Did you know that an averige person in an industrial country eats 6-7 kilograms of additives per year? That's about 19 grams per day. Considering that additives are the lightest components of a produce, 6 kilograms is a huge amount! Preservatives and mildew inhibitors have their place, sure. But what about components such as mono- and diglycerid emulsifiers, carminic adic, monosodiumglutamate (MSG), dinatriumguanylate, gluconodeltalactone, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, maltodextrin, modified potato-, corn- and wheatstarch and several unanalysed aromas (all found in a Swedish crayfish pie, being a part of a 52 ingredient total. By the way, the amount of crayfish in the pie is an astonishing 4 percent.). Do you know what all of the mentioned additives do, to the food or to your body? Can you even pronounce most of the names?! I know I can't.
Mats-Eric Nilsson's book Den hemlige kocken (translated into Finnish as Petos lautasella) is a great read. I have been aware of the downsides of "plastic food" as I call it for years, but receiving in depth information on industrially manufactured goods was quite mind stopping. Most of the ready-to-eat products we buy from the store are made from such poor ingredients, that the products need to be filled with dozens of emulsifiers, artificial aromas and other additives, so they keep their shape and taste like something (usually the same). Breads, being a big part of our every day diet, in their simpled form should only contain flour, salt, water and yeast but store bought bread may have as many as 15 ingredients, if spices are counted as one. The orange juice you buy as fresh might be a year old. I won't even mention the grossities related to sausages... Need I go on?
As cliché as it might sound, you are what you eat. How can you become strong, fit and smart if your basic diet is built from empty calories and year old ingredients? A retorical question, that I feel everyone never-the-less needs a ponder on.
The next book on my reading list is a similar-themed book on cosmetics by Rita Steins: The Truth About Cosmetics. The way this is going, I just might have to become vegan and go au naturel, letting my pimples blossom! Or maybe just find that midway of living well.
(P.S. The picture I chose for this entry is somewhat ironic, as it was the 1950's which saw the birth of so-called TV-dinners and the explosive popularity of ready-to-eat meals.)
