Real Foods Take On Fake Foods: Butter, Bacon, And Eggs
A few years ago, I was served a quiche at work, but instead of being made with eggs, it was made with half eggs and half Egg Beaters. As the chef, she “did everything she could to make it low-fat.” So I started thinking about all of the fake foods we use to replace real, wholesome foods. But before we get into that, let’s take a look at the length of time the foods I’m about to talk about have been in our diets.
The Food Timeline
Let’s look at an interesting site that I came across quite awhile back…The Food Timeline. Now, since we know that the foods that humans have been eating the longest are the foods that we’re the best adapted for, this site could prove beneficial in helping sort through this mess.
| Real Food | Industrial Food |
|---|---|
| Butter - 3000BC | Margarine - 1870 |
| Pork - 7000BC | Turkey Bacon - Unknown |
| Eggs - Pre-dates civilization | Egg Beaters - 1972 |
Butter Vs. Margarine
The butter vs. margarine debate has been around pretty much since 1870 when margarine was first created in a lab. The easiest way to market a fake food is to demonize the product that you want to replace. This might be the first (and is probably the most obvious) example of a fake, industrial food replacing a real food that has been in use in healthy cultures for millenia. So let’s look at what is in these two foods:
Butter – Cream, salt
Margarine – Liquid Canola Oil, Water, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Plant Stanol Esters, Salt, Emulsifiers, (Vegetable Mono- and Diglycerides, Soy Lecithin), Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Potassium Sorbate, Citric Acid and Calcium Disodium EDTA to Preserve Freshness, Artificial Flavor, DL-alpha-Tocopheryl Acetate, Vitamin A Palmitate, Colored with Beta Carotene.
Okay, so what’s ingredient number three in the list of margarine’s ingredients? Partially hydrogenated soybean oil! Trans fats. For kicks, note the third ingredient in butter… Anyone want to know what kind of margarine you’re looking at there? I didn’t seek one out that was particularly bad. In fact, this one is called Benecol and is one of the brands that the American Heart Association suggests you use to replace your butter.
Yes, that’s right…the AHA is suggesting you eat trans fats to replace butter! Do you still think they’re interested in protecting your health? For Pete’s sake, they’re sacrificing your health and accepting payments from the companies that reap the rewards of your trade from butter to fake food.
And now, I’ll send it over to Stephen at Whole Health Source to tell us more about this amazing Benecol.
Are you kidding me? Partially hydrogenated soybean oil for cardiac patients? A nice big dose of omega-6 linoleic acid? A mega-dose of “heart-healthy” plant stanols? This stuff is like a molotov cocktail for your coronary arteries!
Decreasing Consumption And Recognizing Inferiority
Also, I should note that when margarine was first invented, up until the early 20th century, laws prohibited it from being marketed as butter. Laws prevented it from looking like butter. It was considered what it really is: an inferior product. Unfortunately, by the turn of the century (that’s the 2000s, not the 1900s), Americans were eating only 4lbs of butter, but 8lbs of margarine per year, down from 18lbs and 2lbs, respectively, in 1930. It’s a good thing getting rid of all that animal fat improved our health so vastly…oh wait…
Pork Bacon Vs. Turkey Bacon
Back to that quiche I was served…the bacon had been replaced with turkey bacon so the dish would be healthier. Heh heh heh!
If you want to know the source of your pork bacon, it’s either the belly, sides, or back (or the cheeks if it’s jowl bacon) of the pig. Close your eyes and you can imagine slicing into a pig and finding some uncured bacon right there for the taking (for the record, uncured pork belly is one of the greatest things ever). Now imagine cutting into a turkey and finding anything resembling a strip of bacon. In fact, just try to imagine which part of the turkey your meat is coming from. Yeah, I’m still trying to imagine it too.
Let’s just jump to the ingredients…
Bacon – pork, sugar, salt, spices
Turkey Bacon – Turkey,mechanically separated turkey, water, sugar, salt, contains less than 2% of sodium lactate, canola oil, sodium diacetate, sodium phosphates, smoke flavor, sodium erythorbate (made from sugar), autolyzed yeast extract, sodium nitrite
Hmmm….mechanically separated turkey. By golly, that sounds scrumptious. What is it?!??!
“a paste-like meat product produced by forcing beef, pork or chicken bones, with attached edible meat, under high pressure through a sieve or similar device to separate the bone from the edible meat tissue.”
Have you had your autolyzed yeast extract today?
Eggs Vs. Egg Beaters
Now that we’ve made it through the undercard matches, let’s have a look at the main event. In this corner, we have the lowly egg, ever dissed and dismissed as the cause of your heart’s every ill. And in the other, with such beautiful packaging, Egg Beaters…”The Real Thing. Only Better.”
Of course, there’s no ingredient list for an egg. It is simply an egg. There’s a white and a yolk.
But boy oh boy do those Egg Beaters come out swinging with a nice ingredient list:
Egg whites (99%), less than 1%: Natural flavor, color (includes beta carotene), spices, salt, onion powder, vegetable gums (xanthan gum, guar gum).
Okay, so I see what ConAgra is doing here. They’re removing the yolks and adding some flavoring. Seriously, if for some strange reason you feel the need to remove the yolk, the healthiest part of the egg, at least do it in your own kitchen for much less money and many fewer additives. Oh yeah, and those Egg Beaters are pasteurized too, just to make sure they’re extra dead for you.
Speaking of ill health and death, there was a study I saw, which I unfortunately cannot find (feel free to post it in the comments if you know where to find it), in which two groups of rats were fed either fresh eggs or Egg Beaters. The rats fed fresh eggs thrived. The rats fed Egg Beaters were something less than thriving, significantly smaller than the rats fed the real food and covered in mangy fur. Here’s a picture for some visual evidence. Can you guess which rat is which?
Humans Vs. Mother Nature
Let’s get real here…mankind has yet to outdo the foods that Mother Nature has provided. Meat, eggs, seafood, fruits and vegetables of all types, nuts and seeds have all been found in some shape or form for millions of years. Of course, no one can guarantee that man will never create the perfect food, but the odds-on bet is that it won’t happen.
Stick to the real stuff and you won’t have to worry about whether you should be eating this margarine or that margarine. These companies are playing on your confusion to sell you products that have been stripped down to what nutritionism has determined are the nutrients of the week. If one were inclined to throw such accusations, one could say that the American Heart Association and other such organizations were in cahoots with these death peddlers.
Just Eat Real Foods
The bottom line is that humans have been eating eggs, meat, and butter for a really long time without heart disease and cancer. Yet somehow, now heart disease and cancer run rampant and the food industry is always there to protect us from eating these wholesome foods.
About Scott
Scott Kustes loves to cook and loves to eat. He started Real Food University to help you get maximum enjoyment out of the meals that you eat. To find out more about how he has rebelled against the fast food culture and counting calories or carbs, join the Real Food Revolution.
136 Reader Comments
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One thing that I noticed in the ingredients of egg beaters that has always bothered me whenever I see in in anything. “Natural Flavors”… that and “Natural Seasonings”. What the hell are “Natural Flavors” and “Natural Seasonings”?
The SoG
Man will never outsmart nature (it’s just way too complex for our single minded solution theories to work)….and it’s that ego that may be causing most all our health problems today. Fake foods lead to fake health. While anyone can lose weight eating snickers bars and eggos….their health will always notice a difference. Our obsession of still clinging to “low fat” as healthy is ridiculous and still hurting people. Much like the myth that people only need eggs whites, because the yolks are too high in cholesterol. Sigh…..since the body makes like 75% of the cholesterol anyways.
