Ignorance Isn’t Wisdom

Posted By elissa on Jun 8, 2010 | 4 comments

I work in the health/fitness community, so – naturally – I see the advice that various gurus/wannabe gurus give out.  While a lot of it is pretty basic and uncontroversial, one particular bit of diet-related “wisdom” really raises my blood pressure:

“If you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it.”

Yes, I know it’s designed to put people off highly processed, faux/snack/junk foods, and as such, is well-intentioned.  But it really, really irritates me, nonetheless.  Here’s why:

1. It’s inaccurate. There are plenty of food products with perfectly pronounceable ingredients (like salt or sugar, for example) that need to be limited/avoided for good health (not to mention fat loss). Likewise, there are food products with unpronounceable ingredients that may – in fact – have their uses.

2.  It’s based on a false premise: “unpronounceable” food additives aren’t “natural” and are therefore potentially toxic.  Nuh-uh.  I realize this will make some people’s heads explode, but the vast majority of unpronounceable “chemical” food additives are pretty innocuous, from a basic health and safety standpoint. Hell, some – like butylated hydroxytoluene and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid – may even be found as supplements!

3. It’s lazy as hell – “gurus” who use this phrase often know very little about food ingredients themselves. So rather than learning more about them so they can discuss the subject rationally, they find it easier to dismiss the subject entirely. It’s on a par with “just say no” (and it works just about as well).

4. It’s (unintentionally) insulting – the underlying message is that people are incapable of understanding or learning about what’s in their food.  But mindlessly rejecting foods is just the mirror image of mindlessly buying/eating foods… it’s still mindless. If the goal is help people think about their choices, then this is bass ackwards.

5. It’s illogical – what if some people actually CAN pronounce them?   Does that automatically make the products they’re in good to eat?

See what I mean?  It sounds good, but only if you don’t think about it very hard.  And apparently many fitness-types don’t, since they keep repeating it (or some version of it) as if it was received wisdom.

For example, what set me to write this was a thread on Facebook, where some guy started a discussion about a meal he made using Hamburger Helper. And sure enough, a trainer/fitness consultant weighed in with this comment:

Have you looked at the “ingredients” on the box of Hamburger Helper? Chances are you can’t pronounce any of them.

Hmmm… Here’s what’s in a box of “Hamburger Helper Cheeseburger Macaroni“:

Enriched Macaroni, Corn Starch, Salt, Enriched Flour, Sugar, Maltodextrin, Ricotta Cheese, Tomato, Monosodium Glutamate, Citric Acid, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Modified Corn Starch, Natural Flavor, Paprika, Spice, Colors, Monoglycerides, Whey, Gum Arabic, Yeast Extract, Disodium Guanylate, Disodium Inosinate, Soy Flour, Egg

It’s a good thing the recipient of this “nudge” passed up on an obvious opportunity to make – and win – a bet!  While there are a few unpronounceables in this list,  the primary ingredients are quite recognizable and simple to pronounce. Can you say “macaroni?” Mr. Rogers can! Ditto, “corn starch,” “salt,” “flour” and “sugar.”  A portion of the lesser ingredients are quite familar too: “ricotta cheese,” “tomato,” “soybean oil,” “paprika,” “whey,” “soy flour” and “egg.”

So does that mean Hamburger Helper’s not so bad?

Well, let’s put it this way: I wouldn’t buy or eat the stuff.  But it’s not because of the ingredients that I [allegedly] can’t pronounce… it’s because of the ones I CAN. It’s those recognizable ingredients that are the “problem children” in this product, not the disodium guanylate or monoglycerides. A small serving of Hamburger Helper delivers up 23 g of starchy carbs – with barely a trace of dietary fiber, nor any significant vites and minerals beyond a few sprinkles of vita-dust  used to “enrich” the flour and pasta.  Even worse, it contains a whopping 810mg sodium per serving.  And beyond that – products like “Hamburger Helper” are often used to extend ground beef… and likely not premium, extra lean ground beef, either.  So a “Hamburger Helper” meal = a not-all-that-nutritious meal that’s relatively high in sodium and saturated fat (from the beef).

The irony is that this same trainer was lauding a meal replacement product, iSatori’s Eat Smart, a few weeks earlier. Talk about unpronounceable ingredients! Eat Smart is loaded with ’em. Take a look at the label:

Whey Protein Isolate, Whey Protein Concentrate, Calcium Caseinate, Nutrim™ (Oat Bran), Cocoa Powder (Dutch Process), Fibersol® (Fiber), Chocolate Chips (Sugar, Chocolate Liquor, Cocoa Butter, Soya Lecithin (Added As An Emulsifier), Vanilla Extract), High Oleic Sunflower Oil, Buttermilk, Natural And Artificial Flavors, Cellulose Gum, Sodium Chloride, Lecithin, Fructooligosaccharides, L-Glutamine, Carrageenan, Potassium Chloride, Sucralose, Disodium Phosphate, Vitamin/mineral Blend (Ascorbic Acid, DL-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate, Ferrous Phosphate, Niacinamide, Zinc Oxide, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Thiamin Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Vitamin A Palmitate, Folic Acid, Biotin, Potassium Iodide, Chromium Polynicotinate, Phytonadione, Sodium Molybdate, Sodium Selenite, Cholecalciferol, Cyanocobalamin), Dipotassium Phosphate, Magnesium Oxide, Silicon Dioxide, Flaxseed Powder, Lactobacillus Acidophilus, Bifidobacterium Bifidum

Now, I ain’t knocking Eat Smart – in fact, it’s a product I think pretty well of.  As it turns out,  tongue-twisters like “cholecalciferol” and “Bifidobacterium bifidum” are actually quite healthy! But if we were applying the “if you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it” rule, this perfectly fine meal replacement would be dumped into the compost heap. And we’d be buying products like this one, instead:

SKIM MILK, CREAM, SUGAR, EGG YOLKS, COCOA PROCESSED WITH ALKALI.

So simple.  So “pronounceable.” And so fattening. It’s certainly not better for your body, and perhaps even worse in some ways, than the Hamburger Helper.

Now I don’t mean to pick specifically on this one trainer – she just provided me with a current example… this has been a “pet peeve” of mine for years. I DO understand where folks like her are coming from; nonetheless, it’s past time to put this particular bit of “advice” on the blocks.  As a guide to eating, it’s flawed.  It’s the ordinary, refined flour (and other refined starches), fats/oils, sugar (and other sweeteners) and salt in food products that we should be the most concerned about; not the modified food starches, emulsifiers or preservatives.  We need to understand what we’re putting in our mouths, and not substitute a knee-jerk, reflexive gesture for thinking.  Advocating ignorance is not wisdom.