And they ate happily ever after: food today and tomorrow

“Everything is good in moderation” - this postulate relates to eternal values. But let's face it: something better to avoid at all. This also applies to substances that are massively used in food production today. Actually, most of them cannot even, strictly speaking, be considered food . Food technologists have learned to substitute the most seemingly familiar products with believable fakes, and the industry operates with thousands of names, ranging from artificial dyes to compounds whose names can only be candidates of chemical sciences. Under normal circumstances, you would not even touch it, and not what to try. Although all this rubbish and flooded the counters, pleasing the eye with false abundance, it does not mean that it is worth buying and eating.

Under the cut - glaring examples of how some foods are in their composition is not what they should be.

Cheese that is not cheese

Making fake cheeses is an art at the level of cheese making. In many countries on the shelves you can find " cheese in cans " (by analogy with "whipped cream"). This "pasteurized cheese snack" consists of all kinds of fillers, butter and emulsifiers. The ingredients of the product are so far from real cheese that the lobbyists tried to introduce the category of embalmed cheese for it. Fortunately, he was left in the category of "processed cheese", according to the book Complete Idiot's Guide to Cheese of the World .

Ingredients: whey, cheddar cheese (milk, cheese sourdough, salt, enzymes), canola oil, milk protein concentrate, whey protein concentrate, milk, less than 2%: sodium citrate, sodium phosphate, salt, calcium phosphate, lactic acid, alginate sodium, yeast autolysate extract, sorbic acid (preservative), cheese sourdough, enzymes, apocarotenal (dye), annatto (dye).

Mayonnaise, which is not mayonnaise

This whipped mass does not meet the requirements for mayonnaise if it contains less than 65% vegetable oil. What do we get under the guise of mayonnaise? A mixture of water, soybean oil and vinegar. Yummy? Maybe. But not mayonnaise.

Ingredients: water, soybean oil, vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, modified corn starch, sugar, eggs, salt, natural flavor, mustard powder, potassium sorbate (preservative), paprika, spices, dried garlic.

Vanilla, which is not vanilla

In many products, flaunting signs on the package "with the smell of vanilla", "with the taste of vanilla", "with vanilla", there is no vanilla. What exactly is used instead? "Natural and artificial flavors." For example, this is what “vanilla cookies” consist of.

Ingredients: unbleached enriched flour (white flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), folic acid), sugar, soybean oil, high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil, whey , eggs, natural and artificial flavors, salt, baking powder (baking soda and / or calcium, phosphates), emulsifiers (mono- and diglycerides, soy lecithin).

Chocolate that is not chocolate

With chocolate, the trouble is: it is believed that by 2020, real chocolate will become a deficit. The reason is a reduction in the area of ​​cocoa plantations due to climate change, as well as a huge increase in demand for chocolate. Actually, already today in most foods there are chocolate substitutes. Chocolate is the product, which is based on cocoa butter. But today cheaper vegetable oils are massively used instead. And yes, partially hydrogenated palm oil is trans fats .

Here, for example, the composition of "chocolate flavored cookies."

Ingredients: enriched bleached flour (white flour, niacin, iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), sugar, chocolate-flavored crumb (sugar, partially hydrogenated palm oil, cocoa, processed cocoa alkali, dextrose, soy lecithin, syrup). soybean and / or cottonseed oil, water, 2% or less: molasses, wheat protein, baking powder (baking soda, sodium alumophosphate), salt, eggs, artificial flavoring, skim milk.

Cream that is not cream

One of the world's most popular cookies - in fact, a completely vegan product. This will please someone, but if you expect to find real cream inside, you have to disappoint you. This white filling (the producers cynically call it creamy) is a mixture of canola oil, artificial flavors, sugar and other chemicals ingredients. And chocolate is here in last place.

Ingredients: sugar, unbleached enriched flour (white flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), folic acid), high oleic canola and / or palm oil, processed cocoa alkali, corn syrup with high content fructose, baking powder (baking soda and / or calcium phosphate), corn starch, salt, soy lecithin, “vanillin” - artificial flavor, chocolate.

