When you draw inspiration to alter your age-old food habits from half-baked, politically motivated/funded research paper published in local newspaper or magazine, you would most likely start obeying politically correct nutrition.
When so called experts (Call them DD i.e. Diet Dictators) make no distinction between whole grains and refined, between foods grown organically and those grown with pesticides and commercial fertilizers, between unprocessed dairy products from pasture-fed cows and pasteurized dairy products from confined animals raised on processed feed, between fresh and rancid fats, between traditional fresh fruits and vegetables and those that have been irradiated or genetically altered, in short, between the traditional foods that nourished our ancestors and newfangled products now dominating the modern marketplace, consider food marketed by them as politically correct nutrition.
This is Politically Correct Nutrition. It singles out foods grown by independent producers, but spares the powerful and highly profitable grain cartels, vegetable oil producers and the food processing industry; it sacrifices old-fashioned butter on the altar of the latest nutritional fad but spares pasteurized milk products and processed cheese; it gives lip service to the overwhelming evidence implicating sugar as a major cause of our degenerative diseases but spares the soft drink industry; and it raises not a murmur against refined flour, hydrogenated vegetable oils and foods adulterated with harmful preservatives, flavorings and coloring agents.
The DDs are strangely silent about the ever increasing trend toward food processing and the devitalization of India’s rich agricultural bounty. Most “nutritional” cookbooks follow the DDs’ politically correct guidelines, including all those approved by food safety regulators.
For example, take an example of ‘FAT’. Politically Correct Nutrition is based on the assumption that we should reduce our intake of fats, particularly saturated fats from animal sources (Dairy items for vegetarians). Fats from animal sources also contain cholesterol, presented as the twin villain of the civilized diet.
On the contrary, Fats from animal and vegetable sources provide a concentrated source of energy in the diet; they also provide the building blocks for cell membranes and a variety of hormones and hormone-like substances. Fats as part of a meal slow down nutrient absorption so that we can golonger without feeling hungry. In addition, they act as carriers for important fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. Dietary fats are needed for the conversion of carotene to vitamin A, for mineral absorption and for a host of other processes.
Most people would be surprised to learn that there is, in fact, very little evidence to support the contention that a diet low in cholesterol and saturated fat actually reduces death from heart disease or in any way increases one’s life span.
‘Lowfat’ thus is politically correct nutrition, causing severe problem to health and yet many of us welcome it wholeheartedly, presuming it as heart-friend!
– Based on reading Sally Fallon
Solution is : Put efforts behind finding local food.
