I do agree with Pawlick’s research that food industry is adding up to the deterioration and degrading of food quality and standards. Pawlick has managed to cull scientific journals that cover such esoteric topics as the mineral content of potatoes and the effects of concentrated nitrates on soil to put together a highly readable account of the path toward a brave new world of food products that are essentially useless for human beings. While documenting the road to this “end of food” scenario, Pawlick shows how the decline of important nutrients in a variety of fruits and vegetables has been mirrored by increasingly sinister levels of fat and sodium in processed foods. He also demonstrates that supermarket shelves, which usually feature one or two varieties of most foods, do not reflect the biological diversity of a world in which, for example, there are over 1,000 varieties of apples.
I like those joyful dairy cow advertisements with them munching on a bright, grassy field and telling us how much they enjoy the sunlight. It is difficult to recall all of the photographs and movies I have seen of industrial farms, where cows are kept in cages so small they cannot turn around. When chickens’ beaks are removed and they are injected with so many hormones that they can no longer walk, they face an even worse destiny.
All of this confinement breeds sickness, and antibiotics are the only way to keep animals alive and stimulate development. Thousands of humans are dying as a result of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which is mostly due to animal drug intake. Then there is the issue of GMOs and allergic flare-ups.
As a result, as we ingest these germs, antibiotics become less and less effective, we also consume beef from cows fed just corn, soy, and grain. This diet deprives the animals of nutrition, and if the animals are malnourished, their meat will deprive customers of nutrition.
Some farmers are able to run a farm in which the animals serve to maintain the soil in a closed-loop manner, with no “waste.” However, inefficient chemical insecticides and fertilisers, as well as pollution from industrial farms, often make their way onto organic fields. Industrial farms often produce just one commodity; such as grain or poultry (Abdulmumeen et al., 2004) Monocrop farms and CAFOs are notorious for polluting the environment and reducing biodiversity. Do you recall DDT? Then there are major industrial businesses like Monsanto, which is responsible for up to 50 environmental superfund sites, who benefit from hurting small farms.
The USDA’s lax standards do not prevent these crimes, but rather seem to promote them. They enable product to be called “organic” even though it was grown with a hundred different chemicals that are hazardous to human health and the environment.
Transportation and irrigation methods are also major concerns. We must transport this stuff because we rely on remote monocrop farms, which pollutes the air and water. Water is squandered due to inefficient irrigation and farms that cultivate crops exclusively to feed meat-producing cattle. Instead of feeding animals, these crops might be utilised to feed humans, saving energy.
Food production is neither natural, safe, nor compassionate. Every day, they deceive us. The “Got Milk?” commercials constantly taught us that we did not need to drink milk in elementary school (Floros et al., 2010). The industry is not in business to feed the world; it is in business to earn a profit, no matter what it takes. When you see “free-range eggs,” go online and look up that firm to get the facts. Nine times out of ten, the hens will have been raised in CAFOs.
The transition from breast to bottle-feeding caused the issue in newborns. While she cites a significant change in women’s work patterns during the 1930s and 1940s as a driving force behind bottle-feeding, commercial infant formula has been available since 1870. Initially, physicians formed “milk banks” on their own to encourage women who were nursing and had surplus milk to give it to these community milk banks. Working mothers might then wean their children onto bottled breast milk. The apparent flaw in this paradigm was supply fluctuation, since there was no means to preserve milk for long periods of time. After the 1920s, commercial formula became more accessible to the general public, and mass marketing completed the transition. Only 25% of newborns leaving a U.S. hospital were breastfed by 1967. As the birthrate in the United States started to decline, infant formula manufacturers expanded their marketing methods to include other countries, ensuring a continual supply of young brains to starve.
Mother’s milk varies from hour to hour and day to day to meet the child’s changing demands. Enzymes are included in mother’s milk to aid digestion. Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids are found in it. The book exposes the flaws in commercial formula and compares several types to mother’s milk. Essential fatty acids, friendly bacteria, and enzymes, which eliminate unfavourable bacteria and promote digestion, are all lacking in all formulas. Sugars are in an unbalanced state.
Overall, formula has more protein, but it lacks several critical amino acids like tryptophan (which is converted to niacin and serotonin). She also goes into great detail on soy-based formula. Soy includes a significant amount of isoflavins, which the body converts to oestrogen. Excess estrogen’s effects on humans have only been studied in a few cases. Excess oestrogen exposure during the prenatal period has been related in rodent studies to aggressiveness, problem behaviors, hyperactivity, early puberty, and an increased risk of cancer. Soy also includes phytic acid, which hinders calcium, zinc, and magnesium from being absorbed.
Low zinc leads to high copper because all minerals in the body must be in balance. Copper deficiency has been linked to mood swings, sadness, and hyperactivity. derived from infant formula Simontacchi then discusses infant meals and what they include in addition to food. Organophosphates and carbamates, in particular, are neurotoxic pesticides found in baby meals (Kader, 2008). These pesticides are residues that have remained on fruits and vegetables that have been treated in the field. The brain and endocrine systems are also affected by these chemicals. Acetyl cholinesterase, an enzyme in the neurological system, is inhibited by them. While the usage of pesticides continues to rise year after year, no safety studies on children have ever been conducted.
Packaged meals are low in nutrition and high in artificial flavorings, colors, and preservatives. They contain a lot of sodium and a lot of potassium, magnesium, and zinc. They are deficient in every nutrient. Zinc deficiency causes children to prefer sweet meals and avoid protein-rich diets. Zinc helps to regulate blood sugar levels, therefore when zinc levels are low, sugar levels are uncontrollable. Zinc stimulates the production of enzymes that aid in the digestion of proteins. Protein will be rejected by the body if it cannot be digested. Be cautious about zinc insufficiency if a youngster says, “I detest meat.”
Food additives are abundant in today’s food. Food additives, according to the FDA, are compounds that, via their intended usage, may become components of food, either directly or indirectly, or otherwise modify the food’s properties. Any material intended for use in creating, manufacturing, packing, processing, preparing, treating, packaging, conveying, or holding food, as well as any source of radiation intended for such use, is included in this definition.
References
Abdulmumeen, H. A., Risikat, A. N., & Sururah, A. R. (2012). Food: Its preservatives, additives and applications. International Journal of Chemical and Biochemical Sciences, 1(2012), 36-47.
Floros, J. D., Newsome, R., Fisher, W., Barbosa‐Cánovas, G. V., Chen, H., Dunne, C. P., … & Ziegler, G. R. (2010). Feeding the world today and tomorrow: the importance of food science and technology: an IFT scientific review. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, 9(5), 572-599.
Kader, A. A. (2008). Flavor quality of fruits and vegetables. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 88(11), 1863-1868.
