Tracking the package

We know intuitively that highly processed foods, from bread and pasta to sausage and sauces, can’t be a good thing. But is it actually bad for our health?

- VIR SANGHVI

 

Do you remember your grandmother telling you that “outside food” was bad? That you should try and eat only at home? 

She was right. But she was also wrong.What our grandmothers did not take into account is that the ingredients you use to cook with at home may be much worse for you than restaurant cuisine.

Many of us now shop on the internet. So, we have no real idea where the vegetables we order have come from. Likewise, with the meat which comes in fancy packaging, but which we know so little about. We also buy ready-made pasta or Chinese sauces.

There is nothing wrong in cooking food that is more international or ordering provisions on the internet. But bit by bit, we are losing control over the information regarding the provenance and full composition of ingredients.

If you order sausages or burger patties, remember that they probably come from factories and you may not want to hear how they were made. So it is with nearly all bread that is not made by an artisanal bakery.  As for readymade pasta or cheese sauces, they are almost certainly industrial. For products like these to travel from a factory to a shop (or to your home if you have them delivered), the manufacturer has to pump them full of chemicals that let them stay fresh and help them keep their shape.