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The 4 Rules of Health Food vs. Junk Food

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January 26, 2010
	Dr. Gary Huber : Head Medical Ego

How does any given food earn the label of “health food” while another is called “junk food”? Surely President Obama can assign a task force to lead us in the right direction. Some foods get placed on a pedestal as being above all others in the eyes of health minded individuals yet I constantly see some foods that seemed to have snuck onto that list by bribing the doorman and sneaking in the back door. For that reason I gathered a few guidelines (just in case Obama calls upon me to lead the masses in such a discussion). 

Let’s establish a few ground rules ahead of time so that we can more easily spot imposters that might try to gain entry to our sacred list. We’ll start with the basics.

For example can we all agree that really good healthy food should actually be food? 

Seems obvious but I see a lot of people opening bags and cans to get to their health food and I have never seen a plant produce bags or cans.  Despite the array of odd things a goat might ingest, a bag or can has never emerged from them. So if real food comes from healthy animals and healthy plants then I want to vote that real healthy food has to be food and not some modified food like substrate with added calcium and sorghum gum. 

Rule 1:
Real foods are whole foods without labels and not processed substrates. 

Next I would like to suggest that these whole foods come without pesticides, herbicides and other toxins added. I know I’m a radical but I don’t want to eat toxins. It’s easy enough these days to find organic food and the cost is easily offset by the money you will save by not going to the oncologist.

Rule 2:
Organic food is better than poisoned food. Organic includes no GMO, no genetically modified foods that contain pesticide genes in them.

Now I know we all have to live in the real world and travel to real places that are not under our control where we may be forced to eat foods or buy foods that already violate rule 1 & 2. Let’s agree that we’ll do our best given our means and available options.

Okay, can we agree that there is too much sugar in the world? Can we also agree that we shouldn’t eat ALL of it? I suggest that we make a simple rule that we seek no more than 5 grams of sugar per serving from a processed food. Double digits should make you shudder.

Rule 3:
Allowable processed foods shall contain no more than 5 grams of sugar per serving.

Lastly I would like to make a short list of offensive ingredients that should be grounds for immediate dismissal if they occur on the list of any processed food. This list is not exhaustive and really just contains a few known toxins that create known disease, and/or contribute to cancer growth. 

Rule 4:
No aspartame, MSG, high fructose corn syrup, trans fats (hydrogenated oils), cancer promoters or carcinogens.

So in summary for any food to make it to our “health food” list it must simply comply with this very basic, broad and lenient criteria. For example, organic carrots?  Check you’re in. That was simple.  Organic apples?  Check. A popular frozen entrée of Glazed Chicken? Uh-oh. Better move in for a closer look.

Ingredients: Cooked chicken tenderloins (chicken tenderloins, high fructose corn syrup, water, corn oil, modified cornstarch, lemon juice concentrate, sodium phosphates, salt, caramel color, potassium chloride, garlic, onion, paprika, spice), water, blanched enriched long grain rice (rice, ferric phosphate, niacin, thiamin mononitrate and folic acid), green beans, mushrooms, onions, blanched wild rice, modified cornstarch, sugar, salt, cultured whey, chicken fat, lemon juice concentrate, caramel color, dehydrated onions, spices, dehydrated garlic, paprika Contains: MILK INGREDIENTS

What jumped at me first:

• The second ingredient is high fructose corn syrup.  Ingredients are listed in a descending order of content so there is more high fructose corn syrup than any other ingredient besides chicken. 
• Corn oil is a crop in this country that is genetically modified so that if it does not state organic then you can rest assured that it contains genetically altered DNA that contains a gene to help the plant produce it’s own herbicide. I hate the taste of Round-Up.
• Sugar.  It is not uncommon for foods to contain more than one sugar source since we just can’t get enough of it.  High fructose corn syrup PLUS sugar? Why?

This one was easy but tomorrow we will look at some classic “health foods” like yogurt, rice cakes and protein bars.  You may be surprised.

This post is proudly submitted for the Body Basics and Body Detox category of our 12 Weeks of Wellness