Thursday, February 9, 2012
Food & Life Why do we hate processed food again?
Posted by Stephanie Dazey on Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 3:26 PM
Processed food is the enemy because it makes us fat, right? It's full of high fructose corn syrup, trans fat, and all those evil carbs that that contribute to excessive weight gain and obesity. Ew. Wait, what about the correlation between processed foods and heart disease? Cancer? Diabetes? Surely that's enough to convince people to stop eating food made with ingredients like ethyl methylphenylglycidate, 4-methylacetophenone, benzyl isobutyrate, butyric acid, and cinnamyl isobutyrate. Remember that whole, "If you can't pronounce it, do you really want to eat it?" campaign? Is that still a thing? Well maybe not so much given that we are still hearing about people like Stacey Irvine, the 17-year-old girl who was rushed to the hospital last week when she collapsed after eating chicken nuggets—every day—for 15 years. Not to mention the fact that the bad stuff tastes so effin' good, AND it's ready to eat in as little as 2 measly minutes on HIGH.
It's surprisingly easy to ignore the entire compendium of knowledge published on the dangers of processed foods, perhaps because the consequences are long-term, and happen slowly over time. (Or maybe you just have a taste for shitty food.) However, according to 2011 TEDxManhattan Fellow Stefani Bardin’s video, there's an immediate, practical reason to avoid processed food as well: our bodies can barely digest it. Using an M2A (it stands for Mouth 2 Anus, tee hee!) LED capsule camera, Bardin's video captures just how our bodies react to processed foods vs. natural foods. The experiment follows the digestion of two subjects, one who ate Top Ramen noodles, the other, homemade ramen. The results are shocking. Hold off on the Hot Pocket and see for yourself.
Comments (3)
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That camera would have a hard time catching up to some Krystals on the way out.
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I would rather jack off with sandpaper than watch that video.
But I agree wholeheartedly. I just don't need visual proof.
Interesting! Would love to see more tests to see how this plays out, but I have to protest the chemistry which is being slung around for dramatic effect - around 3:00 for example, the correlation between TBHQ (tert-butylhydroquinone) and "butane" (and from there, correlated with cigarette lighter fluid) is over-exaggerated. It would exactly be like saying "Bob is caucasian, you know, just like [insert any European mass-genocide committing ruler]". Countless compounds in nature and in our body have "butane" chains; beyond the name, almost all other comparison breaks down.
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