Processed Foods: Should You Be Scared of the Additives…or the Food?
Paul sent me this article about a week or so ago…which was sent to him by a friend. Since I have a Master’s degree in Food Science, he figured I’d have an opinion…and he wuz right (as usual). I pretty much rolled my eyes when I read it – it was the usual tripe about how the big, bad food additives are gonna getcha if ya don’t watch out. The author of the piece managed to cram a toxicological House of Horrors into a single table – no study, no matter how shoddily done or discredited, was passed up, if the conclusions could be used to paint a negative picture. Unfortunately, this toxicology stuff just isn’t that simple.
To take an example, one of the effects the author attributes to BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) is cancer; yet if you search through the literature, you come up with studies that firmly establish this compound has anti-cancer activity. In this study on photocarcinogenesis, BHT is contrasted to beta-carotene, a “natural” antioxidant consumed in yellow/orange veggies like carrots. Guess what? Beta-carotene promotes UV carcinogenesis, whereas BHT inhibits it.
Who knew?
Articles like this put me between a rock and hard spot, since – like the author - I typically advise people to avoid highly processed foods and use predominantly whole, natural foods in their diets. This seems like a contradiction: how can I defend food additives while condemning the products they’re used in?
But to me, there’s no contradiction at all. As far as I’m concerned, food additives are largely a red herring. The real problem lies with the food products themselves, as the majority are energy-dense and nutrient-poor. This is why I found the author’s anecdote about the cake to be utterly ludicrous. Which should you be more afraid of? The red food dye…or the fat and sugar-laden cake itself? A piece of cake offers shockingly little nutritional ”bang” for your calorie “buck.” You’re going to do far more damage to your body by consuming foods that jack up your insulin levels and pack your blood stream with very low density lipoproteins (VLDLs), than you will by consuming the ancillary additives that are used to color/flavor/preserve them. The additives aren’t “good” per se - but in the larger scheme of things, they’re irrelevant.
The author even makes my point for me…if you look at the foods listed in his table, you’ll see that most of them fall into the energy-dense/nutrient-poor category, and should be avoided for that reason. He and I are really on the same page…but for different reasons. Unlike him, I don’t believe in using shoddy reasoning and scare tactics to convince people to do the right thing.
Share
John on 31 Mar 2008 at 9:44 pm #
I read the article and what I found most interesting was the “Based primarily on animal studies and personal accounts including allergic reactions.”
Quite the scientific analysis “personal accounts”, that and $1.50 will buy you a coffee!
However, despite the pseudo science, and the fact that most of these additives are in nutrient poor food – how about the artificial sweeteners and colourings that are found in whey proteins, MRP’s, Creatine, Energy drinks, protein bars etc. As you can imagine an individual who is serious about bodybuilding and/or performance enhancement will be consuming a number of these products that contain many artificial ingredients. So I guess the question is – how much is too much? Or is there any such thing?
elissa on 31 Mar 2008 at 11:24 pm #
Artificial sweeteners have been under scrutiny for many years, yet there have been no unusual cancers or other diseases that can be attributed to their use. Even aspartame, which may cause some side effects in susceptible individuals, has gotten a pretty clean bill of health – in humans, no less – as far as causing cancer goes. See: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/AspartameQandA and http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content?content=10.1080/10408440701516184 for two very recent examples.
Certain colorings have been identified as potential health hazards, such as tartrazine (Yellow No. 5) which can cause allergic reactions; and Red No. 3 which was designated as a carcinogen and regulated back in 1990.
Currently, there is little reason to believe that the amounts of various artificial flavors, colors, and sweeteners in bodybuilding products represent a health hazard. Personally, I’m more concerned about the far less well-characterized ingredients – often sourced from China – that make their way into bodybuilding supplements. Sometimes, it’s the stuff you don’t know about that’s gonna getcha.