Weston A Price has some interesting quotes:
“What has made the lowfat dogma especially impervious to critique, though, is the overclass’s identification of lowfat with virtue and fat with the underclass’s long-suspected tendency to self-indulgence.”
“The most likely causes of increased heart disease in America are the other changes in our diets-huge increases in consumption of refined carbohydrates and vegetable oils, particularly hydrogenated vegetable oils; and the decline in nutrient levels in our food, particularly minerals and fat soluble vitamins-vitamins found only in animal fats.”
How about the PROCESSED GRAINS? Bread, pasta….all the foods that people hold so dear? I’d love to see you write up something on grains.
Great article by the way. I absolutely love your comparrisons.
Although pigs were domesticated in the last few millenia, man has been hunting and eating wild pig for much longer than the 7,000 years you have listed.
I’m sure they ate every bit of the tasty fatty tissue as well.
some thoughts:
berries vs pie mix stuff
legit root beer vs mass-produced root beer (this likely also applies to ginger ale, and other related drinks, perhaps also real beer, though I’m less sure)
cheese (though this is related to butter, I assume)
SoG, I agree. I would appreciate knowing what these “flavors” are that are added to foods.
MOD, I agree that man will never outsmart nature. Being part of nature kinda prevents us from ever seeing the whole picture. Kinda like how we can only put in a pill what we know exists and there are thousands of compounds in foods that we have yet to isolate.
Jennie, thanks for the suggestion!
Victor, I concur. I bet wild boar is quite tasty and while the bacon was likely uncured, you can bet they ate every last morsel. In fact, in Italy, that same meat that we cure is often served uncured.
Cheers
Scott
Valla, thanks for the suggestions. I’ll add those to a list for future comparisons.
Cheers
Scott
SoG – I seem to recall reading somewhere that “Natural Flavors/Seasonings” is marketing-talk for MSG.
Scott, just to make sure I’m reading right, is this a crazy quiche you’re talking about?
Anyway, I’ve got a “healthy” replacement for ya – nondairy creamer! See also: reduced fat peanut butter (legume controversy notwithstanding); light/fat-free yogurt and/or reduced-fat/skim milk.
Sarah…dammit! I knew I was misspelling that word and the real spelling wouldn’t come to me. Google was no help (and actually returned results for “kiesch”). Thanks! And more great suggestions!
Cheers
Scott
Oh yeah, don’t forget soy “chick’n”…
Hey Scott,
Funny, I just talked about this very thing in my blog yesterday. Thanks for saying what I am not at liberty to say about the Heart Association since I still do some advocacy work for them from time to time. Fighting their messaging on cholesterol and dietary fat is a losing battle as long as big pharma continues to be their primary source of funding.
I’m so tired of trying to convince my friends to give up the soy milk, and that awful Benecol stuff – but I’ll keep trying.
good stuff, but the bacon v. turkey bacon comes across as a little questionable to me. most pork bacon is so full of preservatives, nitrites and such, that I don’t think you can reasonably think that it is any better than turkey bacon. now maybe everyone here only buys 100% nitrite free bacon, but I doubt that. its prohibitively expensive for many, and is available at few stores.
Stephen – good point, as quality of meat does matter when it comes to our health. Thank goodness I have a Trader Joe’s nearby….that place is a god send! (and lots of nitrate-free uncured bacon). Its more expensive…but I’d rather spend my money on good food, as an investment in my health…..as nothing is as expensive as getting sick and needing doctors and health care nowadays.
Good job Scott!
Thanks.
Not only are your facts right on, your presentation is excellent. In the 1970s I read an article, probably in Organic Gardening or Prevention magazine that compared margarine’s chemical composition to plastic. It stuck in my head much like your comparisons will do.
Scott,
I am embarrassed to say that I’ve been buying Egg Beaters for convenience, but after seeing the picture of the rats it’s regular eggs for me. Now, I don’t have any hair left to get “mangy”, but those rats looked unhealthy as well. Plus regular eggs taste 10X better.
Also…I never thought about Turkey Bacon! I have never been fond of most of the Turkey products, except for the real deal on Thanksgiving!
Rusty
PS: I’m totally jealous of the sweet boxing picture of butter VS margarine. I thought my recent picture on my site of “Tarzan VS Conan” was cool, but your is funny as hell. Good work!
A link to the study on the eggbeater rats (thanks Kevin)
I’ve always wondered which type of milk is the better choice. For most of my childhood, I always drank 2%. While I was still in high school, my parents switched to skim, and that’s what I’ve drank since. Which type of milk is healthier?
Nice!
Btw, “natural flavors”… that’s USUALLY a red-flag for MSG. Or a substance related close to MSG.
I can think of a few things …
Real juice versus Juicy Juice, Tang, Kool-aid (yeah I went there!)
Milk versus a whole bunch of other things … omeone already mentioned “nondairy” creamer… I’d add soy milk in there too. Also REAL aged cheeses versus processed “cheese food” like Velveeta.
Chicken without broth and flavorings injected into it… versus those rotisserie chickens loaded with who knows what, mystery nuggets…don’t get me started on Lunchables!
Grass fed and finished beef versus feedlot beef … that could be a whole article by itself. Modern agriculture for meat AND grain is killing us.
My personal pet peeve is all of those silly vegan processed foods … come on, do you REALLY think that “chreese” is healthy? Those blocks of wheat gluten? Yuck!!
Oh yes, and you forgot the “TVP.”
It drives me crazy when people buy things like soy milk or ULTRA-pasteurized organic milk and think they’re doing something GOOD for their health. One look at the dates on the cartons (2 months away) and it’s pretty easy to tell how unnatural it is.
Great post, Scott!
Kelly
Stephen,
Sorry to be nit-picky… but this is one of my pet peeves,
There is no such thing as nitrite free bacon. Bacon is cured. Maybe you are buying flavoured pork belly that has no nitrates, but it is not bacon. In most jurisdictions, the law requires that cured meats have nitrites/nitrates to prevent botulism. If it’s cured it has nitrates, and if it isn’t cured, it is not Bacon.
(Unless of course you make your own and are willing to take the risk)
Stephen, good call on the bacon. I don’t eat it more than once or twice a month, so buying the more expensive stuff isn’t a big deal for me. I’d imagine if you were eating it daily, it would be tougher to afford. Also, Hugh is right….”nitrate-free” bacon typically just uses a natural source of nitrates rather than sodium nitrate.
Rusty, stick to real eggs! Those Egg Beater rats actually died shortly after that picture, not very long into the study.
Craig, raw milk is best. Skim milk is horrible…milk isn’t a fat-free substance, so to skim it (or even to standardize it to 2% or 3%) is processing. Skim milk has powdered milk and such added to give it some body.
Susan, good ideas!
Cheers
Scott
found that study for ya! it’s listed in Pediatrics journal Apr 1974; 53:565-566. Also in Journal of Food Science Jan/Feb 1975. M. K. Navidi and F. A. Kummerow did the study at the univ. of IL at urbana probably shortly before the published article. The babies from mother rats fed regular rat stock averaged 70g weight; only whole eggs averaged 66.5 g; and the eggbeaters averaged 31.5g. whoo! that’s a big difference. We are changing our eating patterns slowly this year but we ARE changing them. it is difficult since I am a single mom with minimal extra time for cooking but I am learning to love my crock pot. Also the money is hard to come by but I figure it will pay off in the end with lower medical bills.
Thanks for what you do on this blog. It is extremely enlightening.
Interesting stuff! I love the post- and the comments as well. I’ve still been eating turkey bacon, because I like the taste more than regular bacon. I didn’t realize it was full of so many things. Looks like it’s time for a change!
