Dirty Secrets of the Health Food Industry
Well, how can you go wrong with a title like that? (One alternative title would be “When Good Health Food Stores Go Bad”). And, to be honest, this will not be an in-depth piece of journalism, but rather a simple reminder to people that just because you are in a “health food” store, doesn’t mean everything there is necessarily good for you. After all, it is an “industry” and we cannot simply let our guard down and assume everything in a health food store is good, or even safe.
A Personal Note
My disillusionment with this industry came about many years ago at the Vancouver CHFA trade show. One company had a giant spinning wheel offering discounts and prizes for orders placed at the show, another had a plexiglass box with money blowing around inside for some lucky soul to humiliate themselves in, and a sports company had a model flitting around in hot-pants, flaunting her cleavage while offering to sell pictures of herself for $5 each.
At this point, it finally dawned on me that the industry in which I grew to manhood was no longer motivated solely by ethics and a desire to help people. It had become like any other purely capitalist venture: a heartless monster lurching toward profit with no thought to what or who gets trampled underfoot. I still worked in that industry for two more decades, as a nutritional consultant, but soon a good portion of my job became helping customers distinguish between valid products and cheap, ineffective ones.
What Happened to “Health Foods”?
Since this industry is now like most others, and since it is a growth field, everyone wants a piece of the pie. And, as elsewhere, the best way to get the biggest piece is through marketing. At this point in the game, like with most businesses, the majority of money put into a product goes into its advertising budget. I call this the “Rumpelstiltskin Syndrome”: spinning “straw into gold”. Take something that costs virtually nothing and through marketing sell it for many, many times what it costs. Perfect examples are: plastic (toys); potatoes (chips); white flour (bakery goods); sugar (candy). And vitamins, which are actually quite cheap to produce.
So, in our industry you can find “slimming patches” that consist of 15 round band-aids with a little seaweed inside, and retail for $30. You will find sex-aid products that cost $2 to produce that sell for $50 (for 10 caps; because Viagra costs that much, in the mind of the consumer this must be an equal product since the price is comparable).
Be Wary of These Food Products
GMO Foods: Some stores will not carry any products that contain genetically modified foods, as these are high in the herbicide glyphosate (“RoundUp”) which causes havoc in the body, disrupting the gut microbiome and crossing the blood brain barrier. But large health food store chains do not draw this line, so you must look for the non-GMO verification label. Foods to watch out for in the absence of this label are particularly canola, corn, and soy. Also be aware that non-organic wheat, oats and pulses (like lentils) are often sprayed with glyphosate to dry them out quicker and prevent molding. So these foods may be non-GMO but still may be loaded with glyphosate residue.
Organic Sugar: I used to maintain that, like organic white flour, organic sugar is a valueless substance, just as detrimental to health as the non-organic version. However, now I have to admit that at least organic white flour and sugar should have much less glyphosate residue than the non-organic versions. Nonetheless, organic or not, white flour and sugar acidify the body and steal nutrients. However, these days, many companies proudly state they use “cane sugar” because we have finally realized how deadly the cheaper “high-fructose corn syrup” is. Thus, sugar looks good compared to that, and it is.
Sucralose: Also known by the trade name “Splenda”, sucralose is used commercially to sweeten protein powders and low carb products. It is currently the most commonly used, and considered the safest, artificial sweetener. However, while it might be safer than aspartame, it does have health issues including negatively affecting the microbiome and increasing inflammation in the body. (Source)
Acidic Foods in Plastic Containers: Try to avoid buying mustard, ketchup and fruit juice in plastic containers. Acidic substances like these readily leach plastic out of their containers and the “xenoestrogens” produced by these plastics are both hormone disrupting and carcinogenic.
Foods with high salinity also leach plastic, including things like soya sauce and miso. Sometimes, I find it unavoidable, or far less expensive, to buy a certain food in a plastic container, like miso for example. In such cases I recommend that one not scrape the sides of the container to get every last bit out. Leave behind the food lining the plastic container, as that will be the most contaminated. Coconut oil is another example; remember coconut oil has to be poured into the container in a warm liquid state, which facilitates leaching.
