Post 3: "Real" Food vs. "Fake" Food

Michael Pollan stresses the fact that Americans, among other groups of people associated with the “western” diet, have resorted to eating processed or ‘fake’ foods rather than continue to eat healthy, ‘real’, foods such as whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and meats. I have found that personally, I have also experienced this epic switch from natural to processed foods. Bread.

I grew up with the smell of fresh bread spreading through the house and waking all of the sleeping inhabitants. I always knew that I was consuming the healthiest of ingredients because my mother continually used ingredients she thought were adequate to our family’s diet. However, my brother and I continued to grow and life became livid with a faster pace and constant activities and jobs to tend to. Due to these things, along with many more, my mother began to resort to buying processed bread at the store.

In comparison to homemade bread, store bought bread lacks the fresh smell and healthy texture. The processed bread was baked to have a longer shelf life than that of fresh bread. Therefore, the product contains many preservatives and extra ingredients that are not found in fresh bread.

If I am able to after I graduate from college, I would like to return to baking fresh bread as opposed to buying bread from the store. This would cut costs, but at the same time, instate a time commitment. After reading ‘Processed Vs. Whole Foods’ by Debby Bolen, the health benefits from whole foods, or fresh bread in my case, are very apparent in contrast to processed foods.

”Most likely, it's processed food if it's wrapped in several layers of plastic, cardboard, and/or foil, and it didn't exist until after 1903 when the hydrogenation process was invented.” – Debby Bolen