Caramel, which is not caramel

Caramel syrup both looks and tastes very much like caramel. But industrial "caramel" is very different from what you can make at home from sugar. For example, the "caramel color" is obtained thanks to ammonia. The substance with which this color is achieved - 4-methylimidazole - in the state of California is listed as a carcinogen. Of course, manufacturers are not in a hurry to mention that ammonia is used in the dye, so it’s better to make caramel according to the recipes of our grandmothers.

Ingredients: corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, sweetened skimmed milk, water, 2% or less: sodium diphosphate, sodium citrate, salt, artificial flavor, caramel dye, xanthan gum, artificial colors.

Whipped cream that is not whipped cream

Seriously, have you ever had a doubt at the sight of this light cloud mass? Well, at least after she got into your mouth? Imitation of whipped cream is a modern miracle of the food industry. But this product can hardly be attributed to food. Otherwise, how else can you explain the fact that 14 ingredients are used to make “whipped cream”?

Ingredients: water, hydrogenated vegetable oil (coconut and palm oil), high fructose corn syrup, skimmed milk, low-fat cream, 2% or less: sodium caseinate, natural and artificial flavors, xanthan gum, guar gum, polysorbate-60, sorbitan monostearate, beta-carotene (dye).

Ice cream that is not ice cream

Good old ice cream is almost gone. The reason is to make it from natural ingredients too expensive. Actually, in most cases this is the main reason. Here, for example, than you can enjoy a hot summer day.

Ingredients: milk, sugar, corn syrup, cream, whey, mono- and diglycerides, locust bean gum, guar gum, carrageenan, natural flavoring, annatto (dye), vitamin A palmitate, gum tara.

Eggs that are not eggs

It would seem that you can do with eggs? As it turned out, the food industry even came up with egg imitation. After all, the yolk can be used for more profitable products, but what to do with the remaining protein? We need to come up with an artificial yolk for it - and get an egg type!

Ingredients: egg white (99%), less than 1%: natural flavoring, coloring (including beta-carotene), spices, salt, onion powder, xanthan gum and guar gum, calcium sulfate, ferric phosphate, alpha tocopherol acetate (vitamin E) , zinc sulfate, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin (vitamin B2), thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), folic acid, vitamin D3, vitamin N.

Oil that is not oil

In “developed countries”, lazy consumers are offered vegetable oil not just in a bottle or a pack, but in the form of a spray. This is so convenient and corresponds to the principles of healthy lifestyles - splash oil, rather than pouring it. That's just not a classic butter.

Ingredients: water, soybean oil, salt, creamy buttermilk, xanthan gum, soy lecithin, polysorbate-60, lactic acid, potassium sorbate, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid calcium disodium salt, natural and artificial flavors, vitamin A palmitate, beta carotene salt, vitamin A. .

Mashed potatoes that are not mashed potatoes

Surely all of you have tried "mashed potatoes from bags": you pour out the powder into boiling water, insist - and you get a mass that looks like mashed potatoes. The taste is rubbish, but potatoes (more precisely, dehydrated potato flakes ) are at least the first ingredient. Here are just a list of preservatives, emulsifiers, flavors and even trans fats.

Ingredients: potato flakes (to preserve color and taste, they use sodium hydrosulfate, butyloxyanisol and citric acid), 2% or less: monoglycerides, partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil, natural flavoring, sodium pyrophosphate, cottonseed oil for the production of margarine.

Chocolate milk that is not chocolate milk

Well, you understand: this drink is not milk, but partially hydrogenated soybean oil (hello, trans fats!).

Ingredients: water, high fructose corn syrup, whey, sugar, cocoa alkali treated corn syrup, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, sodium caseinate, skimmed milk powder, salt, calcium triphosphate, potassium hydrogen phosphate, xanthan gum, guar gum, human gum. and artificial flavors, soy lecithin, mono- and diglycerides, vitamin A palmitate, niacinamide (vitamin B3), vitamin D3, riboflavin (vitamin B2).