-BEE
Here in Missouri a congressperson recently recommended overturning an old law that effectively made most margarine sold today illegal. It was very sad to hear this person talk about how the law was out-dated, irrelevant, and the result of “Big Butter” lobbying.
Very very sad, but not at all surprising, that no effort was made to understand the true reason for the fake food laws back when some of our legislators actually cared about protecting the health of their constituents.
While I can’t find anything about laws governing bacon, I did find some info about the nitrite-free bacon that makes me see how its a bit of clever marketing. Most of these brands use some kind of celery extract which appears to be full of nitrites, but since its from celery they can get away with listing it as a natural product.
Thanks Hugh for the response, it got me to look into that some more. So maybe I’ll buy some uncured bacon and try to learn how to salt-cure at home.
Great post by the way. I was just posting about the opposite problem and how mistrust in science is leading to some confusing problems. I still believe that when it comes down to it all the nutrition science points at eating these more wholesome foods even if the spin behind it doesn’t let you see that.
Here’s one that will make you think. A commenter at my Healthy Hot Dogs post led me to this interesting link about nitrates/nitrites:
http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2008/07/does-banning-hotdogs-and-bacon-make.html
Kelly
Awesomeness!
I’m actually specifically AGAINST a margarine called Smart Balance, which claims to have the right balance of Omega-3s vs 6s. Yet a primary ingredient is soybean oil, and partially hydrogenated at that. The way to better balance is to avoid the 6s, not eat foods that are balanced themselves! We can hardly avoid the 6s as it is…
Anyhow, thanks for the great article, and here’s my list…
True mayonnaise vs “healthy” mayo
Salad dressing vs “healthy” salad dressing
lard vs shortening
meat vs fake meat (and fake cheese, sour cream, etc. while we’re at it).
milk vs soy/rice/oat milk
dairy vs non-dairy creamer
Of course there’s a whole list of “heathy” items at the store that aren’t either better or worse than the original. Check out Whole Foods for all the “healthy” crackers, cookies, candy, and other snacks. Just because if’s sweetened with juice concentrate doesn’t make those cookies better than if they were sweetened with just plain sugar!
Here’s the official government definition of “Natural Flavors”:
“ the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or any other edible portions of a plant, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose primary function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional. [3] â€
Basically, the “flavor” is based on a “natural” product that has been processed. In North America the typical base for most “natural flavors” is corn or soy. “Artificial flavors” are 100% lab created.
Since March of 2008 I have switched to eating only whole, unprocessed and organic foods. This includes grass-fed beef and raw milk. My health has improved drastically, and I feel better than I have in decades.
Roland – where are you getting your ingredient list for smart balance?
funny….I saw this anti-butter ad from a certain margarine company while watching shows on hulu last night….I love how the tone of it makes you feel like a complete outdated and uneducated jackass if you still are using butter…..got to love marketing over actual science….
Did anyone else feel just terrible for those poor little rats? Sheesh.
Anyways….I agree – real, whole food is way better. I like the suggestion that someone made about only eating foods without an ingredients list – totally makes sense.
I’m old enough to well remember the 70s margerine TV ad line : “It’s not NICE to fool MOTHER NATURE.” Then thunder would sound and something horrible would happen. No indeed, it’s not.
Then there’s this one, “If you think it’s butter, but it’s not, it’s Chiffon”. We used to sing it as “if you think it’s butter, but it’s SNOT, it’s Chiffon”. Still cracks me up.
Dr. Davis at the Heart Scan Blog has a good post up recently about Benecol and sterols additives in fake foods, too.
Stephen, I don’t think nitrates are a huge issue if you’re not making cured meats a staple of your diet. I probably eat 1 pound of bacon per month, so I don’t sweat it much. Though I do buy what is officially “nitrate-free”. Actually, the ingredient list above comes from some bacon I picked up at Whole Foods, so you can see it doesn’t list a source of nitrate.
Kelly, interesting read. As I said in reply to Stephen, I doubt the nitrates are the biggest issue unless you’re eating cured meats day-in and day-out. People that eat lots of hot dogs are probably not eating great all around.
SashimiMark, amazing what eating real foods will do for you huh? Keep up the good work!
Stephen, I found the ingredients list at Smart Balance’s website, though I didn’t see partially hydrogenated anything in the list. They claim they don’t have any PH fats.
Mike, I’ve seen that ad on TV. I noticed the wonderful marketing slant too. How could someone not be swayed by that?
Jody, yes, quite sad for those little rats.
Roland, great suggestions! I think this will become a series over the next few weeks.
Cheers
Scott
Hey all! So glad I stumbled on this website (back when it was IFLife). Changed my whole perspective!
I showed this article to my roommate (a biochem geek) and he posed the following questions:
-Butter is still high in sat fat and cholesterol, is it still good? (I personally use very little butter as-is) What about unsalted butter?
-Artificial flavors are chemically identical to those occurring in nature. He cites isoamyl acetate vs eating a banana. What’s the difference? (Outside of my realm of knowledge…)
-MSG is considered safe for human consumption (I think he was just being contrary at this point)
-Eggs are high in cholesterol. ‘Nuff said.
Yeah, I think for part of it he was deliberately trying to get me going, but I figured I’d pass it along to the community anyways. Great to be here!
Gary – The whole “sat fat and cholesterol” myth is another horse altogether….but here’s some good past info on that:
- on statins (and the cholesterol myth) – http://lifespotlight.com/health/2008/11/13/good-news-now-everyone-needs-drugs/
- on sat fats – http://lifespotlight.com/health/2008/08/07/fats-the-real-story-and-why-you-need-them/
- on meat/sat fats – http://lifespotlight.com/health/2008/10/17/why-your-doctor-is-wrong-about-meat/
Thanks for the links, Mike, especially the first one. I thought I’d read quite a bit on this website but must have missed that one. I don’t use butter or salt much either way, and I love me some eggs, but it was more the lab-created “goodies” that raised my eyebrow.
I’m more or less convinced that my roomie is trying to get my goat, but I keep it under a pretty secure lock and key.
Of course, to circumvent even asking, one could just skip eating anything they would need to check the ingredients for, which is what I plan to do
Scott
This was a great write up on some important real vs fake food issues.
The Food Timeline website is quite interesting. BTW, I would put butter as having first come into use at least as far back as 4000 BC (6 millenia ago as explained on the butter website link from the Food Timeline site).
Here’s another idea: the use of real, healthy fats (such as coconut oil, olive oil, butter, aimal fats) being replaced by so-called ‘healthy’ or modern fats that have been linked to many diseases of civilization (the modern fats include common oils: corn, soy, safflower, cottonseed, canola as well as any hydrogenated oil).
There is some very good information on both the healthy fats and the fake ‘modern’ fats at the Weston Price Foundation at http://www.westonaprice.org (which Mike OD mentions above).
Hillary
I once bought a package of turkey bacon at a halal meat market checking the expiry date to see if it was fresh and it was.
I opened it at home and smelled chemicals. I literally stuck my nose into the entire package to see if I could smell anything but chemicals and I couldn’t so I threw the entire thing in the garbage.
My motto now is two fold:
if it wasn’t eaten 200 years ago I don’t eat it.
If it contains starch or sugar, I don’t eat it.
Simplifies shopping for food.
[...] is an interesting post I found on another blog I read, Modern Forager, that does a great job comparing three real foods [...]
[...] Life Spotlight compares real butter, eggs, and milk to their fake food counterparts. Posted by Jay Filed in The Linkery Restaurant Share this post with a [...]
Great post, you are absolutely correct.
Unfortunately it’s going to be hard to know what’s real or not in the future.
