9 Scariest Food Facts -- By David Zinczenko with Matt Goulding
丘延亮
七月 27, 2011
Eat This, Not That
There's a scene in the 1973 movie Soylent Green where food shortages cause people to riot in the street, and the throng becomes so unruly that front-loading construction machines roll in and begin shoveling people up into big metal buckets. These people are hungry—no, ravenous—for a food called soylent green. But here's the twist: They know that they love soylent green, but they have no clue what it's made from.
Sound familiar? It should. That's basically how we eat today. Pick up a random package in the supermarket and look at the ingredient list. Chances are you won't know half the ingredients. Take a look at the downright frightening facts Eat This, Not That! has uncovered. You may never look at food the same way.
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1. Nutritious food costs 10 times more than junk food.
University of Washington researchers calculated the cost
discrepancy between healthy food and junk foods and found that 2,000 calories of
junk food rings up at a measly $3.52 a day. Yet for 2,000 calories of nutritious
grub, the researchers plunked down $36. To add insult to fiscal injury, out of
every dollar you spend on food, only 19 cents goes toward the stuff you eat. The
other 81 cents goes toward marketing, manufacturing, and packaging. Think about
that the next time your grocery bill jumps into the triple digits.
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2. Grocers don’t have to tell you where your produce
comes from.
With meat, supermarkets must tell you the country of origin, but
produce laws aren't as strict. Consider this: In a recent E. coli
outbreak, German bean sprouts were implicated as the source of the
bacteria, but that didn’t prevent thousands of people from being infected. Many
of those people were Americans, and they were clueless as to where their sprouts
came from.
SUPERMARKET SWINDLES: Stretch your dollar and shrink your waist
with 18 Supermarket Lies
Revealed.
3. Fruits and vegetables are
losing their nutrients.
According to the
USDA, the fruits and vegetables we eat today may contain significantly fewer
nutrients than those our grandparents ate. Researchers looked at 43 produce
items and discovered drops in protein (6 percent), calcium
(16 percent), iron (15 percent), riboflavin (38 percent), and
vitamin C (20 percent). The only way to counter this trend: Eat more of them.
4. Calorie counts on nutrition
labels aren’t accurate.
Researchers at Tufts University recently analyzed 269 food items
from 42 national sit-down and fast-food restaurant chains, and they found that
nearly 20 percent of samples contained 100 or more calories than reported by the
restaurants. Think about it like this: If every meal you eat has 100 more
calories than you need, you’ll gain more than 30 pounds this year.
5. Chicken today contains 266 percent more fat than it did 40
years ago.
What’s more, today’s chicken
also has 33 percent less protein, according to a study from the Institute of
Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition at London Metropolitan
University. The problem is modern farming practices. Cramped environments and
unnatural diets produce birds that have the same weight problems as the humans
who eat them.
FOUL FOWL: Even more frightening
than mutant chickens is what the nation's restaurants do with them. Don't miss
our shocking list of The Worst Chicken Dishes in
America.
6. Milk contains hormones that
may cause cancer.
In 1970, a typical dairy cow could produce about 10,000 pounds of
milk per year. Today, that same cow produces roughly 20,000 pounds. So did cows
change? Nope. It’s their feed that’s different. Today’s cows are routinely fed a
hormone called recombinant bovine somatotropin, or rBST. Studies have linked
rBST to a multitude of cancers, including those of the prostate, breast, and
colon. Milk from rBST-treated cows is ubiquitous in America’s supermarkets, but
fortunately some of the biggest players are getting wise. Stores like Whole
Foods, Wal-Mart, and Kroger now carry only rBST-free dairy.
7. Conventional supermarket peaches
can be coated with as many as nine different pesticides.
Because peaches are prone to
bruising, blemishing, and insect takeover,
they’re routinely soaked in chemicals in the weeks before being shipped off to
the supermarket. That’s why the Environmental Working Group rates peaches among
the dirtiest conventional fruits in America. Also on that list: apples, celery,
strawberries, and spinach. As a general rule,
unless the produce has a thick, impermeable skin, assume it’s soaked in
pesticides. Now wash it with water and mild soap before you eat it.
8. You’re probably eating
trans fat without knowing it.
Slack FDA regulations
allow food processors to claim zero trans fats even if the food contains 0.49
grams. To be clear, that’s 0.49 grams per serving. That means by the time you
finish, say, an entire bag of Cheetos, you might be ingesting nearly 5 grams of
trans fat. Sure, the bag says “0 GRAMS TRANS FAT” right on the front, but if you
look at the ingredient statement, you’ll see partially hydrogenated oil, the
primary source of trans fat.
20 NEW TERRIBLE
FOODS! Some restaurant foods have an entire day's worth of calories and several
days' worth of fat and salt. Avoid these shocking diet disasters at all costs:
The Worst Foods in
America!
9. The number of daily calories
available to each American has increased by 500 over the past 40 years.
USDA data shows that the food industry supplies 2,700 calories to
every man, woman, and child in America. In 1970, that number was 2,200. That
increase translates into 52 extra pounds of fat per person, per year.
MAKE GREAT FOOD AT HOME! USDA scientists found that people eat 500 more calories on the days they consume fast foods compared with days they don't. But preparing your own meals doesn't have to be complicated. Start simple and start today, by learning How to Cook the Perfect Burger. It's healthy food, made the way you like it: delicious!
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EAT RIGHT RULE: If your food can go bad, it's good for you. If it can't go bad, it's bad for you. FOLLOW DAVE ZINCZENKO RIGHT HERE ON TWITTER and get FREE health, nutrition and weight-loss secrets like this one every day! You'll lose weight and get healthy faster than ever!
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