HDPE #2 plastic identifies plastic made with high-density polyethylene, which companies like Omega Nutrition use for their oils and cider vinegar. Omega Nutrition in years past produced test studies showing that plastic from these containers did not leach into their flax oil.
Whereas, PETE # 1 is a low density (i.e. soft) plastic used for water and many foods and readily leaches plastic (and the metal antimony) into foods, and even into water if it sits there for a long time and/or if it gets too warm. Unfortunately, Tetra-Paks and cans, both being lined with soft plastic, also leach xenoestrogens into foods. The more acidic the food the worse the leaching. (Source)
And don’t be fooled by labels claiming “contains no BPA”. BPA (Bisphenol A) is only one of a family of similar plastic compounds, and such products often just use BPB, which is even worse. Evidently BPS is somewhat safer but still not widely used. (Source)
Again, it doesn’t matter if the foods are organic but sometimes we have to choose between an organic version in plastic or a non-organic version in glass. Unfortunately, the modern world is based on having to make choices like this all the time: the lesser of two evils (kind of how I look at voting).
Potato Chips: Deep fried foods made from starches, such as French fries and potato chips, not only contain “bad” fats that create free radical damage in the body, but also contain “acrylamide” a known carcinogen and neurotoxin found in foods processed under high temperatures and/or high pressure. Potato chips, organic or not, are about as healthy as chain-smoking. For more information on that, and on healthier alternatives, check out my newsletter titled Chips Are Not Food. In the meantime, if you can find chips made with coconut oil you will at least avoid the bad fats component of this junk food. Stick to popcorn or roasted nuts to fulfill the craving for salty, fatty and crunchy.
Braggs Liquid Aminos: This product is no longer allowed to be called “liquid aminos” in Canada, since there are insignificant amino acids in a tablespoon of soy protein liquid, it is now called “All Purpose Liquid Soy Seasoning”. It is sold as an alternative to fermented soy sauce products, mostly for people on candida-yeast diets, who were told, back when the product first came out, to avoid fermented foods. Aside from the fact that many fermented foods actually help maintain friendly flora and fight candida overgrowth (such as miso and sauerkraut,) this product always was a curiosity to me.
It contains only soybeans (not organic, but evidently non-GM, and comes in a low-density plastic bottle) and yet tastes salty. Tamari and other soy sauce products are salty because they have salt added to them, but if you’ve ever tasted plain soymilk you will realize that there is no inherent saltiness to soybeans.
So, how do you get a salt-taste from something with no salt in it? Try this on for size: back when MSG was first getting a bad rap, the response of the health-food industry was to turn to Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP), which could hide up to 20% naturally occurring MSG. Since soy is a vegetable protein, if you hydrolyze it (an enzymatic process) rather than fermenting it, you will create monosodium glutamate. Notice the word “sodium” in there?
In the time since I came to this conclusion, Braggs has been forbidden from putting “No MSG” on their label, pretty much confirming my hypothesis. Now, not everybody reacts to MSG with obvious symptoms, but if you want to do more research, seek out information on the book “Excitotoxins, the Taste that Kills” by Dr. Russell L. Blaylock, in which he maintains that this substance (along with aspartame) is linked to a number of brain diseases including brain cancer, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
I personally stick with Tamari or Shoyu, naturally fermented soya products that have been around for about 500 years, and can be purchased in organic form and in glass bottles.
Be Wary of These Nutritional Supplements
Timed Release B-Vitamins: B-vits are picked up in the upper intestinal tract; pills sink to the lower tract, and so absorption will be poorer than with a non-time release product. Why do they still make them if they know they are less effective? Because people still buy them.
Chewable Vitamin C: Ascorbic acid is so corrosive that these pills are worse on tooth enamel than chewing pure sugar cubes. The exception is “buffered” vitamin C, which is non-acidic in nature, and chewable vitamin C products that use calcium ascorbate usually also use natural sugar free sweeteners (e.g. stevia).
Beta Carotene: You may have read that smokers should avoid taking beta carotene. This is based on a well-known Finnish study that gave high levels of synthetic beta carotene to men who were mostly smokers, and found that those on the beta carotene supplements had marginally higher cancer rates than those on the placebo. Of course the real information provided by this study is that synthetic beta carotene is at best worthless and at worst, dangerous; not that smokers should avoid beta carotene supplements.
