be consumed within a specific time frame or it loses its nutrient values and natural taste. To keep food artificially alive & extend its shelf life companies use a lot of preservatives. These preservatives cause many health issues like digestive, nervous and respiratory disorders.

They increase the shelf life of the food at the cost of our life on this beautiful planet.

Secret 4: The fashion industry and the Food Industry are similar in a few ways

Hmm, this is strange. You may ask, what’s common between the Fashion industry & the Food Industry?

Both want to show you a picture that is fake and unnatural. 

Models wear many layers of makeup before a photo shoot. These photos are then photo-shopped by experts. Finally, what you see in magazines is a fake, computer-generated image. Similarly, the food industry adds "permitted colours" to our food to make it look beautiful. When we see food that looks beautiful, we feel, ah, it looks so good, must be fresh and tasty. This is how the Packaged Food industry misleads us into believing the food we eat is fresh & healthy.

Secret 5: Food so bad that even bacteria don’t eat it.

An interesting experiment was done in Iceland in 2009. Someone placed a burger purchased from McDonald's in front of a camera & live-streamed it to see how fast it started rotting. It has been over 11 years now and the burgers have still not gone bad. Even bacteria is not eating the burger & fries which are full of artificial flavours and preservatives. You can read more about this experiment by visiting www.bbc.com. 

Should we eat food that even bacteria do not want to eat?

Secret 6: Longer product shelf life equals shorter human life 

To achieve long shelf life for food products a lot of preservatives, fats & hydrogenated oils are used. 

This comes at a cost to our shelf life! 

As the ingredients responsible for keeping the food edible and artificially alive cause a lot of health issues such as obesity, diabetes, liver issues and even cancer. 

As a rule – Do not eat anything that will not rot over time.

Secret 7: Manufactured by Machines

This is something that many of us know but avoid thinking about. It comes down to what you think about food. Is it something that should be manufactured by a machine or is it something that should be handmade?

I feel the best food is still handmade and maybe most of you would agree.

So be careful when buying your next snack. Read the labels. See if the food you are buying is handmade or manufactured in a factory. Try to avoid food that uses preservatives, artificial flavours & added sugars.

What now?

The most important question now is what did I do with all this information? To make sure my family got the right nutrition without sacrificing on taste I started making healthy snacks at home. This lifelong passion of mine turned into a healthy, sustainable food brand in 2020.

It goes by the name Eat Better and we sell a small selection of 100% natural snacks made using premium ingredients. Our delicious snacks are freshly made & shipped directly to your home.

  Click here to check out my range of delicious, healthy, handmade snacks.

 

Written by Mridula Kanoria - Founder - The Eat Better Company