Leave those packages and bags on the shelves more often | opinion

Mix for Thai chicken Siam, plant-based chicken pieces and a frozen pizza seem very different, but have one major similarity: all ultra-processed food. How bad is that? Terribly.

“80 percent hydrated vegetable protein, vegetable oils, thickener, natural flavors, vinegar, starch, citrus fiber, water, salt, iron, vitamin B12.” Does this make you hungry? No, definitely not. Normally you wouldn’t read this at all.

You never look at the tiny print on products in the supermarket. You buy these ‘plant-based chicken pieces’ because they show a photo of juicy brown strips between crispy green and shiny slivers of red onion.

At a recent cardiologists’ conference in Amsterdam, it was announced that eating processed food increases the risk of a heart attack or stroke by 24 percent and the risk of high blood pressure by 39 percent.

It is not just any food but heavily processed factory food. About which scientists worldwide are raising the alarm: it is really not good for us. From meat substitutes to ready-made meals, frozen pizzas and snacks. Cookies, candy and cereal. Packages and bags and baby food. These are all products that the supermarket is full of, and with which the food industry claims to make our lives easier and tastier. But at a high price, namely that of our health.

The margin on powder mix

The American food expert Michael Pollan warned in 2007: “Eat real food. Not too much. Especially plants.” And he also said: “Don’t eat anything that your grandmother doesn’t know.”

Then why doesn’t anything change? In the supermarket, 70 percent of the range is heavily processed food and that share is only increasing. Because the margin on powder mixes is much higher than that on fresh broccoli.

Shouldn’t the government intervene? Don’t count on that. They are wary of patronizing and listen to the lobbying industry; a successful tactic that we also saw with tobacco and glyphosate.

We should not expect any salvation from the food industry itself. He keeps coming up with new variants and at most adjusts the label. ‘Now with 200 grams of vegetables per person!’ Nowadays it says ‘world dishes’ on a pack, although it turns out you have to buy them yourself first.

Will consumers fear e-numbers en masse? Simple, E-621 is replaced by ‘yeast extract’. Clean label that’s called. Will fat be banned? Then everything becomes light , a matter of fat out, sugar in. Is sugar itself becoming discredited (‘the new poison’)? Hello, sweeteners! But yes, you guessed it, they are also under fire again, the World Health Organization (WHO) even flatly advises against using sweeteners.

It has long been thought that the current epidemic of obesity and other ailments is due to too much salt, sugar and fat in our food, but it also appears to be due to the extent of factory processing. It is precisely all that fiddling with binders and emulsifiers that is the problem. And yet the food industry invariably chooses to process products more, while they ‘promise’ sustainable, natural ingredients and supposedly extra vegetables on the packaging.

Tastier

Of course, almost all our food is processed. Since time immemorial, smoking, drying, pickling and fermentation have been used to preserve food for longer or to make it tastier. But there is an important difference between processed and ultra-processed products. In Brazil, the Nova classification has been devised for this purpose, which distinguishes between four categories: from unprocessed food (apples, broccoli), to processed ingredients (olive oil, butter, honey) and processed products (bread, cheese, canned vegetables) to ultra-processed products ( packets and bags, ready-made meals, snacks). And it is the latter category that demonstrably causes major health risks. Stuff you’ll never find in a kitchen cupboard, like rehydrated soy proteins, lecithin or calcium phosphate. But the intention also plays a role in the definition: craft food is mainly intended to make a profit. And it is made so refined, you can’t stop eating it.

One-man crusade

For years I have been waging a cheerful one-person crusade against packets and bags, through cookbooks and columns. But it is difficult to compete with the marketing billions of Unilever, Heinz, Danone and Nestlé. They have taught consumers year after year that cooking is difficult, time-consuming and expensive, and that it is impossible to do without their products.

Could that be the reason why consumers shrug their shoulders despite all the alarm bells and just keep shopping? Is it a kind of it doesn’t matter anyway defeatism? During the corona lockdowns there was suddenly a hopeful revival. We started baking lots of bread and making casseroles, and lo and behold, it turned out not to be that complicated at all. But in the meantime we are back to the new normal and it is all about convenience again.

Just look at the slogan of the ready-made meals Igloo: “more time for yourself”. Or as Wageningen researcher Hans Dagevos puts it: “Ultra-processed food is the linchpin in the convenience trend that has persisted for decades; we actually buy time for things other than cooking and dining.”

So we want convenience and sacrifice our health for it? Come on, people. Don’t let yourself be indoctrinated by the industry lobby. Read the small print and avoid products more often. Cooking a delicious meal yourself is definitely not an option rocket science . It doesn’t have to take much time and is also cheaper, healthier and tastier. Life is too short to eat dirty food, I always say, but if you’re not careful with all that craft food, life may soon become very short.

Karin Luiten is a cookbook author, culinary journalist and publicist. She lives alternately in Amsterdam and Normandy.