Did you know that they are cloning our meat and milk now?
http://kieferscorner.com/blog/?p=251
Gary-A, if you skip the foods with ingredient labels as you said, you won’t need to worry about artificial or natural flavors. But I don’t have an answer to your roommates query. I don’t think it’s a good idea when we isolate any element of a food, whether that’s natural banana flavor or vitamin C. Those links Mike provided are a good primer on why the saturated fat/cholesterol myth is dead wrong.
Hillary, love the WAPF take on fats. I use mainly butter, lard, coconut oil, and olive oil. I definitely advise avoiding vegetable oils. Too much processing with chemicals to get them.
Kateryna, sounds a lot like Michael Pollan’s advice to not eat anything your great-grandparents wouldn’t recognize. Though I do include starchy foods like sweet potatoes and squashes. And I’ve never messed with turkey bacon that wasn’t already cooked, but that sounds disgusting.
Kiefer, I was aware of that. I don’t like the idea. Seems to me to be yet another reason to stick to grass-fed meats and raw milk from local farmers instead of from agribusiness.
Cheers
Scott
[...] “Butter, Bacon, And Eggs: Real Foods Take On Fake Foods,” courtesy of LifeSpotlight.com [...]
According to Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, “natural flavors” are simply artificially made flavors that were made before a certain year in history…I think maybe around the 70′s? I had my English 101 class read about this in an essay that Schlosser wrote about the flavor industry, I think it may also be a part of Fast Food Nation, which I haven’t read. So, in a nutshell, “natural flavors” aren’t natural. But Son of Grok, you should check out Schlosser’s essay, whose title is escaping me at this moment but has the words “…from the Flavor Corridor” in the title.
what about stevia and these new natural sweetners?
it’s been said you can’t cheat nature, although stevia is natural, your still cheating nature…getting something sweet without actually having a type of sugar.
im sure these something adverse in consuming it….
Anya, thanks for that reminder. Schlosser’s book had a great overview of natural vs. artificial flavors. It’s really a rather murky delineation:
Bill, you’re right that you can’t cheat nature. One thing about stevia though is that you really can’t consume much of it. It has an incredibly bitter taste and I find the line between sweet and “yuck” to be quite thin. Other than that, there haven’t been any long term safety studies, so who knows?
Cheers
Scott
No one’s said sugar cane vs. HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP yet?? At least we KNOW in what ways SUGAR’s bad for us. HFCS & the Artificial Sweeteners – yuck.
Scott, what STEVIA did you have that was bitter? I grow it in a pot and the leaves are sweet.
Gypsy, I’ve thoroughly taken on HFCS in these two articles:
What Sweetener Should You Choose? Sugar? Honey? Agave Nectar?
Why High Fructose Corn Syrup Is Worse Than Sugar And Why It’s Not
Don’t believe the hype that HFCS is so much more detrimental to your health. Sugar and HFCS are both horrible for you.
I only tried stevia once and found it sweet, but only as long as you were careful with how much you used. There was a very fine line between sweet and bitter.
Cheers
Scott
Oops, sorry, was asking BILL that about stevia: what STEVIA did you have that was bitter? I grow it in a pot and the leaves are sweet.
The topic is quite hot in the net at the moment. What do you pay attention to when choosing what to write ?
Maybe we are just trend setters?
I know we focus on what people need to know in our book, as we are always preaching about how people need to eat “real foods”. It is good to know that the word is spreading out there….then hopefully more people can get health and stop falling for all the mainstream myths that are hurting their health.
I don’t see the significance in arguing Bacon vs. Turkey Bacon or Eggs vs. Egg Beaters. I agree that Butter is better than Margarine, but any kind of bacon and/egg is horrible for you. Eggs are the most concentrated source of cholesterol, and bacon is just pure fat and nitrates.
Easiest thing to do is eat plant based whole foods. Been Vegan 2 years and I don’t miss any of this crap.
Nathan – “Eggs are the most concentrated source of cholesterol,”…I understand that you think you are being healthy, but what is being sold in the mainstream about cholesterol and meat is wrong. Glad you enjoy eating vegan, as I would say it’s anyone’s choice to make….just make sure you REALLY have all the facts about meat, cholesterol and so forth. I eat 6 WHOLE eggs a day, and feel great….by modern media/medical paranoa I should of been dead 2 years ago.
http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/skinny.html
Thank you for phrasing it the way you did. I respect the way everyone eats, and I believe everyone has a right way to eat that works for them. I know guys who live off of A&W and they’re fine. It’s what they do, so it’s all good. I’m a vegan and I couldn’t be anything else.
Interesting read. We all have misinformation about nutrition. I guess it comes down to admitting your mistakes and being careful when throwing out things you’re not entirely sure on. Thanks for calling me out, haha.
Nathan, good comments. Mike is right that there’s a lot of misinformation about fat and cholesterol, especially when it comes to comparing feedlot beef, chicken, eggs, etc to properly raised, grass-fed/pastured beef, chicken, eggs, etc. Those are two truly different animals (*rimshot*…har har!).
I go through about 2 dozen pastured eggs a week, plus 3/4 to 1 lb of meat per day (98% of the time properly-raised meat) and my blood work is pretty much perfect (as in my doctor refused to even check my blood work recently). Lots of different ways to be healthy…low-carb, low-fat, vegetarian, plenty of meat. The bottom line really comes down to eating real food. Lots of people adopt a particular dietary style and then eat processed foods that fit it and never make any progress.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope you stick around to offer a “dissenting voice” and keep us in check. Glad you’ve found what works for you.
Cheers
Scott
Nathan – It’s not about who is right and who is wrong….it’s just about knowing what is truly best for our health (and what are we being told is sometimes wrong in the mainstream…or has “alternative motives”, aka funded by some group with a vested interest that wants to promote that message). There are many examples of people like the Inuit being healthy on more fat and proteins…and then other hunter-gather like tribes who thrive more on veggies and tubers. In the end there is no “magic ratio” of macronutrients….and there are many other factors that come into play such as lifestyle, toxin exposure and vit/mineral content of foods. In the end….whether eating vegan, paleo or anywhere in between, I think you still see the one main message….eat real foods, ones that have been around for ages….and avoid the modern processed stuff. Also make sure you are not “low/no fat” (which some vegetarians follow sometimes) as that has health implications as well. Here’s another interesting read (and you can of course take whatever points you want from it and don’t have to agree with the whole thing):
http://www.westonaprice.org/mythstruths/mtvegetarianism.html
This is an important article that I would like to show in my bilingual site, if you allow me.
I am your subscriber and love every article I get.
Please, continue your crusade to educate us in different aspects of health and fitness.
Best regards,
Alfredo E.
P.S:
I would like to ask for a short email interview, maximum 10 short questions, to show in my site http://www.omega-3-fish-oil-wonders.com/. Please, answer back.
I don’t mean to be argumentative but I found the article a tad pretentious, especially being in a relationship where my SO is allergic to : dairy. eggs, nuts, seeds, legumes, coconut, chocolate…and i’m pretty sure i’m missing at least two in there. In any case things like soy milk, margarine and other foods which you rail against are literally life savers. I can agree that people such as myself who have real choices can decide to eat the “real” foods, but it’s a bit much to see commenters who decide that things like soy chik’n is pretty much useless as a food. While eating all natural is of course great, to someone who is a vegetarian, the choice might not be as easy , especially considering animal rights is also a great concern among the vegetarian/ vegan community.
C, sorry to hear about your SO’s allergy issues. Nonetheless, the same rules apply when one has allergies…processed industrial foods will not promote good health. The problem with the soy foods people replace real foods with is that they aren’t properly treated to neutralize the various antinutrients. Miso, tempeh, natto, and soy sauce are the only fermented soy products that can promote health.