Fruit juice that is not fruit juice

We are warmed by a weak hope that all of the following does not apply to most juices. Otherwise, where to run and how to continue to live? Alas. “Juice” today is made from corn syrup with a high content of fructose and less than 2% (!) Of concentrates of orange, tangerine, apple or grape juice. "Concentrates" are syrups, usually added to beverages and food as flavoring and aromatic additives, as well as sweeteners.

Ingredients: water, high fructose corn syrup, 2% or less: fruit juice concentrates (orange, mandarin, apple, grapes), citric acid, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), beta carotene, thiamine hydrochloride (vitamin B1), natural flavors, modified food starch, canola oil, cellulose gum, xanthan gum, sodium hexametaphosphate, sodium benzoate, synthetic food additives Yellow # 5 and Yellow # 6.

Blueberry, which is not blueberry

Do you think that when you buy a blueberry muffin, do you get a cupcake with berries? No, you eat a blueberry with a blueberry imitation. It's a fake copy. The recipe is simple: take a little dextrose, rectified palm oil, add flavoring, citric acid, cellulose gum, maltodextrin, artificial flavors, two parts of the blue dye and one part of red - and blueberries are ready!

Bacon that is not bacon

Even real bacon is a thing far from the notion of “healthy eating.” And "bacon-shaped" pieces generally consist of 12 ingredients, the names of most of which are difficult to even read.

Ingredients: textured soy flour, canola oil, salt, caramel dye, maltodextrin, natural and artificial flavors, lactic acid, yeast extract, disubstituted sodium inosinate and sodium guanylate (flavor enhancers), food dye.

Lemonade, which is not lemonade

If even in your area you don’t find lemons in the afternoon with fire, you can still make yourself lemonade. True, his recipe will not be a single gram of lemon juice, but there will be a lot of everything else! After all, nothing conveys the magic of the summer sun like the synthetic dye Yellow # 5.

Ingredients: sugar, fructose, citric acid, less than 2%: maltodextrin, natural flavoring, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), sodium pyrophosphate, sodium citrate, magnesium oxide, calcium fumarate, soy lecithin, artificial dye Yellow # 5, tocopherol (vitamin E ). May contain soy.

Tea, which is not tea

Tea = tea leaves + water. The world's simplest recipe. But, let's say, the products of SoBe, a company that is part of the transnational concern PepsiCo, have their own vision of tea. Of the eleven components, at least five is rather strange to see in the composition of the drink, called green tea. But the bottle accounts for 21 grams of sugar.

Ingredients: water, sugar, natural flavoring, citric acid, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), green tea extract, “caramel” dye, purified stevia extract, guarana seed extract, ginseng root extract, rosehip extract.

We do not know what we eat

You already understand that you have no idea what you really eat. Even if a miracle happened and you have exclusively natural products on your plate - how do you know, for example, what fed the chicken that took the eggs from which your scrambled eggs were made? What fertilizers were added to the soil in the greenhouse, where the tomatoes and cucumbers you cut into a salad grew? Finally, do you really think that wine at 300 rubles per bottle is the wine of the first pressing? (You will be surprised how many spin iterations with the addition of water and sugar go through the grapes, its cake and its bones, to get as many liters of wine of different quality categories as possible from a ton of berries.) Many people say that there is no meat in sausage years, and what, many of you refuse to eat it?

Even if the legislation obliges manufacturers to fully indicate on the package the list of ingredients, this does not mean that they are conscientiously doing this, without being silent and cunning. By the way, in the USA one of the most liberal food laws in the world, manufacturers can change the composition of products to a very wide extent (say thanks to corporate lobbyists, Americans). We are much stricter in this respect. But for how long? The composition of many products is no longer the same as in Soviet times, competition requires lower prices and increased sales, and this is unattainable without the massive use of the achievements of the chemical industry. And what about consumers? Well, they are only happy about the abundance on the shelves and colorful packaging.

How to live?

Natural (the word "organic" too gives the hipster-vegan culture) food today and a rarity and luxury. But life goes on as usual, and you need to take the protection of your food and health into your own hands. When we eat foods that have nothing to do with what they should be, we do not just absorb a lot of substances whose harmlessness in the long run is a big question. We also receive less beneficial substances, which are contained in vegetable and animal ingredients, skillfully forged by food technologists. And this situation has led to the emergence of a number of companies offering nutritional supplements to enhance the nutritional value of products.

