Evidence Eventually

This morning, Mark Bittman retweeted Michael Pollan's link to an article in the newsletter published by the World Public Health Nutrition Association and written Carlos Monterio. Carlos is from the Centre for Epidemiological Studies in Health and Nutrition at the University of Sao Paulo and has written several articles about the faults with overly processed foods.

In this article, Carlos talks more about the problems with what he calls "ultra-processed" products and moreso these food-like susbstances that now include wild health claims. We've all seen them on the fronts of packages. Things like "added minerals" or "with antioxidants" and other such nefarious claims luring the unaware and trusting consumer to buy bad stuff out of boxes. Yes, according to US regulations these claims are legal though, as Carlos points out, the added good stuff is most likely also sythentic, overly processed chemicals stuff whose real health benefits are suspect, at best.

If you're interested in the details, read Carlos' article. While somewhat technical, he does a great job of explaining why this is a very real problem in our current battle against obesity.

If you don't have the time to read through what he has to say, the best thing you can do is only eat real food. You don't need a diet book or a degree in nutrition to do this. You don't even need to worry, too much, about how many calories you are consuming each day, IF and ONLY IF, you stop eating food-like substances which arrive overly processed in boxes and bags.

If you'd like some help understanding what we mean by real food, see The Real Food Hierarchy below which encourages you to eat at least 80% of your food from the Real and Almost Real food categories. Thank you to Carlos Monterio. Thank you to Michael Pollan. Thank you to Mark Bittman.

There is hope afterall. And remember, if you are patient enough, eventually the evidence will catch up to what makes sense.

The Real Food Hierarchy^TM