Instead of margarine, what about pastured pork lard or olive oil? Both are significantly better options. Red palm oil is another option.
As for vegetarians, it’s no excuse to eat industrial foods. I wrote an article a few months back about being Primal and vegetarian. It is entirely possible to avoid eating meat, yet still not eat the fake foods like Soy Chik’n, laden with any number of artificial ingredients, including wheat gluten, which anyone with food allergies should be avoiding.
Hope this helps.
Cheers
Scott
C – first thing I would say to help out is to focus on gut health, after all that is where it all starts. This post may be of some help:
http://lifespotlight.com/health/2008/03/19/is-your-gut-leaking-what-to-do-about-it/
Also removing the allergens now, cleaning up the gut and then rotating them back in later (infrequently) can go a long way. For example, I can drink a glass of milk here and there (although rarely do) but make me drink it 3x a day, everyday for a week and I will have asthma like feeling and plenty of mucus. Also, quality is important….as the standard milk is hardly real milk, when you compare it to raw milk (or even goat’s milk). Same goes for eggs, butter or whatever…the source and how it is processed, treated and preserved matters alot. An eggs from a healthy chicken is not the same as an egg from a diseased one. On the vegetarian side, is it vital that one does get enough healthy fats as a diet high in grains and very low in protein/fat will result in being sick. As for margerine, I can not see something that is unstable and promotes internal damage as “life saving” especially if it ends up raising the risks of other diseases like cancer. There are always better choices for healthy fats like olive oil or coconut oil.
In the end, you don’t have to agree with everything we say….but we are only trying to get people healthier whether vegetarian or meat eaters. Processed foods are not going to be the ideal choice for health….no matter what marketing and sales pitches you hear on TV or read in magazines.
[...] Read the full article here. [...]
I am a registered/licensed dietitian, so you are preaching to the choir. I have always advised real vs fake. It is all about portion control of the real deal vs. going hog wild on the fake. However, this is what nutritional professtionals deal with on a daily basis. The word “fat” freaks people out. I am always recommending foods such as olive oil, avacodos, and nuts. The respones, “aren’t those high in fat?” Then, I have to discuss good fat vs bad fat and it is all about portion control. It gets very frustrating. Healthcare professionals, we have an never-ending battle because we are so fat phobic!!
Erin, keep fighting the good fight and promoting those healthy unprocessed fats from butter, olives, avocados, coconuts, and lard.
Cheers
Scott
…all i know is we are fatter than ever….is there a connection here? fake food =empty calories= hunger = eat more fake food=OBESITY
So I guess people have been getting worms and dying of food poisoning from swine since 7000 BC and catching the pig flue since 2009. I’ll take mechanically separated turkey over Gods naturally created garbage disposal.
Liz, you got it. Fake food contains little in the way of vitamins and throws our hormonal systems out of whack, keeping us hungry.
AK, your argument is flawed because pig flu isn’t transmitted via meat. Man cannot and will not outdo the foods Mother Nature has given us.
Cheers
Scott
Liz – spot on as we are now seeing the effect of chemicals and artificial sweeteners and how they are messing up our internal signaling of hunger (such as the hormone leptin). Hence why overweight people are always hungry no matter what they eat, as they have developed leptin resistance.
We LOVE trader joes, as a great source of simple & inexpensive foods.
I understand the butter vs margarine argument, but we normally buy healthy oil based versions, not your average big store margarine.
Here’s the ingredient list from our favorite Trader Joes: “Earth Balance – natural buttery spread”
Expeller-pressed natural oil blend (soybean, palm fruit, canola and olive), filtered water, pure salt, natural flavor (derived from corn, no msg, no alcohol, no gluten), soy protein, soy lecithin, lactic acid (non-dairy, derived from sugar beets), and naturally extracted annatto for color. Contains Soy.
You can see which market they are also trying to fill, because they also point out that they are “gluten free, lactose free, vegan, non-gmo”.
It also contains 400mg of ALA O-3′s per serving.
Sure, I understand the arguments against soy, but from everything I’ve read over the years, this seems like a great source of healthy fats, especially when cooking. I’m curious what everyone thinks.
BTW, I would also kindly dispute eating anything from domesticated animals is truly primal, if the goal is paleo style eating. Even going 6000 years back is only a microsecond in evolutionary terms.
“Expeller-pressed natural oil blend (soybean, palm fruit, canola and olive), filtered water, pure salt, natural flavor (derived from corn, no msg, no alcohol, no gluten), soy protein, soy lecithin, lactic acid (non-dairy, derived from sugar beets), and naturally extracted annatto for color. Contains Soy.”
They can put all the healthy fats in you want, but when the first ingredient is soybean oil, I question their understanding of healthy fats. In this case, it’s not the “soy issue,” it’s the Omega-6 issue. Soybean oil (and corn oil) are full of 6s, and that’s the last thing we need to add. We need to get our ratios better (fewer 6s and more 3s), so adding more 3s AND more 6s is an exercise in futility.
Smart Balance is a prime example of the misguided attempt to get things back in balance. Each food doesn’t have to be balanced, our overall diet does.
I’m not an expert, but here’s my take… http://littledoglost.blogspot.com/2007/11/does-each-food-that-you-eat-need-to-be.html
Oh, I was into Canola oil back then… I’m less so, now. I don’t think it’s the end of the world, but I’m pretty much in the olive oil, coconut oil, butter, and animal fat camps now.
Geoff,
Here’s some info on soy. I’d avoid it. As Roland pointed out, the omega-6/omega-3 ratio is highly skewed. I’d stick with the healthy fats I outlined here.
Regarding the 400mg of ALA, check out this post from awhile back about flax, ALA, EPA, and DHA.
Of course domesticated animals aren’t truly Paleo…but then again, neither are apples, carrots, bananas, or any other foods we eat today. All of them have been selectively bred for traits humans find desirable. However, properly raised grass-fed/pastured animals are very similar to wild game. Gotta be careful about trying to be too perfect here.
Cheers
Scott
Scott,
Thanks for the links, I’m reading them now.
I am familiary though with the not-so-great benefits of soy, but since my consumption isn’t that high, I haven’t worried about them too much yet.
And as far as the ALA’s (needed conversion), yes, I definitely knew that. My wife normally adds flax seeds to her morning oatmeal, but I have often stressed that what she really needs to focus on is fish oil. I personally take 6 grams a day of O3′s in the form of fish oil. An author/trainer I follow online highly recommends them and is normally one to be a bit cynical about such matters purported super health benefits of individual foods.
The battle of the oils & fats is the most confusing to me. I’ve read so much, from many people with many degrees after their names, and none of the articles ever seem to really agree. The link added by a commenter in your Oil article about never going over 4% PUFA’s though seems to fall into the “backed by one random study” category though. My opinion generally is moderation and balance between macros, and their subcategories.
[...] thumb and some interesting information on how to identify healthy foods then you should check out this article from the Life [...]
[...] Today’s reading: Real Foods Take on Fake Foods [...]
Hello there. First, I want to say you’re all doing a great job here, i absolutely love this site!
Im planning to go dairy free for a couple of weeks to see if i dont have some hidden dairy intolerance.
Do you think it would be neccessary to omit also butter since it does not have lactose?
I went paleo (but still eat dairy) in november and feel much better.
i realised it after i “accidentaly” ate some bread and cookies – my joints were hurting (i have / had arthritis) , i felt so weak… blah i dont want that ever, but that got me thinking about dairy stuff (before i stopped eating grains, it never occured to me they were making me sick all that time…)
thanks for your time
[...] Today’s reading: Real Foods Take on Fake Foods [...]