Now pick up any bottle of multi-vitamins in a health food store and see what kind of beta carotene they use. If the label simply states “Beta Carotene” then it is synthetic. Natural beta carotene will be prefaced by the word “Natural” and/or followed by a list of the rest of the family of carotenoids: alpha carotene, zeaxanthin, cryptoxanthin, and lutein. You will find that the vast majority of multi-vitamin products are still using the synthetic form of Beta Carotene (not NutriPods, of course). Why? The raw material is cheaper and the profits are higher. I will say that a product which uses synthetic beta carotene, if the rest of the ingredients are of high quality, probably only needs to be strictly avoided if you are a smoker. For others, the benefits of the other ingredients outweigh the detriment of that one substance.
Chelated Minerals: You’ve probably heard that choosing chelated minerals is a good choice, as that form of mineral is well absorbed by the body. A “chelated mineral” is one where the base mineral is bound to an amino acid as a delivery system, in order to transport the mineral through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream. Unfortunately the word has no regulated meaning in Canada.
Thus I can take a crude calcium carbonate, add a little HVP (see above), which would have some amino acids since it is a protein, and call it “Chelated Calcium.” The assumption is that the two elements will bind together in the digestive system, but this does not occur, and a true chelate, which is reacted and bound in the laboratory, will be a far superior form of mineral. In Canada one name you can be confident in is “Albion”, an American producer who provides state-of-the-art chelated mineral products.
Their products are both patented and well researched, and are used by a few different Canadian manufacturers (including NutriStart in our NutriPods and Mineral Mix). They are also more expensive than a lot of other mineral products, so if you wish to get the best bang for your buck, generally choosing a “citrate” form of mineral will give you your best value. Citrates, along with malates, and bisglycinates, are fully reacted forms of chelates and are always a safe bet.
There are exceptions to this, for example selenium, which should be a yeast-derived source to follow the science that is behind selenium, the best of which is SelenoExcell (also used in our NutriPods and Mineral Mix).
Conclusion
Modern life has become a game of whack-a-mole, as a food or substance is touted as good for you until the science changes, and now it is bad for you. And then the science gets bought by corporations and you can’t even trust that anymore. Now we are at the level of “pick your poison”, illustrated by the choice between organic food in plastic containers, or non-organic in glass containers. And even organic labeling is under fire as it appears that imported organic foods have very little oversight and are often just a lie.
“According to the Organic Farmers’ Agency for Relationship Marketing, an organic cooperative, 60%-70% of the agricultural products imported into the U.S. under the USDA-certified organic brand have the potential to be fraudulent.” (Source)
(For more on the subject of identifying truely organic foods and how to avoid dubious ones have a view of this video from Dr. Mercola.)
So what can we do? Primarily keep educating yourself and question authority (and really question Google, as it has been fully co opted by agribusiness and the pharmaceutical/medical industry).
Keep up to date on what foods contain the most and the least pesticides by following The Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce, which comes out with a new list every year.
Shop for local organic foods, and get to know your local farmers in order to have confidence in the quality of what you are buying.
In order to keep these toxins moving through and out of your body ensure you keep your glutathione levels up. This can be done through basic supplements like vitamin C, selenium, NAC, L-glutamine, or by taking Liposomal Glutathione, the only really effective supplemental form of this detoxifying super antioxidant.
Given the prevalence of glyphosate in almost all foods (and in almost all of us) we need to ensure that we are keeping our gut microbiome up to par. Two excellent prebiotic products that serve this function are our Lactospore and Provide Balance Smoothie Mix. As well as eating fermented foods regularly.
Saunas (especially infrared) are also proven to remove toxins and xenostrogens from the body, so regularly sweating can be of great benefit.
In conclusion: Keep calm and carry on.
(Author: All newsletters and blogs are written by Ken Peters who has worked as a nutritional consultant for the last 30 years, and as product designer for NutriStart for the last 25 years. He has also authored two books – Health Secrets Vol. 1&2. He may be reached at: kenpetersconsulting@gmail.com)