Wordoids and Health Claims

This is a 2-for-1 Monday, as I’m starting this week with renewed resolve. Pollan’s next two rules, Rule 8 and Rule 9, cast a spotlight on my dismal pattern of eating processed foods that promote all kinds of health claims, while I fantasize about being healthier because I’m losing weight.

Rule 8: Avoid food products that make health claims.

AND

Rule 9: Avoid food products with the wordoid “lite” or the terms “low-fat” or “non-fat” in their name.

Let me guess why…because these food products are highly processed??

Yes; but also, as Pollan explains, “by demonizing one nutrient—fat—we inevitably give a free pass to another, supposedly ‘good’ nutrient—carbohydrates in this case—and then we proceed to eat too much of that instead.” And of course, most packaged foods that boast new FDA-approved health claims have been afforded such by a big food manufacturer. Pollan reminds us that only a few decades ago, the food industry was promoting margarine as healthier than butter, yet it “turned out to contain transfats that give people heart attacks.”

Wait! I thought the food-science industry was taking care of us and giving us healthier choices.

Pollan reminds us that “the forty-year-old campaign to create low- and non-fat versions of traditional foods has been a failure: We’ve gotten fat on low-fat products. Why? Because removing the fat from foods doesn’t necessarily make them nonfattening (Food Rules, p.21).”

Hmm...I suppose my self-deception of eating 15 "low-fat" crackers would crumble under the scrutiny of Rule 9. Not only am I consuming too many carbs and calories with the delusional habit of eating low-fat foods, but I’m also buying-in to the food industry’s ceaseless campaign to fill my cupboards with cardboard fillers, addictive sugars, anesthetizing carbs, and chemically-enhanced FrankenFoods.

Pollan assures us, “You’re better off eating the real thing in moderation than bingeing on “lite” food products packed with sugars and salt.”

As I begin another week and dig deeper into Food Rules, I suppose I should be comforted by knowing my choices are narrowing and becoming more focused. Eat real food.

Seems easy enough, although my addiction to low-fat cereal bars and Slim-Fast snack bars is tempting me with every TV commercial I watch. Ah! There’s another idea--turn off the TV and go for a walk!