Day 3

I was having my daily protein shake today and decided to look at the whey protein ingredients. According to the packaging it has the following: Protein blend(whey protein concentrate, whey protein isolate), xanthan gum, bromelain, amylase, papain and lipase enzymes. The labeling says “100% Natural” but I wasn’t sure what xanthan gum, bromelain etc was so I started googling the individual incredients.



While on my search I found a very interesting article on Twinkies. The commentary states that while the food only weighs 43g it packs 150 calories (45 from fat alone), sells five hundred million annually and has an alarming number of chemicals and preservative packed into it. Twinkies do contain actual flour, sugar, salt and baking soda as well as water and a trace of egg but it’s really a testament to the chemical food processing legacy:

Ingredients
Enriched Wheat Flour - enriched with ferrous sulphate (iron)
B vitamins - Niacin, Thiamine mononitrate [B1, Riboflavin [B2] and Folic acid
Sugar
Corn syrup
Water
High fructose corn syrup
Vegetable and/or animal shortening containing one or more of: Partially hydrogenated soybean, cottonseed or Canola oil, lard and beef fat
Dextrose
Whole eggs

They also contain also contain 2% or less of:
Modified corn starch
Cellulose gum
Whey
Leavenings: Sodium acid pyrophosphate, Baking soda, Monocalcium phosphate
Salt
Cornstarch
Corn flourCorn syrup solids
Mono and diglycerides
Soy lecithin
Polysorbate 60
Dextrin
Diacetyl
Calcium caseinate
Sodium stearoyl lactylate
Wheat gluten
Calcium sulfate
Natural and artificial flavors: Caramel color, artificial vanillin, Sorbic acid, color (yellow 5, red 40)
Shortening

The article goes on to dissect some of the ingredients, but what I found most disturbing is that some of the B vitamins enriching the flour are also derived at least partly from petroleum, coal and tar, and flammable and carcinogenic benzene plays a major role in the extremely complicated set of chemical reaction that yield the artificial flavouring vanillin. On top of all this, the chlorine used to bleach the flour in Twinkies is extremely toxic.

While this is probably the most blatent example of food processing, our grocery and home shelves are full of processed foods containing strange chemicals and foreign additives.

It reminded me of Michael Pollan’s book, In Defence of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. Pollan asserts that everyone should avoid food with unfamiliar ingredients, unpronounceable ingredients, or more than five ingredients. I guess Twinkies are out as well as my protein powder, but maybe I’ll check out Häagen-Dazs Five which is a new, all-natural ice cream crafted with only five ingredients: skim milk, cream, sugar, egg yolks and natural flavouring(they must have read Pollan’s book too). I think most of Pollan’s advice is really good.

Now getting back to my protein powder, xanthan gum is a polysaccharide used as a food additive and rheology modifier, bromelain is a two protease enzymes extracted from the plant family Bromeliaceae, and I’ll stop there because even when I sort of found out what these incredients were it didn’t make me feel any better. I actual feel that the label of “100% Natural” is misleading and I have to ask "what the hell are we eating?"

So now I’m concentrating more than ever on the incredients of what I eat, more importantly I’m going to eat natural foods that are as unprocessed as possible. I’m also going to steer clear of the Twinkie isle next time I have a craving for that kind of snack. Knowing what I know now I’d be better off using myself as an agent orange test subject than eating one of those.

Today was a great day as far as the Peak Condition Project goes. I did 50 pushups, 50 situps, 50 squats and 400 rope jumps. I also ate 50% of my normal daily food and didn’t feel too bad at all. I’m taking Patrick’s advice and drinking water, coffee, tea and eating low salt crackers to feel full, and so far so good. I do have a bit of a hollow feeling but It also feels cleansing in very good way.

See you tomorrow.