Pandora’s Lunchbox
Pandora’s Lunchbox – How Processed Food Took Over the American Meal by Melanie Warner scrutinizes the most common forms of processed food and ingredients – including GMO derived “natural flavors” used in organic foods in the US.
p. 33 sources of gelatin. aniline dye (red dye). satiety signal mechanisms – what bypasses them (besides eating or drinking too quickly)? white bread and other white (highly processed) foods are still (mistakenly) seen as being ‘better’ than their brown counterparts in some cultures. Harvey Wiley – look up his profile and his book Lure of the Land: Farming After Fifty. Wiley: “I have always stood for food that is food.” Look up latest studies on sodium benzoate (used in foods and beverages as an anti-bacterial) – especially in combination with artificial food colorings. Look up the latest studies on saccharin.
p. 44 The FDA does have standards for what’s in – or not in – around 280 foods… not very many considering. The FDA has a standard for ‘processed cheese’ but not for ‘processed cheese product’. Ultrafiltration and microfiltration is used to separate milk into components such as whey, casein, caseinite, milk protein concentrate (differences between those?). Used for thickening, adding relatively cheap (because dairy and cattle food crops are subsidized?) protein without fat, and adding creaminess without fat. What are the hidden casein ingredients?
p. 46 Many sodium-based ingredients (chemicals) are used in processed foods – but not for flavor. These ingredients taste less salty than table salt (sodium + ?) but have a similar sodium content. Few people who get adequate amounts of sodium in their diets can tolerate excess quantities of table salt but can easily ingest ‘over doses’ of the sodium-based ingredients.
- sodium citrate – acidity regulator
- sodium phosphate – emulsifier
- sodium acetate –
- sodium acid pyrophosphate –
- sodium alginate –
- sodium caseinate –
- sodium hexametaphosphate –
- sodium nitrate –
- sodium stearoyl lactylate –
- sodium benzoate – anti-bacterial
p. 47 As cheese ages the number and types of beneficial bacteria in the cheese increases; pasteurization kills all of the bacteria.
p. 48 The level of beneficial bacteria in cheese is at best on par with yogurt. The bacteria in cheese may break down some of the casein into bioactive peptides, “substances thought to ward off infection and stabilize blood pressure”. Questions: does pasteurization kill off those peptides? For how long does the cheese have to age for the casein to break down?
p. 64 To what extent is the amount of vitamin in processed food a problem when the amount is far in excess of what’s listed on the label? (What’s on the label is the minimum amount – an amount after the product may have sat on the shelf for a number of months before consumption.)
p. 65 – 66 ‘Disassembled’ foods – starch-containing foods broken down into constituent ingredients and then reassembled – don’t require the same level of digestion as whole foods; thus a diet of such food over time causes changes to “energy metabolism and the dynamics of hunger and satiety”. Also, the starch components enter the bloodstream much more rapidly. Pre-digestion processing such as fermentation is different and beneficial – the fermented food still contains the components (though some may have been somewhat transformed) in the original configuration. Likewise crushing and cooking can make the nutrients in a food much more bio-available. For example, flax seeds need to be broken open (as is done in making flax seed meal) in order for the body to access the Omega-3 contained inside the hulls. Further, 5 – 15% of daily calorie expenditure for a whole food diet comes from chewing and digesting the food while digesting hyperprocessed food consumes very few calories. (And we learned in Gulp that chewing produces saliva which is important for digestion.)
p. 72 – 73 The B vitamin levels in most packaged cold cereals comes from the supplements (since the processing destroys most of the B vitamins naturally occurring in cereal grains). Further the naturally occurring levels drop off quickly. [Do the levels of supplemented vitamins likewise drop off? How quickly do vitamin levels in unprocessed grains drop off?] Mainly cold cereals still contain the chemical preservative BHT [in the grain inputs or added as a preservative?]. [Much better off eating whole grains and seeds without animal milk.]
p. 75 The cholesterol in wool grease is used to make Vitamin D in China used in a number of food products including organic, Vitamin D fortified milk sold in the US.
p. 80 – 82 Vitamins and minerals made from GM bacteria, GMO corn, and/or petrochemicals may be included in certified organic products. Chinese firms and Chinese factories of European companies manufacture most of the world’s vitamin supplements – and mostly from other than the food sources commonly associated with those vitamins. “Chinese firms manufacture 60 percent of the world’s xanthan gum, two thirds of its monosodium glutamate (MSG), 25 percent of startches, and 40 percent of emulsifiers, stabilizers, and thickeners”. The manufacture of these additives can produce large quantities of hazardous air pollutants.
p. 85 Recent studies of synthetic vitamins in pill form have shown that these vitamins do not provide the health benefits of those vitamins consumed in whole foods – and in the case of vitamin E may have negative side effects. [More studies need to be done comparing fortified foods to whole foods.]
