About Food

The cheaper and longer a product can be stored, the more profitable the business. That is why the food industry is full of inventions that allow a raw ingredient to be replaced with something cheaper. For example, in sauce production part of the “tomato” taste can be achieved using a base of other purees (apple, banana, etc.), and then adding flavorings, colorants and acidity regulators. Technologically it works; the question is — what does the person gain from it?

Meat products are a separate world where smell and appearance are often “manufactured”. Older meat can have its color and firmness restored using marinades and various additives. And the smoked effect is not always produced by real smoke — it can be imitated with smoke flavorings (including “liquid smoke”), which may contain a mixture of various smoke-condensate compounds. Even if the consumer senses “smoked”, it still does not mean the product was made traditionally.

Alcohol can be produced from various raw materials, including cheap by-products. Then it is enough to dilute, add flavor, add color — and the market has a “brand”. In the production of beer and other drinks, enzymes, filtration, stabilizers and aromas are often used so that the taste does not change for months. The consumer gets a long shelf life, but the question remains about the overall load of additives and impurities, especially when consumption is regular. Compared with alcohol that arises naturally in metabolism, it may have a different spatial orientation of molecules, and the human body may not recognize such alcohol. As a result, human degradation happens much faster.

Drying by itself is a slow process. In industry it is often sped up by technological methods, but the buyer usually notices only the result — the vivid color and the “as if just picked from the tree” look. Dried fruits are often treated with sulfur dioxide (preservative E-220) to keep the color and extend storage. For people with sensitivity or allergies this can cause discomfort — which is why labels must be read, not guessed.

Everyone knows that proteins are the basis of all living things. The most common sources are dairy and meat products, although plant-based proteins would be a much better choice. Poultry, compared with beef, is considered a healthier choice. The most widely raised birds are chickens, leaving only a few percent of the market as niches for others. Under natural conditions these birds live almost 15 years, but to reach the size we are used to seeing on store shelves would take more than half a year. Industrial producers are not satisfied with such waiting, so the term is reduced to less than two months. This is achieved through selective breeding — selecting chicken hybrid lines that grow very quickly. One could even say these are defects of nature, because under natural conditions such birds are not viable; they are force-fed special compound feed made from GMO raw materials, they are under enormous stress and pain because their bones cannot keep up with the rapidly growing mass. In such conditions, the life of the bird is only two months, so slaughter must not be delayed.

In bread production, fermentation can also be sped up with yeast and enzymes. Since air and water are cheaper than flour, special additives can be used to incorporate them generously into bread. In conventional agriculture, when grains are treated with pesticides, the poisons are most concentrated in the grain outer layers — that is, in the bran. Bread with bran is advertised as a healthy product because fiber is needed for beneficial gut bacteria. That is true, if only that bran had not been heat-treated and the minerals had not shifted into an inorganic form. The result: we receive toxins and do not feed the good bacteria. An alternative is sprouted grains grown on organic farms — an excellent source of energy, vitamins and minerals — and even better is to use the green shoots of grains to avoid lectins.

To give a product the desired form and add more air and moisture, flour with a high content of gluten (lectins) is used, which promotes the sticking of intestinal villi and, as a result, hinders metabolism. Added margarine (hydrogenated fats) worsens the quality of cell membranes. The consequences are the starting point for several serious diseases.

In the juice and beverage market, stable taste and a long shelf life are increasingly winning out, rather than the authenticity of the raw ingredients. Taste, smell and color can be corrected with additives, and sugar can be replaced with sweeteners. It is all written on the label — only we often look at the promotional price, not the composition.

Our ancestors did not have exotic fruit available in winter. The main source of vitamins and enzymes that was put on the daily table was sauerkraut. In preparing it, they perhaps added caraway, cranberries or carrots — and that was all. Today it is different. Besides the generous dose of toxins already added to cabbage during cultivation, the preparation process includes adding acetic acid E-260, citric acid E-330, potassium sorbate E-202, salt, sugar, etc. Such a product is widely used in all kinds of ready-made salads in supermarkets. In small amounts these additives are considered harmless. Their purpose is to stop the activity of bacteria and enzymes so that during storage the product does not change its taste characteristics. Lovers of acetic (pickled) products, however, should be reminded that vinegar is not friendly with blood. When acetic acid enters erythrocytes, it increases the osmotic pressure inside them, followed by the inflow of fluid into the erythrocyte. As a result, swelling occurs and the outer membrane ruptures. The hemoglobin in the erythrocytes enters the blood plasma and then the kidneys, where it mechanically blocks the nephron tubules.