Great to read your article and to meet more friends of butter. Check out our website: Friendsofbutter.co.uk and pledge your love today! Also, super cool animation about the history of butter vs marge: http://www.friendsofbutter.co.uk/did-you-know/a-tale-of-two-spreads/
One thing I noted is that there isn’t much real food anymore. The pigs (for your bacon) the cows (for your butter) and the chickens (for your eggs) are all stuffed with hormones and chemicals too, which I think is having its own ill effects on our health.
If you raise your own – what do you feed them, how do you prevent their exposure to the chemicals, toxics and pesticides that are in the food and water that we drink and eat. The lead in the soil infiltrates the grass which the animals feed on,etc.
I understand your point – and I’ve always been a big proponent of real food. I just wish there was a way to eliminate ALL the additives.
lauriel – Going on a 100% elimination diet of grains and dairy for 2 weeks is a great way to give your body a break…and then as you tend to slowly reintroduce them back in you will notice anything that is “negatively” affecting your health. Like you said….most people have no idea what everyday foods may be making them fat and sick until they get rid of them and experience a new level (more in tune with our natural design) of health.
Stephen – I tend to agree….there is no 100% perfect foods anymore. Nowadays I just focus on as much reduction as possible to chemicals in food, air, clothing, soaps, detergent, etc….and then allow the body’s defenses to handle the other smaller amount that does trickle in (and give it time to do it with IF)….it’s either that or move to an island away from modernized society.
[...] http://www.fitnessspotlight.com/2009/03/16/selling-ill-health-real-foods-fake-foods/ Posted on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 at 7:53 am filed in News. Leave a Response | Trackback [...]
In response to Geoff and C and others who think that soy is a great health food. If you like solvents, you’ll love soybean oil. Love MSG? there’s a heaping, helping in every mouthful of hydrolyzed soy protein.
The thing is that all these supposed health claims really aren’t back by any hard evidence. Just all these hypey promises.
The real truth is there is an epidemic of thyroid problems, poor deteriorating heatlh that can all be linked directly to soy.
I have done the research and if you want to see how these things all connect read my soy page and the links to real, scientific research.
Basically, if you want to be healthy, you must eat REAL food.
Louise,
At which point did I say soy was a great health food?
And the “buttery spread” I posted above uses expeller pressed oils, one of which is soy, but definitely not hydrolyzed. In fact the product makes an explicit claim that there is no msg.
Too many omega-6 = INFLAMMATION
Manifesting throughout the body in diabetes, joints, organs, it is an unseen enemy.
Polyunsaturated fat suppresses thyroid function.
These include Safflower, soybean, sunflower, corn oils.
Canola oil is only safe if you eat saturated fat to counter it.
Fish Oil
Butter (raw, grass-fed)
Are full of vitamins, anti-inflammatory and boost weight loss and thyroid function
http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfood/lipid-hydroperoxides.html
Not too mention how damaging Omega 6s are to the liver….and last I checked, that is a pretty important organ to keep operating at peak capacity.
Are far as I can see this article is 100% opinion. Good job backing up anything you said with ANY scientific facts. Just because something is artificial doesn’t make it unhealthy, and that’s all you did with this worthless article; compared ingredients. I’m not disagreeing with anything you said…I use real, free range organic eggs and real butter…but I’m certainly not going to base my decisions on what I put in my body from somebody’s opinion who is obviously a writer (a UNTALENTED writer) and not a doctor.
The rats? They took 2 groups of rats, feed one nothing but eggs and feed the other group nothing but egg whites + food coloring. (egg beaters). The ones fed with egg beaters died. Well, I’m certainly glad I don’t live in a cage being fed absolutely nothing but 1 thing, but as it turns out us humans eat a wide range of products. Just because you can’t sustain a healthy life style by eating JUST eggbeaters doesn’t mean that eggbeaters is bad for you. Wise up people, what you just read is PROPAGANDA…written by somebody who sounds more like a conspiracy nut than a doctor.
I also enjoyed the fact that the whole entire article is dripping with pompousness. You do a good job of making yourself come across as an extremely self-important smug person I would not like to meet in real life.
Can you imagine what somebody would look like if all they ever ate was apples? Or just celery? Went through life eating nothing but bread? I’m sure they would look like the rat on the left.
Amusing study, killing all those rats…but still, I’m not going to cut something out of my life because of it.
@ David -Tell us how you really feel? Ha. Yes we don’t eat just one thing in life….as variety is the spice of life as they say…that and a well rounded intake of amino acids, fats, vitamins and minerals is a good idea. The only thing that will kill you right away we already know about….like rat poison, however that doesn’t mean that your health is not the sum of all stressors on a body…and fake foods with chemicals, preservatives, un-natural fats and the likes….while will not most likely cause anyone to drop dead instantly, does not mean they will be healthy down the road either (as we can see that lesson with any natural eating civilization without processed foods and low rates of any kinds of cancers/heart diseases….which are so rampant nowadays). Sometimes the most deadly killer is the silent one(s) we all ignore until it may be too late. Although really not sure why you are so angry and upset with an article you would/do already agree with…..the “nut job propaganda” of real foods that you already follow in your life….defending a product you don’t even use…….which just conflicts and confuses me to think about it.
Beware the Internet Warriors, Mike. No argument is too petty to be fought from safely behind an anonymous monitor.
Thank you for your opinion David, especially the part about being untalented. I’ll also take pompous and self-important, but I do dispute smug. Luckily, we all know what opinions are like. But what does this conspiracy nut job know?
Now, onto reality and away from your anger and personal attacks. While it’s true that humans don’t eat only one food, the simple fact is, one food (eggs) contained enough nutrients to make the rats that ATE ONLY EGGS thrive (note: not just live, thrive). So your argument holds very little water. If rats can eat ONLY EGGS and thrive or eat only EggBeaters and die, what does that tell you? One is life-sustaining and one isn’t.
Cheers
Scott
Is it possible to eat too much protein? I’m eating PB style and consume between 80g to 140g of protein, 30g to 50g carbs, and 45g to 60g good fat every day.
Reading a book called Primal Body – Primal Mind by Nora T. Gedgaudas. She says protein is good but too much, the body learns to break down the protein in the muscle and bone, possibly causing osteoporosis. Yikes. I hope this is not true!
What’s your take on this?
@ Dave – most people will say “too much protein is not good”….but then again there is nothing to really prove what is “too much”. If you are active, eating under 1g protein/lb of lean mass and lifting weights…..I don’t think you have to worry about osteoporosis (I’ve never met someone who strength trains with “challenging” weights to have weak bones). Of course eating veggies and avoiding processed foods is an optimal way to keep you pH blood balance healthy as well. Most high risk osteoporosis people are usually not active and have higher intakes of processed foods/sugars. For example the Inuit….long ago healthy people who survived on meat/fat mostly….now with rise in alcoholism and “modern” foods to their lives in the last 20-30 years…high rates of osteoporosis.
David,
Scott is actually AN untalented writer, not A untalented writer.
Thanks Mike.
I have been increasing the amount of protein consumed each day from 80g to 120g. I’m am contemplating eating more, up to close to my body weight (154lbs.), as I need to increase the lost muscle mass due to atrophy and age (56 years young). I’ve lost 14 lbs. of mscle the past 8 years.
Crossfit and walking, with sprints too, are my main source of workouts the past year and half.
Any suggestions to add to my thoughts, as I try to increase muscle mass? Tried lifting weights the past year but no muscle mass gain
. So, time to try something else. My body fat is approx. 11.6%, caliper measured.
