The above aphorism was coined by the famous economist, Thomas Sowell, to describe any human society or situation. Every waking moment of every day of our lives, we are presented with a myriad of choices, large and small, most we don’t even notice. But I was reminded of Sowell’s phrase when I read an article on RedState.com. The title is An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away…Really? You can read it at the link.
The article is about the unhealthiness of the American food supply and diet, which are provided in large part by national brands, which distribute their products nationwide. The author describes the new emphasis of the Trump Administration on MAHA, “Make America Healthy Again”, and its main proponent, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the Secretary of Health & Human Services. He is doing things like persuading the big food companies (Big Food) to remove artificial colors and flavors from their product, and try to remove unhealthy ingredients, so Americans will eat more healthily.
But, per Sowell’s statement, there are no Solutions, only Tradeoffs, and that is especially true of food. Big Food has spent decades designing and tweaking their products, from cereals, boxed dinners, and crackers to milk, soft drinks, and desserts, to maximize nutrition, flavor, and appearance, while enabling them to be packed, shipped, stored, and sold nation-wide. Just read that one sentence, and try to imagine all the tradeoffs involved in the business of producing food for the public to eat.
And we can’t forget the huge influence of Government, especially after the passage of the Food, Drug, And Cosmetic Act in 1938. Today, the government, through many departments, heavily regulates the products and processes of all national and many local and regional food makers, to ensure that the foods Americans eat are safe and nutritious. Sometimes that regulation gets exceedingly picky, like regulating the size of slices of cheese, labeling, and zillions of other characteristics! Food companies have to jump through so many government hoops, it’s a wonder that they can make any profit at all, but they get through it.
So, one of the main parameters Big Food deals with is Shelf Life. If they want to sell anything to the entire country, the finished product must last long enough to survive manufacturing, packaging, assembly, shipping, transportation, delivery to a warehouse, storage in the warehouse, delivery to a store, placement on store shelves, and shelving until it is sold to the consumer, AND retain its freshness and nutritional value until eaten by the consumer. A large number of the ingredients in many foods are there mostly to extend shelf life, and the process of adjusting ingredients to increase nutritional value or remove something later deemed harmful or unhealthy is a very delicate one. So, the MAHA movement wants fewer ingredients in popular products, BUT to remove some ingredients would affect shelf life.
This is a huge tradeoff! If we want healthier food, with fewer artificial ingredients, we have to accept shorter shelf life. Now, what does that mean for the average consumer? It might mean that a product that we buy now at room temperature, might need to be refrigerated if an ingredient is removed; that might make it more expensive to purchase. A product like bread, that is labeled with a use-by date three weeks from now, might only last one week after purchase, if a particular artificial ingredient is removed. That means that the consumer may have to buy smaller quantities more often, which means more trips to the store, which may be far enough away to mean more gas costs, and more time spent shopping.
Say that apples are now provided with an invisible coating that allows the grower to store them for months after harvest, but we want that coating removed to make the apples healthier and more “natural”. The grower may have slightly lower costs by not having to use that coating, but he will only be able to store the apples for half as long before shipping to stores or warehouses. Tradeoff. More deliveries needed, higher shipping costs, and shorter shelf life once on the grocer’s shelf. Many people are eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, which are more nutritious. Tradeoff: Some food-borne illnesses are found more often in fresh foods, and we hear of recalls in the news.
What I’m saying here is that, if we want healthier food to eat, we have to make tradeoffs in our own lives.
Connection: when did packaged foods start to become popular? Around the late 1950s, with the advent of television (who remembers TV dinners?), and more women entering the workforce. Busy working moms needed to be able to prepare quicker meals for their families, since they were no longer home all day to cook from scratch. That’s when Big Food began catering to them, making a myriad of boxed dinners, packaged ingredients, and all sorts of convenience products that took less time to prepare, and lasted longer on the grocer’s shelves. The tradeoff was and is, the added ingredients for shelf life.
Now, when we want to reverse some of those changes, the tradeoffs work the opposite way. In order to have healthier food, we will need to shop more often, cook more from scratch, and spend longer preparing meals. We may need to rethink what we eat too, opting for fresher, refrigerated items over those boxed meals. A whole “meal-kit” industry has sprung up to meet this need, catering to working women and families who don’t want to shop so often or dream up meal plans for a whole week. This is a very tricky business, and many companies who enter the market only last a short time when the concept doesn’t work for them. Supermarkets are also catering to this market, offering prepared refrigerated meals to take home and heat up.
Some working women and families have made the decision to live on one income, like most American families used to, and are deciding to have the wife stay home to raise (and sometimes educate) the children, so they can prepare nutritious meals from scratch. More women are finding the working life unfulfilling, and going back to the home as the center of their family life. This is a choice, and a tradeoff that works for some people and not for others.
What kind of tradeoffs are you making in your own life, to become healthier and happier? I’m sure everyone has them, but you just have to think about them to find out.
Calling-all-RushBabes 
No more heavily processed foods for us since I retired in 2014. We still use boxed cereals like bran flakes, shredded wheat, and Cheerios, and a few salty snacks such as Chex Mix and Gardetto’s. My wife loves hummus, and it’s a PITA to make from scratch, so we buy that ready made. I also use Rao’s pasta sauce, alone or as an additive to a scratch sauce. And I don’t bake my own cookies. (Too lazy!) Otherwise it’s scratch all the way.
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Gonna challenge the idea that scratch-made takes a lot longer. There are many scratch-made meals that are quick to prepare. Even roast chicken is now quick because of the air fryer. The few things that take longer (soups or stews for example, or brown rice) can be made in advance and used for several meals, which again makes them very fast in the moment – just heat and serve. Overall, a scratch-made meal takes me on average 30 min max (this includes main, starch and salad or vegs). Highly complex meals or dishes can be made as more of a treat on weekends, and as an activity in and of itself.
True. Many people might not be able to afford that air fryer, have room to store it, or the smarts to learn how to use it. This is a small point though, and we could argue details into next week!
I liked reading this column. People do need to understand the trade-offs involved in feeding lots and lots of people. I love going to the local farmer’s market but I am well aware that the meat there, no matter how much more healthy, is shockingly expensive. I’d rather not die of cancer from a pesticide but what if the choice was starvation now or cancer in thirty years? It’s very complicated, especially since the starvation will be more widespread than the cancer. Yes, it will.
Also, I had to laugh at the comment about meals in thirty minutes. I can do that quite often but I know a young woman who absolutely cannot. She cooks fabulous meals but they take a long time to fix. I learned from my mother who would start cooking when my father called from work. Twenty five minutes later he’d walk through the door and we would sit down to dinner five minutes after that. (Mostly…)
Thank you very much. Some people I follow are adamant about organic food, and the unhealthiness of most food products on the market today. They are mostly right, but don’t always consider the drawbacks for some people to switch from convenience to a health emphasis in their diets. I am in favor of more women leaving the workforce to stay home and raise their own children, cook their own meals, and use healthier ingredients, but it takes time, effort, and dedication to do that.