I remember a radio interview with an employee of a well-known sweets brand in Latvia. Asked why they do not use local butter in candies, the answer was pragmatic: with butter the shelf life would be about a month, but with “vegetable fats” — up to a year. This innocent phrase often hides cheaper fat blends (including palm oil), and for the manufacturer it is a double saving: a cheaper raw material and a longer shelf life.

But it is enough to open a can of food — and, catching its aroma, the cat is ready to leap into the air. It is hard to imagine something like that in the past.

It would be naïve to think that humans are different. We too get used to the taste, smell and “quick pleasure” created in food by flavourings, sugar, salt and combinations of fats.

The difference is that humans have been given reason. A person who understands must not sink to a state where “I like it” becomes the excuse for everything, and we cover up our weakness or degradation with various delusions and nonsense.

If some food makes you want it more and more, it is worth stopping and asking: does it nourish me, or does it only train me to crave it? The more often we choose simple, natural and less processed food, the easier it is to regain a true sense of taste.

Such a diet can change the rhythm of digestion and place a burden on metabolism. For some people this shows up as a feeling of heaviness, bloating, unstable bowel movements, fatigue, or increased appetite. In the long term it can also contribute to disturbances in the balance of the gut microbiome (dysbiosis) and a chronic inflammatory background. Pancreatitis is one possible scenario.

In theory, producers and retailers can be forced to change through market mechanisms — if consumers simply do not buy such goods. But at the national level that requires a lot of work in educating consumers and ensuring honest information. For now, it remains for each of us to take care of ourselves and not to place excessive hopes on the state.

When a person loses health, everything else becomes of little value. How good it is to be healthy, people often realize only when problems have already started. How often, chasing money, do we ask ourselves: what is the point of exclusive movable and immovable property if there is no health? On a sickbed, a person would sometimes be ready to give up everything. Are we ready to understand that investing in our health — both money and time — pays off many times over?

In schools, everything starts with educating teachers. It is a difficult task — to teach a person already at school not to get lost among many temptations, and to find in a modern food store those few products which, if consumed, give better chances to maintain normal body functioning for a long time and to end up in a pharmacy or clinic less often. Unfortunately, that is the reality: temptations change, and methods of deception become ever more sophisticated.

That is why so-called lifelong learning is needed. It is a mirror of public health and thinking: retailers offer what sells, but buyers often buy what is offered — because they lack knowledge, time, and a sense of having a choice.

To change this proportion even a little, my recommendation would be the following: next to the ingredients and the expiration date, the packaging should also contain an easy-to-find link (for example, a QR code) to an independent annotation about the product prepared by food and health experts.

Relying only on the number of “E” symbols is very subjective. Reading the meanings of the additives is still not enough — their overall effects, doses and combinations require serious background knowledge. That is why a simple list of “E-additives” is often insufficient for a consumer to make a reasoned decision.

The most important thing is that the final judgment about a product should not be shaped by the manufacturer or distributor, but by independent experts. Not as “advertising copy”, but as a clear, understandable summary: who the product is for, who it is not for, and why.

Let me indulge in a bit of imagination: if such annotations were written honestly and directly, they would often sound very different from advertising.

For example, an annotation for a cake from a popular mass producer could include something like this:
“A pleasure product that is easy to overeat. Nutritional value is relatively low, but the sugar and trans-fat load is high. Frequent use can contribute to excess weight and metabolic problems. If the ingredients include many additives (preservatives, flavorings, colorants, sweeteners), they may create an additional burden for more sensitive people. It is better not to make such a product the norm of the everyday diet, especially for children.”

A few more examples.
Crab sticks: “A fish-protein (surimi) product with additives that imitate taste and aroma. It is worth reading the ingredients and the amount of salt.”

White bread and buns: “A product with a high glycemic load. For some people gluten can cause unpleasant sensations; others tolerate it well. If you want bread — choose whole grain, look at the fiber content, and eat in moderation.”