Thank you for your reply,
Dave
Dave,
When you say ‘lifting weights’, what do you mean? If you want to add muscle, you’ve got to do some good hard full body exercises, with lower reps and higher weights, and cumulatively increase weight/reps slowly over time (prgressive overload).
That being said, this can also only be done with the correct nutrition (enough protein) and a surplus of calories over maintenance. Plus enough sleep and the correct body chemistry count in strongly. Cutting out some of the cardio will definitely help too, if you’re really burning hours there.
And speaking of body chemistry, it is well known how much more difficult it is for us to add new lean body mass as we age, especially past 30. Don’t be too hard on yourself.
I’ve obviously simplified the process above, but I simply don’t see how one add’s muscle without heavy weights and enough nutrition.
I was lifting 2-3x a week, focused on Mark Rippotoes book. Did the suggested bench press, back squat, and deadlift. Tendinitis in one elbow (too many pull-ups) prevented me from increasing the DL weight.
If I were to eat to create a surplus I don’t want to gain body fat while trying to gain muscle mass. Is this possible when consuming more protein and good fat?
And, amen, to body chemistry. At my age it is tough! My hat off to Mark Sisson and others my age that can increase muscle mass!
Thanks!
@ Dave – Eating 0.6-0.8g protein per “lean” lbs of BW should be enough for most to help build muscle…..at the most 1g but that is for the most active individuals. The rest comes down to eating enough to maintain good testosterone levels (as you aren’t going to build much with low T….that naturally decline with age as well), enough stimulus through exercise to tell the body to grow more muscle (increasing volume/weights over time) and keeping cortisol and muscle wasting at bay (excess cardio especially…some is fine, too much will not help).
Here’s a good read on the basics for building muscle to read and re-read:
http://www.fitnessspotlight.com/2008/03/10/building-muscle-101-master-the-basics/
Also don’t fear some carbs once in a while if you are looking for a “muscle pump” too….as flat muscles can mean less than optimal glycogen storage. Simple way is to every now and then take 1-2 days of eating slow absorbing carbs like sweet potatoes and get in 300-400g worth (keep fat low so you are no overdoing the calorie load in the process).
Most of all…..if you are doing one plan….seeing no results in 3-4 weeks….change it up somehow, as continuing down the same road will get you the same results…or lack thereof.
Thanks again for your advice!
I am stuck between a rock and a hard place! I’m using Mark Sisson’s suggestions from his PB book, etc. where he suggestions low carbs below 100g and increasing good fat and protein intake to gain muscle and lose BF%. If I consume more carbs as suggested, will that increase my BF% and not allow the reduction of it? Or, do I need to realize to gain muscle mass I just swallow the fact that I need to gain more BF to gain muscle mass? (to gain more muscle I need to a few pounds of BF)
Gracias,
Dave
Several people have wondered what the “natural flavors” are. They are different forms of Hydrolyzed vegetable proteins, For instance Soy, Wheat, or yeast from which they make “Natural” MSG.
If you have anyone who has food allergies or sensitivities, or if you have certain health problems such as asthma you will be warned against these hidden flavors because there is no way of knowing the source but they are just as likely to be made of YOUR allergen as not.
Always be wary of these so called Natural flavors. they can get away with it because MSG itself is sometimes created naturally, but I’m not clear on how.
FWIW, kitty
[...] Real Foods Take on Fake Foods [...]
I will say you made some good points, but many times the ingredient lists for things like butter contain more than what you listed. I’ve seen some that also include “natural flavors.” Also bacon contains nitrates and nitrites, as well as turkey bacon, and other additives. In my eyes it’s best to avoid things like butter, bacon, etc and their “imposters,” stick to whole, unprocessed foods as much as possible
If your butter has a list of ingredients that you don’t like, buy better butter. My daughter makes it in a jar. Just cream and salt. Rolling the jar around on the floor. That’s pretty unprocessed.
@ Les – Like Roland says, buy better butter. You get what you pay for, and getting the cheapest brand at the store is not going to be best quality. I get “Irish Gold” brand at Trader Joes which is Grass Fed Cows and has one ingredient: Cultured Pasteurized Cream (aka Butter). There is also “raw unpasteurized” as well out there, although harder to find. Any “cured ” food will have nitrates (even when they say nitrate free…it is misleading….that was covered above much earlier in the comments). I don’t eat bacon that much, but I see nothing wrong with butter daily (especially the good kind)….and yes, unprocessed is the way to go,
[...] whole wheat toast with just a little butter. Real butter, not fake butter. (In case you missed it: Real Foods Take On Fake Foods. This is a very important thing to read, so read it. I’ll [...]
[...] a REAL FOOD diet and don’t pig out on [...]
[...] a REAL FOOD diet and don’t pig out on [...]
I completely agree with everything you have said in this post. I used to eat a lot of fake fats and fake food, and had immeasurably difficult to manage health problems for years. It’s a shame so much misinformation exists about real, healthy fats and that the mainstream medical community villanizes butter and fats so much. I have an article I wrote about the same subject, and am dedicated to education and awareness about traditional, real foods in our diets to combat illness, disease, and general bad health. Thanks for helping to spread the word about this important issue. We need all the help we can get!
Here’s a great link about butter and real fats, and also to a wonderful, non-profit web site forwarding educational materials about sustainable living, food, and farming:
http://www.westonaprice.org/Why-Butter-Is-Better.html
Here is the link to my butter vs. margarine article and my web site, Agriculture Society – sustainable living, nutrition through traditional foods, natural cures/remedies, food politics, and ecologically-sound ideas for the planet.
http://www.agriculturesociety.com/?p=2717#comments
Great article on butter Raine! Just read it and the comments…great work!
Cheers
Scott
[...] query, I will defer to Fitness Spotlight, as they have already done an excellent job of addressing Real Food vs. Fake Food. We all know bacon rules. Bacon is dessert for breakfast. But as for Turkey Bacon compared to [...]
[...] Real Foods Take On Fake Foods: Butter, Bacon, And Eggs Share and Enjoy: [...]
Thanks, everyone, for the great comments. About a year ago my doctor declared me pre-diabetic with high blood pressure to boot. I decided to go on a low-carb, low sodium diet. I began to eat full breakfasts, consisting of whole eggs (fresh from a rancher who lives nearby), some bacon, and turkey or pork sausage that I made myself (lots of recipes online for sausage). I cook with olive oil exclusively and use unsalted butter every morning on my toast. I eat tons of fresh vegetables, both steamed and stir-fried. I also eat grass fed angus beef from another local rancher (Soaring Eagle Ranch, Rutheron, New Mexico). My fresh chicken comes from Wholefoods or Kellers (an Albuquerque store with their own farm fresh chicken and turkey). Sadly, I get to eat few potatoes and almost no rice or pasta anymore (I still miss the pasta). When I eat bread it is fresh baked whole wheat that my wife makes.
The result: I lost 25 pounds and it stayed off (so far). I’m retired and living on a mountain lake in Northern New Mexico where I walk two miles (at 7500 ft. above sea level) each day in beautiful countryside. I feel wonderful.
Thanks for reading this somewhat boastful and tedious testimonial. I want
to support all these wonderful arguments for natural eating. I just turned 69.
@Giles – Way to go! Keep up the great work as you are only as young (or old) as you feel/act!
GREAT article and so true. Take a look at msgmyth.com for more info on ‘hiding’ MSG being done by the food industry and read read read and listen to Michael Pollan ! The more people seek out real food, MAYBE the food industry will take notice!! ‘Ya think?
We need to get with the times. Butter and eggs were good a century ago and before. But today, 90% of animal products come from factory farms.
Chickens live in tiny cages with their beaks cut off. They don’t even have enough room to turn around, and they NEVER get fresh air.
