Page Ten THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Sunday, April 11, 1971
The (food) poisoning of America
Continued from Page 5
there are harmful substances in
foods. So why add more of them?"
Jean Mayer suggests we start eli-
minating the additives which indus-
try puts in the food purely for (dubi-
ous) aesthetic value. Start with arti-
ficial colors: "They're a marketing
tool," admits Trauberman. Without
artificial food coloring, orange peels
may sometimes look greenish, tomato
sauces won't always look vine-ripened
red, noodles will be white and, if we
eliminate color fixatives like sodium
nitrite and nitrate, hot dogs and sa-
lamis will be brown instead of "the
pinkish color associated with these
produces" according to the NAS. Get
rid 'of sequestrants like calcium diso-
dium EDTA (which inhibits human
blood coagulants) and canned kidney
bean juice may turn cloudy instead
of clear, and each bean won't stay the
same color. Consumers could adjust
also to less artificial flavoring if they
knew the food's taste, instead of stay-
ing more or less constant, "will vary
as natural foods might," says Mauri-
atti at AD Little.
Even the preservatives can go. They
do prolong food freshness, but who
wants bread in their bin for three
weeks when mass production proces-
sing has leached out 11 of its 15 nat-
ural nutrients? Eliminating preserva-
tives from bread means simply that
manufacturers would have to deliver
more often to groceries; and, Trau-
berman warns "the consumer would
unavoidably be faced with higher
costs because there would be a high-
er grocery spoilage rate. Let's face it:
the consumer must pay for the food
she buys and the food that sits on the
shelf, too." Bleached soggy American
preserved bread runs a 10-15 percent
spoilage rate even now-which sug-
gests bread manufacturers are caus-
ing their own problems by producing
too much surplus.
When you put the squeeze on the
industries, even they admit that most
synthetic additives aren't really ne-
cessary in terms of food production.
"There aren't very many additives
that could not be eliminated without
the food industry failing apart,"
Trauberman says. "The food compan-
[es would still be in business. The
consumer would have less variety of
foods; she'll (the American house-
wife again!) eat the same amount of
foods even if there are no additives.
The consumer may just have to
change her eating habits."
But there are two reasons why food
corporations will never cut additives:
profits and market control. Once you
understand what the food business is
all about, you can't escape the con-
clusion that merely eating too keep
yourself alive involves political deci-
sions every time you shop. But you
don't have to care much about poli-
tics to know that the food you buy
from the corporate monopolies ma=,
be poisoning you while maximizing
their profits.
You can start battling the corpora-
tions on your own. You can't avoid all
additives and pollutants, and don't
necessarily need to, but you can avoid
the worst:
- Don't eat foods with artificial
colors ("I would certainly stay away
from synthetic c o 1 o r s," Lederberg
says).
- Don't eat bakery products, es-
pecially bread, made with bleached
flour. Go to a good local bakery or
make your own.
- Avoid dehydrated and other
"convenience" foods like boxed mash-
ed potatoes, dry packaged soups and
-"imitation" beef stroganoff. The
closest you'll come to real food is
some vegetable and beef powder. The
rest is synthetic.
-Don't eat packaged snacks or
breakfast cereals.
- Don't eat imitation foods-from
imitation orange juice to non-dairy
creamers, to soy protein products.
Soy feeds are a tricky area. It's true,
as General Foods and Worthington,
the two biggest producers, point out,
that soy products contain as much
protein as real meat. But that's only
part of the story. To taste like meat
(or vegetables) the soy isolates must
be smothered and pumped with every
synthetic additive known. And furth-
ermore, Dr. Mayer warns, "when we
replace natural foods with synthetic
protein substitutes, we lose many
trace minerals and vitamins. We
don't know everything about this
area, so we're in a transition period
that has serious dangers."
Eaters will have to make certain
sacrifices, such as eating real meats
and poultry and more fresh fruits and
vegetables (if cost is a problem cut
up the meat small; the portions you
get in a dehydrated package aren't
e x a c t 1 y enormous either), which
means making dinner will take 30
minutes instead of 15.
It's worth it. Look at the facts. The
food industry insists that our food
supply has never been better: "In
some areas of the world, 40 percent of
the children die before they are big
enough to steal food from the table,"
a General Foods vice president moans.
But in their hearts, Americans know
something is wrong here. Our infant
mortality rate is fifth in the world;
adult heart attacks and cancer are
soaring. "Americans spend six times
as much on health as they did thirty
years ago and with no statistics to
show for it," Mayer points out. "The
average American spends much more
on health than people in any other
country in the world, and we're way
down on the scale in health." The life
expectancy of the average American
male is 68-69; the average woman,
72. Add six years to that and you're in
Sweden. They have less additives in
their food than we do, and they're
probably living longer for it.
Post mortem
When Norman Mailer ran for may-
or of New York, he rejected a pro-
posal to save water by filling toilet
bowls with chemicals because, he
said, Americans are becoming alien-
ated from their bodies and from the
earth. "We should at least smell our
own shit," he said. But even the waste
we excrete isn't real anymore. It's all
laboratory made.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This article will ap-
pear in the June issue of Ramparts maga-
zine. n 1971 Ramparts.)
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DAILY OFFICIAL BULLETIN
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Day Calendar
SUNDAY, APRIL 11
School of Music: Mu Phi Epsilon Mu-
sicale, Sch. of Music Recital Hail, 4:30
p.m.
MONDAY, APRIL 12
Museum of Anthropology: R. Mil-
Ion, U. of Rochester, "City Life in An-
cientTeotihuacan Mexico," Rackham
Amph., 4 p.m.
Physics Seminar: W. Willis. YaleS
Univ., "Strange Particle Leptonic De-
cays," P&A Colloquium Rm, 4 p.m.
English Dept. and Extension Serv-
ices: D. Hall, poetry reading, Multipur-
pose Rm, UGLI, 4:10 p.m.
Computing Center: Special public
meeting to respond to questions about
the move the new new bldg., Nat. Sci.
Aud., 8 p.m.
Musical Society: M. Cunningham &
Dance Co., lecture-demonstration, Hill
Aud., 8:30 p.m.
General Notices
Attention all men interested in be-
coming Cheerleaders for coming foot-
ball season: will be series of cheerlead-
ing practice sessions from 4:30 to 5:30
p.m., Wrestling Rm, Intramural Bldg.,
Mon., Apr. 12 - Thurs., Apr. 15.
Placement
SUMMER PLACEMENT SERVICES
212 S.A.B.
For more info, about the following,j
call Mrs. Cooper, 764-7460.
T.V.A. ,Knoxville, opening for biolo-
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forest botany and freshwater aquatic
biology. Further details at SPS.
Capitol Consultants, Lansing, opening
for eng. aide. Field of study civil or
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American Inan Found., Grosee Ile,
Director needed with ability in leader-
ship to supervise building and main-
tenance of housing. Work and direct
young people.
Students needed for environmental
research with animals in one of the
Rocky Mountain States. Vet, student (or
zoology, physiology or anatomy) and
animal necropsy or pathology exper.
Univ. of N.Y., Albany. Openings for
sci. res. aide. Resident of Albany or
Saratoga Spring area preferred. Further
details available.
National Inns, Ltd., N.J., openings for
room stewardesses and ingmt. trainees
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