Processed Food Took Over the American Meal

In recent years, there has been a lot of research circulating about what people should eat and how they should eat it. Michael Moss reveals how certain food producers ignore health and diet in his essay The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food, which appeared in the New York Times Magazine. According to him, these firms ignore health and safety in order to get more consumers to eat their high-sugar, high-fat foods.

Pandora's Lunchbox: How Processed Food Took Over the American Meal is the editor of Pandora's Lunchbox: How Processed Food Took Over the American Meal. Melanie Warner is a mother who began her career as a food business writer for the New York Times. It was after observing the indestructible cheese phenomenon that she decided to explore the question of what people feed on together with their children. It had been observed that a piece of wrapped cheese could maintain its form, color and texture for years and this suggested a lot about what people eat today.

The journey of coming up with the book involved visiting laboratories, various factories and departments of food science in various universities. Apart from the visits to laboratories, factories and universities while conducting her research, Warner attends food conference on food science and technology. She acknowledges the food scientists on bacteria reduction, preservation of vitamins and development of better cooking methods. When it comes to food, Warner differs and sees scientific innovation in food as a bad thing. The book opens on a divergence note from some of the cliché sayings like you are what you eat since to the author, there has no real meaning from the kind of foods Americans eat today. The use of her mother’s voice to explain her point justifies her main point in the book which is the deviation of modern food from the actual foods.

Warner focused on processed food in her book, and therefore, it necessitated providing a definition of what she means by processed foods in her book. She described processed foods as those that cannot be prepared in the home kitchen with similar ingredients. The definition does not include preservation and sterilization techniques. The definition gives the readers a clear picture of what the article describes. Often times food processing has been supported on evidence of some of the technologies that have allowed for longer food storage. She draws a clear distinction to the reader in her introduction and stresses in simple words the techniques that change food dramatically and those that do not.

The second chapter of the book titled “Weird Science” sets the note of what the author describes in the chapter and certainly her call for reduction in the massive food industry. The Chapter describes the annual convention of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) which took place in one of the cities that is famous for its food (Warner 25). Since the book is majorly on food and the consequence of the food we eat, bringing up this convention after the introduction and more so under that chapter sets the tone for more compelling facts from the author’s research. Going by the name, one would expect the convention to be centered on food but instead its focusssed on science.

The second chapter is one that may be the most a bit boring to read and understand. It’s mainly focused on the IFT and perhaps to justify the title the author uses some of the jargons used during the IFT convention. Such jargons sound “weird” to an ordinary reader. The terms remind one of some of the science fictions. Therefore, consumers ought not to be given words that are difficult to read but rather with simple list names of the ingredients. Simple names that they can read and are familiar with. The interview with a scientist that the author made part of this chapter calls the reader into question whether there is really any reason to believe what these scientists are coming up with as food. The scientists defended his work stating that not all people can eat vegetables yet he grows his own vegetables and shops for food from the farmers’ market (Warner 33).

In the second chapter titled The Crusading Chemist focusses on Harvey Wiley who championed the Bureau of Chemistry which is now called the Food and Drug Administration. The story is a reminder and source of optimism that all is not lost, even though food science is massive, we can champion something to restore actual food in our kitchens and dining tables. The same way Wiley won the battles against the food industry at that time then today too, with the same spirit we can win since the battle then and now are similar. With the story coming after “Weird Science,” it gives hope that with the ground that had already been laid by Wiley, the battle can be fought and eventually won. People ought to eat what is right, not because the food is labelled so, but rather because they know what they are eating.

The issues we face today are quite different from those that Wiley faced during his time. Population comparison between the United States in the days of Wiley and presently draws a sharp contrast. However, the shift that occurred back then is similar to the shift witnessed today when it comes to food. Health related issues which have come up in the US and around the world have been blamed on the shift. if Wiley was able to do that back then when the situation was not much of a global phenomenon as it is now then it means the world today needs to do more if the battle against the processed foods is to be won.

Chapter Three which is titled “The Quest for Eternal Cheese” describes how after the passing on of Wiley the processed food industry grew to prominence in the food system (Warner 44). it offers the genesis of the common American cheese that is packaged in plastics. It is in this particular chapter that the readers can be able to see how a country like America got into the food processing phenomenon that the author is addressing through her book. The story of Kraft and how he came up with the cheese that could last longer than a couple of weeks in the stores of Chicago offers a good insight into what food processing involves.

