Are We More Food Naive Than Food Savvy?

A bit of food for an “April Fools” thought…

Most of us would consider ourselves to be something of a foodie — we take great pleasure in our food and eating. We know where to get the best buffalo wings, what toppings make for the ultimate pizza, and we can tell when someone switched out our favorite coffee brand. But, with the vast majority of our population no longer directly involved in growing food for personal use and/or commercial production, or even making their own daily meals from fresh unprocessed ingredients (no prepackaged, canned, dried or frozen) can we really claim to be food savvy? Or has our distance from the actual growing and making of food made us we more food naive then we’d like to think?

To put it another way — Does chocolate milk come from brown cows? Are pickles made from zucchini or cucumbers? Does Pasta grow on trees?

Okay, maybe we aren’t all breathlessly awaiting the next bumper spaghetti harvest or worried about a shortage of brown cows. But can we really consider ourselves to be much more knowledgable and food savvy than past generations when our food production is exponentially more complicated now — involving thousands of added, and many times hidden ingredients and processes, then it did a few generations ago. Which makes us food naive, whether we like it or not?

And not surprisingly, many of our modern and secretive additives and processes come with hidden side effects.

So here are a couple of more food thoughts to ponder when choosing your next …

BEER, WINE or BREAKFAST CREAL

Do you know the (ppb) parts per billion of the cancer causing weed killer glyphosate in your favorite brand of beer or wine? Check out BEER/WINE HERE and CEREAL HERE.  [Glyphosate is considered a probable carcinogen that has the potential “to stimulate the growth of breast cancer cells and disrupt the endocrine system.”]

FARM RAISED SALMON

Are you aware that half of all farm raised salmon have a deformity that causes deafness. Researchers attribute the deformity to genetics, diet, exposure to extended daylight in hatcheries — AND — accellerated growth rates in aquaculture… [If they aren’t getting a diet and environment sufficient to develop proper hearing, what else might be deformed?]

And no, I only wish these were April Fools jokes too.