As more and more people realize how difficult it is to get healthy food, the food industries found their professor. The Dutch Professor van Boekel headlines that natural foods are unhealthy! (If you understand Dutch or are not afraid of Google Translate: Algemeen Dagblad on February 6. click here )

Van Boekel is not naïve by nature, but the interview is meant for the naive, the lazy and ignorant who obey the handful of food giants in our world, aiming for the biggest market share in their stomach.

Please note, a large part of the interview stresses the impact of food technology on the way we spend our time. True, but what about the quality of food in terms of nutritional value?

Van Boekel has discovered that pre-packaged foods contain fewer microbes than food from your own kitchen or garden. That's right. But ignores the nutritional value.

The professor is somehow contemptuously about our interest in E-numbers. Of course, life essentials like vitamin C and magnesium have their E numbers, but aspartame and many other controversial addititives as well. So you see how cunningly designed is his article. It is a well known marketing and communication adagium, "tell many truths related to the topic, but completely ignore the controversy.

Packaged, processed and imitation foods are probably safe indeed, but nevertheless produced with the aim to sell as much as possible. Take a look in the supermarkets. You don’t need more than half of the products displayed at eye level. In fact, those products are harmful to your health. They won’t kill you instantly. You only die sooner and sicker.

When it comes to those packaged and processed products, most providers are ignorant about the fact that people become dependent and sick because of too much salt, too much sugar and too much fat. It’s just sales that counts. With a great degree of accuracy it is scientifically determined which groups, including children, reach their so-called 'bliss point' , by adding sugar, salt or fat. The bliss point is when the brain releases substances that evoke feelings of pleasure and crave for more. Regardless if you get too much (fat, sugar, salt, meat, (wrong-) carbohydrates, milk, etc.) or too little (fiber, healthy fats, vitamins, minerals like magnesium, etc.).

Meanwhile, in the US there is a lawsuit underway against one of the largest food manufacturers in the World. The accusation is that deliberately unhealthy products are made with the aim to manipulate the consumer so that he keeps craving for more. And this is all about pre-packaged and pre-processed products. The manufacturer in question is Philip Morris. I hear you think and yes, you are right; the same who had to pay a billions claim because of their similar behaviour when it came to cigarettes. They’re one of the handful of food industries who determine Professor van Boekels food science and so, your food.

Professor van Boekel seemingly is not aware about the need of our digestive system for processing food by itself, in order to retrieve food valuable ingredients, instead of ready-made "astronaut food" products?! Cheap trick about that tomato paste. It is full of healthy lycopene indeed and as a consequence canned and processed it might easily be available. But we are living systems! We need to exercise. Although preferably lazy maybe, tomato puree, smoothies and packaged and pre-processed foods are escalators for many of us who seriously should consider to walk the stairs.

Walking the stairs isn’t bad at all if you like to be healthy.

Dr. Richard Danel, MD

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