Are these ads for Real or Fake foods?
Are "they" selling us food or nutrients as if they were food?
I googled "food ad" (images) to see what would pop up. Here are the results:
Probably FAKE by the time you get it on the table...
Well, at least it's an ad for authentic traditional foods, although I imagine that by the time this prepared food reaches us, it's been preserved with chemicals and frozen etc...
FAKE
Here's a creepy ad suggesting that poor people can bump up the nutrition of (white) macaroni and (fake) "cheeze" with a slice of REAL tomato and a sausage! Hey, I used to do that with bulk pasta and bulk fake cheeze and broccoli, and yes, it still did make me sick.
FAKE, but at least they only make taste claims, not explicit nutrition claims! Don't you just love the term "American" cheese? You'd think Americans would get offended by that expression. But then again, the manufacturers always claim it has MORE protein, LESS fat etc.
Subpar if not FAKE (preserved) tomatoe paste.
Wouldn't all those grandmas who grew tomatoes, or at least bought bushels at the market to preserve, be rolling in their graves to see commercially canned tomato paste on a good roast? Ugh seam of lead. Ugh lined with plastic. Sad. Save it for the bomb shelter.
Then I googled "buy food". The first two hits were:
1. Buy Dehydrated Food 25 Varieties of healthy food. Be prepared at bargain prices.►
FAKE.
Think bomb shelter again, although I find dehydrated bulk foods wayyyy better than canned foods for emergencies.
2. Online grocery shopping, online food store, online groceries ... Free shipping over $75. APO/FPO shipping, International shipping. Buy your groceries securely with ease of mind at...
Probably FAKE - the word "groceries" brings boxes and tetrapacks, cans, styrofoam and cellophane to mind, not the actual food. AHHH food as commodity - but I guess that's my fault for googling "buy food". And international shipping? So wrong!
Interestingly, subsequent page 1 hits include local food, organic food and ways to find local organic foods!
I also found this, which I understand is an awesome film:
Finally, I googled "food label claims" and this was the first ad I got:
FAKE. Low fat IS nutritionism in a nutshell. Why does anybody need a dairy product with less fat than it naturally contains? Because their bodies lack exercise? Because they use a car instead of walking and biking? Because they eat a lot of fat in processed foods? Fix that, and enjoy whole yoghurt!
I remember looking for healthy yoghurt with my friend at a supermarket. Now, keep in mind that I lead a sheltered existence shopping at my food cooperative. I couldn't believe how hard it was to find yoghurt made from yoghurt! Of course, they didn't have any yoghurt in returnable glass bottles, or promoted as made by locals or farmers. So making those first compromises, I was simply looking to be alerted to active probiotic cultures. Many had claims, but the products were full of sweeteners, fillers, thickeners and whatnot. There wasn't a single yoghurt that was just yoghurt.
I was, in fact, trying to convince her to make her own yoghurt this past weekend.
The ad implies that LOW FAT is good. That's simplistic. Of course a manufacturer is NOT going to play any kind of role in advising you to exercise as part of your life, and to eat whole foods. They're not even going to tell you to ditch the Twinkies - Twinkies would sue them, and Twinkies is probably a division of the same yoghurt manufacturer. We need to be educated from a young age about real food and how to grow and prepare it, and we need governments to create food policies to promote the health of the people, not of some pumped up bullying "food lobby".
Lastly, I leave you with this gem:
I remember telling everyone within earshot how hilarious I thought it was when potato chip bags announced that their chips were "cholesterol free!" Hello, never was any cholesterol in vegetable fats and oils, people!