p. 86 – 87 Americans typically only have insufficient levels of potassium and vitamins D, E, and K. Over-consumption of vitamins places more of a load on the kidneys. Children need fewer nutrients than adults [? proportionally or just absolutely fewer?] and their “kidneys are more susceptible” […to what?]. “Some 24 percent of children are going over the upper limit for zinc, 16 percent for B3, and 15 percent for vitamin A and folic acid. An upper limit is defined as the highest level of daily intake that’s likely to pose no risk of adverse health.”
p. 88 [Which is more responsible for the US dropping in global height rankings, demographics (an increase in first and second generation non-Anglo immigrants) or diet? Is a population’s height strongly correlated to its health? Might bone density and frame size be a stronger indicator? Is the average US adult height declining or just not increasing as rapidly as the average in other countries? Is height measured at a certain age or are older people who’ve lost height also included? Similarly, has US life expectancy declined absolutely as well as relatively?]
p. 89 A 2000 Cornell University study showed that only a small portion of the antioxidants in an apple are associated with its vitamin C (ascorbic acid); the balance are associated with its phytochemicals – nutrients which are not included in synthetic vitamin C supplements.
p. 110 – 113 Less than half of all food additives have been the subject of a published toxicology study and the FDA has done little scrutiny of those declared GRAS on the basis of similar GRAS additives already in the market. Presumed human carcinogens such as BHA and potassium bromate (a dough conditioner) are still allowed on the market under GRAS. Azodicarbonamide, a replacement for potassium bromate, when heated breaks down into the known carcinogen semicarbazide. These additives in any one meal are not sufficient to cause a problem but a person consuming three daily meals of such food will consume a problematic quantity. Chemical interactions between additives can create toxic substances. For example, ascorbic acid combined with sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate (in citrus beverages) can produce benzene, a carcinogen. Manufacturers add calcium disodium EDTA to inhibit benzene formation – but that additive may cause kidney damage.
p. 116 Artificial food colorings and sodium benzoate have been linked in studies to hyperactivity in children. Synthetic preservatives (such as BHT and TBHQ) and artificial flavorings and sweeteners likewise can exacerbate behavioral problems such as ADHD.
p. 117 The ‘clean label’ has many meanings. Whole Foods provides one guide; Michael Pollan provides a rule of thumb. Need to keep in mind that ‘clean’ is a voluntary standard and that ‘clean’ does not necessarily mean ‘healthful’.
p. 130 – 133 The non-organic process of extracting oil from soybeans involves hazardous chemicals including hexane, a neurotoxin. (“Hexane enables 99 percent efficiency.” Organic oil extraction from soybeans, corn, cottonseed, sunflower, and canola done with the older (non-hexane) hydraulic expeller pressing procedure is around 70% efficient.) [How many hexane-related pollution incidents have there been around oil extraction plants?] Processors say that the extraction is a closed system (enabling them to reuse the hexane) and that only minor traces of hexane would remain in the oil. However, the FDA doesn’t regulate hexane residues; residue of around 50 ppm is common – which may be sufficient to cause problems for those sensitive to such chemicals. The extracted oil is then filtered with sodium hydroxide and phosphoric acid (removing lecithin along with impurities such as pesticide residues) and bleached with hydrochloric acid – which removes the beta-carotene. [To what extent does edamame contain carotenoids?] The filtered, bleached oil is then heated to 500 degrees F to remove remaining odors and flavors – but with the side-effect of removing (nutritionally beneficial) vitamin E and phytosterols. Organic oils are similarly bleached and deodorized. A preservative such as THBQ or citric acid is then added to the oil.
p. 135 – 139 From Wikipedia: “OαβUAs [oxygenated α,β-unsaturated aldehydes] are receiving a great deal of attention because they are being considered as possible causal agents of numerous diseases, such as chronic inflammation, neurodegenerative diseases, adult respiratory distress syndrome, atherogenesis, diabetes and different types of cancer.[7]” HNE, a type of toxic aldehyde or hydroxynonenal, is formed in non-hydrogenated soybean (or other high-linoleic vegetable) oil heated to frying temperature. (Food processors have phased out hydrogenated oils because hydrogenation causes the formation of unhealthful trans fats.) Limited studies show that HNE migrates from the frying oil into foods at concentrations sufficient to be a health risk for regular consumers of such fried food. …”toxic aldehydes are so reactive that they can interfere with both enzyme and hormone production as well as with the basic act of protein synthesis. They’re thought to be possible causal agents for diseases and conditions ranging from Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, atherosclerosis, cancer, and chronic inflammation.” Monsanto and DuPont are responding by developing GMO soybeans with less linoleic and more oleic oil.