Cows stand in their own sh*t for 24 hours a day, with machines sucking them until they bleed. Can you really call this natural?
Meanwhile, there are over 6 billion people in the world who need to eat. It just doesn’t work to depend on animals the way we do.
Our only hope is to use technology. Stop being so scared of margarine, soy milk, and egg beaters. Get with the times!
The “times” include rampant increasing rates of heart diseases, cancers and people being put on endless medications with a health care system on the verge of bankruptcy and collapse…..Thanks, but I think I will pass.
There are plenty of ways to get eggs, butter and meat from animals that are raised naturally and humanely (such as grass fed and cage free).
I do not believe more processed or man-made foods are safer or healthier to the human body compared to what is found in the natural environment, but of course it is all your choice which path you take.
Roberto,
In no way, shape, or form do we promote factory farming on this site. We promote finding local farmers that raise animals properly.
I refuse to believe that we need to rely on fake foods to feed ourselves, nor will I rely on foods that are going to make me sick.
Look outside of what the biotech companies tell you and realize that technology has failed to deliver on its promise of keeping us healthy. Foods, both animal and plant, have fewer nutrients and more toxins. We rely on very few foods for the majority of our calories (corn, wheat, and soy). The ONLY way for us to be healthy is to try as hard as possible to eat as many different types of food from naturally raised animals and plants as we can.
Cheers
Scott
Roberto,
I’m sorry but this kind of thinking is making a lot of people very sick. I being one of them. Believing the media hype bilged daily at us I dutifully followed their advice to slug down soy milk and egg whites and all the rest.
I become very ill and spent the next 10 years suffering with every symptom of fibromyalgia known to man.
Not until I learned the garish lie about animal foods we’ve all been fed did I begin to recover. Animal foods such as high cholesterol imbibed eggs, butter, lard and fatty meats are essential to life and properly functioning of our organs and life processes.
Egg beaters is chemically altered and is not fit to be eaten. Do some research. All the foods you mention are highly processed to the point that they are no longer food meaning they will sustain or enhance human health.
Please stop believing everything you read and hear and start asking for hard science. There is a new study that just came out last month. Over 350,000 people participated and no conclusive evidence would back the claim that eating high cholesterol foods causes heart disease. Only 30% of the subjects could even hint at this conclusion.
Meanwhile, today I keep getting skinnier as I eat 2-3 eggs per day and my mind is clear and all anxiety has permanently departed. My diet is around 60-80% total fat, mostly saturated (a meaningless term when analyzed).
Louise
C.N. C.
I agree about eating real foods. And eggs are real food! But now to further confuse the issue … we have “Free-Range” eggs, “Egglands -best (touting lower levels of cholesterol, and some others all touting a,” better for you” message. So what is the real truth on these higher priced, “Healthier” eggs????
Scott, good question! I actually wrote an article about egg marketing terms. The reality is that pastured eggs are the best. You’re unlikely to find these eggs in the store…you’ll need to find a farmer’s market or a local farmer.
Cheers
Scott
[...] and so many other diseases. The omega-6 thing is a big one…how many people have given up real fats for vegetable oils and vegetable oil-based [...]
I am the granddaughter of a dairy farmer who was 1st generation “technology” . The cows were “barned” and mechanically milked, but otherwise pastured and grass-fed. My mother, his daughter is 68 and healthy as an ox.
I am also (on the other side of the family) the granddaughter of a man (who incidentally was a ConAgra employee) died at 45 of heart disease, daughter of that man’s son who had his 1st heart attack at 43 and ultimately died of ALS at the age of 46.
I now am 42, obese, and just finding this literature. And cannot get enough to read. Two weeks ago I stopped eating anything from a bag, box, plastic bottle (glass is ok) or can, and without significant other lifestyle changes, I have lost 6 lbs, have not had my usual asthma/allergy symptoms and have been able to stay awake past 10PM when I usually crash at 8 or so. I certainly need to make other changes to get healthy but all of this has smacked me over the head.
Coincidence? Maybe. Worth keeping up with for a while? You betcha!
Beth, I’m really sorry to hear about the early death of your grandfather and father. I’m also glad to hear you’ve decided to take control of your health. I think the contrast between the two sides of your family is interesting and hopefully, you can continue to make positive progress in your health.
Cheers
Scott
Sorry but the rats one cost you credibility. IF you are a rat and not in need of controlling diet, of COURSE the egg with fat and nutrients is essential. That isn’t the case for most Americans. I use egg beaters. I don’t need the fat or extra calories. I do want the protein. The study itself was ridiculous:
http://thehealthadvantage.com/someun-nourishingmoderntraditions.html
My heart tells me that real food is better. But I suspect that we will find humans can do fine with “fake” healthy foods. Fake is not always unhealthy any more than real is always healthy. Long before there were fake foods people had dietary diseases, gout, diabetes, etc. The issue is eating healthy.
Interesting discussion here. I am a big fan of REAL foods and through our local CSA, farmer’s market, and our own garden, we are fortunate enough to eat a wide variety of colorful foods year round. (Bless the predictably mild climate!)
My one question here is this: in our home, we are almost completely vegan, for ethical and environmental reasons, (though I am not judging here – I do not care if you eat meat!) and while I am weary of the boxed milk substitutes that are marketed toward me, I find that I really like them on occasion – in my oatmeal, or alongside the rare homeade cookie.
Is there a lesser of evils between hemp/almond/soy/rice milks???
Also – someone above mentioned that vegans might not get enough fat… I just want to assure you that most of us can and do! Coconut oil, olive oil, and the like make the perfect start to a fabulous stir-fry or flavorful addition to quinoa! Not to mention my liberal use of avocados (my in-laws backyard trees are LOADED), and nuts to satisfy my snacking habit!
Thanks for the information, and keep up the lively discussion!
We’re obviously all out there just trying to do what we think is best.
Awesome post. It took me YEARS of eating this processed garbage and following the “low fat, low calorie” dogma to realize it was completely wrong. These days I eat ungodly amounts of butter, cream, cheese, eggs, and bacon, and am in the best shape of my life.
[...] you like things that read a little snappier, here’s a quick one on another favorite subject: “Real Foods Take On Fake Foods: Butter, Bacon, And Eggs” Various health and fitness resources have been writing about the same themes for a while now, [...]
[...] that CrossFit Balboa linked to over a year ago that spoke about real foods vs. fake foods. The original article was on the site Fitness Spotlight and I encourage you to check it out. Here’s a brief [...]
Actually, something akin to Turkey bacon has been around for a LONG, LONG time. Brined and smoked meats from duck, goose, and wild turkey has been a part of the Jewish diet for thousands of years. It follows the same concept of the original pork bacon, but uses a different source for the meat. Obviously, then, what’s “new” about turkey bacon is not the bacon itself, but the method it’s produced. The ‘new, improved’ version, with all it’s added yuckies is obviously a very dangrous product. Good, old fashioned, traditional Jewish hams, bacons, and the like are actually extremely healthy, tastey, and ancient foods!
Me, too, Darrin, lol. I became bedridden from the low fat/low calorie diet. Today, I feel great, and am well on my way to getting back to my old, very active self again. LOTS of butter, cream, cheese, eggs, fatty, bibilically correct meats. YUM!!!
[...] http://www.fitnessspotlight.com/2009/03/16/selling-ill-health-real-foods-fake-foods/ [...]
[...] Eggs vs. Egg Beaters [...]
[...] best bet is always going to be to ditch the sweet stuff, whether real or artificial and stick to Real Food. Turning the sweet tooth off is a good idea; fooling it with fake sugar is not a viable long-term [...]
[...] http://www.nakedfoodcooking.com/real-foods/ [...]