For example, Parabel has developed a supplement for the enrichment of protein foods and beverages. Supplied in powder form, 65-70% consisting of vegetable protein, and the rest is omega-3 fatty acids, carotenoids and antioxidants.

One of the main problems of a citizen's diet is a large amount of fat. In part, it can be solved with the help of flour from microalgae . It is rich in lipids and can replace vegetable oils, animal fats and egg yolk in many recipes. This diet product.

Fortified Food Coatings offers ready-to-eat, restaurant-quality meals whose nutritional value is enhanced by a gelatinous coating enriched with calcium, vitamin D and natural protein. The target audience is the elderly and people with weakened immune systems.

Another modern food scourge is excess sugar intake. It is put anywhere, even in milk, to "improve the taste." So, whether you like it or not, you probably consume more sugar every day than recommended by the “best dog breeders”. The solution could be the replacement of sugars in the food industry with natural sweeteners. For example, PureCircle offers a sweetener based on vegetable glycosides derived from stevia. And Tate & Lyle has developed a plant-based sweetener, whose sweetness reaches 70% of the sweetness of sugar, while it contains 90% fewer calories.

Cooks note: to reduce the consumption of another white death - salt - by sprinkling with saline ready-made products. But this is from the ranks of "grandfather's recipes." This geek abysses such a low-tech approach. For example, Canadian tekhnogiki from TellSpec company swear that they created a really working portable molecular scanner that can determine the composition of food products.

The Israeli SCiO gadget was created with an eye to the analysis of food, medicine, and even plants. В нём используется принцип, схожий с TellSpec: оптический датчик улавливает отражённый от объекта свет, после чего выполняется анализ спектра с выделением полос, характерных для конкретных веществ и соединений.

Что такое «правильное питание»

Как подсказывает капитан Очевидность, питание должно быть сбалансированным. Но что это значит? Сегодня мы едим то, что даёт нам природа, кошелёк и пищевая промышленность. Но что нам следует есть? Ведь у каждого из нас могут быть индивидуальные генетические особенности, обуславливающие и желаемый рацион. Ответить на этот вопрос может такая дисциплина, как нутригеномика. Она изучает влияние продуктов питания на генотип человека (и наоборот). Мы недавно писали о том, как вкусняшки могут повлиять на продолжительность жизни . Возможно, когда мы наконец научимся быстро расшифровывать ДНК человека (и это превратится в недорогую услугу) — появятся приложения, которые будут составлять индивидуальный «рацион мечты». А там, глядишь, подтянутся бытовые пищевые 3D-принтеры, можно будет прямо из приложения отправлять на печать блюдо, лучше всего подходящее именно тебе и именно сейчас.

Например, калифорнийский стартап Habit предлагает такую услугу: они делают анализ вашей крови, находят известные сегодня генетические маркеры, связанные с особенностями метаболизма, измеряют ваш рост, вес, объём талии, фиксируют вашу повседневную физическую активность. И на основе собранных данных формируется рацион питания, который больше всего подходит именно для вас, по мнению специалистов компании. И блюда из этого рациона можно регулярно получать на дом.

Возможно, кому-то поможет питаться правильнее «умная» посуда. К примеру, вилка Hapifork умеет отслеживать скорость поглощения пищи. Вы сразу определите, что едите слишком торопливо и пора сбавить обороты. Ещё не забыли, что быстрое забрасывание в себя пищи приводит к плохому усвоению и перееданию? Глядишь, более вдумчивое пережёвывание поможет вам получить от еды удовольствие, а не просто закинуть в топку калории.

Возможно, лет через пятнадцать типичная сцена на кухне будет выглядеть так: мама режет овощи «умным» ножом, сын с помощью датчика в смартфоне определяет, есть ли глютен в его бутерброде, а рядом жужжит 3D-принтер — готовит пиццу для отца по индивидуальному рецепту.