http://www.alittlenourishment.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Good-Food-Bad-Food.jpg
Health is a very important part of living a quality lifestyle, yet many companies and their customers neglect to focus on it. Many institutions overload their products with pesticides, preservatives, unwanted chemicals, and unhealthy ingredients.The Food and Drug administration also seems to lack the care necessary to change the food industry for the better. Many of these issues are more complicated than one might think though. Just as a consumer may sacrifice health for taste, a company may sacrifice health for profit.
The FDA is a massive institution with regulatory powers in the food industry. It regulates all types of food issues and concerns, but many of its rules are iffy and have grey area. For instance, a company has the capability to advertise and directly lie to its customers as long as the product is not being sold at the same moment. This is absurd, for it completely abuses the producer's right to advertise. Another example of this is in labeling when companies have misleading "healthy" names with words like "fruit" in them, actually just containing sugar and artificial flavors. These labels are out of the FDA's hands and continue to trick Americans everyday. Also, the FDA has failed to help the nation as a whole become healthier, is extremely broad and vague about its investigations, and many of the issues it should be addressing simply slip under the radar. Obesity has doubled in children and adults and tripled in teens in the past thirty years. Still though, the FDA has neglected to put any warning or notices on sodas and other sugary items that are the cause of this increase. Like sugar affects obesity, salt affects high blood pressure. the FDA also declines to consider salt an additive like sugar, thus it is being consumed more than it should and leads to death through strokes and heart attacks. It is predicted too, that the the cutting of sodium would save 150,000 lives per year. Like these instances, the FDA remains non responsive to issues like heart disease through high trans fat intake and disease and death through food contamination. Because many of these diseases seem natural, the FDA does not have an obligation to change anything and partnerships with some of these companies prevent FDA intervention.
The FDA is trying to help in some ways though. Food labels are on every packaged food we eat, which is great! But, many of the listed ingredients are completely ambiguous to the average consumer. All of these unknown chemicals serve as substitutes to lead a buyer into thinking that he or she is eating something healthy, when in reality, he or she is eating something terrible. For example, on a food label, instead of gluten, it may say "modified food starch" and instead of sugar, it may say "high fructose corn syrup." The lack of sugar or gluten in products like these does not truly mean that they are free of these substances. Their substitutes act the same way and provide the same unfortunate results but just have different names. Also, companies may put "sugar free" or "zero calorie" on their foods, These are just as bad as regular products because in order to compensate for these losses, extra chemicals and artificial substances must be added for the sake of taste. So, in essence, food production institutions are lying to their customers. to combat this, the FDA will soon be changing the labeling of foods to make them easier for customers to understand. They will include notes on what to eat a good amount of and what to stay away from while also making serving sizes more realistic. These new labels will also identify what is natural and what is artificial in the product.
The FDA has many rules and regulations that truly are good for the health of society, but many companies find ways around these guidelines and the FDA often does not do its job. This is a huge issue, but FDA does seem to be getting better through informing the nation of what unhealthy things it is eating if it can't stop its production.
Sources:
http://cspinet.org/new/200606271.html
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2014/02/27/does-the-fda-need-to-update-nutrition-labels-on-packaged-food
The FDA is doing a terrible job of regulating the health standards of food, but they are not the only ones to blame. It is important to blame corporations who profit off of sacrificing health for better tasting, more addictive, fatty foods. People who are responsible for the production of fatty foods and people who spray healthy foods with unnecessary pesticides are just as guilty as the FDA. Also we, the consumers are to blame for allowing our food standards to fall so low. There have been many videos and documentaries exploring the health costs of eating at McDonald's, but McDonald's is still the most popular fast food restaurant in the world, serving millions of people a day in over 17,000 restaurants in 119 different countries. It seems like these companies can get away with anything, and we rush to their establishments to throw our hard-earned paycheck at them in exchange for garbage. Before they increase their standards for foods, we need to increase our standards for ourselves.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Deletepreeeech
DeleteI concur that individuals also have to be responsible for what they eat, but companies and corporations should have an obligation to regulate their food, for many lower class families have to eat the cheaper fast food rather than grocery shop. Health is a national issue in which the FDA should be more precise in their investigations. Although I think this, again, I do agree that the majority of America should be more cautious of what they eat.
DeleteGood article and good responses. Go, Nnamdi! Trying to educate consumers one student at a time!
ReplyDeleteInteresting, I was under the impression that the FDA regulated more drugs and cosmetics- their only place in food being daily values while the USDA is really the organization that regulates food.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that 150,000 lives can be saved simply by adjusting people's sodium intake is shocking. The FDA should be pressed to work harder to enforce these regulations considering the vast benefits.
ReplyDelete