One interesting thing about the whole story of Kraft and his singles is how a lot of changes went into what was just originally cheese. It is amazing that FDA disqualified Kraft’s singles were as processed cheese and the only action they took was change the label. The change of the label and the processing that had been done to the cheese meant that the cheese was no longer what Americans used to enjoy and were proud of. More interesting is how presently people think about food in relation to technology. Presently, companies try as much as possible to have their products as non-processed as possible. At the time when Kraft processed his first cheese, the was not the case.

The books chapter four titled “Extruded and Gun Puffed” is more mystifying and relates more to the previous chapter. It examines how some of the American staple foods were made non-food products. The author shares the story of cereals and grains and how sad Kellogg’s brilliant idea of wheat flakes was destroyed. The idea was to improve health of American’s by offering them whole grain flakes without any sugar added. The chapter proves that food is probably much better off without any science since it leads to low nutrition foods as a lot is sacrificed (Warner 60). The author’s comparison of time that one takes to deliberate on tomatoes or oranges to buy and to buy breakfast cereals really drives her point home.

It is surprising that some of the nutrients that we ought to get for free are now made. Chapter five of the book discusses some of the nutrients that are processed and bought like Vitamin D which is free from the sun. Vitamins are nutrients to the human body and one should be able to get it from food taken directly. However, by the end of the chapter, one is convinced that vitamins should only be taken in cases of severe deficiency. Chemicals in our foods have been blamed for diseases such as cancer. Warner addresses this concern in chapter six is well titled, “Better Living through Chemistry.” According to Warner there are about 5000 additives in the foods that we eat (Warner 101). FDA has made a lot of efforts to regulate food additives by coming up with a list of Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS). However, it is surprising that companies have found out ways to go around these regulations. It means that companies are adding more and more additives making people more likely to get sicker.

In an interesting twist from the previous chapters, Warner in chapter seven restores one’s hopes that there could be some few good processed foods. The chapter is aptly titled “The Joy of Soybean.” In a nutshell, unlike what one would expect to read is that foods regarded as healthy when added to processed foods or when cooked then they pollute the environment and may cause diseases (Warner 130).

Chapter nine titled “Why Chicken Needs Chicken Flavor” sound a bit ironical. Here the author is able to clearly show that we are doing something wrong with our food. It was a great idea to include the interview with the flavor scientist here. Honestly, it is funny that chicken flavor is added to actual chicken when cooking. However, it is in chapter ten that the author highlights the real problem which is quiet disturbing. The book ends with a warning note that some of the foods that are much regarded as healthy like soda are not actually good for consumption. It ends with a reminder that better for you is not the same as good for you (Warner 172).

It is based on her findings that she offers her opinions on the foods we have today and health. She first learnt about how food is produced and the role of science in food supply. Through her book, she proves that in the world today, when it comes to food, then the society today has a placed a premium convenience over health. She asserts that the consequence of this kind of prioritization whether knowing or unknowing can be harmful. Sharing her own experience, Warner admits that she did not suddenly give up taking processed food, actually she states that she took and even gave her children more when writing the book. Therefore, she does not expect one to all of a sudden give up on taking processed foods after reading her book.

What Melanie Warner found out was an uncommon surprising and disturbing account of what people eat. She examined how many years of food science has led to most affordable, most plenty and most nutritionally substandard foods. Furthermore, the author brings out some disturbing evidence on the heavy health consequences of the packaged fast foods people consume. She combined the meticulous study with brilliant writing through cultural analysis to expose the reality of the chemically treated and processed foods. These foods are poorly documented and less regulated but the author brings out the potential price that people may have to pay for eating these foods.

The author believes that the new type of eating being witnessed around the world today is a result of the food science field. The public has been affected by poor health because of the gooped-up foods since the human biology is not well equipped to handle it (Warner 20). These assertions need a lot of scientific evidence; however, the author provides little scientific to support her claims. From some of the book’s chapter titles like “Weird Science,” it’s clear that the author is certain that science is involved in modern food production.

The kind of foods that food advocates recommend to be eaten may only be available to everyone if we lived in an ideal society. When one reads Melanie Warner’s Pandora's Lunchbox: How Processed Food Took Over the American Meal then one may only endeavor more for such a society. What we may only be able to do is just to strive a bit more to have the food industry less massive than it is presently. The call for this effort to reduce the food industry is Warner’s hope which she puts across through her book. To achieve this, it is important to have more and more people to think like Warner and one way is through reading her book.

Works Cited

Moss, Michael. "The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food." 20 February 2013. The New York Times Magazine. Web. 26 January 2017. .

Warner, Melanie. Pandora's Lunchbox: How Processed Food Took Over the American Meal. New York: Scribner, 2013. Print.