The Lies my Health Food Told Me

I finished reading Fast Food Nation yesterday, and added two new blogs to my daily reads. (You can find links for them on the left.) This evening I opened my latest Prevention magazine and started flipping through the pages, ignoring all of the ads for diet foods making health food claims (my Food Rules book is on loan to my mother-in-law, so I don't know what rule that is but I got it from Michael Pollan) and then read this on page 51:

"Savor the Summer . . . Naturally." (Sounds good.)
"Summer cooking is all about yummy homemade treats. This summery recipe with some of nature's tastiest ingredients like pure honey, almonds, and sweet organic blueberries. Just simple, minimally-processed ingredients and nothing artificial. Enjoy!" (I'm interested.*)
"Blueberry Almond Bars
"Naturally delicious, these blueberry almond bars pack as much flavor as they do goodness.
"Ingredients (Makes about 18 servings)
"1 cup silken tofu, soft
". . .
"1/2 cup evaporated cane juice crystals
"3/4 cup plain organic soy milk
"1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
". . .
"1 tsp pure almond extract (optional)
"1 cup Kashi (R) Heart to Heart (R) Blueberry & Oat Flakes Cereal
"1 cup Kashi (R) GOLEAN Crunch! (R) Honey Almond Flax Cereal
". . .

"Toppings
". . .
"1/2 cup cup Kashi (R) Heart to Heart (R) Blueberry & Oat Flakes Cereal
"1/2 cup Kashi (R) GOLEAN Crunch! (R) Honey Almond Flax Cereal"

etc.

*In tiny print across the top of the page, it reads "Advertisement" and there is a Kashi logo in the middle of the recipe, but the whole thing could be construed as kind of misleading in a health magazine filled with other non-commercial recipes (although I'm sure that legal battle has long been lost for the consumer).

What I find interesting about this advertisement is Kashi's use of the terms "minimally processed" and "nothing artificial." The italics above are mine.

Has it occurred to the Kashi writers that you simply cannot get tofu or soy milk without majorly processing soy beans? The ellipses included in the recipe indicate actual minimally processed, natural ingredients like eggs. I left out the oil, although it does say "expeller pressed canola oil" and that sounds like processing to me too . . . I wasn't sure what to think about the evaporated cane juice crystals - but yesterday I watched a video on YouTube where a doctor who slowly repeated himself and failed to use any hard facts to back up his statements spoke out against not just high fructose corn syrup but all refined sugar, pointing out that sugar, whatever its form, never appears so highly concentrated in nature.

I don't happen to have either of the Kashi cereals called for in the recipe in my house (all we have is a slightly stale box of plain Cheerios and a ton of oatmeal) but I do have a sample of Kashi Heart to Heart Warm Cinnamon Oat Cereal that I got as a free sample at the Taste of Minnesota last weekend. It can probably give a relatively good idea of what a consumer might find in Kashi's other cereals. Here is the list of (minimally processed? natural?) ingredients:
Whole oat flour, Oat bran, evaporated cane juice syrup, yellow corn meal, corn flour, Kashi (R) Seven whole grain flour (whole: oats, hard red wheat, rye, brown rice, triticale, barley, buckwheat), oat fiber, wheat germ, honey, cinnamon, salt, expeller pressed canola oil, natural flavor, decaffeinated green tea extract, alpha tocopherol acetate (vitamin E), decaffeinated white tea extract, baking soda, spices, ascorbic acid (vitmain C), activin (A trademark of San Joaquin Valley Concentrates) Grape Seed Extract, Luo Han Fruit Concentrate, beta carotene (a source of vitamin A), ferrous fumarate, Folic acid, pyridoxine Hydorochloride (vitamin B6), Turmeric for color, zinc oxide, vitamin B12.

Are you still with me? I believe that is 29 ingredients. (I did not count each of the types of flour individually, although I probably should have.) I just want to break this down a little bit further. There is a trademarked kind of grape seed extract in this cereal. I don't even know what Luo Han Fruit is . . .but here it appears in concentrated form. I imagine it would be pretty difficult to get decaffeinated tea extract without some processing. Something tells me that doesn't occur in nature.

Maybe you are wondering why I included the natural vanilla and almond flavorings in my list of irony. Here's Eric Schlosser on the topic:
"The distinction between artificial and natural flavors can be somewhat arbitrary and absurd, based more on how the flavor has been made than on what it actually contains. 'A natural flavor,' says Terry Acree, a professor of food science at Cornell University, 'is a flavor that's been derived with an out-of-date technology.' Natural flavors and artificial flavors sometimes contain exactly the same chemicals, produced through different methods" (Fast Food Nation, 126).

He gives an example: "Amyl acetate . . . provides the dominant note of banana flavor. When you distill it from bananas with a solvent, amyl acetate is a natural flavor. When you produce it by mixing vinegar with amyl alcohol, adding sulfuric acid as a catalyst, amyl acetate is an artificial flavor. Either way it smells and tastes the same." (126)

Okay, so the phrase "Sulfuric acid as a catayst" (126) makes me think I'll stick with the natural flavors. But Schlosser goes on to explain, "A natural flavor is not necessarily healthier or purer than an artificial one. When almond flavor (benzaldehyde) is derived from natural sources, such as peach and apricot pits, it contains traces of hydrogen cyanide, a deadly poison. Benzaldehyde derived through a different process - by mixing oil of clove and banana flavor, amyl acetate - does not contain any cyanide. . . . Natural and artificial flavors are now manufactured at the same chemical plants, places that few people would associate with Mother Nature. Calling any of these flavors 'natural' requires a flexible attitude toward the English language and a fair amount of irony" (126-127).

I have to admit, in my quest to re-create a diet of locally produced whole foods, I have not yet gone so far as to throw out the imitation vanilla extract in my cupboard. And I'm still buying brand-name whole wheat pasta at the grocery store. But come on, Kashi. Shame on you, and on Prevention Magazine and the Rodale group for playing with consumers this way. Corporations throw around these catch phrases to lure in new customers who, like me, are trying to become healthier citizens - choosing organic, non-processed foods to benefit the little guy. But Kashi is neither natural nor a little guy. Sure, big organics might have a place in the world, but it upsets me to think that they are tricking people into thinking that buying this stuff is just as good as supporting a local farmer who grows real food that is only processed in consumer kitchens.

For more on that, stay tuned for my next blog . . .