As for sausages, an annotation would often turn out too long. One can only admire manufacturers’ ingenuity in making all components hold together and not fall apart.

These examples do not refer to any specific manufacturer. It is an idea about a principle: store assortments are dominated by products for which consumers would need a much clearer, more understandable “translation” — what it means for health and everyday nutrition.

And one more thing: supervisory institutions mainly ensure that no acute poisoning occurs in the next few days after eating a product. But long-term consequences are often the sum of our own choices and habits. Therefore education — both at school and throughout life — is the only stable path.

If you evaluate a product on a 10-point scale by its benefit in biochemical terms and the impact it has on the organism as a whole, then, by my rough estimates, a very large share (perhaps around 80–90%) of supermarket assortments in the context of stable health is of low value. These are heavily processed products with a lot of sugar, salt, refined fats and additives. The more of such products in the diet, the higher the risk that health problems will appear over time. If the buyer understands this and begins to choose differently, a logical conclusion arises: how useful are such stores?

Food stores, if one can call them that, sometimes make you want to call them something else — health-friendly products are often in the minority there. Even fruit, which we are used to considering “healthy food”, may be grown very intensively. In some plantations pesticide use is measured in tens of kilograms per hectare, and for some crops even significantly more. At the same time, in Latvia it is possible to grow, for example, strawberries without pesticides — and I have seen it with my own eyes. The question often is not “can we”, but “do we want to accept convenience at the expense of quality”, and how we handle seasonality, because local growers will not have fresh berries all year round.

For supermarkets it is often economically disadvantageous to allocate shelf space to small food producers. But in a far-sighted view, it can also be economically (and health-wise) disadvantageous for the buyer to base their everyday diet on what is cheapest and fastest to put into the cart. The more we buy directly from the producer, the more money remains with the real farm rather than with the chain of intermediaries.

A supermarket can remain a tool for certain situations, but in general food can also be obtained in other ways — closer to the land and closer to people.

All respect to the victims of the Maxima tragedy and their relatives, exhausted by years of lengthy court proceedings. However, I will allow myself to be cynical: every day in Latvia we also lose dozens of people prematurely, partly because the food environment (including supermarket offerings, advertising and pricing policy) has long been steering society toward the cheapest, fastest and often least valuable choice. Only here there is usually no court case, because the “culprit” is diffuse — it is a system in which huge sums of money circulate, and changing it would undermine the interests of many players.

Starting with conventional grain growers and meat and dairy producers, and ending with global food manufacturers, distributors and retail chains — in this chain each protects their share. And of course, the pharmaceutical industry also has a place in a system where treating diseases is often financially more “rewarding” than preventing their causes. In order to change nothing and not lose a profitable business, politicians are influenced, the services of “experts” and pseudo-scientists are used, studies are sponsored with convenient answers, and the information space is adjusted accordingly — with advertising, PR (Public Relations), and carefully chosen topics about which to speak and about which to remain silent.

Therefore the question is not only what one person eats, but also what kind of environment pushes them toward certain choices. If society wants health, it has a right to transparency: clear labeling, honest information, real control of conflicts of interest, and a food policy that supports not the “cheapest calories” but the most health-friendly choice for humans.

Many vegetables, fruits and also beekeeping products can be bought at once in a larger quantity for a longer period. There are several ways to preserve products with almost no loss of their value, for example: rapid or “shock” freezing (at home — freezing as quickly as possible), dehydration (drying), lyophilization or sublimation drying (vacuum drying).

Consumers can also create home reserves, for example by fermenting vegetables, so that they do not have to go to the store every day. This would open wider opportunities for small producers, whom supermarket chains often ignore. By bypassing supermarkets, products can be delivered directly to the consumer, without intermediaries. And missing assortment could be handled by small shops.

Most importantly, mutual trust and responsibility are formed: the consumer knows from whom they buy, and the producer sees to whom they sell.

When a person switches to adequate nutrition, thinking also changes — they simply no longer need the many “treats” that supermarkets offer in a huge assortment. Often it is enough to have fruit, berries, vegetables, grains for sprouting, beekeeping products, vegetable oils and a few other basic items. And then — quite logically — the pharmacy also has to be visited less often.