Why You Should Care About Food Ingredients Added to Your Cereal!
Food is any material eaten to provide nutrition to an organism. In its simplest terms food is any material able to be digested that is consumed to sustain life. In the simplest sense, food is any material able to be digested that is consumed to sustain life. Food is generally of animal, plant or fungi origin, and has necessary nutrients, including proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, or iron. Plants use more of their time and energy digesting plant food than animal food.
The process of converting plant food into food may include heating, grinding, steaming, baking, roasting, boiling, drying, curing (air-drying, smoking), blending, preservatives, coloring, flavorings, enzymes or fillers. Most food additives are natural and organic. An example of a food additive is BHT or bromine, which is used to extend the shelf life of fresh chicken. In the US, the FDA does not regulate food additives, but the European Union does have a set of strict guidelines regarding the use of additives.
The food supply will not last forever, so we need to find ways to keep food costs down while making more of the food we like to eat. This is not possible unless consumers are willing to pay more for vegetables and less for processed foods. One way of reducing food costs is to increase the amount of produce that is consumed, at least as a proportion of total calories.
An example would be to buy low-sugar, high-fiber produce and eat those in small amounts, instead of a large quantity of high-calorie, sugar, high-sugar produce. If you follow this strategy, your waistline will gradually get slimmer. Eating vegetables in moderate quantities is also beneficial, even if it’s only part of a larger meal. Vegetables contain carbohydrates and fiber, which provide some of the calories that are not converted into fat. Some research indicates that eating vegetables is better for health than any other single food group, apart from water.
Another way of reducing food costs is to buy food that is produced using color additives approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. These food ingredients may be listed on the label as ‘natural color’. Although they might not exactly be white, if you compare the synthetic color additives approved for use on foods with the natural color produced by plants, you will probably see a huge difference.
Some of the better known food additive companies include Dannon, General Mills, Yoplait, Fage and Dr. Brown’s. Some of the better vegetable companies include: Artisana, Aspen, Beneful, Blueridge, Celery International, Evita, Fresh Mix, Genma, Golden, Hefty Gourmet, Inc., Incredico, Lemon Drops, Mio, Moesana, Organic Valley, Smart Sweet, Sunbeam and Unilever. Many of these companies also supply vitamins and other health supplements. It is not clear whether all of the food additives added to processed foods are safe or not. We do know that the majority of them are toxic.